Christian Bonaud

Christian Bonaud was born in 1957 into a Catholic family in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. They lived in (Germany) and Algeria until he was ten-years old, then moved to Strasbourg.[3]

Influenced by the works of René Guénon, a French Sufi metaphysician, Bonaud converted to Islam in 1979.[4] He began to study Arabic.[5] Studying Islamology eventually led him to the writings of Henry Corbin (1903–1978)[6] about Shia Islam.

Under the guidance of Amadou Hampâté Bâ (c. 1900/1901–1991), an African gnostic and spiritual leader of the Tijaniyyah, he re-converted to Shia Islam[7] and adopted the name Yahya Alawi (Arabic: يَحْيیٰ عَلَوِي‎, romanized: Yaḥyā ʿAlawī). Bonaud did his doctoral dissertation in French on Ruhollah Khomeini, which was reprinted and published as the book L'Imam Khomeyni, un gnostique méconnu du XXe siècle ("Imam Khomeini, an unknown gnostic of the 20th century"). While writing his thesis, he spent seven years in Iran studying under the guidance of Sayyed Jalal-ed-Din Ashtiani.[8]

• L'Imam Khomeyni, un gnostique méconnu du XXe siècle [Imam Khomeini, an unknown gnostic of the 20th century] (in French). ALBOURAQ. 1997. ISBN 978-2841610471.</ref>[10]
• French translation of the Qur'an[11]
• Le soufisme: Al-tasawwuf et la spiritualité islamique (in French). 1991.[11]
• Rituals of the Islamic Revolution[11]