Evola now in Albanian

Julius Evola’s Metaphysics of Sex is now available in Albanian as Metafisika e seksit, published in 2024 by the Kosovo publisher Dukagjin, which has an imprint “Fryma” (Spirit). It was launched at the Prishtina book fair in June this year along with translations of Habermas and Randall Collins, the American sociologist. 

Why start with the Metaphysics of Sex? It has a great title, certainly, but it never seemed to be one of Evola’s best books. Or is that just me?

Michel Vâlsan and Anton Dumitriu

The Romanian antiquarian “Historic Paper Treasures & Collectibles” is selling seven letters and notes from Michel Vâlsan (Mustafa 'Abd al-'Aziz) to Anton Dumitriu (1905-1992).

Vâlsan, editor of Etudes Traditionnelles and a Shadhili shaykh in Paris, was originally Romanian but left Romania forever during the Second World War. Dumitriu was also a Romanian Traditionalist but remained in Romania. He taught philosophy at the University of Bucharest until 1948, when he was arrested by the new Communist government, but was able to return to academic work in 1964, and even to travel abroad. 

Dumitriu was known publicly as an expert in logic, but his real interests seem to have been esoteric, moving from Theosophy to Traditionalism. According to the contemporary Romanian Traditionalist Vasile Zecherum (see here) he was a member of a Christian Orthodox mystical group at the Antim Monastery called “Rugul aprins” (the Burning Bush) and also a Freemason. In one of the letters on sale, Vâlsan is responding to a letter from Dumitriu about Orthodox esotericism. Many of Dumitriu's books were on logic, but his Orient și Occident (East and West) of 1943 engages polemically with René Guénon, one of whose books gave Dumitriu his title, and his late work Homo universalis. Încercare asupra naturii realității umane (Homo universalis: An essay on the nature of human reality), 1990, is very much within the Traditionalist frame—and neatly summarized by Zecherum here.

Some of the correspondence is of no great interest—a Happy New Year card, for example. Three letters in French are of more interest. A letter of 1967 deals with sending books, and perhaps marks the re-establishment of contact between the two men after a long break A letter of 1968 deals with Orthodox esotericism, as already mentioned. Finally, in a letter of 1971 Vâlsan explains why he cannot immediately contribute to what seems to have been a proposed series on Ibn Arabi and other Arab esotericists. The 1971 letter uses the familiar “tu” form, so Dumitriu had probably visited Paris and met Vâlsan in person between 1968 and 1971. In general, there seem to have been more letters from Dumitriu to Vâlsan than the other way round.

Dumitriu, then, should be added to the list of active Traditionalists. It is surprising that the Romanian Communists did not object to his Traditionalism, which they must have been aware of. Their tolerance, however, had limits. His Homo universalis was not published until after the end of the Communist regime.

The letters are available here for 600 Lei ($130) and the front page of each can be read on the website for free if you open the image in a new tab.

My thanks to AC for directing me to this small trove.

Swedish Traditionalist Tage Lindbom available in English

Now available: an English translation of one of the last works by the leading Swedish Traditionalist Tage Lindbom (1909-2001), Möte med Koranen, as Encountering the Quran: A Guide to the Inner Meaning of the Sacred Book of Islam (Stockholm: TLR, 2024; order here). 

Lindbom has already been discussed on this blog: see here and here.

The book comes with a foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who says he knew Lindbom well, and is translated by Oliver Fotros, who has previously published work on Ivan Aguéli: see here and here.   It is published in cooperation with Lindbom’s son Tomas, who has written a biography of his father, I otakt med tidsandan – en personlig biografi om Tage Lindbom (Out of Step with the Times: A Personal Biography of Tage Lindbom) available here.  

The original (here, if you read Swedish), which was published posthumously in the Swedish journal Minaret, consisted of 15 essays of varying length, assembled in the translation into three sections: “The Quran attests,” “The Quran Narrates,” and “The Quran encounters the Unseen.” These essays are Lindbom’s mature reflections on various topics, from creation to the Virgin Mary. The position is Islamic and, at the same time, Traditionalist/Maryami—notably, of course, when it comes to the Virgin Mary.

Good to see Swedish Traditionalism, which has until recently been little known outside Sweden, becoming more widely available.

Book that covers Traditionalist influence on European Sufism now available in English

Francesco Piraino's book on Sufism in Europe: Islam, Esotericism and the New Age, first published in French in 2023 (see here), is now available in English from Edinburgh University Press. Only £22.50 as an e-book (here), which is a lot better than £90 for the hardback.

After introductory chapters on "Sufism as Mysticism" and "Sufi Pioneers in Europe," there are studies of the Qādiriyya Būdshīshiyya , the Shādhiliyya Darqāwiyya ʿAlāwiyya, the Naqshbandiyya-Ḥaqqāniyya, and the Aḥmadiyya-Idrīsiyya Shādhiliyya. This last was founded by Abd al-Wahid Pallavicini (1926-2017) (see here) as a quintessentially Guénonian order.

Guénon returns to Iran

An international conference on "René Guénon and the Revival of the Primordial Tradition" will be held February 17-18, 2025 by the department of Religious Studies at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy (IRIP). The Iranian Institute of Philosophy was founded by Seyyed Hossein Nasr in 1974 as the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy and was for many years the center of Traditionalist thought not only in Iran but on a global scale. When Nasr left Iran and the Academy, its character changed.

Nasr, however, is now the first name on the list of the International Scientific Committee for the forthcoming conference, along with other international scholars such as Philippe Faure, editor of the collective volume René Guénon, l'appel de la sagesse primordiale (René Guénon: the call of primordial wisdom, 2015). The main scientific committee is headed by former Iranian collaborators of Nasr such as Gholamreza Avani and Shahram Pazouki. The first-named scientific secretary is Babak Alikhani, author of “René Guénon and Ancient Iranian Culture,” published in Alikhani’s book Roshnaii nameh (Book of illumination, 2024).

That such a conference is to be held in Iran, at the former Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, and involving Nasr is a major event. For those who would like to participate, the conference website is at https://guenon.irip.ac.ir/ (scroll down for actual call). There is a wide list of conference themes, the conference will be held both in-person and virtually, and the submission deadline is 14 November 2024, at which point full papers of 8,000 words are required.

My thanks to MM for bringing this conference to my attention.