ArchivesLouis Massignon's (1883-1962) first studies deals with the history of corporations in Fez (Marocco) at the XVth century. He spread his researches in the whole Mediterranean. In 1922, he passed his thesis –La passion d’Al-Hallâdj, martyr mystique de l’Islam–, which opens new fields of investigation to orientalism. Professor in Sociology and in Islamic Sociography at the Collège de France since 1926, he has been Head of researches at the École pratique des hautes études in 1933 and becomes Advisor to the French ministries for Arabic issues.This text has been published for the first time in Politique étrangère, n° 2/1952.