New book on Toshihiko Izutsu

Just published: Japanese Contribution to Islamic Studies: The Legacy of Toshihiko Izutsu Interpreted, ed. Anis Malik Thoha (Kuala Lumpur: IIUM Press, 2010). ISBN: 978-967-5272-63-9.

I have never quite understood the relationship between Toshihiko Izutsu and Traditionalism, and this new collection may hold some of the answers to that question. It is the proceedings of a 2008 conference held in Kuala Lumpur, with 19 articles, including:

• "The Place of Mulla Sadra's Kitāb Al-Mashāʻir in Izutsu's Philosophy" (Shigeru Kamada)
  "Reconsidering Izutsu in a Post-Postmodern Framework" (Janan Izadi and Ahad Faramarz Gharamaleki)
• "God and Man in the Works of Toshihiko Izutsu" (Ibrahim Abu Bakar)
• "Communicating Pure Consciousness Events: Using Izutsu to Address a Problem in the Philosophy of Mysticism" (Sajjad H. Rizvi)
• "The Significance of Izutsu’s Legacy for Comparative Religion" (Kojiro Nakamura)
• "The Legacy of Toshihiko Izutsu in Turkey: Application of Semantics in Contemporary Qur’anic Studies" (Necmettin Gökkir)

The remoter origins of the perennial philosophy

For those interested in the remoter origins of the perennial philosophy, I will be presenting a paper on "Orientalists and Sufis: The European Reception of Sufism and Its Consequences" at the Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in San Diego, California, November 18-21, 2010. The earliest date mentioned is 1577, but we don't really get down to business until 1671. Isaac Newton makes a guest appearance. The most recent name to be mentioned is Inayat Khan. Traditionalism will not be mentioned explicitly, but those who know it will spot something familiar.

Panel #2330, "Middle Eastern-European Intellectual Encounters," Saturday November 20, 8:30-10:30 am.

Producing Islamic Knowledge in Western Europe

Just published: Producing Islamic Knowledge: Transmission and Dissemination in Western Europe, ed. Martin van Bruinessen and Stefano Allievi (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010).

This book covers a variety of ways in which "Islamic knowledge" is being produced and spread in Europe, and has one article (by me) on the role of Traditionalism, "Guénonian Traditionalism and European Islam" (pp. 169-87). This article is remarkable mostly for the length of time it took to get into print: it was originally a paper given in 2003, before the publication of Against the Modern World, much of which it summarizes. It does, however, give some new details, and it places Traditionalism in a wider European Islamic context.