Elmarsafy provides extensive bio-bibliographical information and technical exegeses both in the body of the text and the rich footnotes, which will speak to specialists of Islam and Islamic mysticism. ... the book as a whole will interest scholars and advanced students already conversant in French theory who wish to deepen their knowledge. * Journal of Arabic Literature * In this remarkable work, Ziad Elmarsafy re-opens the esoteric archive of modern French Islam. It requires a scholar of exceptional cultural, philosophical and linguistic range to even begin to do justice to Massignon, Corbin and Jambets work and Elmarsafy is that scholar. As he reconstructs the intellectual history of French engagements with esoteric Islam, Elmarsafy not only tells a story that has never properly been told before, but creates an entirely new genealogy of the evolution of modern French thought that forces us to re-pose classic questions about truth, subjectivity and freedom we thought we had already answered. Finally, and most importantly, however, this book beautifully exemplifies its own central argument about French esoteric Islam: Elmarsafys deeply affirmative readings of Massignon, Corbin and Jambet are distinguished throughout by the very intellectual hospitality or openness to the other that characterises their own engagements with the Islamic tradition. This is a major intellectual achievement by one of the most important scholars of comparative literature and thought working today and we are all in his debt. -- Arthur Bradley, Professor of Comparative Literature, Lancaster University, UK
