Henry Corbin's imaginal world and Iranian Islamic mysticism

Record summary

Henry Corbin's late work, including writings on the imaginal world, Ibn Arabi, Suhrawardi, and Shi'i visionary experience, circulated widely during the 1970s. Corbin presented the alam al-mithal as an intermediate ontological realm rather than mere fantasy, making his scholarship central to modern comparisons of visions, symbolic encounters, and esoteric phenomenology. The lead is a textual and intellectual history, not evidence that such a realm has been empirically demonstrated. Researchers should compare Corbin's translations and interpretations with Persian and Arabic editions and with critics of his construction of an enduring Iranian spirituality.