Alternative Orientalism
Journal of the Council for Research on Religion April 24, 2026 Mohammad Meerzaei
Henry Corbin transformed Western scholarship on Iran and Islam by constructing a counternarrative to classical Orientalism, portraying Iran as a uniquely continuous tradition that preserved mystical and philosophical practices from pre-Islamic times, assimilated foreign influences, and resisted modern nihilism. This image of Iran as exceptionally spiritual and intellectual was embraced by Iranian nationalists. However, the author argues that Corbin's narrative is ultimately another Eurocentric account: rather than disparaging the Orient to elevate the West, Corbin recast it as a repository of an alternative future—a projection of the West's own lost past to which it might return.