One of the leading figures of French #islamologie in modern times was Louis Massignon (1883-1962) chair at the Collège de France on #Islam and whose name is forever associated with the study of Sufism and an #empathetic study of #Islam 1/ 
In fact his turn to faith before WW1 followed a trip to #Iraq in 1907 and encounter with Muslim hospitality and spirituality reawakened his #Catholicism along with the #intercessionary friendship of Joris-Karl Huysmans (1838-1907) and the hermit Charles de Foucauld (1848-1916) 2/
After his own doubt, De Foucauld became a Trappist monk living in Morocco, Syria and then in the Algerian Sahara with the Tuareg when he was martyred in 1916 and is currently in the process of being canonised by Pope Francis vaticannews.va/en/vatican-cit… 2a/
In 1907-8 he had spent time in Baghdad, living in Hayderkhaneh quartier in a house rented by the Alusi family of scholars (‘Ali and Mahmud Shukri Alusi 1856-1924) and visited key sites of pilgrimage of saints and prophets and scholarly networks 2b/
On a trip to Beirut in 1908 with the Iraqi #Carmelite Anastase-Marie he made confession re entering the church and later made it clear that it was the encounter with Islam that rekindled his faith 2d/
His sympathetic engagement with #Islam as well as his own serious #Catholic faith led to his influence on #VaticanII and #LumenGentium and #NostraAetate 3/
Massignon’s career spanned the political, religious and the academic - his mission to Baghdad in 1907 was followed by translator during WW1 and the Sykes-Picot mission of 1916 and the #betrayal of #Balfour in 1917, remained committed to the #Palestinian cause and non-violence 4/
His political views did led to his expulsion from the Eranos circle of esotericists and the details of his politics in the Arab world including espousal of a peaceful decolonisation in North Africa and supported for other Africa colonies is presented in this work 5/
He also espoused the cause of Indian independence and the non-violence of Gandhi whom he revered as a living saint close to the #Abrahamic model researchgate.net/publication/28… 6/
In later life he also met and dialogued with Ali Shariati (1933-1977) who later remembered him in his autobiography Kavir fondly as his teacher in #Paris journal.equinoxpub.com/RST/article/vi… 7/
Side note - sudden shock realisation that I’m now older than Shariati was when he died... 7a/
Academically his PhD on #Hallaj appeared in 1922 and he obtained the chair in Muslim sociology at the College de France in 1926 which he held - his students including Henry Corbin to whom he introduced Suhrawardi, the Egyptian existentialist ‘Abd al-Rahman Badawi and others 8/
While some criticised him for focusing on an obscure figure such as Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 922) his work is still an astonishing social and intellectual history of Muslim life in Iraq of the 10th century 9/
Even if one dips in and out of it there is a wealth of detail and avenues of research on #Sufism #ShiiIslam #ghulat groups #politics and #religion in #Muslim milieux #literature and so much more - it remains to be surpassed 10/
Apart from his various writings collected and published - and often even the shortest article is worth reading - perhaps his best known work is his study of the development of #Sufi lexicon 11/
His spiritual commitment - and he is sometimes considered to be the true founder of modern #ChristianMuslim dialogue seeing himself in the footsteps of St Francis of Assisi - was very clear: pushing #VaticanII although he did not live to see it 12/
One aspect in particular was the notion of #badaliyya praying with Mary Kahil in Egypt in 1934 for Muslims ‘not so they would be converted, but so that the will of God might be accomplished in them and through them’ journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117… 13/
In 1949 he followed Kahil into the Melkite rite becoming a Greek Catholic and was ordained in 1950 which he could not if he had remained in the Roman communion 13a/
This went beyond some modern theologies of seeing the good in Muslims and non-Christians as the agency of the #HolySpirit but rather as a meeting of two notions of #Abrahamic communion and mutual prayer 14/
Badaliyya could have been construed as a missionary move to being Muslims to #Christ and clearly the intent was salvation but through the intercession of prayer and witness and not conversion 15/
Further he wished to orient #Muslims to reawaken in #Christians the #Abrahamic quest and mission tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… 17/
There is little doubt that a prayerful, open, hospitable dialogue and theological engagement between #Muslims and #Christians of all stripes (and that plurality is important since often dialogue is standardised on both sides) is a major legacy of #Massignon #engaged_academy 18/
