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theologian, and particularly a philosopher with an 
ecumenical mind. 
Corbin’s four-volume monument on Iranian 
Shiism, “En Islam iranien” (1971a, 1971b, 1973a, 
1973b), was a philosophical endeavour to restore 
lost spirituality, and explicitly a critique of moder 
nity that betrayed the influence of Martin Hei 
degger (d. 1976), another early friend and source 
of inspiration as much as Massignon. During his 
German travels (1930-1936), Corbin had first dis 
covered various Protestant thinkers and mystics 
and was influenced by the radical Protestant the 
ology of Karl Barth, whose “Die Not der evan- 
gelischen Kirche” (1961 [1931]) he translated into 
French in 1932 (Shayegan 1990: 17 f.). Corbin’s 
contact with Heidegger dated back to 1931, when 
the two met in Freiburg (cf. Jambet 1981b; 17). 
Heidegger entrusted to Corbin the French trans 
lation of “Was ist Metaphysik?” (1929), published 
in 1938 - with fragments of “Sein und Zeit” (2001 
[1927]) - as “Qu’est-ce que la métaphysique.” 3 In 
France, Heidegger’s heritage remained important 
since Corbin’s introduction, first in existentialism, 
and, to the present, for postmodernism (cf. Jani- 
caud 2001). One observes Heidegger’s influence 
on Corbin in three interrelated themes; The fate 
of the West (that nowadays also mutilated the 
East) in the face of the alienating hegemony of 
a technological mode of life, which destroyed the 
authentic life: 
Corbin pose des questions sous lesquelles on sent 
percer une certaine inquiétude. L’Orient risque de perdre 
son âme par suite d’une technologie envahissante et 
d’une occidentalisation [...] Cependant [...] fleurissent 
en Occident de pseudo-esoterismes sans substance qui 
tournent le dos it la Tradition dont ils se croient les 
représentants (Brun 1981:77). 
Two distinct but complementary experiences had 
been conveyed to Corbin by his French and Ger 
man teachers. In Massignon, he had seen a person 
ally motivated and scientific probing of mysticism 
- which was universal, i. e., both Islamic and 
Christian (monotheism defined the boundaries of 
Corbin’s spiritual universe) - in the midst of a 
secularising society. The heritage of Massignon is 
similarly evident in Corbin’s conception of Irani 
an Shiism as Islam’s strongest esoterical tradition 
(1971a: 128; cf. Meyer 1977:553). In Heidegger, 
Corbin had found a theoretician who had philo 
sophically problematised the tragic loss of “Tradi 
tion” in the West. 
3 Heidegger 1938; cf. Corbin 1981a: 24; Shayegan 1990:21; 
Jambet (éd.) 1981: 348; Jambet 1981b; 17 (erroneous year). 
In addition, Heidegger’s work had shown 
Corbin a way to engage in his own hermeneutical 
studies (cf. Shayegan 1990: 43 f.). It was from Hei 
degger’s worldview, however, that he gradually 
took a distance (Corbin 1981a: 31). Heidegger’s 
existential analyses centred on a Dasein, which 
was circumscribed by the prospect of death and 
made no provisions for the hereafter. One finds 
parallel concerns in Corbin’s acuity of a funda 
mental problematic in Christianity. This concerned 
Jesus’ incarnation, through which God had “fallen 
into history,” the realm of finiteness. 4 
After having explored the possibilities of Hei- 
deggerian analysis and stumbled upon its rigid 
limits, Corbin once again turned to Sohravardi. He 
adopted, expounded, and would cherish for a life 
time Sohravardi’s hermeneutical phenomenology: 
a purely religious method, unimpressed by death, 
and in full recognition of the symbolic space of the 
monde imaginai. This is to say: Corbin wished to 
assign primary importance to the religious imag 
ination as a reflection of the religious mode of 
existence (cf. Corbin 1971a: 136; Marcotte 1995: 
57, 63). 
Thus, an outline had taken shape in “the Oc 
cident,” in France and Germany, of the “Orien 
tal,” Iranian, Shiite spiritual universe that Corbin 
set out to comprehend. He then brought the new 
hermeneutical phenomenology “back to Iran” - 
accompanied by his Western criticism of the mod 
ern self, formulated in the terms of an Eastern 
tradition - which in turn made a lasting impact 
on Iranian Shiites. 
2 Nowhere Place 
Corbin was sent on a state mission to Turkey 
in 1939, on behalf of the Bibliothèque nationale, 
to search for manuscripts of Sohravardi in the 
libraries of Istanbul. He had planned to stay for 
three months in Istanbul, but his visit lasted until 
1945 because of the war. During these years in 
exile, Corbin acted as guardian of the French 
Institute of Archaeology (Corbin 1981a: 46). 
In August 1944, the Bibliothèque Nationale is 
sued another “ordre de mission,” for Persia this 
time, and on 14 September 1945, Corbin arrived 
in Tehran (de Boyer Sainte Suzanne 1981:287; 
Shayegan 1990:23), to “‘meet Suhrawardi in his 
own homeland,’ as he [himself] put it” (Lan- 
dolt 1999: 486). In Tehran, he immediately recog- 
4 Widmer 1990:86; Corbin 1973a: 272; cf. Jambet 1983: 17, 
21. 
Anthropos 100.2005