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.

Ivan Aguéli and Il Convito

René Guénon’s first learned of Sufism from the Swedish Sufi Ivan Aguéli, who was also one of the most important contributors to Guénon’s first journal, La Gnose (1909-12). This was not the only journal for which Aguéli had written, however. He had previously been one of the main contributors to an Egyptian journal, Il Convito/Al-Nādi (1904-1907, with some later issues), published bilingually in Italian and Arabic. Il Convito/Al-Nādi is of importance to those who are interested in the origins of Traditionalism, as well as being of importance for the history of Italian colonial policy in the first decades of the twentieth century. 

Aguéli and the journal are covered in a new book by Paul-André Claudel, Un journal "italo-islamique" à la veille de la Première Guerre mondiale : Il Convito / النادي [al-Nâdî] (Le Caire, 1904-1912) [An "Italian-Islamic" newspaper on the eve of World War I: Il Convito / النادي [al-Nâdî] (Cairo, 1904-1912)], published in Alexandria by Centre d'Etudes Alexandrines, 2023, €40, available in Europe from Peeters in Leuven (here) 

Claudel’s book is half study, half anthology of texts from Il Convito/Al-Nādi, published here in both their original language (Italian or Arabic) and in French translation. It is illustrated by facsimiles of the various forms taken by Il Convito/Al-Nādi over the years and also by photographs of key actors and a small number of Egyptian street scenes.

The study consists of an introduction, seven chapters, and an epilogue. The seven chapters start with the history of the journal, the main actors—Aguéli and Enrico Insabato, the Italian who ran it—and their networks: Italian, French, Egyptian, and (less importantly) Turkish. Then comes “One newspaper, three languages,” looking at other comparable newspapers of the time, the relationship between the Italian, Arabic, and finally also Ottoman Turkish sections, at translations, and the linguistic role of Aguéli himself. This is followed by chapters on the journal’s positions on Islam and its polemics with other journals, especially concerning the question of the caliphate, a mosque named after Italy’s King Umberto I, and Italian policy in Tripolitania. The study then closes with a chapter on “Reception, influence, legacy.”

The chapter on Islam is one of the most important, given the relationship between Traditionalism and Islam today. Its sub-sections are:

• To know and to make known: the first editorial
• Reconnecting with spiritual and initiatory Islam
• Philo-Islamism and pan-Islamism
• Unmasking the "enemies of Islam”
• Deconstructing colonization
• Promoting Italy
• Between orientalism and colonialism

The anthology translates twenty texts, mostly by Aguéli, some by Insabato, and some anonymous (and probably also by Aguéli). In addition, the book contains a full index of all articles published and short biographies of all the main persons mentioned. 

Claudel’s book provides us (if we read French) with almost everything we need to know about Il Convito/Al-Nādi and about Aguéli’s role in it. It supplements and deepens two discussions in English on the same topic in Anarchist, Artist, Sufi: The Politics, Painting, and Esotericism of Ivan Aguéli (ed. Mark Sedgwick, 2021, Bloomsbury, paperback now only £26.99), one by Claudel, “Ivan Aguéli's second period in Egypt, 1902–09: The intellectual spheres around Il Convito/Al-Nadi,” and one by Alessandra Marchi, ”Sufi Teachings for pro-Islamic Politics: Ivan Aguéli and Il Convito.” The book is also beautifully produced and printed, and reasonably priced.

Traditionalism and Early Music

A new article has just been published on Marco Pallis (1895–1989), the leading Buddhist Traditionalist, and his involvement with music, especially with the revival of “early music” by Arnold Dolmetsch (1858–1940) and Mabel Dolmetsch (1874–1963). It is David R. M. Irving, “Esoteric Elements in the Early Music Revival: Marco Pallis, Traditionalism, and the Dolmetsch Circle, from Haslemere to the Himalayas,” Acta Musicologica 96, no. 1 (2024): 38-58.

Irving, as the title of his article suggests, argues that the esoteric milieu in general, and Traditionalism in particular, was more important for the Early Music revival than is generally appreciated. Traditionalism was certainly important for Pallis and his understanding of music, as well (of course) as his understanding of Buddhism and Tibet, and Pallis was, as Irving shows, important for the Dolmetsches. The article also shows the importance of the Arts and Crafts Movement and William Morris (1834–1896), which connects with Traditionalism through the person and work of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877–1947).

A fascinating and beautifully written article that casts light on an aspect of Traditionalism that has so far been only little studied.