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Medieval Academy of America

The Passion of al-allj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam by Louis Massignon; Herbert MasonReview by: Seyyed Hossein NasrSpeculum, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan., 1985), pp. 183-184Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2852167.

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Reviews 183Louis MASSIGNON,he Passion ofal-Hallaj, Mystic nd Martyr f slam, 1: TheLife ofal-Hallaj; 2: The Survival fal-Halldj; 3: TheTeaching f l-Hallaj; 4: BibliographyndIndex.Trans. Herbert Mason. (BollingenSeries,98.) Guildford, urrey, nd Prince-ton: PrincetonUniversity ress, 1982. 1: pp. lxix,645; 12 black-and-whitellustra-tions. 2: pp. xii, 493; 20 black-and-whitellustrations. : pp. xiv, 360; 16 black-and-white llustrations. : pp. xviii,294. $125.IT IS INDEED fittinghat a century fterthebirthof Massignon,when his memory sbeingcelebratedthroughout he Westernand Muslimworlds,themajor opus of thisoutstanding slamicist hould be broughtout in English. Based on the 1975 secondFrenchedition,upon whichMassignonhad worked forforty ears since theappear-ance of the first dition in 1922), ProfessorMason's translationmakes available forthe first ime in the English language a major work of Massignon. Begun in 1968from heproofsofthe second Frenchedition,thetranslation epresents ome fifteenyears of labor over a text which is both long and singularly omplex; the Englishversion must, in fact,be considered a major achievementin the field of Islamicstudies.Massignon's ife revolved around boththehistorical nd transhistorical ersonalityof the greatPersian Sufiof the third/ninthentury, l-Hallaj, who lived and died inBaghdad. Since havinga visionof the saint whichtransformedhis life n his youth,Massignondevoted mostof his considerable intellectual nergiesto the studyof thisfigurewhose assertion I am the Truth has echoed throughoutthe centuriesofIslamic history.Massignonnot onlywrote this monumental work on Hallaj, but alsodevoted numerousotherstudiesto him,such as Akhbar l-Hallaj, not to speak of theedition and translation f Hallaj's Tawdsin.Through him,Massignonintroduced theWesternpublic to Sufism as a whole and to the Islamic tradition tself.The Passionofal-Hallaj is notonlya unique workon the saint,but an incomparablestudyof thereligiousforces, he social and political ife, nd the whole culture of theIslamic world within which he lived and died. The firstvolume recounts in greatdetail,and with a passion and sympathywhich could onlycome from a scholar withthe spiritual ensibilityf Massignon,the life of Hallaj, starting rom the translationof the portraits of traditionalbiographers such as Qannad and ending with themoving ccountof hismartyrdomnd its aterrepercussions. n readingthisvolumenot only does one gain a vision into the inner life of one of the most remarkablefigures n thehistory fmysticism,n either East or West,but also one comes to learninboth a scholarly nd intimatemanner about the whole religious,philosophical, ndpolitical ife of Baghdad and also of Iraq and Persia in that period.In the second volume one is faced withMassignon's mmenseknowledgeof Islamichistory s related to the Hallajian reality.The author discusses Hallaj's ever-livinginfluence mong Sunnis and Shi'ites,Quranic commentators nd theologians, nd inIslamic art.He deals with he continuation f thelegacyofHallaj in different egionsof the Islamic world such as Iraq, Fars, Khurasan, the Turkish-speaking ands,Arabia, the Maghrib, ndia, and evenJava,where themartyrdom f Hallaj played arole in the Islamization of the Malay archipelago. Massignon also deals with themodel of Hallaj in Islamic literature nd especially among Sufis such as RuzbihanBaqli and Ibn 'Arabi and the echo of his maxims and sayings mong Islamic philoso-phersfromSijistani nd Avicennato Suhrawardi,Averroes,and Tiisi. There is evena sectionon contemporary reatments f Hallaj bycertain Arab and Turkish writers.Altogether his volume is an intellectualhistory f Islam seen throughthe Hallajian

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184 Reviewsperspective,but it is also one of the mostimportantvolumes on Islamic intellectualhistorywrittenby a Western Islamicist.If in volume 2 Massignonwritesbasically s an intellectualhistorian, n volume 3he is the theologianand philosopherin quest of the understandingof whathe callsHallaj's mystical nd dogmatic theology.Massignon deals extensivelywithHallaj'sknowledge of the heart and his metaphysical, osmological, and eschatologicalexpositionsas well as thepoliticalaspectsof his Sufiteachings nd theology.He alsodevotes a chapterto criticismseveled againstthesedoctrinesby urists, theologians,and certain other mystics.In the second part of the volume Massignon deals in depth with the works ofHallaj. He studiesthehistory f theirtransmissionwhilegiving critical ppraisal ofthe works attributed o Hallaj by various traditional ources. He deals in especiallygreat detail with the Tawasin and also treats of the literaryoriginality f Hallaj'swritings nd their influenceupon later literature.The lastvolume containsthebibliography f works related to Hallaj byMuslim aswell as European authorsand severalveryusefulindices. The indices nclude one oftechnical erms,which s particularly reciousfor scholarsof Islamic studies consider-ingthesignificance fMassignonforthestudyofthe technicalvocabulary fSufism.It is a testament o thegreatnessofMassignonas a scholar thatsixtyyearsafter heappearance of the first ditionof hismagnum opus itsEnglishtranslation hould be amajor event in Islamic studies. There is no doubt that many of the findingsofMassignonhave been correctedor even refutedby aterscholarsand thatmanyofhisinterpretationshave been and are being challenged by others. NeverthelessThePassionofal-Hallij remainsone of the landmarksof Westernscholarshipon Islam,importantnot onlyfor the fruit f research and deliberationfound in itspages butalso for the direction tprovidedfor ater research.This latter ualityofthework hasin factnot been exhausted and the work s stillpreciousas a guidelinefor directionsof furtherresearch in some of the most important spects of Islamic studies.ProfessorMason has made an excellent translation of Massignon's long work.Himself both an Islamicist nd a giftedwriterwho has produced a literaryworkonthe theme of Hallaj, Mason has benefited from his personal acquaintance withMassignon and his writings o gain a firsthandknowledgeinto the styleof thoughtand expression of his French mentor. This knowledge of both a scholarlyandpersonal nature, combined with the gift for writingelegant English, has madepossible the veryhigh qualityof this translation. t is indeed fortunate hat the firstmajor work of Massignon to appear in English should be of such quality.One onlywishes that the translator's orewordwere longerand thathe dealt more extensivelywith the thoughtof Massignon,who must be considered in his own rightone ofFrance's importantCatholic intellectual igures f thiscentury.Let us hope that soonwe shall see this subject treated fully n the studyon Massignon which ProfessorMason is now preparing.

SEYYED HOSSEIN NASRGeorge Washington University

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