The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism

This brilliant book is only for esoterica aficionados. Corbin, the foremost French (and, in all probability, world) authority on Sufism and Shiite esotericism, discusses in his familiar baroque and stream-of-consciousness erudite style three Iranian sages-mystics: Suhrawardi (the martyred founder of Ishraqi/Illuminative school of Islamic esotericism ), Kubra (the founder of an influential Sufi order) and Simnani (an orthodox Sufi master who left behind a voluminous corpus of esoteric writings). What do these men have in common ? Well- at least, two things:1. they all developed variants of highly imaginative multilayered metaphysics (especially Suhrawardi) and set up "theoretical" framework which was later used to interpret spectacular (one might blasphemically say "Cecildemillean" or LSD-like) visionary experiences. 2.another common "trademark" is the Man of Light (hence the title of the book), equated with Arch)Angel Gabriel, or Supreme Spirit (Ar-Ruh al-Qudsi), or perfect nature: in short, everyone's "True" or Higher Self. One might add that the three mystics have been dualists (therefore, alien to Ibn Arabi's monist Wahdat-al-Wujud doctrine), and that the latter duo ( in sharp contrast to extravagant and highly original visionary genius of mutilated Suhrawardi ) remained impeccably orthodox. Their originality lies in development of Islamic version of esoteric physiology: latifa, the supposed organs/subtle centers of suprasensory perception, are essentially Kubra's and Simnani's spiritual legacy. On balance, Corbin's "The Man of Light" is an intellectual and spiritual joyride and I highly recommend it.

A great book for anyone who wants to gain an in depth understanding of Islamic mysticism. There are many books out there on Sufism, but Corbin's books are most" scholarly". It is obvious that the author spent a life time researching this topic and learning it from those who know sufism well. Same can not be said about many other so called scholars who seem to write books on a daily basis and their research scope is no more than a few trips to the local library. No wonder there are so many books being published and yet so few of them are really worth reading. Many of them leave their reader feeling cheated. I am afraid that Scholars like Corbin should be classified under endangered species.