Mysticism of Ibn Sina in the French Works of Two Recent Decades

In the nineteenth century, with the rise of the literary schools in France and giving heed to oriental literacy and mystical works, the commentators and translators of Ibn Sina began to work on his treatises. Since they knew Ibn Sina as an Aristotelian philosopher, the following question was raised: Why has Aristotelian Ibn Sina given heed to mystical attitudes? In response to the question whether or not there is any unity between the two mentioned tendencies, the French researchers have three views: Some have attempted to find a sort of relationship between Ibn Sina's philosophical writings and his mystical works. Others have not questioned his mystical character and his spiritual works and have clearly pointed out that his intuitions and mystical words has a sort of metaphorical and mysterious theme showing his mystical experiences. The rest have introduced him as an Aristotelian philosopher who has only quoted the words of Sufis and mystics. Our goal in this paper is to critically analyze these three perspectives.