Table of Contents

1. Ivan Aguéli: politics, painting and esotericism, Mark Sedgwick (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Part I: Ivan Aguéli, the Anarchist Artist
2. Ivan Aguéli’s life and work, Viveca Wessel (formerly Moderna Museet, Sweden)
3. Exploring the territories of the avant-garde: Ivan Aguéli and the institutions of his time, Annika Öhrner (Södertörn University, Sweden)
4. Ivan Aguéli the esotericist in reality and fiction, Per Faxneld (Södertörn University, Sweden)
5. Ivan Aguéli’s monotheistic landscapes: From perspectival to solar logics, Simon Sorgenfrei (Södertörn University, Sweden)
6. Painting the sacred as an initiatic path: Art and Cubism in the eyes of Ivan Aguéli, Thierry Zarcone (CNRS, Paris, France)
7. “Kill the audience:” Ivan Aguéli’s moralistic utopia of anarchism and Islam, Anthony T. Fiscella (Formerly Lund University, Sweden)

Part II: Ivan Aguéli the Sufi
8. Ivan Aguéli's second period in Egypt, 1902–09: The intellectual spheres around Il Convito/Al-Nadi, Paul-André Claudel (University of Nantes, France)
9. Sufi Teachings for pro-Islamic Politics: Ivan Aguéli and Il Convito, Alessandra Marchi (University of Cagliari, Italy)
10. Ivan Aguéli and the legacy of Emir Abdelkader, Iheb Guermazi (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
11. Ivan Aguéli’s humanist vision: Islam, Sufism and universalism, Meir Hatina (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
12. Feminism and the Divine Feminine: An exploration of female elements in Ivan Aguéli and subsequent Traditionalist thought, Marcia Hermansen (Loyola University, USA)

Part III: Ivan Aguéli and Traditionalism
13. The significance of Ivan Aguéli for the traditionalist movement, Mark Sedgwick (Aarhus University, Denmark)
14. What is esotericism in art? Ivan Aguéli’s art versus the Traditionalists’ “traditional Art,” Patrick Ringgenberg (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

Part IV: Writings by Ivan Aguéli
15. Letter from Paris
16. Letter from Ceylon
17. The Enemies of Islam
18. Pure Art
19. Universality in Islam

Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

Explores the life of one of the earliest Western intellectuals to convert to Islam, and his engagement with esotericism, art, and anarchism through Sufism.

About the Author

Mark Sedgwick is Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Reviews

A magnificent book.
*Bitter Winter*

This volume is conducive to understanding how [Aguéli] came to Islam, the values and influences that informed his life, and his role in modern Western reception of Islam.
*International Review of Social History*

Anarchist, animal rights activist, artist, and Sufi mystic, Ivan Aguéli travelled the world in his quest for knowledge. Anarchist, Artist, Sufi brings the life of this remarkable visionary to light in a multifaceted study that is stimulating, insightful, and path-breaking.
*Allan Antliff, Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, University of Victoria, Canada, and author of Anarchist Modernism: Art, Politics, and the First American Avant-Garde (2001).*

A biographical study of how the teachings of medieval Muslim mystics found new meaning in the artistic underground of Belle Époque Paris, this fascinating volume explores the cross-cultural encounter between one society’s traditions and another’s avant-garde.
*Nile Green, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Sufism: A Global History (2012).*