• Frontmatter,
• Contents,
• Preface,
• I. Avicennan Cosmos and Visionary Recital,
• II. Avicennism and Angelology,
• III. The Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqzan,
• IV. The Recital of the Bird,
• V. The Recital of Saldman and Absal,
• Epilogue; or, Avicennan Perspectives,
• Postscript. Recent Studies on Avicenna's "Oriental Philosophy",
• In the Name of God the Clement, the Merciful,
• 1. Prologue,
• 2. The Encounter with the Angel,
• 3. The Salutation,
• 4. Beginning of the Initiation: The Name and Person of the Angel,
• 5. Physiognomy,
• 6. The Two Ways for the Soul,
• 7. The Soul's Three Evil Companions,
• 8. How to Treat the Three Companions,
• 9. The Conditions of the Journey,
• 10. The Orient and Occident of the Universe,
• 11. The Spring of Life,
• 12. The Darkness About the Pole,
• 13. The Occident of the World,
• 14. The Clime of Terrestrial Matter,
• 15. The Clime of Celestial Matter,
• 16. The Celestial Spheres,
• 17. Toward the Orient: The Clime of Elementary Forms and the Forms of Species,
• 18. The Kingdom of the Soul,
• 19. The Demons of the Soul,
• 20. The Genii of the Soul,
• 21. The Terrestrial Angels,
• 22. Angels-Souls of the Spheres and Angels-Cherubs,
• 23. The Beauty of the King Who Is Like unto None Other,
• 24. Those Who Emigrate Toward the Kingdom,
• 25. If "Thou Wilt, Follow Me",
• List if Works Cited,
• Index,

In this work a distinguished scholar of Islamic religion examines the mysticism and psychological thought of the great eleventh-century Persian philosopher and physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina), author of over a hundred works on theology, logic, medicine, and mathematics. Henry Corbin's discovery in an Istanbul library of the manuscript of a Persian translation of and commentary on Avicenna's Hayy ibn Yaqzan, written in Arabic, led him to an analysis of three of Avicenna's mystical "recitals." These form an initiatory cycle leading the adept along the path of spiritual progress. In Part I Corbin summarizes the great themes that show the philosophical situation of Avicennan man in the cosmos and presents translations of these three great Avicennan recitals. Part II is a complete translation, with notes, of the Persian commentary.
Originally published in 1960.
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