René Guénon

René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as Abdalwâhid Yahiâ (Arabic: عبد الـوٰاحد يحيیٰ; ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥiā), was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from esotericism, "sacred science" and "traditional studies" to symbolism and initiation. In his writings, he proposes "to expound directly some aspects of Eastern metaphysical doctrines" of "universal character", or "to adapt these same doctrines for Western readers while keeping strictly faithful to their spirit", following the Hindu pedagogy of "handing down" the doctrines while reiterating their "non-human character".Initiated into Islamic esotericism from as early as 1910 when he was 24, he mainly wrote and published in French, and his works have been translated into more than twenty languages; he also wrote in Arabic an article for the journal Al Marifah.