Heidegger

In a message dated 1/24/2007 10:26:28 PM Eastern Standard Time, daxsein at hotmail.com writes: PN: Henry Corbin, you were the first to translate Heidegger in France and then the first to introduce Iranian Islamic philosophy. How can these two tasks be reconciled as properly belonging to one and the same person, especially given that Martin Heidegger claims the West as his homeland. His philosophy is typically German, and one might imagine a certain disparity between the business of translating Heidegger and that of translating Suhravardî.

H.C.: I have often been asked that question, and I’ve sometimes noticed, with amusement, a certain astonishment overtake my interlocutors upon discovering that the translator of Heidegger and the man who has introduced Iranian Islamic philosophy to the West are one and the same. And then they ask themselves, how has he passed from the one to the other? I tried to tell you a while back, in an interview we had shortly after Heidegger’s death, that this astonishment is the symptom of a type of compartmentalizing, of an a-priori labeling of our disciplines. We tell ourselves: there are the Germanists and there are the Orientalists. Among the Orientalists there are the Islamists and there are the Iranianists, etc. But how could one go from Germanism to Iranianism? If those who asked this question had only a little idea of what the philosopher is, and of the philosophical Quest, if they would imagine for a moment that linguistic incidents are no more for a philosopher than signs along the way, and that they announce little more than topographical variants of secondary importance, then perhaps they would be less astonished. http://www.amiscorbin.com/textes/anglais…
Dear tympan; The historical affinity of the Germanic with the Shiites of Iran, as noted by Henry Corbin, goes back (insofar as it is documented) to Rhames I-III and invasion of Egypt by the Sea Peoples, otherwise known as Pharisees, allied with the Hittites whom they previously defeated. These seafaring maruders were essentially Northerners from Mycenae and Illyria that were populated with Aachaens and who were of Teutonic/Celtic lineage. Rhames III finally defeated these invaders but who, known Biblically as Pharises then fought the Israelites and partially integrated with the Semitic and pre-Islamic peoples. They settled in the Gaza. It would be inconclusive to link these ancient Teutonic (Germans?) with Anatolia and Mesoppotania. Yet in both case an apophatic mysticism prevailed and which would be equally fitting to Hegel/Heidegger analytic dialectic negation. In any case, the last historical affinity of the Germanic with the Near Eastern peoples was World War I, and their defeat by the Western Allies. This put an end to the Ottoman expansionism and when more recently the Shiites and modern Iran begin a ressurgence. Where modern Germany fits itself in all this remains to be seen. In any case, thanks for posting that Henry Corbin site voicing his involvement with Eranos and close affinity with C.G.Jung, Sincerely; Bernard Posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 9:05 am
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