Sufism and beauty, the spiritual quest of Titus Burckhardt, the chronicle of Daoud Riffi

Fine and luminous European face surrounded by a turban, long wooden rosary around his neck: the nobility of this 27-year-old man’s bearing testifies to his calm determination. It is the year 1935, his name is Titus – a first name as ancient as the wisdom he seeks – but also, more recently, “Ibrahim”; he returns from a trip to Morocco. The ageless photography offered by his biographer Tayeb Chouiref in a fascinating book (1) embodies this extraordinary destiny dedicated to a spiritual quest which took two forms: Sufism and consecration – theoretical and practical – to beauty.

Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984) comes from an illustrious Swiss family. Already very young, his character is evident: “The combination of an extraordinarily penetrating and profound intelligence and great artistic talent»according to his childhood friend Frithjof Schuon. Schuon and Burckhardt share spiritual aspirations and aversion for a then triumphant modernity. Without telling each other, everyone sets out in search of a spiritual master in Islam: Algeria for Schuon; Morocco, still almost medieval, for Burckhardt.

A prolific and luminous writer

In Fez he immersed himself in traditional sciences and Sufism; becomes a shepherd to support himself; photographs and draws. Without knowing it, the two friends joined the same Sufi brotherhood: the Shadhiliyya. Returning to Europe, Burckhardt realizes that his needs can only be met by Schuon, who becomes his master. Both then meditate on the work of another European who left for the Orient, anti-modern and turned towards things of the spirit: René Guénon. They will quickly be joined by an intellectual generation reading Guénon who seeks to rediscover the merits of Tradition, but also an inner Center, even if it means living on the margins of a technical and materialist world: Martin Lings, Michel Vâlsan, Jean- Louis Michon…

As discreet as he was active, Burckhardt was essential: he taught the foundations of Islam to Schuon’s disciples. An art publisher, he is also a prolific and luminous writer brilliantly illuminating an entire civilization from a particular object, as evidenced by his Fez, city of Islam (masterful dive, from a city, into the sciences, spirituality and arts of Islam); Promoter of traditional arts, he saved Fez from destruction and listed it as a UNESCO heritage site.

Yet very self-effacing, Burckhardt fascinates all his interlocutors. By his erudition certainly, but also by his internalized presence and the manifest concentration of his being, which Schuon summarizes: he “had in him a sort of eternal youth, something almost liberating; in his presence, we never felt cramped”.