The Voyage and the Messenger Iran and Philosophy

This work, incorporating previously unpublished interviews and articles, retraces the quest of Henry Corbin into the imaginal realm of the unseen self, the domains of angels and numinous beings. A study of religious philosophy, exploration of visionary faith, these pages offer a superb meditation of the great themes of Perso-Islamic mysticismthe Sufi theory of knowledge, the voyage within the soul,le rituel de la coupeand an illuminating glimpse into the philosophic universes of Sohravardi, Ibn Arabi, and Molla Sarda Shirazi.

Henry Corbin (d. 1978) was professor of Islamic relgion at the Sorbonne and director of the department of Iranic studies at the Institut franco-iranien in Tehran. His wide-ranging work included the first translations of Heidegger into French, studies in Swedenbort and Boehme, writings on the Grail and angelology, and definitive translations of and commentary on Persian Islamic/Sufi texts. He introduced us to such seminal terms as the 'imaginal' realm, ta’wil, and 'theophany' into Western psychospiritual thought. His published works include Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, and The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism.