A few months before reaching the age limit of 75, the philosopher specializing in Islam Christian Jambet was elected, Thursday, February 8, to the French Academy. He will occupy seat 6, vacant since the death in 2020 of historian Marc Fumaroli. He gathered 13 votes out of 25 in the third round, after 12 in the first and 11 in the second.
His main rival was the Franco-Tunisian writer Hédi Kaddour, who gathered 7 votes in the first round, then dropped to 6 and finally 3 votes. The playwright Jean-Marie Besset obtained up to 3 votes, while the Italian writer Giovanni Dotoli and the doctor David Khayat each collected a maximum of one.
Born in Algiers in 1949, at the time when Algeria was colonized by France, Christian Jambet also mastered Arabic. A graduate of philosophy, he was a Maoist in his youth and one of the leaders of the Proletarian Left movement at the very beginning of the 1970s. In 1977, however, he joined the current of the “new philosophy”, hostile to totalitarianism and to Marxism-Leninism.
Passion for Persian language, culture and philosophy
From the early 1970s, while meeting the orientalist Henry Corbin, he became passionate about Persian language, culture and philosophy, as well as Shiite Islam, the majority in Iran. For example, he is the author of What is Islamic Philosophy? in 2011. His latest essay, in 2021, is entitled The Philosopher and his Guide. Mullâ Sadra and philosophical religion, about a Persian thinker of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Thursday’s election is the first at the French Academy since the Franco-Lebanese Amin Maalouf became its permanent secretary, in September 2023. It allows it to increase to 36 members out of 40 seats; four seats are vacant. A new election is scheduled for February 29, in seat 16, previously occupied by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Applications are open until February 15.