Scholar Shayegan granted the top French government medal

The outstanding Iranian philosopher and writer Dariush Shayegan was granted the top medal of French government, Légion d’honneur during a ceremony held at France Embassy in Tehran on July 11, AVA Diplomatic reports.

Writer, cultural activists and a friend of Shayegan Ali Dehbashi said that this event was attended by French Ambassador to Tehran François Sénémaud, several Iranian thinkers and artists such as Dariush Mehrjuyi, Jaleh Amouzger, Mohammad Ehsaei and Hamed Fouladwand as well as the members of Shayegan family.

At the ceremony, the noted translator of philosophy Hamed Fouladwand said that Shayegan’s prose in French is regarded among the best as hid works are studied within French curriculum texts and he is the only Iranian author who has achieved such status. He had several dialogues with philosophers and thinkers including Henry Corbin and Carl Gustav Jung.

Born in 1935, Sahyegan is a noted thinker whose ideas for his works in the field of comparative philosophy are reputed particularly in France. He studied in France under Henry Corbin in Paris, and has carried out several extensive researches on Persian mysticism and mystic poetry.

Sahyegan was one of the founders of the Iranian Center for the Studies of Civilizations. He was awarded the Global Dialogue Prize, an international humanities award based in Aarhus, Denmark in 2009.

His book, ‘Cultural Schizophrenia: Islamic Societies Confronting the West’, was translated from the French into English by John Howe and published by Saqi books, London 1992 and Syracuse University Press, 1997.

‘Under The Skies of the World’ by Ramin Jahanbegloo (1992) and ‘Iranian Intellectuals and the West’ by Mehrzad Borujerdi (1996) are two books in English which explore the life and ideas of Sahyegan.

Furthermore, Sahyegan wrote a novel “Land of Mirage” in French which won an award presented by the Association of French Authors in 2004.

His latest work in Persian ‘Five Realms of Being’, featuring his views about five legendary Persian poets and mystics Khayyam Nishaburi, Ferdowsi, Molavi (Rumi), Sa’di and Hafez was released last year.