Alone with the Alone

Henry Corbin's works are the best guide to the visionary tradition... Corbin, like Scholem and Jonas, is remembered as a scholar of genius. He was uniquely equipped not only to recover Iranian Sufism for the West, but also to defend the principal Western traditions of esoteric spirituality.

Alone with the Alone presents a powerful new preface by Harold Bloom, with Corbin bringing us to the very core of this movement through a penetrating analysis of Ibn 'Arabi's life and doctrines. Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) was one of the great mystics of all time and made a unique contribution to Shi'ite Sufism through the richness of his personal experience and the constructive power of his intellect.

Corbin begins with a kind of spiritual topography of the twelfth century, emphasizing the differences between exoteric and esoteric forms of Islam. He also relates Islamic mysticism to mystical thought in the West. The remainder of the book is devoted to two complementary essays: on "Sympathy and Theosophy" and "Creative Imagination and Creative Prayer." A section of notes and appendices includes original translations of numerous Sufi treatises.

Harold Bloom's preface links Sufi mysticism with Shakespeare's visionary dramas and high tragedies, such as The Tempest and Hamlet. These works, he writes, intermix the empirical world with a transcendent element. Bloom shows us that this Shakespearean cosmos is analogous to Corbin's "Imaginal Realm" of the Sufis, the place of soul or souls.