What sort of a perennialist was Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch?

Two recent articles discuss the conversion to Islam of the French scholar Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch (1909–99). They are Doha Tazi Hemida, “Another Orientalism? The Case of Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch and Rumi,” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 25:4 (2023), 521-539, available here, and Samir Abdelli, “’Je ne reniais ni la Thorah ni l’Évangile.’ Eva Meyerovitch (1909-1999), devenir musulmane et rester chrétienne ?” L’Année du Maghreb 34 (2025), available here (open access).

De Vitray-Meyerovitch was brought up in France as a Catholic, abandoned Catholic practice as various doubts crystalized, and married a Jew in a civil marriage. She turned to Islam through Louis Massignon (1883-1962), reading Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), and translating Rumi, who she came to see as her true shaykh. In addition to this she joined the Boutchichiyya, which discovered through the Traditionalist Boutchichi Faouzi Skali (born 1953). 

Tazi Hemida and Abdelli both note the similarities between de Vitray-Meyerovitch and the Traditionalists. She read René Guénon, and occasionally cites him, for example on the nature of the Vedanta and for his argument that resemblances between different "traditional forms" were to be expected "because Truth is one" ("L’âme et le visage du soufisme," Planète 18, septembre 1964). She also cites Titus Burckhardt, and on one occasion recommended someone to read a book by Frithof Schuon. But her own mature understanding of that universal truth is soundly Islamic:

For Islam, divine revelations, which are all repetitions of a single, universal message, descend at various moments in history upon those whom God has chosen as His messengers. And since there can only be one Truth, in all times and in all places, Revelation can only be essentially the same for all of humanity. If there are differences between religious traditions, they are attributable to erroneous transmission or to purely human interpretations of the divine Word, which can lead to an alteration or even a distortion of this Revelation. ("Une doctrine de l’unicité," Le Magazine littéraire 181, février 1982).

De Vitray-Meyerovitch differs from the Traditionalists in that she was not a critic of modernity (she even welcomed Iqbal’s modernity), and did not refer to esotericism, despite her Sufism. Her universalism was in some ways in the tradition of what might be termed Massignon’s spiritual sensibility, and also followed Iqbal. In her own words (following a citation by Abdelli)

You have to be prepared for a meeting or a book to turn your life upside down. I was already on a path of free inquiry, personal interpretation, and individual research, and I found all of that concretized in a great thinker [Iqbal]. And then I was happy to realize that I was not alone, lost on a side road, but that I was, without knowing it, part of a great tradition. And that without having to renounce anything. I did not renounce the Torah or the Gospel. I simply left aside what had always annoyed me: the conciliar, dogmatic decisions of gentlemen gathered in Rome to decide that God is this or that. (Islam, l’autre visage, 1991).

De Vitray-Meyerovitch was more of a universalist than a perennialist, then, arriving at a similar destination by a different route. The title Universalité de l'Islam (The Universality of Islam) in the picture above ws not her own; it was chosen by others for a posthumous collection of her writings.

This post has been updated to correct the initial mis-statement that "She does not, so far as I know, ever cite the Traditionalists," and also to note that De Vitray-Meyerovitch recommended a book by Schuon (thanks to Samir Abdelli for that information).

Traditionalist Sufism today

A new article by Francesco Piraino, "L’héritage de René Guénon dans le soufisme du XXIe siècle en France et en Italie" (Religiologiques 33, 2016, pp. 155-80), looks at the heritage of René Guénon in 21st century Sufism in France and Italy, as the title suggests.

Piraino is a sociologist, and his conclusions are based on ethnographic fieldwork. He argues that Traditionalist Sufism has changed under the dual impact of migration and the New Age, and to some extent also under the impact of the Far Right, so that there are now four "idealtypes": the classic Guénonian, the immigrant, the New Age, and the Far Right. He takes the Milanese Sufis following Pallavicini as exemplifying the Guénonian idealtype, the Boutchichis as exemplifying the immigrant idealtype, and Italian Evolians for the Far Right idealtype. None of these three would disagree. But he also takes the Schuonians as exemplifying the New Age idealtype, a conclusion that would horrify many of them. Why? Because of Schuon's involvement with Native Americans, because many Schuonians are engaged in a long-term search that takes them through multiple religions, and because for many of them Guénon is just one reference among many, along with others such as Gurdjieff, Carlos Castaneda, Idries Shah, and Henry Corbin. Ethnography, then, supports a conclusion that might not have been reached by other means.

Piraino also argues that what Guénon matters most for today is his perennialism, his function as a guide to the religious landscape, and that his apocalyptic critique of the modern world has become merely "symbolic," as has the contrast he drew between West and Orient. I agree that few Traditionalists today would maintain that the Orient remained traditional, but my own impression is that the critique of modernity remains important. But I do not know Piraino's informants.

Boutchichi rap

One of France's leading rappers, Abd al Malik, is a Boutchichi, a member of the Moroccan-based Sufi order that is currently one of the world's most important, and draws on Traditionalism.

Abd al Malik, a French rapper, seen here on the cover of his best known album, Dante, is also a poet, novelist, and débatteur. He is celebrated by the French establishment (he is a Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a sort of literary knighthood) both because of his artistic achievements and because he is that comparatively rare thing, a French Muslim with street credibility who celebrates the Republic rather than criticizes it.

Abd al Malik credits Sufism for his appreciation of pluralism, a position that is certainly found in the Boutchichiyya, and which owes something to Traditionalism. A recent article on Abd al Malik, Jeanatte S. Jouili, "Rapping the Republic: Utopia, Critique and Muslim Role Models in Secular France" (French Politics, Culture and Society 31, no. 2, 2013, pp.58-80), which discusses the Boutchichiyya but not Traditionalism, records Abd al Maliks's youthful interest in philosophy. Deleuze, Camus and Sartre are mentioned, but not Guénon.

Faouzi Skali lecturing in Paris

Faouzi Skali of the Boutchichiyya is delivering three lectures at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, one of which has already happened (apologies for late announcement). They are (were):

• 11 January 2011, 11-13, Vers un renouveau du soufisme au Maghreb ?
• 19 January 2011,15-17, Soufisme et Société : émergence d’une nouvelle conception du développement humain 
• 21 January 2011, 13:30-15:30, La politique confrérique du Maroc en Afrique

At the EHESS, 96 bd Raspail, 75006 Paris.

Images from Fes Festival

Hussein Rashid, who attended this year's Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, has uploaded photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/islamoyankee/ and videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/islamoyankee.

He wrote: "YouTube does not yet make it easy to embed a Creative Commons license, but I am releasing the videos under the same license as the photos found on the Flickr page. I am an amateur, who got a new camera just before the trip, so please forgive some of the quality. I am still going through my material and will continue to upload as I go through it. I will also, hopefully, edit some of the video over the course of the summer."

Faouzi Skali and Tariq Ramadan

For Francophones who happen to be in Paris on June 17, 2010:

Faouzi Skali et Tariq Ramadan débattront sur le thème

"Regards sur l’islam et la société"

le 17 juin à 18H30

à L’institut du Monde Arabe

1, rue des Fossés-Saint-Bernard

Place Mohammed-V

75005 Paris

Plus que jamais, l’islam est l’objet d’une interpellation et d’une interprétation globalisée.
Entre ceux qui le considèrent à travers le prisme réducteur des signes extérieurs de religiosité (minarets, mosquées, voile et burqa), et ceux qui tentent de le renouveler sur la base d’une réforme radicale ou d’un ressourcement spirituel, il y a un khulf, un différend qui n’est pas prêt d’être dépassé. En tout cas si les tenants des thèses éradicatrices et orientalisantes s’attachent à bricoler un islam à la taille et à la mesure de l’Occident, ceux qui prônent le renouveau et le ressourcement spirituel réactivent les méthodes de l’ijtihâd (lecture critique) qui autorise l’imbrication dans un même geste éthique et liberté, croyance et citoyenneté. Cette rencontre est l’occasion d’engager un échange entre deux penseurs musulmans qui oeuvrent activement, chacun à sa manière, pour l’avènement d’un islam du vivre ensemble, en phase avec sa société et son époque.

Fez Festival of Sufi Culture 2010

The dates of the Fez Festival of Sufi Culture 2010 have now been announced: 17-25 April 2010.

As before, the part-Traditionalist-inspired cultural festival will be accompanied by a Fez Forum, on “Giving a Soul to Globalisation."

Further information at the festival website.

Fez festivals

Faozi Skali, the Boutchichi Traditionalist Sufi who started the now well-established Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, no longer directs it--but has started a new annual festival, the Fez Festival of Sufi Culture.

The aims of the festival are "to allow Moroccan people to discover or re-discover how the Sufi brotherhoods have mainly succeeded in preserving a message of universal spirituality that irrigated the whole of the Muslim culture and nourished its artistic, literary, and even social and economic forms of expression" and "to allow people from other cultures to discover another face of Islam" and "show how Sufism, as a school of spiritual and civic education, can be a means of human development and a peace mediator."

The 2009 festival is the third, runs from April 18 to April 25, and mixes concerts with round-table discussions involving Sufis, academics, a French senator and the president of the Hermes foundation.

Strongly recommended.

Boutchichiyya and Maryamiyya at UCLA

The Maryamiyya and the Boutchichiyya will be two of the four Sufi orders discussed during a colloquium organized by the Center for Near Eastern Studies at UCLA on February 12, 2009.

The colloquim is entitled "North African Sufism in Global Context." Four Sufi orders will be considered: the Jazuliyya, the Tijaniyya, the Boutchichiyya, and the Maryamiyya. The Maryamiyya is described as "a modern international Sufi order based on the Darqawi-Shadhili tradition of Morocco and the philosophy of the Transcendent Unity of Religions;" some sections of the Boutchichiyya are also influenced by Traditionalism, of course.

Participants include Vincent Cornell (Emory), Cheikh Anta Babou (University of Pennsylvania), Abdelilah Bouasria (American University), and H. Talat Halman (Central Michigan University).

The colloquium should be well worth attending.

Article on the Boutchichiyya

An excellent article on the Boutchichiyya--if not especially on the Traditionalist aspect, which is barely mentioned: Raphaël Voix, "Implantation d'une confrérie musulmane en France : mécanismes, méthodes et acteurs," Ateliers 28 (2004), pp. 221-48.

Traditionalism fading somewhat from the Boutchichiyya

A correspondent has brought me up to date on the Boutchichiyya in France.

The Boutchichiyya is the Moroccan tariqa that is not Traditionalist, but includes among its followers many former and/or semi-Traditionalists, especially in France.

Its most notable semi-Traditionalist member is Professor Faouzi Skali, the creator of the Fes Festival of world sacred music and the author of several books, most notably La voie soufie. Skali is the tariqa's representative in France, but is now less involved, and with this--and as the tariqa is growing--it is becoming somewhat less Traditionalist.

• The Boutchichiyya now has five groups in Paris and other groups (defined as over four people) in twelve French provincial cities.*


• Separate groups without Western converts or Traditionalists have come into being. First, in the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil, is a group based around shaykh Hamza’s grandson, Mounir al-Boutchich, who lives there. Then there are non-Western groups alongside the Western groups in Avignon and Marseilles. There is also a purely non-Western group in Vauvert (near Nîmes).


• Although there are still plenty of Traditionalists, often former Freemasons, in the Western groups, new arrivals are generally moving away from Traditionalist ideas towards the approach of the non-Western groups.


• Some of Skali's ventures have ceased, including the Rencontres Méditerranéenes sur le Soufisme, the magazine Soufisme d’Orient et d’Occident, and Le Derviche, a tea shop in Marseilles.


• Soufisme.org is still going strong. Check it for news of coming events in France.

* The twelve provincial cities are Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse, and Vauvert (near Nîmes).