Foreign thinker
Henry Corbin
Henry CorbinIslamic Philosophy and Iranian MysticismFrench
Through my meeting with Suhrawardi, my spiritual destiny was sealed. Platonism, expressed in the terms of the Zoroastrian angelology of ancient Persia, illuminated the path I was seeking.
Life and Thought
Henry Corbin (1903–1978) was a French philosopher, theologian, and Iranologist, recognized as the most important Western interpreter of the spiritual wisdom of Iran and Shiite philosophy. Through his rereading of the works of Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, Mulla Sadra, and the Illuminationist tradition, he introduced the concept of the 'mundus imaginalis' and creative imagination to contemporary philosophy. Corbin played an unparalleled role in introducing the philosophical and mystical heritage of Iran to the Western world.
Henry Corbin was born in Paris on April 14, 1903. His mother died a few days after his birth, and he was raised in a Catholic environment, though he later gravitated toward Protestantism. After studying philosophy at the Sorbonne and becoming acquainted with Étienne Gilson, he undertook the study of Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit. His meeting with Louis Massignon and introduction to the works of Suhrawardi marked a turning point in his intellectual life, steering his research toward Iranian-Islamic philosophy and mysticism.
From the 1940s, Corbin traveled to Iran and spent part of each year in Tehran for many years. He taught at the University of Tehran, held philosophical sessions with Allameh Tabatabai and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and took on the directorship of the Institut Français d'Iran. In Paris, he succeeded Massignon in the chair of Islamic Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and participated in the Eranos circle alongside Jung and Eliade.
His most important works include 'Avicenna and the Visionary Recital,' 'Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi,' 'Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth,' and his four-volume magnum opus, 'En Islam iranien.' By proposing the concept of the 'mundus imaginalis' as a real order between the sensory and intelligible worlds, Corbin elevated the imagination from a merely fanciful faculty to an epistemological and ontological power. He viewed Iranian philosophy as the continuation of ancient Platonism in the form of Zoroastrian angelology and Illuminationist wisdom.
Corbin died in Paris on October 7, 1978. His legacy continues to inspire research in comparative philosophy, mysticism, and Shiite studies.
