Henry Corbin; Shiisme et Ismaélisme (French)

Henry Corbin

Henry Corbin (14 April 1903 - 7 October 1978) was a philosopher, theologian and professor of Islamic Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Corbin was born in Paris in April 1903. As a boy he revealed the profound sensitivity to music so evident in his work. Although he was Protestant by birth, he was educated in the Catholic tradition and at the age of 19 received a certificate in Scholastic philosophy from the Catholic Institute of Paris. Three years later he took his "licence de philosophie" under the great Thomist Étienne Gilson. In 1928 he encountered the formidable Louis Massignon, director of Islamic studies at the Sorbonne, and it was he who introduced Corbin to the writings of Suhrawardi, the 12th century Persian mystic and philosopher whose work was to profoundly affect the course of Corbin’s life. The stage was then set for a personal drama that has deep significance for understanding those cultures whose roots lie in both ancient Greece and in the prophetic religions of the Near East reaching all the way back to Zoroaster. Years later Corbin said “through my meeting with Suhrawardi, my spiritual destiny for the passage through this world was sealed. Platonism, expressed in terms of the Zoroastrian angelology of ancient Persia, illuminated the path that I was seeking.”

Corbin is responsible for redirecting the study of Islamic philosophy as a whole. In his Histoire de la philosophie islamique (1964), he disproved the common view that philosophy among the Muslims came to an end after Ibn Rushd, demonstrating rather that a lively philosophical activity persisted in the eastern Muslim world – especially Iran – and continues to our own day. (From Wikipedia)

William S. Burroughs and HASSAN SABBAH

Hassan-i Sabbāh

Hassan-i Sabbāh (Persian: حسن صباح Hasan-e Sabbāh, 1050s-1124) was a Persian Nizārī Ismā'īlī missionary who converted a community in the late 11th century in the heart of the Alborz Mountains of northern Iran. The place was called Alamut and was attributed to an ancient king of Daylam. He founded a group whose members are sometimes referred to as the Hashshashin or Assassins.

William S. Burroughs

WSB: Hassan I Sabbah never made any attempt to extend power. He kept what he had-one or two fortresses. And he certainly was not a puritanical man.

Very little is actually known about Hassan I Sabbah. But it was a unique phenomenon.

In my books, then, Hassan I Sabbah seems to be a kind of model for a man who rebels against the control system and who sets up his own counterforce.  (From An Interview with William S. Burroughs April 4, 1980, New York City  by Jennie Skerl)