Medieval Academy of America

The Passion of al-allj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam by Louis Massignon; Herbert Mason Review by: Seyyed Hossein Nasr Speculum, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan., 1985), pp. 183-184 Published by: Medieval Academy of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2852167 . Accessed: 25/08/2013 14:55
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The Passion of al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr Louis MASSIGNON, of Islam, 1: The Life of and ofal-Hallaj; 4: Bibliography al-Hallaj; 2: The Survivalofal-Halldj; 3: The Teaching Index.Trans. Herbert Mason. (Bollingen Series, 98.) Guildford,Surrey,and Princeton: PrincetonUniversity illustraPress, 1982. 1: pp. lxix, 645; 12 black-and-white tions. 2: pp. xii, 493; 20 black-and-white illustrations.3: pp. xiv, 360; 16 blackand-white illustrations. 4: pp. xviii, 294. $125. IT IS INDEED fitting that a centuryafterthe birthof Massignon, when his memoryis being celebrated throughoutthe Westernand Muslim worlds,the major opus of this outstandingIslamicistshould be brought out in English. Based on the 1975 second French edition,upon which Massignon had worked for forty years (since the appearance of the firstedition in 1922), Professor Mason's translationmakes available for the firsttime in the English language a major work of Massignon. Begun in 1968 fromthe proofs of the second French edition,the translation representssome fifteen years of labor over a text which is both long and singularlycomplex; the English version must, in fact, be considered a major achievement in the field of Islamic studies. Massignon'slife revolved around both the historicaland transhistorical personality of the great Persian Sufi of the third/ninth century,al-Hallaj, who lived and died in Baghdad. Since having a vision of the saint which transformedhis life in his youth, Massignon devoted most of his considerable intellectualenergies to the studyof this figure whose assertion "I am the Truth" has echoed throughout the centuries of Islamic history.Massignon not only wrote this monumentalwork on Hallaj, but also devoted numerous other studies to him, such as Akhbar al-Hallaj, not to speak of the edition and translationof Hallaj's Tawdsin.Through him, Massignon introduced the Western public to Sufism as a whole and to the Islamic traditionitself. The Passionofal-Hallaj is not only a unique work on the saint,but an incomparable studyof the religious forces,the social and politicallife,and the whole cultureof the Islamic world withinwhich he lived and died. The firstvolume recounts in great which could only come froma scholar with detail, and witha passion and sympathy of Massignon, the life of Hallaj, startingfromthe translation the spiritualsensibility of the "portraits"of traditionalbiographers such as Qannad and ending with the and its later repercussions.In reading thisvolume movingaccount of his martyrdom not only does one gain a vision into the inner life of one of the most remarkable in eitherEast or West,but also one comes to learn of mysticism, figuresin the history in both a scholarlyand intimatemanner about the whole religious,philosophical,and political life of Baghdad and also of Iraq and Persia in that period. In the second volume one is faced withMassignon's immense knowledgeof Islamic historyas related to the Hallajian reality.The author discusses Hallaj's ever-living influenceamong Sunnis and Shi'ites,Quranic commentatorsand theologians,and in Islamic art. He deals withthe continuationof the legacy of Hallaj in different regions of the Islamic world such as Iraq, Fars, Khurasan, the Turkish-speaking lands, of Hallaj played a Arabia, the Maghrib, India, and even Java, where the martyrdom role in the Islamization of the Malay archipelago. Massignon also deals with the model of Hallaj in Islamic literatureand especially among Sufis such as Ruzbihan Baqli and Ibn 'Arabi and the echo of his maxims and sayingsamong Islamic philosophers fromSijistaniand Avicenna to Suhrawardi,Averroes,and Tiisi. There is even treatments of Hallaj by certainArab and Turkish writers. a section on contemporary Altogetherthis volume is an intellectualhistoryof Islam seen through the Hallajian

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perspective,but it is also one of the most importantvolumes on Islamic intellectual historywrittenby a Western Islamicist. If in volume 2 Massignon writesbasicallyas an intellectualhistorian,in volume 3 he is the theologian and philosopher in quest of the understandingof what he calls Hallaj's mysticaland dogmatic theology. Massignon deals extensivelywith Hallaj's "knowledge of the heart" and his metaphysical,cosmological, and eschatological expositionsas well as the politicalaspects of his Sufi teachingsand theology.He also leveled against these doctrinesbyjurists, theologians, devotes a chapter to criticisms and certain other mystics. In the second part of the volume Massignon deals in depth with the works of while givinga criticalappraisal of of theirtransmission Hallaj. He studies the history the works attributedto Hallaj by various traditionalsources. He deals in especially great detail with the Tawasin and also treats of the literaryoriginalityof Hallaj's writingsand their influence upon later literature. The last volume contains the bibliographyof works related to Hallaj by Muslim as well as European authors and several veryuseful indices. The indices include one of technicalterms,whichis particularly precious forscholarsof Islamic studiesconsiderthe studyof the technicalvocabularyof Sufism. for the of ing significance Massignon It is a testament to the greatnessof Massignon as a scholar thatsixtyyears afterthe should be a edition of his magnum opus itsEnglish translation appearance of the first the is no doubt that of in There event Islamic studies. many findingsof major Massignon have been correctedor even refutedby later scholarsand thatmany of his interpretationshave been and are being challenged by others. Nevertheless The Passion of al-Hallij remains one of the landmarks of Western scholarship on Islam, importantnot only for the fruitof research and deliberation found in its pages but also forthe directionit provided forlater research. This latterqualityof the workhas in factnot been exhausted and the work is stillprecious as a guideline for directions of furtherresearch in some of the most importantaspects of Islamic studies. Professor Mason has made an excellent translationof Massignon's long work. Himself both an Islamicistand a giftedwriterwho has produced a literarywork on the theme of Hallaj, Mason has benefited from his personal acquaintance with Massignon and his writingsto gain a firsthandknowledge into the styleof thought and expression of his French mentor. This knowledge of both a scholarly and personal nature, combined with the gift for writingelegant English, has made possible the veryhigh quality of this translation.It is indeed fortunatethat the first major work of Massignon to appear in English should be of such quality. One only forewordwere longer and that he dealt more extensively wishes that the translator's with the thought of Massignon, who must be considered in his own right one of France's importantCatholic intellectualfiguresof thiscentury.Let us hope thatsoon we shall see this subject treated fullyin the study on Massignon which Professor Mason is now preparing.
SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR George Washington University

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