North African Literature

Poems for the Millennium Volume 4

Reviewed here.

An Incredible Photo Archive

Daniel Proulx has put up 219 more photos in the Henry Corbin Archive - there are 250 more coming soon. These are a treasure and absolutely fascinating.

The Esoteric Apocalypse - Isma‘ilī Muslim Perspectives

“The name of Qā’im, resurrector, is reserved par excellence for “he who will rise up”, the Lord of the Resurrection, at the close of the final Period of our Cycle. Yet each partial Qā’im at the end of each Period of the Septenary, as well as each Imām and each member of the Order, is also, potentially, Lord of the Resurrection, a limb of his mystical body, an oratory in his Temple of Light.” - Henry Corbin, (Temple and Contemplation, 162)

“It is said, for example, that the Qā’im, the aim and goal of all the hudūd, the degrees or “horizons”, is the Grand Cycle of which the Imāms are the periods or partial cycles, just as each Imām is himself a cycle in relation to his ḥudūd. … It is also said that the Qā’im is the “coalescence” (majma), the corpus mysticum of all the ḥudūd; each of the Imāms has his own corpus mysticum, his Temple of Light, and all are gathered together and integrated in the Sublime Temple of the Resurrector. – Henry Corbin, (Cyclical Times and Ismaili Gnosis, 99)

The Esoteric Apocalypse - Isma‘ilī Muslim Perspectives

A Christmas Sermon

The Freedom of Faith: A Christmas Sermon

By SIMON CRITCHLEY

BULLETIN IISMM N°57 Janvier 2013

BULLETIN_IISMM_N°57_Janvier 2013.pdf

Celestial Magic Conference

University of Wales Trinity Saint David The Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology http://www.trinitysaintdavid.ac.uk/en/sophia/ Eleventh Annual Sophia Centre Conference Second Call for Papers 'CELESTIAL MAGIC' 22-23 June 2013 Venue: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Bath, England Keynote speakers Prof. Peter Forshaw, Universitair Docent (Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor) for the History of Western Esotericism in the Early Modern Period at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam. Prof. Elliot R. Wolfson, Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University.    Conference Chairs Dr Nicholas Campion, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, n.campion@tsd.ac.uk Dr Liz Greene, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the University of Bristol.l.greene@tsd.ac.uk Conference Theme Magic, loosely defined, is the attempt to engage with the world through the imagination or psyche, in order to obtain some form of knowledge, benefit or advantage. Celestial magic engages with the cosmos through stellar, planetary or celestial symbolism, influences or intelligences. This academic conference will explore the history, philosophy and practice of celestial magic in past or present societies. The conference organisers invite proposals for papers of 30 minutes which may deal with text, imagery, practice or theory. We welcome proposals on any time period or culture. The deadline for submissions is 31 December 2012. Please include an abstract of c. 150 words and a biography of c 100 words, in the same document. Abstracts and biographies should be e mailed to Dr Liz Greene, l.greene@tsd.ac.uk The conference is held in collaboration with the Sophia Centre Press. Publication: selected proceedings will be published through the Sophia Centre Press.

Gilbert Durand May 1, 1921 - Dec 7, 2012.

Décès de Gilbert Durand, résistant et anthropologue de l’imaginaire

From Le Soir:

Lundi 10 Décembre 2012

Gilbert Durand, ancien résistant du Vercors, directeur du Centre de recherche sur l’imaginaire et spécialiste de la mythologie, est décédé vendredi à l’âge de 91 ans, a annoncé lundi sa famille dans le carnet du Figaro. Né le 1er mai 1921 à Chambéry, Gilbert Durand avait rejoint la Résistance dès la fin de l’année 1940 et avait ensuite participé activement aux maquis du Vercors. Agrégé de philosophie et docteur ès lettres, Gilbert Durand fut professeur de philosophie, puis de sociologie et d’anthropologie à Grenoble II. Disciple de Gaston Bachelard, il avait co-fondé en 1966 le Centre de recherche sur l’imaginaire et dirigé cette structure autour de laquelle travaillèrent une soixantaine de laboratoires du monde entier. Gilbert Durand était l’auteur d’une quinzaine d’ouvrages, dont « Les structures anthropologiques de l’imaginaire’ (PUF, 1960), « L’imagination symbolique » (PUF, 1964), « La foi du cordonnier » (Denoël, 1984), ou « Les mythes fondateurs de la franc-maçonnerie » (Dervy, 2002). En 2000, il avait reçu le titre de « Juste parmi les nations », la plus haute distinction décernée par Israël à ceux qui ont sauvé au péril de leur vie des juifs pendant la guerre. En 2007, le grand résistant Raymond Aubrac lui avait remis la cravate de commandeur de la Légion d’honneur pour ses actions dans la Résistance. Gilbert Durand était également titulaire de la médaille de la Résistance avec rosette, de la Croix de guerre 1939-1945 avec palmes et commandeur des Palmes académiques.

The conferences de la Journée des amis de Corbin are now online.

Selected talks at the Conferences de la Journée des amis de Corbin are now online HERE

Many thanks to Daniel Proulx for his amazing work on the website...

Henry Corbin and Iran, Islam, Philosophy and Revolution

ROXANNE VARZI is a Research Fellow this semester at the IFK in Vienna and has a very interesting project going:

Varzi is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Film and Media Studies, Visual Studies, Religious Studies, and Persian Studies, University of California, Irvine

The French Connection: Henry Corbin and Iran, Islam, Philosophy and Revolution

There’s no denying that Henry Corbin was an important part of Iranian history and Western philosophy and yet nothing has been written about his role in the pedagogy of the Iranian revolutionaries who were to bring about the Iranian Revolution or what he referred to as a “shadow of evil.” My project while at the IFK is to research and write on Corbin’s revolutionary legacy. More here.

New Translation of Nāṣir-i-Khusrow

Nāṣir-i-Khusrow and cosmic hierarchies in Ismā 'ilism: translation of the 67th section of khwān al-ikhwān (the Feast of the Brethren)

From Wahid Nazal:

"The piece was summarized by Henry Corbin in several places including Cyclical Time and Isma'ili Gnosis, see especially pp. 36-37. To date, our translation appears to be the only full length translation of this entire section of the following work by Nāṣir-i-Khusrow. We note that additional to this blog entry, apdf of our translation below can also be found, here."

N. O. Brown, Corbin, Islam

An new essay online - from which,

To bring Islam into the historical picture is for Brown akin to a Copernican revolution:  following in the steps of Marshall Hodgson, Louis Massignon, and Henry Corbin, with Brown “we are moving out from under the schema of Christocentric world history, stamped on the minds of orthodox Westerners . . . into ampler and more Islamic, air.”

G.S. Sahota: Apocalyptic Praxes / Paradoxes of Progress