Toshihiko Izutsu
Toshihiko Izutsu (Japanese井筒 俊彦, Toshihiko Izutsu, * May 4, 1914; † July 1, 1993 ) was a Japanese scholar of Islam and philosopher who had an unusual talent for languages.
Background and education
The son of a pomade producers began to practice under the guidance of his father zazen and koan even in early youth. During the visit of Aoyama Gakuin high school, he came into contact with Christianity, which he, however, soon turned away again. Instead, he worked on Kitaro Nishida's philosophy.
In April 1931, he enrolled at the Keio University first in the Faculty of Economics, but to change soon in the Faculty of English Literature. There he studied under Professor Junzaburō Nishiwaki. After graduating in 1934, he received in 1937 as an assistant.
To be able to read the Old Testament, he started learning Hebrew. From a German textbook, he acquired the basics of Arabic, at the same time he still learned Russian, Greek and Latin. Overall, he learned independently more than ten languages. Later, his knowledge should have then spread to over thirty languages.
Academic career
During the war he served the military as an interpreter for Central Asian languages and Arabic, with which he now occupied himself strengthened. He was active in Kaikyōken KENKYUSHO ( " Institute of the Islamic World" ) and from 1942 the Toa KENKYUSHO (East Asia Institute; complete:东 亜 経 済 调查 局·西北 研究所, " East Asian Economic Archives, Northwest Institute ").
Izutsu 1950 Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the Keio University. Since 1954 he had been there the chair of philosophy of language and (from 1962) Islamic philosophy held.
In 1957 he published a scholarly translation of the Quran into Japanese.
1969-75 he became Professor of Islamic philosophy at McGill University in Montreal.
This was followed in 1975 professor of comparative oriental philosophy at the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy in Tehran.
From the Keio University he became Professor Emeritus in 1981.
His studies were not limited to comparative religion islamischwissenschaftliche topics, but intervened on to other areas, such as the "concept of man in 19th century Russia " or " philosophy of Zen Buddhism." He pursued a meta- philosophical approach of comparative religion that is based on rigorous linguistic study of classical metaphysical texts, Similar to the approach of a philosophia perennis in Leibniz. See in this regard the work of Aldous Huxley under the same title ( influenced by Jiddu Krishnamurti and Swami Prabhavananda ). In a similar direction Jacques Derrida works.
Izutsus " collected works " published in Japanese in 1991-93 in 11 volumes. He was honored in 1982 for his studies of Islamic studies and his research in comparative religion with the Asahi Prize.