Creative Imagination In The Sufism Of Ibn Arabi

423 Pages·2019·17.91 MB·English

by  Corbin, Henry

BOLLINGEN SERIES XCI
The Image of the Ka'aba
Miniature from. Bibliotheque nationale, Paris, MS supplement persan 1389,
sixteenth century
HENRY CORBIN
Creative Imagination
in the
Sufism of Ibn Arabl
Translated from the French by
RALPH MANHEIM
BOLLINGEN SERIES XCI
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1969 by Princeton University Press
Princeton, N.J.
Printed by Princeton University Press
Princeton, N.J.
THIS IS THE NINETY-FIRST IN A SERIES OF WORKS
SPONSORED BY
BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION
Published in French as
UImagination creatrice dans Ie Soufisme cTIbn tArabi
Flammarion, Paris, 1958
Parts One and Two were originally published in French
(in slightly different form) in Eranos-Jahrbiicher
XXIV (1955) and XXV (1956) by Rhein-Verlag, Zurich.
Library of Congress Catalogue Card No.: 68-20869
ISBN 0-691-09852-2
ISBN 0-691-01828-6 pbk.
First Princeton/Bollingen Paperback printing, 1981
CONTENTS
List of Plates vii
INTRODUCTION
1. Between Andalusia and Iran: A BriefSpiritual
Topography 3
2. The Curve and Symbols of Ibn 'Arabi's Life 88
At Averroes' Funeral 38
The Pilgrim to the Orient 46
The Disciple of Khidr 53
His Maturity and the Completion of His Work 68
3. The Situation of Esoterism 77
PART ONE
SYMPATHY AND THEOPATHY
Ch. I. Divine Passion and Compassion 105
1. The Prayer of the Heliotrope 105
2. The "Pathetic God" 112
3. Of Unio Mystica as Unto Sympathetica 120
Ch. II. Sophiology and Devotio Sympathetica 136
1. The Sophianic Poem of a Fedele d'amore 136
2. TheDialecticofLove 145
3. The Creative Feminine 157
PART TWO
CREATIVE IMAGINATION AND CREATIVE PRAYER
Prologue 179
Ch. III. The Creation as Theophany 184
1. The Creative Imagination as Theophany, or the
"God from Whom All Being Is Created" 184
2. The God Manifested by the Theophanic Imagina­
tion 190
ν
CONTENTS
3. The "God Created in the Faiths" 195
4. The Recurrence of Creation 200
5. The Twofold Dimension of Beings 207
Ch. IV. Theophanic Imagination and Creativity of
the Heart 216
1. TheFieldoftheImagination 216
2. The Heart as a Subtile Organ 221
3. The Science of the Heart 237
Ch. V. Man's Prayer and God's Prayer 246
1. The Method of Theophanic Prayer 246
2. Homologations 257
3. The Secret of the Divine Responses 262
Ch. VI. The "Form of God" 272
1. The Ifadlth of the Vision 272
2. Around the Mystic Ka'aba 277
Epilogue 282
Notes and Appendices 285
List of Works Cited 391
Index 399
LIST OF PLATES
FRONTISPIECE The Image of the Ka'aba. Miniature
from Bibliothfeque nationale, Paris, MS supplement
persan 1S89, fol. 19, sixteenth century, P: Courtesy
of the Bibliothfeque nationale. (Seep. 91 and n. 34.) ^page8
1 Elijah and Khidr at the Fountain of Life. Persian, 56
School of Herat, late fifteenth century, P: Courtesy
of the Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of
Art, Washington, D. C. {Seepp. 55 ff. for the re­
lationship between Elijah and Khidr.)
2 Joseph and His Brothers in Egypt. Persian 232
miniature from FariduddTn 'Attar, Mantiq al-Tayr.
Staatsbibliothek, Marburg, MS or. oct. 268, fol.
114, fifteenth century, P: Courtesy of the Staatsbib­
liothek, Marburg. {See pp. 239f.)
S The Philoxeny of Abraham. Detail from a mosaic, 136
Cathedral of St. Mark, Venice, thirteenth century.
P: Alinari. {Seep. 130 and Ch. /, nn. 74 and 75.)
4 Three Angels Offering Three Cups to the 240
Prophet. Bibliothfeque nationale, Paris, MS supple­
ment turc 190, fol. 34 verso, P: Courtesy of the
Bibliothfeque nationale. (See p. 242.)

INTRODUCTION