Louis Massignon

Louis Massignon (July 25th 1883 with Nogent-sur-Marne - October 31st 1962).

Biography

This author of a monumental thesis on the life of the soufi Mansur Al-Hallaj, crucifié with Baghdad into 922, is not only one of largest the Islam ologists of the 20th century, but also one of the Masters of the French language. Its language is of a rare beauty. It occupied, temporarily, on June 15th, 1919 the pulpit of Moslem sociology to the Collège de France. A pulpit which it will definitively occupy as from January 1926 until the 1954 after the retirement of its predecessor Alfred Chatelier, the creator of this pulpit.

Massignon devoted whole years of its life to the drafting of its thesis which testifies to a great scientific rigor and an exemplary preoccupation with an objectivity for a as delicate and sensitive matter as the Mystique in the broad sense, the Moslem mystic in particular. It was also one of the main actors of the establishment of a dialog between the Islam and the Église Catholique whose very positive impact appears in the council of the the Vatican II Nostra Aetate the year even of its death in 1962. If there remained attached during all its life to the Catholicisme, one sometimes reproached him a certain syncretism which makes only its singularity as a scientist and a believer, such as liked to describe it the pope Pie XI: " the catholic musulman".

Key dates in its life

( to see introduction of Jaques Keryell for a more detailed biography into crowned hospitality )

1901 : Its meeting with Huysmans, a friend of its father the sculptor Pierre Roche will deeply influence the course of its life. It is also the date of its first voyage to Algiers.
1902 : It obtained its arts degree. Preparation of its diploma of higher learning while choosing like subject of research: " geographical table of Morocco in the first fifteen years of the 16th century according to Leon the African ".
1904 : Travel to the Morocco for its research task. Massignon said that it made an excursion with horse in Morocco to Fez.
1906 : It obtains its dilpôme of classical Arabic and dialectical Arabic. Beginning of its stay with the Cairo where it was indicated temporary member of the Institute of oriental archeology by the large Egyptologist Gaston Maspero. This date its first was also discovered large soufi Al-Hallaj via the Mémorial of the saints of Farid Al-Din Attar.
1907 : As of March 24th, 1907, it decides to make its thesis of arts doctorate on Al-Hallaj.
1907-1908 : Charged by the Beylié general with carrying out an archaeological mission in Mésopotamie. As of its arrival with Baghdad, it settled on January 7th, 1908 in Moslem an old working of the city. For one period of one month and half, it will be involved with eagerness in this new culture and will appreciate with heat its habits and its specificities. It knew already that this stage is crucial for its thesis on Al-Hallaj. It on amongst other things the occasion to learn Turkish.
1913-1918 : October 15th, 1913 he asked the priest in charge of his spiritual direction to raise it of his wish of Chasteté and married on January 27th, 1914 his cousin Marcelle Dansaert-Testelin. Mobilized at the beginning of the First World War as officer in the army of the East. He learned in January 1917 death from his friend Charles de Foucauld. He will enter to the sides of Lawrence of Arabia Jerusalem released from the Othoman occupation.
1919 : Named after the end of the war as temporary professor to the Collège de France in order to ensure of the courses in sociology and sociography Moslem women.
1922 : Defense of its thesis on large Moslem mystic Al-HAllaj.
1926 : It becomes the titular on May 30th, 1926 of the pulpit of Moslem sociology at the Collège de France.
1932 : It became Tertiaire Franciscain under the name of Abraham.
1933-1934 : Return to the Cairo where it has just been named like one of the five European members of the Arab language.
1934 : It founded with Mary Kahil with Damiette the spiritual brotherhood of Badaliya.
1941 : It founded the Institute Dar Es Salam in Cairo.
1947 : He becomes president of the " Studies iraniennes".
1954 : He creates the pilgrimage of the Septs Dormants of Ephèse to the Old man-Market in the Coast-with Armor.
1956 : He becomes president of the friends of Gandhi.
1962 : October 31st, 1962, an heart attack carried it with the first Vêpres of the All Saints' day. It was buried in the commune of Pordic (Coast-in Armor)

Among its students appear: Henry Corbin, philosopher and large specialist in the large mystic Chi' ite Sohrawardi (Shaykh Al-Ishraq); Abdurrahman Badawi, thinker and Egyptian Islamic philosopher; Abd Al-Halim Mahmud, large sheik of the University of Al-Azhar; and with the United States, George Makdisi; Herbert Mason and James Kritzeck.

Work

With its death, on October 31st, 1962, Louis Aragon wrote: “One of the men who mean France has just disappeared”. Indeed, it is in the work even of this man whom one can include/understand the depth of the homage that Aragon returns to him.

The reflection of Massignon on the exceptional course of life of Mansûr Al-Hallaj led it to reflect on common prototypes between Islam and Christianisme of which: 1/ Abraham the model par excellence of all the believers monotheists.

2/ Fâtima the girl of the prophet Muhammed, whose figure mariale appears to him to be the reciprocal one in Catholicism.

3/ Seven Door frames of Éphèse (or Ahl Al-kahf ) from where the name of the sourate Al-Kahf in the Coran. 4/ Salmân Al-Farîsi (or Salmân Pâk), a converted Christian and Persan companion of the Prophet of the Islam.

and to stick to two key concepts which appear in filigree in all its work: " hospitality sacrée" and " the intercession" (or mystical substitution).

The work of Massignon is not free from criticisms, sometimes sour. Thus Edward Saïd regards the Al-Hallâj figure as " not pertinente" , marginal, nonrepresentative of the Islam. Same Edward Saïd notes as as the great proximity of Massignon with " the esprit" Islam could distort at his place a serene vision of Catholicism.

Works of Massignon

the Al-Hallâj Passion, Paris, Gallimard, 1975,4 vol. (English transl. by Herbert Masson, The Passion off Hallâj , Princeton, 1982)
Al-Hallaj, Collection of speeches and exhortations of the mystical martyr of Islam , Paris, J. Vrin, collection " Studies musulmanes" , 1975. Bilingual edition.

An exhaustive biliography is in: Youakim Moubarac, " The work of Louis Massignon" , Pentalogie islamo-Christian woman , Beirut, 1972, T. 1. Principal works of L. Mr.:

Word given , Paris, Julliard, 1962.
Test on the origins of the technical lexicon of the Moslem mystic , 1922, republication J. Vrin, Paris 1954.

The whole of the many articles and new texts of Louis Massignon (with some rare exceptions, in particular), was published by the father Youakim Moubarac: Opera undervalued , Paris, PUF, 1969 3 vol. (republication of the edition of Beirut, 1963).

crowned hospitality , new city: Paris, 1987. ( foreword of Rene Voillaume/new texts presented by Jacques Keryell )

Some works on Massignon

Louis Massignon and his contemporaries , under the direction of Jacques Keryell, Khartala, 1997.
Christian Destremau, Jean Moncelon, Massignon , Paris, Plon, 1994, bibliogr. (ISBN 2-259-00400-8) ( the biography of reference on Louis Massignon ).
Jacques Keryell, Garden given, Louis Massignon with the research of the Absolute , ED. Saint-Paul, Paris, 1993.
Pierre Rocalve, Louis Massignon and Islam , French Institute of Damas, 1993.
Herbert Mason, Massignon - Chronic of a friendship , Desclée de Brouwer, 1990.
Vincent Mansûr Monteil, the Shroud of fire , Vegapress, 1987. ( a single testimony on the life and the work of Louis Massignon )
Collective, Presence of Louis Massignon , Paris, Maisonnneuve and Larose, 1987, bibliogr.
Combat for the Man, Centenary of the birth of Louis Massignon , UNESCO, Paris, 1983.
Guy Harpigny, Islam and Christianisme according to Louis Massignon , Leuwen-the-New, 1981 ( the first thesis devoted to Louis Massignon )
Massignon , Books of Herne, 1970.
Camille Devret, Massignon and Gandhi , the Stag, 1967.
Jean Morillon, Massignon , Traditional of the XXe century, 1964. ( first biography of Louis Massignon )
Memorial Louis Massignon , Dar el-Salam, Cairo, 1963 (except trade). Under the direction of Youakim Moubarac and the Arab texts of Ibrahim Madkour, Abd Al-Rahman Badawi, Taha Hussein, etc
Homage to Louis Massignon , Re-examined Faculty of Arts of Teheran, X, 1962.
J.J. Waardenburg, Islam in the mirror of the Occident , $the Hague, Sheep, 1962.
Homage to Louis Massignon , French Letters, November 15th, 1962. ( with a leading article of Louis Aragon )

External bonds

Site with a long bibliography
Homage to Louis Massignon - duration: 1:33 min - Pierre Lory (EPHE), François Angelier (France Culture) and Laure Meesemaecker (ICES)
biographical Elements, outline on work and the text of Nostra Aetate (the Vatican II)
Press article: '' The mystical vision off Louis Massignon: Islam inspired scholar' S gratitude, life work and Christian faith '' National Catholic To defer, December 17th, 2004 of Jerry Ryan

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