Massignon: Man of Opposites

Julian Baldick

doi:10.1017/S0034412500018527

Massignon: Man of Opposites

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008

Julian Baldick

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Julian Baldick: Affiliation:
King's College, London

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The following is the text of a memorial lecture given in London, at the Royal Asiatic Society, on Thursday 10 November 1983, as part of the celebrations held to mark the centenary of Louis Massignon (1883–1962), the most famous French Islamic specialist of the century, and a leading Catholic intellectual.

Type: Articles
Information: Religious Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 29 - 39

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500018527 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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^{page 29 note 1} P2, vol. 1, p. 29.

^{page 29 note 2} The criticisms made of Massignon in this paper may seem inappropriate to a memorial lecture; but the man did not hide his contempt for dishonest memorialists (P2, vol. 1, p. 27), and to give a conventional homage would be an insult to his memory.

^{page 29 note 3} On Fernand Massignon, known as Pierre Roche (1855–1922), see Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, new edition vol. 7 ([Paris], 1957), p. 294;Google ScholarThieme, Ulrich and Becker, Felix, Allgemeines Lexicon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 28 (Leipzig, 1934), p. 448;Google ScholarEdouard-Joseph, René, Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporains, 1910–1930, vol. 3 (Paris, 1934), s.v.;Google ScholarMalicet, , in MC, p. 9;Google ScholarOM, vol. III, p. 716.Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 1} Harpigny, Guy, Islam et christianisme selon Louis Massignon (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1981), p. 55;Google ScholarOM, vol. III, pp. 640–1;Google ScholarMalicet, , in MC, p. 9;Google ScholarMonteil, , in PD, pp. 12–3 and 23;Google ScholarMorillon, Jean, Massignon (Paris, 1964), p. 8.Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 2} Cf. Capéran, Louis, L'Anti-cléricalisme et I'Affaire Dreyfus (Toulouse, 1948).Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 3} Cf. Baldick, Robert André Edouard, The Life of J.-K. Huysmans (Oxford, 1955), pp. 286–7.Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 4} Joris- (or Jorris-) Karl Huysmans (pseud. of Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans, 1848–1907), Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam (Paris, 1901), English trans. by Hastings, Agnes, Saint Lydwine of Schiedam (London, 1923).Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 5} See below, p. 36, note 3.

^{page 30 note 6} The poet was Dubus, Edouard, 1864–1895.Google Scholar See Baldick, , op. cit., index s.v.;Google Scholard'Amat, Roman and Limouzin-Lamothe, R., Dictionnaire de biographie française, vol. II (Paris, 1967), s.v.;Google ScholarTalvart, Hector and Place, Joseph, Bibliographie des auteurs modernes de langue française, vol. 4 (Paris, 1933), pp. 360–2;Google ScholarGriffiths, Richard, The Reactionary Revolution, The Catholic revival in French literature, 1870–1914 (London, 1966), p. 137;Google ScholarRetté, Adolphe, Le Symbolisme (Paris, 1903), pp. 53 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 31 note 1} Baldick, , loc. cit., p. 287Google Scholar, and personal communication; Monteil, , in PD, p. 13.Google Scholar This was Gustave Boucher (1863–1933), a police spy (see Garçon, Maurice, Huysmans Inconnu (Paris, 1941), pp. 41–3).Google Scholar

^{page 31 note 2} See Harpigny, , op. cit., index s.v., Sodome;Google ScholarOM, vol. III, pp. 589–90, 657, 665 and 670; MC, p. 52.

^{page 31 note 3} Lacouture, Jean, François Mauriac (Paris, 1980), p. 97.Google Scholar Cf. OM, III, p. 841 and Hourani, Albert Habib, ‘T. E. Lawrence and Louis Massignon’, in Times Literary Supplement, no. 4, 188 (Friday, 8 07 1983), p. 734.Google Scholar

^{page 31 note 4} Harpigny, , op. cit. p. 56Google Scholar and note 84, pp. 66–7, and p. 114 and note 227.

^{page 31 note 5} Ibid. pp. 59, 266; Monteil, , in PD, p. 30;Google ScholarFabre-Luce, Alfred, Vingt-cinq années de liberté, vol. 2, L'Epreuae (Paris, 1963), p. 114.Google Scholar

^{page 31 note 6} Ibid. pp. 56–8, and Hourani, , op. cit. p. 733.Google Scholar

^{page 32 note 1} Translation of the text in L'Age nouveau, 90, January 1955, p. 73. This differs from the text in PD, pp. 282–3.

^{page 32 note 2} On this style, cf. Lacouture, , op. cit. p. 471.Google Scholar

^{page 32 note 3} PD, pp. 66–7; the translation by Hourani, , op. cit. p. 733Google Scholar, has been only slightly modified.

^{page 32 note 4} Harpigny, , op. cit. pp. 53, 57–9;Google ScholarBaldick, , op. cit. pp. 347–9, note 79.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 1} Cf. Griffiths, , op. cit. pp. 43–53;Google ScholarBloy, Léon, Oeuvres, edited by Bollery, Joseph and Petit, Jacques, vol. ([Paris] 1964), p. 29;Google ScholarLuke, 3. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 2} MC, passim.

^{page 33 note 3} MC, pp. 152, 201; Revelation 16. 13, 19. 20, 20. 10.

^{page 33 note 4} OM, I, p. 168.

^{page 34 note 1} P ², vol. 1, pp. 31–2, and OM, III pp. 627 ff., 52–63.

^{page 34 note 2} P ¹, pp. 141–6, 155–9, 211; P2, II, p. 427; cf. OM, I, p. 351.

^{page 34 note 3} P ¹, pp. 181–2.

^{page 34 note 4} P2, I, pp. 25–30.

^{page 34 note 5} Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de la mystique musulmane (Paris, 1922).

^{page 35 note 1} Ibid. pp. 45–80.

^{page 35 note 2} Ibid. p. 84.

^{page 35 note 3} For critical observations on Mignon's influence, see, regarding studies of medieval banking, Goitein, Shlomo Dov, A Mediterranean Society, vol. I (Berkeley, 1967), pp. 229–30;Google Scholar regarding studies of urban topography, Lassner, Jacob, The Topography of Baghdad in the Early Middle Ages (Detroit, 1970), Pp. 155–7Google Scholar

^{page 35 note 4} ‘Enquête sur les corporations musulmanes d'artisans et de commercants au Maroc’, Revue du monde musulman, LXIII (1924 – second section), VI + 250 pp.

^{page 35 note 5} Cf. The Islamic City, ed. Hourani, Albert Habib and Stern, Samuel Miklos (Oxford, 1970), pp. 12–5, 36–63Google Scholar (against Massignon and others).

^{page 35 note 6} OM, vol III, pp. 665, 809.

^{page 35 note 7} MC, pp. 78, 104; cf. OM, vol. III, pp. 435–6.

^{page 36 note 1} OM, vol. I, pp. 523–6; P2, vol. I, p. 166, note 5 and pp. 351–2, 367–8, 427.

^{page 36 note 2} See The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, ed. Gibb, Hamilton Alexander R. et al. (Leiden, 1960), s.v.Google ScholarAbdāl.

^{page 36 note 3} Griffiths, , op. cit.Google Scholar has a long chapter on this doctrine of ‘vicarious suffering’, pp. 149–222. The section on Huysmans is on pages 181–9.

^{page 36 note 4} Harpigny, , op. Cit. pp. 53, 265–7.Google Scholar

^{page 36 note 5} Ibid. pp. 113–19 and note 236 on p. 117.

^{page 36 note 6} Ibid., loc. cit. pp. 265–7.

^{page 37 note 1} La Vocation suspendue (Paris, 1950). The first part was published in Les Temps Modernes, vol. V, pp. 1537–88. Massignon appears under the name of La Montagne.

^{page 37 note 2} Griffiths, , op. cit. pp. 235–9.Google Scholar

^{page 37 note 3} Cf. Daniélou, Jean, Et qui est mon prochain? (Paris, 1974), pp. 134, 155Google Scholar (the Dominican review was La Vie intellectuelle and the one edited by Massignon and others was Dieu Vivant).

^{page 37 note 4} OM, vol. I, pp. 755 ff. and Griffiths, , loc. cit. p. 236.Google Scholar

^{page 37 note 5} OM, vol. III, p. 593.

^{page 37 note 6} Cf. Harpigny, , op. cit. pp. 124–41.Google Scholar

^{page 37 note 7} OM, vol. III, pp. 279, 295 ff., 304, 647–8.

^{page 37 note 8} Cf. OM, vol. I, pp. 585, 591, 603–4; vol III, pp. 304, 753; Pierrard, Pierre, 1848…les pauvres, l'évangile et la révolution (Paris, 1977).Google Scholar

^{page 38 note 1} OM, vol. III, pp. 773–4.

^{page 38 note 2} OM, vol. III, p. 379; Harpigny, , op. cit. p. 212.Google Scholar

^{page 38 note 3} OM, Vol. III, pp. 348–9, 485, 670, loc. Cit., pp. 808–11.

^{page 38 note 4} OM, vol. III, pp. 588–91, 596.

^{page 38 note 5} P2, loc. Cit., pp. 27–9.

^{page 38 note 6} OM, vol. III, pp. 554, 650.

^{page 38 note 7} OM, vol. III, p. 378. Cf. Le Monde, 27 October 1955, p. 4.

^{page 38 note 8} Harpigny, , op. cit. p. 186, n. 398;Google ScholarMason, , in P2(E), pp. xxxiv–xxxvii.Google Scholar

^{page 38 note 9} Klossowski, , op. cit. (in Les Temps Modernes), p. 1561.Google Scholar

^{page 38 note 10} P2, loc. cit., p. 26.

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