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diff --git a/77789-h/77789-h.htm b/77789-h/77789-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a758143 --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/77789-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,17185 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Islam and the Divine Comedy | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +a { + text-decoration: none; +} + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h2.nobreak, h3.nobreak { + page-break-before: avoid; +} + +hr.chap { + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + clear: both; + width: 65%; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; +} + +img.w100 { + width: 100%; +} + +img.img-r { + display: inline-block; +} + +div.chapter { + page-break-before: always; +} + +ul { + list-style-type: none; +} + +li.indx { + margin-top: .5em; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; +} + +li.ifrst { + margin-top: 2em; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; +} + +li.isub1 { + padding-left: 4em; + text-indent: -2em; +} + +p { + margin-top: 0.5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +table { + margin: 1em auto 1em auto; + max-width: 40em; + border-collapse: collapse; +} + +th { + padding: 0.25em; + font-weight: normal; +} + +td { + padding-left: 2.25em; + padding-right: 0.25em; + vertical-align: top; + text-indent: -2em; + text-align: justify; +} + +.borders td { + width: 20%; + border-left: thin dotted black; + border-right: thin dotted black; + border-top: thin solid black; + border-bottom: thin solid black; + text-align: center; + padding: 0.25em; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.tdc { + text-align: center; + padding: 0.75em 0.25em 0.5em 0.25em; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.tdr { + text-align: right; +} + +.tdpg { + vertical-align: bottom; + text-align: right; +} + +blockquote { + margin: 1.5em 10%; +} + +.center { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; +} + +figcaption p { + text-align: center; + margin-bottom: 1em; + font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + margin-left: auto; + text-align: right; +} + +.footnotes { + margin-top: 1em; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + +.footnote .label { + position: absolute; + right: 84%; + text-align: right; +} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +.hanging p { + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; +} + +.larger { + font-size: 150%; +} + +.mt2 { + margin-top: 2em; +} + +.noindent { + text-indent: 0; +} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + right: 4%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; +} + +.poetry-container { + text-align: center; +} + +.poetry { + display: inline-block; + text-align: left; +} + +.poetry .stanza { + margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; +} + +.poetry .verse { + padding-left: 3em; +} + +.poetry .indent0 { + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.smaller { + font-size: 80%; +} + +.smcap { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; +} + +.allsmcap { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; + text-transform: lowercase; +} + +.titlepage { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.x-ebookmaker img { + max-width: 100%; + width: auto; + height: auto; +} + +.x-ebookmaker .poetry { + display: block; + margin-left: 1.5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker blockquote { + margin: 1.5em 5%; +} + + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp100 {width: 100%;} +.illowp75 {width: 75%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp75 {width: 100%;} +.illowp45 {width: 45%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp45 {width: 100%;} + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77789 ***</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">[i]</span></p> + +<p class="center larger">ISLAM AND THE DIVINE COMEDY</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">[ii]</span></p> + +<p class="center smaller"><span class="smcap">All Rights Reserved</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[iii]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p class="titlepage larger">ISLAM AND THE<br> +DIVINE COMEDY</p> + +<p class="titlepage">By MIGUEL ASÍN<br> +<span class="smaller">Professor of Arabic at the University of Madrid<br> +and Member of the Academia Española</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">TRANSLATED AND ABRIDGED</span><br> +By HAROLD SUNDERLAND</p> + +<p class="titlepage">NEW YORK<br> +E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY<br> +1926</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage smaller"><i>Printed in Great Britain by<br> +Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.</i></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="DEDICATION"><i>DEDICATION</i></h2> + +</div> + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="allsmcap">THE AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR WISH TO RECORD<br> +THEIR GRATITUDE TO THE</span><br> +<br> +DUKE OF BERWICK AND ALBA<br> +<br> +<span class="allsmcap">TO WHOSE GENEROUS INITIATIVE THE PUBLICATION<br> +OF THIS EDITION IS DUE</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION"><i>INTRODUCTION</i><br> +<span class="smcap">By the Duke of Alba</span></h2> + +</div> + +<p>The Spanish original, of which the present is an abridged +translation, appeared six years ago under the title of <i>La +Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia</i> (Madrid, +Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre, 1919).</p> + +<p>Its author, Miguel Asín y Palacios, a Catholic priest and +Professor of Arabic at the University of Madrid, is the +disciple of another Arabic scholar of Spain, Julián Ribera, +by whom he was initiated in Oriental studies and the +methods of historical research. Asín has devoted over +twenty-five years of his life to the investigation of the +philosophic and religious thought of mediæval Islam—the +Islam of the Orient as well as that of Spain—and its influence +on the culture of Christian Europe. His training in Arabic +philology and his mastery of mediæval scholastics had +enabled him several years before to make important discoveries +regarding the influence in theology of Averrhoes +on St. Thomas Aquinas, of Ibn Arabi of Murcia on Raymond +Lull, and of the <i>Ikhwan as-safa</i> on Fr. Anselmo de Turmeda, +and so forth. His most important discovery, however, and +the one on which his fame is chiefly based, was his discovery +of Islamic models the influence of which on the Divine +Comedy of Dante forms the subject of the present work. +From the very date of its publication in Spanish the book +aroused the curiosity of the general public and caused a +great stir among the critics of literary history. The Italian +Dantists particularly could with difficulty bring themselves +to recognise that Moslem sources should have formed the +basis for the Divine Comedy, the poem that symbolises the +whole culture of mediæval Christian Europe. The book at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span>once became the subject of lively and passionate controversy. +Over a hundred articles and pamphlets have been +written and lectures delivered in favour of, or against, the +thesis propounded by Asín Palacios. The principal reviews +devoted to literature and literary history, those both of a +general and special character, have published articles from +the pens of Dantists and Romance and Arabic scholars of +note in Europe and America, expounding or criticising the +thesis. Asín has intervened in the controversy to sum up +the judgments, favourable, adverse or doubtful, and finally +refute his opponents; this he has done in different publications,⁠<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +and the present is a translation of the work containing +the original thesis. The balance of opinion is strongly +in his favour. Apart from a score or so of adverse critics, +mainly of Italian nationality, whose attitude is to be +accounted for on the grounds of national or pro-Dante +prejudice, an immense majority of critics of all nations, +whose competence, whether as Romance or Arabic scholars +and whose impartiality are beyond all question, has opted +in favour of Asín Palacios’ theory.</p> + +<p>Both parties to the controversy have been unanimous +and unstinting in their praise of the book.</p> + +<p>Pio Rajna, the chief of the Italian Dantists, writing in +<i>Nuova Antologia</i>, admits that the importance of the thesis +is so far-reaching that “if it were true, it would lead to +a conception of Dante differing considerably from that +hitherto formed by the Dantists.”</p> + +<p>Parodi, another leading figure among the Dantists of +Italy, in the <i>Bulletino della società dantesca italiana</i> confesses +that “this book has had a more than flattering reception, +it has roused a feeling of curiosity mingled with astonishment +in all who have read it and has won the approval +and assent of not a few.”</p> + +<p>Nallino, Professor of Arabic at the University of Rome, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span>stated in the <i>Rivista degli studi orientali</i> that the book was +“of great value as a contribution to mediæval studies in +general, as proving the hitherto unsuspected infiltration of +Islamic conceptions of the after-life into the popular beliefs +of Western Christendom; and, especially, as one of the +most important works on the religion of Islam that have +of late appeared.”</p> + +<p>Bonucci, Professor at the University of Sienna, in the +<i>Rivista di Studi filosofici e religiosi</i>, affirms that “a book +such as this does more to advance the history of, and +comment on, Dante’s thought than a whole century of the +minutiæ of the Dantists.”</p> + +<p>Friedrich Beck, the famous Romance scholar of Germany, +writes in the <i>Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie</i>: “No +book on Dante of such importance has appeared for years; +we wonder whether the Italians, in their patriotic pride, can +find a work of theirs to equal that of the learned Spaniard. +Asín has given a great impulse to the study of Dante and +has opened up vistas so startlingly new that the students +will be bound to seek new bearings and adopt fresh points +of view.”</p> + +<p>Söderhjelm, Professor of Romance languages at the University +of Helsingfors, in <i>Neuphilologische Mitteilungen</i>, says: +“This book is a revelation and an event; it will doubtless +be regarded as one of the most notable, perhaps the most +notable of all, literary productions that have marked the +Jubilee of Dante.”</p> + +<p>The review <i>Analecta Bollandiana</i> states: “The author of +this book is universally known. There is scarcely any +example of a work on Oriental philology having attracted +so great attention. The audacity of the thesis could not +fail to rouse the most lively interest in all who are initiated +in the problems of literary history. The analogies shown +by the author to exist between the Divine Comedy and +Islam are so numerous and of such a nature as to be disquieting +to the mind of the reader, who is forced to picture +to himself the great epic of Christianity as enthroned in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span>world of Moslem mysticism, as if in a mosque that were +closed to Islam and consecrated to Christian worship. At +all events, there will always remain to the author of this +book the honour of having started one of the most memorable +debates in the history of universal literature.”</p> + +<p>Caballera, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Toulouse, +although disagreeing with the thesis, admits in the +<i>Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique</i> that “the reader is +bewildered by the prodigious learning of the author, his +logic, his talent for argument, which are nothing less than +astounding; the clearness of his statements makes a +profound impression.”</p> + +<p>Lastly, the learned Romance scholar Van Tieghem, in the +<i>Revue de littérature comparée</i>, states that “this is an honest, +objective book, as clear and well arranged as it is rich in +matter, which will remain on record as one of the most +daring and fruitful attempts to open up new vistas in the +history of European literature.”</p> + +<p>I need not refer to the flattering opinions this book has +earned from the critics in England and America, as they +will be known to the English-speaking public. Both Romance +and Arabic scholars, such as Arnold, Browning, Cumming, +Guillaume, Jordan, Leigh, Macdonald, and Ryan, have +expressed themselves frankly in favour of Asín Palacios.</p> + +<p>The almost universal applause which this book has gained, +has induced me to contribute towards its diffusion by making +it available to the English-speaking peoples. The idea was +first suggested to me by Lord Balfour, whose interest in +matters of philosophy and literature is universally known. +Animated by his advice, I have now had the book translated +into English, in the hope that it may reach a wider +circle of readers, who, whilst finding difficulty in reading +Spanish, may be curious to know of a problem that is of +interest for the study of literary history in general and +particularly of the Divine Comedy of Dante, who has ever +counted so many fervent admirers among the English-speaking +peoples.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></p> + +<p>The translation has been carefully and faithfully made +by Mr. Harold L. Sunderland, who is at home both in the +Spanish language and in the subject of the book. In order, +however, to attain its diffusion among a wider public, the +translator has, in agreement with the author, cut out the +documentary evidence and critical apparatus that goes to +swell the Spanish original—a complete translation of the +Spanish original into French will also be published shortly +by Paul Geuthner, of Paris—and is useful and intelligible to +the specialists only. Thus, the Arabic texts and the tercets +of the Divine Comedy that are compared with them, as +well as some of the notes and paragraphs of secondary +importance for the argument are not contained in the +present translation. The essence of the book remains +intact, however, with all its dialectic vigour and literary +charm.</p> + +<p>If the English reader should concur with my opinion, my +aims in promoting the translation of the Spanish book will +have been fully achieved.</p> + +<figure class="figright illowp100" id="signature" style="max-width: 25.0em;"> + <img class="w100 img-r" src="images/signature.jpg" alt="(signature: Alba)"> +</figure> + +<p class="mt2"><i>August, 1925.</i></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="AUTHORS_PREFACE"><i>AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL SPANISH EDITION</i></h2> + +</div> + +<p>In my recent work on the neo-Platonic mysticism of the +Spanish Moslem philosopher Ibn Masarra,⁠<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> I had already +hinted that his doctrines, filtering through into Christian +scholasticism, had not only met with acceptance at the hands +of theologians of the Franciscan or pre-Thomist school, but +had even influenced a philosopher-poet of such universal +renown as Dante Alighieri, whom all critics and historians +had hitherto held to be an Aristotelian and Thomist.⁠<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +After enumerating briefly the fundamental reasons underlying +my vague surmise, I ventured to call the attention of +specialists to the close resemblance that I found between the +general outlines of the ascension of Dante and Beatrice +throughout the spheres of Paradise, and another allegory of +the ascension of a mystic and a philosopher, in the <i>Futuhat</i>, +written by the great Sufi of Murcia, Ibn Arabi, who was +undoubtedly a follower of Ibn Masarra.⁠<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>The question so raised was of obvious interest: for if not +merely the neo-Platonic metaphysics of the Cordovan Ibn +Masarra and the Murcian Ibn Arabi, but the allegorical +form in which the latter cast his Ascension may have exercised +an influence as models, as they certainly existed as +forerunners, of the most sublime part of the Divine Comedy, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span>Dante’s conception of Paradise, then Spain may be entitled +to claim for her Moslem thinkers no slight share in the world-wide +fame enjoyed by the immortal work of Dante Alighieri. +And again, the absorbing influence exercised by the latter +over our allegorical poets, from the end of the fourteenth to +the sixteenth century, from Villena to Garcilaso, not to +mention Francisco Imperial, Santillana, Mena and Padilla, +would be balanced in a measure by the antecedent influence +of our Moslem mystics in the complex genesis of the Divine +Comedy.</p> + +<p>Such was the starting-point of my research, but soon the +horizon opened out unexpectedly before me. On closer +study of Ibn Arabi’s quasi-Dantesque allegory I found that +it was itself no more than a mystical adaptation of another +ascension, already famous in the theological literature of +Islam: the <i>Miraj</i>, or Ascension, of Mahomet from Jerusalem +to the Throne of God. As this <i>Miraj</i> was preceded +by an <i>Isra</i>, or Nocturnal Journey, during which Mahomet +visited some of the infernal regions, the Moslem tradition at +once struck me as a prototype of Dante’s conception. A +methodical comparison of the general outlines of the Moslem +legend with those of the great poem confirmed my impression +and finally quite convinced me: the similarity had +extended to the many picturesque, descriptive and episodic +details of the two narratives, as well as to what is called the +“architecture of the realms,” that is to say, the topographical +conception of the infernal regions and of the celestial abodes, +the plans of which appeared to me as drawn by one and the +same Moslem architect. But on reaching this stage of my +research, a new doubt arose. How if these resemblances +between the Divine Comedy and its hypothetical Moslem +model should be due to the fact that both derived from some +common source? In other words, might not the features of +Dante which appeared foreshadowed in Moslem sources, be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</span>traced to mediæval Christian legends that preceded his great +work? At this juncture, therefore, it became imperative, in +the first instance, to turn to those legends, and to make sure +that I were not ascribing a Moslem origin to anything in +Dante that might be adequately accounted for by those +Christian legends.</p> + +<p>This further process of inquiry and comparison held in +store an even more unexpected conclusion. It not only +confirmed that in Moslem sources there were to be found +prototypes of features in the Divine Comedy hitherto +regarded as original because nothing similar to them had +been discovered in the Christian legends, its predecessors; it +further revealed the no less Moslem origin of many of those +mediæval legends themselves; it let in a flood of light +upon the whole problem. The Moslem element thenceforth +appeared as a key to much that had already been accounted +for, and to what was still obscure, in the Divine Comedy. +The conclusion was consonant with what students of +Dante had hitherto ascribed to the influence of Christian +precursors, and it explained what, as being inexplicable, +they had attributed solely to the creative genius of the +poet himself.</p> + +<p>The above is, in outline, my thesis.⁠<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> It will sound to many +like artistic sacrilege, or it may call an ironic smile to the lips +of those—and they are not a few—who still conceive an +artist’s inspiration as something preternatural, owing nothing +to any suggestion outside itself. This is a very common +attitude towards works of such universal renown as the +Divine Comedy. Ozanam, in his inquiry into its poetic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[xv]</span>sources, had already brought out this point.⁠<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> For a long +time—he says—this poem was considered as a solitary +monument, standing in the midst of the mediæval desert. +When, a century ago, Cancellieri pointed to some passages +of Dante’s Inferno and Paradiso as being closely modelled +upon the <i>Vision of the monk Alberic</i>, the devotees of Dante +rose up in wrath at the sacrilege of supposing the Master +capable of servile imitation of an obscure monk of the +twelfth century: they, who were none too ready to admit +even the undeniable fact of his imitation of classic models.</p> + +<p>But time has passed and the nineteenth century, the age +of cold dispassionate criticism, has peopled the deserts +of the Middle Ages with living realities. Labitte, Ozanam, +D’Ancona, Graf, a whole host of scholars and labourers in +research have studied the legends of the after-life, both +classical and Christian, which explain the genesis of Dante’s +poem; and the lovers of Dante no longer resent the more +sober and more scientific view of poetic inspiration which has +gained acceptance. It is now admitted that the essential +trait of genius does not lie in the absolute novelty or originality +of the work of art; neither can it consist in the +power—the prerogative of God alone—of creating both +Form and Matter out of nothing.⁠<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The greater equanimity of the modern school of Dantophiles +encourages me to hope that they will not be moved to +ire by the suggestion of Moslem influences in the Divine +Comedy. D’Ancona, in his inquiry into its Christian and +classical sources,⁠<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> remarks that Dante showed himself ever +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</span>keen to study and to learn, with a receptive mind towards +the ideas and sentiments of his age; and surely it will not be +denied that his century was steeped in the learning and art +of Islam. In the opinion of D’Ancona it may always be +difficult to affirm specifically that any one legend was the +actual and original model that Dante had in his mind, the +pregnant germ from which his divine poem was to grow. +Yet I venture to think that the difficulty will not be found +insuperable, if only the Moslem originals be considered, to +wit: the above-mentioned legends of the Nocturnal Journey +and Ascension of Mahomet, completed and adorned as they +were with a mass of topographical and episodic detail, +whether derived from other Islamic legends of the Life +beyond the grave, from the Apocalyptic scenes of the Day of +Judgment, or from the theories and conceptions of certain of +the Moslem mystics in respect of Heaven and the Beatific +Vision, which in spirituality and idealism were not unworthy +of Dante’s own conception of Paradise. To throw into relief +such resemblances and analogy, as conducive to the imitation +which they suggest, is of necessity the main task of the +present work. To complete the demonstration, render the +conclusion unavoidable, and forestall all reasonable objection, +it will finally outline and enumerate the coincidences of the +Christian mediæval legends that preceded the Divine Comedy, +with Moslem legends of a remoter date.</p> + +<p class="mt2"><span class="smcap">Madrid, 1919.</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> + +</div> + +<table> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"></td> + <td class="tdpg smaller">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">PART I<br>THE LEGEND OF THE NOCTURNAL + JOURNEY AND ASCENSION OF MAHOMET COMPARED WITH THE DIVINE COMEDY</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">I. The Origin of the Legend</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The germ of the legend in the Koran</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_I_section_1">3</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Its development in the form of various versions grouped into three cycles</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_I_section_2">3</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">II. First Cycle—Versions of + the “Isra,” or Nocturnal Journey</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Common character of the two main versions of this cycle</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_1">4</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Summary of Version A of Cycle I</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_2">4</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy. Agreement in general + outline</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_3">5</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Similarity of descriptive features</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_4">6</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Summary of Version B of Cycle I</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_5">6</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy. General features of + resemblance</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_6">8</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Analogies in descriptive detail</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_7">8</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">III. Second Cycle—Versions + of the “Miraj,” or Ascension</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Features common to the three versions of this cycle</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_1">9</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Date and author of each version</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_2">9</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Summary of Version A of Cycle II</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_3">10</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy. Coincidence with + outlines of Dante’s ascension</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_4">11</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Version B. First attempt to link the journey to hell with + the ascension to heaven</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_5">12</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Summary of Version B of Cycle II</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_6">12</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_7">14</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>The architecture of hell the prototype of that of the Inferno</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_8">14</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">9.</td> + <td>In both stories the guardians of hell bar the pilgrim’s way</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_9">15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">10.</td> + <td>The City of Dis and the first stage of the Moslem hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_10">16</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">11.</td> + <td>Resemblance of some of the tortures of hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_11">17</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">12.</td> + <td>Version C. The Ascension the main theme of this version</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_12">17</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">13.</td> + <td>Summary of Version C of Cycle II</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_13">18</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">14.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy. Preliminary remarks</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_14">24</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">15.</td> + <td>The description of heaven in terms of light and sound is as + spiritual as the Paradiso</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_15">25</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">16.</td> + <td>Similarity in use of expedient: the comparison of the speed + of flight, the inability to describe the sights witnessed, and + the brilliance of the light dazzling the pilgrims</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_16">26</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">17.</td> + <td>Identical services rendered by the guides, Gabriel and + Beatrice</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_17">28</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">18.</td> + <td>Dante’s picture of the eagle inspired by the vision of the + heavenly cock. Other angelic visions</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_18">29</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">19.</td> + <td>The littleness of the created world as seen by both pilgrims + from on high</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_19">30</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">20.</td> + <td>Striking likeness of the apotheoses of both ascensions. God + a focus of light, surrounded by nine concentric circles of angels + radiating light and chanting as they revolve. The Beatific Vision + and ecstasy</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_20">31</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">IV. Third Cycle—Fusion of + the Versions of the “Isra” and the “Miraj”</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Nature and date of the one version of this cycle</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Summary of Sole Version of Cycle III</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_2">33</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy. A preliminary remark</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">35</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The element of moral allegory in this version and in Dante</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">35</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The vision, in the Moslem legend and the Purgatorio, of the + old seductress, symbolic of worldly pleasure</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">36</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Threefold cleansing of the soul, in the Garden of Abraham + and the Purgatorio</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">37</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">V. Theological Commentaries + on the Legend</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The Version of Cycle III expanded by theological commentaries. + Their origin and nature</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_1">38</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>New episodes in the commentaries, and their comparison with + the Divine Comedy</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_2">40</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The afrite pursuing Mahomet and the demon pursuing Dante</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_3">40</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The heavenly ladder in the Islamic tale and in the Paradiso</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_4">41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Analogy in wealth of incident and profusion of secondary + characters</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_5">41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VI. Adaptations from the + Legend, Mainly Mystical Allegories</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Origin and nature of such works</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_1">42</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>General idea of some adaptations</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_2">43</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The ascension of the soul upon leaving the body</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_3">43</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The ascension of the guardian angel with the good deeds of + his ward</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_4">44</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The real or symbolical ascension of the mystic</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_5">44</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Ibn Arabi’s “Book of the Nocturnal Journey” and its analogy + with the Divine Comedy regarded as a work of allegory</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_6">45</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Ibn Arabi’s allegorical ascension of the philosopher and + the theologian. Summary of the ascension</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_7">47</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy. Agreement in + allegorical meaning</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_8">51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">9.</td> + <td>Resemblance in episode, such as the distribution of the + Blessed on an astrological and moral principle; in the didactic + tendency of both authors; and in their enigmatical style</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_9">52</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VII. Literary Imitations + of the Legend</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>General nature of such works</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_1">54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The “Treatise on Pardon” of Abu-l-Ala al Maarri. Its purpose + both theological and literary</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_2">55</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[xix]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Summary of the work</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_3">56</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Its comparison with the Divine Comedy. Agreement in + realism</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_4">61</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>General artifices common to both stories</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_5">61</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Similarity of actual incidents, such as the encounter + with the two heavenly beauties</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_6">65</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>The lion and the wolf barring the road to hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_7">65</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>The discussion with Adam</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_8">66</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">9.</td> + <td>The meeting with the beloved of the poet Imru-l-Qays</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_9">66</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">10.</td> + <td>Coincidence in intrinsic literary value</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_10">67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VIII. Summary of + Comparisons</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Systematic grouping of the analogies found to exist + between the Divine Comedy and the different versions, + adaptations and imitations of the Moslem legend</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_1">67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Resemblance of the descriptions of hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_2">68</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Resemblance of the descriptions of purgatory</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_3">69</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Resemblance of the descriptions of heaven</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_4">70</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Similarity in allegorical meaning</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_5">73</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Other, secondary, features of resemblance</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_6">74</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Provisional conclusions</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_7">75</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>Influence upon the Islamic legend of tales from other + faiths</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_8">75</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">PART II<br>THE DIVINE COMEDY COMPARED + WITH OTHER MOSLEM LEGENDS ON THE AFTER-LIFE</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">I. Introduction</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Need of further examination of the poem in its five + parts—limbo, hell, purgatory, earthly and celestial paradises</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_I_section_1">79</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Preliminary enquiry into the doctrine of Islam on the + after-life</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_I_section_2">79</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Comparison of that doctrine with the teaching of + Christianity</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_I_section_3">79</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">II. The Moslem Limbo in + the Divine Comedy</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The name and site of Dante’s limbo, the dwellers therein + and their suffering</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_II_section_1">81</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Was Dante’s picture, for which there is no Christian + precedent, derived from Moslem eschatology?</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_II_section_2">82</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The name and site of the Moslem limbo, the dwellers therein + and their suffering. The picture is identical with that of + Dante’s limbo</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_II_section_3">83</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">III. The Moslem Hell in + the Divine Comedy</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The supposed originality of Dante’s conception of the + architecture of hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_III_section_1">85</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The Moslem hell, according to the Koran and the <i>hadiths</i>, + agrees with Dante’s hell in architectural outline</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_III_section_2">86</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The Moslem hell, according to the description and designs + of Ibn Arabi, is identical in its architectural plan with the + hell described by Dante and graphically illustrated by the + Dantists</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_III_section_3">91</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[xx]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">IV. The Moslem Hell in + the Divine Comedy</span>—<i>continued.</i></td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Islamic origin of descriptive detail and actual scenes, + such as the movement towards the left</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">96</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The torture of the adulterers</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_2">97</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The City of Dis</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">98</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The rain of fire and the meeting with Brunetto Latini</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">98</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The first three valleys of Malebolge</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">99</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>The torture of the soothsayers in the fourth pit</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">100</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>The torture of hypocrites</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_7">101</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>The torture of thieves</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_8">102</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">9.</td> + <td>The torture of the schismatic</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_9">103</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">10.</td> + <td>The last chasm of Malebolge</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_10">104</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">V. The Moslem Hell in the + Divine Comedy</span> (Conclusion):</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The giants of Dante’s hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_1">105</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The torture of cold</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_2">106</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Dante’s picture of Lucifer and its supposed originality</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_3">108</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Its prototypes in Islam</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_4">109</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VI. The Moslem Purgatory in + the Divine Comedy</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Dante’s conception of purgatory</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_1">111</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Its supposed originality</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_2">112</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Precedents for the topography are to be found in Moslem + tradition</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_3">113</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Further precedents for the topography furnished by Ibn + Arabi’s conception</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_4">115</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The punishments in the ante-purgatory</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_5">117</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>The torments of purgatory</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_6">118</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VII. The Earthly Paradise of + Islam in the Divine Comedy</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Dante’s story of the earthly paradise and the supposed + originality of its setting</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_1">121</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Situation of the earthly paradise, according to Islam, + on a lofty mountain in the middle of the ocean</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_2">122</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The garden of paradise placed by Islamic legend between + purgatory and heaven</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_3">125</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Dante’s picture compared with the story of Shakir ibn + Muslim, of Orihuela</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_4">125</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Islamic sources of the scene of the meeting of Beatrice + and Dante</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_5">128</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Summary of the principal Moslem legends on the meeting + of the heavenly bride and bridegroom. Their comparison with + the episode in Dante</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_6">130</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Recapitulation of partial comparisons</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_7">134</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VIII. The Celestial Paradise + of Islam in the Divine Comedy</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The sensuality of the Koranic paradise spiritually interpreted + in the <i>hadiths</i></td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_1">135</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Idealistic conception of the delights of paradise according + to Algazel, Averrhoes, and Ibn Arabi</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_2">137</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The Moslem paradise susceptible of comparison with that + of Dante</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_3">139</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The general scheme of the Paradiso and its precedents + in Islam</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_4">142</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Dante’s conception of the abode of glory</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_5">145</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Islamic precedents for that conception</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_6">147</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">IX. The Celestial Paradise + of Islam in the Divine Comedy (Conclusion)</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The architecture of paradise, according to Ibn Arabi</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_1">150</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>His geometrical design of paradise is identical with the + plan of the mystic rose, as traced by the Dantists</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_2">151</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Dante and Ibn Arabi use the same similes in describing + paradise</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_3">152</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The moral structure of paradise is strikingly similar + in both authors</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_4">154</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The life of glory, as depicted by Ibn Arabi</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_5">157</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Ibn Arabi’s cardinal theses compared with Dante’s ideas: + (1) Beatific Vision of the Divine Light</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_6">160</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>(2) Different grades in the Vision; (3) External brilliance + of the elect; (4) Ecstasy of delight; (5) Absence of envy</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_7">163</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>Dante’s symbol of the Trinity compared with similar + geometrical symbols used by Ibn Arabi</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_8">167</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">X. Synthesis of all the + Partial Comparisons</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>General conclusions to be drawn from the resemblances + found</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_1">171</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Identity in construction shown by Ibn Arabi’s and Dante’s + plans of the hereafter</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_2">172</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Analogies in topographical decoration</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_3">172</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Analogies in symmetry of conception</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_4">173</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The likeness extends to many of the episodes and scenes</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_5">173</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Conclusions to be drawn from the first two parts of this + enquiry: Islamic literature sheds light upon a greater number + of problems in Dante than do all other religious literatures + combined</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_6">173</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Transition to Part III</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_7">174</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">PART III<br>MOSLEM FEATURES IN THE + CHRISTIAN LEGENDS PRECURSORY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">I. Introduction</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Slight influence of these legends upon the genesis of + Dante’s poem</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_1">177</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Are these legends the spontaneous outcome of popular + imagination, or did they originate in other literatures?</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_2">178</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>General evidence of their Moslem origin</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_3">178</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Remarks upon the method followed in this part of the enquiry</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_4">179</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">II. Legends of Visions + of Hell</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Legend of the Three Monks of the East</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_1">180</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Moslem features in the general setting and in the tortures + of hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_2">180</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Moslem origin of the myth of the souls incarnate in birds</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_3">181</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Vision of St. Paul</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_4">182</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Scenes of Islamic origin; tortures similar to those described + in Mahomet’s nocturnal journey; the <i>sirat</i>, or bridge of + the Koran; the wheel of fire</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_5">183</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>The final vision, the respite of the sinners and similar + Moslem tales</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_6">184</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">III. Legends of Visions + of Hell</span>—<i>continued</i>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Legend of Tundal</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_1">186</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Features of Moslem origin; hell represented as a monster; + the Aaraf, or Moslem limbo; the punishment in the grave</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_2">186</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The devil with the hundred hands</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_3">187</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Heaven shown to the sinner, <i>ut magis doleant</i></td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_4">188</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The sinner tormented by the cow he had stolen</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_5">190</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Legend of Purgatory of St. Patrick</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_6">190</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Moslem features which this legend shares in common with + the former legends</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_7">191</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">IV. Legends of Visions + of Hell</span> (Conclusion):</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Vision of Alberic. Episodes already shown to be of Moslem + origin</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">191</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The Solar Liod. The topography of hell and other Moslem + features</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_2">192</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Vision of Turcill. The Moslem torture of the thief, + forced to swallow his illicit gains</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">193</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Vision of the Abbot Joachim. The passage of the <i>sirat</i></td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">193</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Vision of the Bard of Regio Emilia</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">193</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Islamic origin of the Bard’s scheme of hell</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">194</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">V. Legends on the Weighing + of Souls</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Subject common to the legends of this cycle</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_1">195</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The Egypto-Persian myth in Islam, and its influence on + the Christian legends</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_2">195</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The representation of St. Michael holding the scales is + further evidence of such influence</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_3">196</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Digression to other instances of Moslem influence upon + Christian illustrations of the Day of Judgment. The + intercession of the Saints. The nakedness of the sinners</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_4">197</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VI. Legends of Paradise</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Anthropomorphism of the legends of this cycle, and their + general resemblance to other Islamic legends</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VI_section_1">199</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Episodes of Moslem origin, such as the vision of Adam in + the legend of Turcill</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VI_section_2">200</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Moslem tales precursory of the Christian legends depicting + life in paradise as a courtly gathering or religious festival</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VI_section_3">200</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VII. Legends of Sea Voyages</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Common characteristics of these legends. Classification + into three groups</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_1">204</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Early Moslem counterparts of these legends</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_2">205</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Hypothesis of the influence of the Moslem cycle upon + the Christian cycle</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_3">205</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Moslem episodes in the Legend of St. Brandan, such as the + table spread with food; the island-whale; the angel birds; + the enormous vines; the crystal column; the torment of Judas; + the sea-hermit; the isle of paradise</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_4">206</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Conclusion, affirming the Oriental character of the Legend + of St. Brandan</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_5">214</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Islamic features of other Christian tales of voyages</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_6">214</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">VIII. Legends of Sleepers</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Characteristics common to the legends of this cycle, and + brief summary of the main legends</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_1">216</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Prior existence of two groups of similar legends in Islamic + literature</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_2">218</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Examination of the three legends of the first group</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_3">218</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The Islamic tales of the second group</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_4">220</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Their resemblance to the mediæval Christian tales may be + attributed to Moslem influence upon Christian folklore</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_5">221</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">IX. Legends of the Respite + from Torture</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>The main theme of these legends unauthorized by Catholic + doctrine</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_1">222</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Examination of a typical legend of this cycle</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_2">223</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Its main features, viz. the respite from torture and the + incarnation of the souls in birds of black plumage, are of + Moslem origin</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_3">223</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Christian tales dealing with the mitigation of suffering + upon the payment of debt. Their Islamic prototypes</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_4">224</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The mitigation of the pains of hell by means of prayer. + Moslem precedents for the Christian legends</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_5">225</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">X. Legends on the Debate Between + Angels and Devils for Possession of the Soul</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Main elements of the legends of this cycle</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_1">226</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Some of these features unauthorized by Christian doctrine</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_2">227</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Islamic legends describing (1) the appointment of an angel + and a devil to each man; (2) the fight for the soul; (3) the + books of record; (4) the personification of virtues and vices; + (5) the personification of the members of the body; (6) the + removal of the soul to hell or heaven</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_3">228</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Summary of comparisons contained in Part III and conclusion + to be drawn therefrom; Islamic literature furnishes the + explanation of the growth of many of the pre-Dante Christian + legends on the after-life</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_4">232</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Transition to Part IV</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_5">233</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">PART IV<br>PROBABILITY OF THE TRANSMISSION + OF ISLAMIC MODELS TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE AND PARTICULARLY TO DANTE</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">I. Introduction</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Literary imitation dependent on three conditions, viz. + resemblance between model and copy; priority of the former; + and communication between the two</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_I_section_1">237</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The similarity in artistic representation of the life + beyond the grave is conclusive proof</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_I_section_2">237</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Three headings under which evidence of contact may be + furnished</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_I_section_3">238</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">II. Communication Between Islam + and Christian Europe During the Middle Ages</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Trade; pilgrimages to the Holy Land; the Crusades; Missions + to Islam</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_1">239</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Norman expeditions and conquest of Sicily. The Sicilian + court under the Norman dynasty a centre of Moslem culture</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_2">240</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Contact in Spain. The Mozarabs; the slaves; the Jews; + other intermediaries</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_3">242</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The Mudejars and the court of Toledo. Archbishop Raymond’s + School of Translators</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_4">244</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The court of Alphonso the Wise and the inter-denominational + colleges of Murcia and Seville</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_5">245</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">III. Transmission of the Moslem + Legends on the After-Life to Christian Europe and Dante</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Probability of their transmission through any of the + channels mentioned</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_1">246</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>Moslem Spain a likely channel</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_2">247</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>The knowledge of Moslem legendary lore possessed by the + Mozarabs</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_3">248</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>The legend of the “Miraj” probably included in the “Summa” + of Robert of Reading</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_4">248</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>The legend of the “Miraj” in the “Historia Arabum” of + Archbishop Rodrigo and the “Estoria d’Espanna” of Alphonso + the Wise</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_5">249</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>The “Miraj” and other legends of the after-life in the + “Impunaçion de la seta de Mahomah” of St. Peter Paschal</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_6">250</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>The legend probably transmitted to Italy by St. Peter + Paschal</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_7">251</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>The knowledge of Arabic learning possessed by Dante’s + master, Brunetto Latini</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_8">252</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">9.</td> + <td>Brunetto may have learnt of the legend of the “Miraj” + during his mission to the court of Alphonso the Wise, and + have transmitted his knowledge to his disciple</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_9">253</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">IV. The Attraction Felt by Dante + Towards Arabic Culture Confirms the Hypothesis of Imitation</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Need of this final enquiry</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">256</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>The receptiveness of Dante’s mind such that he cannot have + felt aversion to Arabic culture</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_2">256</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Signs of Dante’s liking for the Semitic languages</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">258</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Evidence of his thorough knowledge of the history of Islam; + the torture of Mahomet and Ali</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">259</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Dante’s liking for Arabic culture shown by the use he makes + of the works of the astronomers and the exemption from hell of + Saladin, Avicenna and Averrhoes</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">261</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>Sigier of Brabant, the champion of Averrhoism, placed in + paradise</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">262</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Bruno Nardi’s explanation of this enigma; Dante’s philosophy + akin rather to that of Avicenna and Averrhoes than to that of + St. Thomas</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_7">263</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">V. The Close Resemblance + between Dante and the Mystic, Ibn Arabi of Murcia, Furnishes + Further Proof of the Thesis of Imitation</span>:</td> + <td class="tdpg"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">1.</td> + <td>Dante’s relation to the Illuministic Mystics mooted</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_1">263</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">2.</td> + <td>General parallel between the Illuministic images used by + both authors</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_2">264</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">3.</td> + <td>Comparison of their expository methods. The cabbala of + letters and numbers; astrological subtleties; personification + of abstract entities; interpretation of dream visions</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_3">265</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">4.</td> + <td>Particular parallel between Dante’s vision of Love + (<i>Vita Nuova</i>, XII) and similar visions described + by Ibn Arabi</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_4">266</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">5.</td> + <td>Striking analogy of Dante’s “Cancionero” and its allegorical + commentary, the “Convito,” to Ibn Arabi’s book of songs, “The + Interpreter of Love,” and its allegorical commentary, “The + Treasures of Lovers”</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_5">267</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">6.</td> + <td>The <i>dolce stil nuovo</i> poetry and Vossler’s hypothesis + as to its origin</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_6">271</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">7.</td> + <td>Earlier examples of this type of poetry in Islam. Romantic + love in profane literature. The “Necklace of the Dove,” or + “Book of Love,” of Ibn Hazm of Cordova</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_7">272</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">8.</td> + <td>The mystical love of woman in Sufi literature. Woman as + an angel and a symbol of Divine wisdom. The phenomena of love + analysed and allegorically interpreted in Ibn Arabi’s + <i>Futuhat</i></td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_8">274</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">9.</td> + <td>Epilogue. The eschatology of Islam and the conceptions + of Ibn Arabi as a key to the riddles in Dante and a remote + reflex of Christian spirituality</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_9">275</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + +<h1>ISLAM AND THE DIVINE COMEDY</h1> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_I">PART I<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>THE LEGEND OF THE NOCTURNAL JOURNEY +AND ASCENSION OF MAHOMET COMPARED WITH THE DIVINE COMEDY</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak">PART I<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>THE LEGEND OF THE NOCTURNAL JOURNEY +AND ASCENSION OF MAHOMET COMPARED WITH THE DIVINE COMEDY</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_I">I<br> +<span class="smcap">The Origin of the Legend</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_I_section_1">1. The Moslem legend of Mahomet’s nocturnal journey and +ascent to the spheres of after-life originated and developed +like most religious legends. Born of a brief passage in Revelations, +in its very obscurity it defied theological interpretation. +But what baffled the sages in their agnosticism kindled +the imagination of the faithful masses, and the details of a +story founded upon the sacred text were readily conceived.</p> + +<p>One brief allusion only appears in the Koran: “Praised +be He [the Lord]”—runs the first verse of the seventeenth +chapter—“who called upon His servant [Mahomet] to +travel by night from the sacred temple [of Mecca] to the far-off +temple [of Jerusalem] whose precinct We have blessed, +in order to show him Our wonders.”</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_I_section_2">2. The mysterious allusion seems from the first to have +aroused the curiosity of pious Moslems. A rich crop of +legends sprang up as if by magic. The vivid imagination of +the East had been fired, and the myth of the nightly journey +was soon clothed with a wealth of detail and set in a wonderful +variety of episode and scenery.</p> + +<p>The entire records of the evolution of the legend in all its +ramifications would fill volumes. Around an insignificant +verselet of the Koran a plot was woven, and the story +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>developed in the form of <i>hadiths</i> or traditions of the Prophet, +who was supposed to describe the wonders he saw on that +memorable night. In the following pages an endeavour has +been made to lay before the reader some of the principal +versions extant. These have been divided into three cycles +or groups, which begin with the simple, fragmentary types, +and end with those in which Oriental fantasy reaches its +climax.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II">II<br> +<span class="smcap">First Cycle—Versions of the “Isra,” or +Nocturnal Journey</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_1">1. The simplest cycle seems to be one of the ninth century +that is formed of six <i>hadiths</i>, in each of which, with slight +variations, Mahomet is made to tell the story of an <i>Isra</i>, or +journey by night on earth. Few topographical details, +however, are given, and no mention is made of an ascent to +celestial spheres.</p> + +<p>In the following summaries the two main versions are +compared with the Divine Comedy.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_2"><i>Version A of Cycle I</i></p> + +<p>2. Mahomet relates to his disciples how he was awakened +from sleep by a man who leads him to the foot of a steep +mountain. To climb this, as he is urged to do, seems +impossible; but, heartened by his guide, he begins the +ascent and eventually reaches the high table-land at the top +of the mountain. Proceeding on their way, Mahomet and +his guide witness six scenes, one after another, of horrible +torture. Men and women with lips torn asunder; others +whose eyes and ears are pierced by arrows; women hanging +by their heels while vipers sting their breasts; others, both +men and women, that likewise hanging suck up in agony +the stagnant water from off the ground; then, wretched +creatures in filthy clothes who reek as of latrines; and lastly, +corpses in the last, abominable stages of putrefaction. +These punishments, the guide explains to Mahomet, are +meted out in turn to liars; those that have sinned with eyes +or ears; to mothers who have refused to suckle their children; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>to violators of the fast; adulterers; and to unbelievers. +Continuing their journey, the travellers suddenly find themselves +enveloped in a cloud of smoke; and they hear a +confused noise as of mingled cries of pain and fury. Gehenna +is there; and Mahomet is urged to pass on.</p> + +<p>Men sleeping peacefully in the shade of trees are now +designated as the bodies of those who died in the faith. +Children at play are the offspring of true believers. The +men with the white, godlike features, who are robed in fine +clothes and are exquisitely perfumed, are the true friends of +God, His martyrs and saints. On they go, and now Mahomet +descries three well-known figures drinking wine and singing +psalms. One is Zayd, the son of Haritha, a slave who for +love of Mahomet sacrificed his freedom. Had he not fallen +in the battle of Muta, when a general in the Prophet’s +armies, he would assuredly have been Mahomet’s successor. +The second is Jafar, son of Abu Talib and cousin to Mahomet, +who was killed in the same battle, after having preached +the faith of Islam in Abyssinia. The third is Abd Allah, +the son of Rawaha, the scribe and intimate friend of the +Prophet, who also died at Muta. The three greet Mahomet +with cries of love and allegiance. At the final stage Mahomet +raises his eyes to Heaven and beholds Abraham, Moses, and +Jesus, who, gathered around the Throne of God, await his +coming.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_3">3. This embryonic version, simple though it may be, has +its points of coincidence with Dante’s poem.⁠<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> In each case +it is the protagonist himself who recounts his adventures. +Each makes the journey by night, led by an unknown guide +who appears to him on awaking from a profound sleep. In +both legends the first stage comprises the ascent of a steep +mountain. Purgatory, hell, and paradise are by both visited +in succession, although the sequence and detail differ. The +first five torments witnessed by Mahomet represent the +purgatory of Islam. The sixth, as also Gehenna, which +follows it, is the hell of unbelievers. The remaining episodes +deal with the paradise of children, and the heavens of the +faithful, of saints, martyrs, and prophets. Both stories end +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>with the vision of the Divine Throne. The sins or virtues +of the dwellers of each abode are explained by the guide, +and from time to time the visitor attempts to converse with +the souls of men once known to him.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_4">4. Apart from the general outlines, there are few features +in common. Even between the torments there is little +similarity. With the introductions to the two stories, however, +it is different. The description in the Islamic legend of +the lofty mountain; Mahomet’s dismay at having to climb +it; his guide’s assurance of help; and, finally, the ascent +itself, when Mahomet follows in his guide’s footsteps; all +are features bearing a striking resemblance to Dante’s +Inferno, and, especially, his Purgatory.⁠<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Moreover, Dante is +warned of the approach to hell by the same sign as Mahomet—a +confused noise as of “parole di dolore, accenti d’ira.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_5"><i>Version B of Cycle I</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>5. Mahomet is suddenly awakened by two persons; who, +taking him by the arm, call upon him to rise and follow them. +On reaching the outskirts of Jerusalem, the visions of the +after-world begin. The guides, in this version, refuse to +answer any questions, bidding Mahomet wait until the end +of the journey for an interpretation of what he sees. The +first five visions correspond, as in Version A, to the purgatory +of Islam.</p> + +<p>The Prophet sees a man supine at the feet of another—man, +angel or demon. The latter hurls an enormous boulder +down upon his victim’s head, crushing his brain. The rock +rolls on and, when the torturer recovers it, he finds his +victim whole as before; and so the torture is renewed without +end. Mahomet stands aghast and asks what crimes the +wretch has committed. But his guides hurry him on to +where another tormentor is forcing an iron javelin into the +mouth of another sufferer, lacerating his cheeks, eyes and +nostrils. Farther on, Mahomet sees a man struggling in a +river red with blood and seething like boiling pitch. Vainly +does he strive to gain the shore, for at each effort a fiend +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>forces red hot stones down his throat, obliging him to swim +back into the middle of the stream. This torture, like the +previous one, is everlasting. Still farther, they come to a +tubular structure, broad at the base and narrow at the top; +and through the walls comes an uproar as of human voices. +The interior, Mahomet finds, is like a glowing oven, where +men and women ceaselessly writhe, now being flung upwards, +now sinking to the bottom, as the heat of the flames increases +and diminishes. The scene recurs again and again, and the +horror is accentuated by the shrieks of the victims. At +length, Mahomet reaches the summit of a dark hill, where +men, raving like madmen, exhale, through their mouths, +nostrils, eyes and ears, the fire that has been infused into +them.</p> + +<p>Here, the tortures end. A few steps further on is a garden, +green with eternal spring. At the entrance two men, one +repulsively ugly, are feeding the flames of a fire with wood. +Within, at the foot of a spreading tree and surrounded by +lovely children, they see a venerable old man, so tall that +his head touches the sky. Ascending by the tree, Mahomet +comes to a beautiful abode, like a city of silver and gold, +inhabited by men, women and children; some, white and +handsome, others black and ugly. A mighty river, whose +water is clearer than crystal, separates this from another, +larger city. In this river, at the bidding of Mahomet’s +guides, the black and ugly bathe and from it emerge purified +and transformed into beings of beauty. Mahomet drinks of +the water and, again ascending by the tree, reaches an even +more beautiful place, inhabited by men both young and old.</p> + +<p>At this juncture Mahomet rebels against the silence of his +guides, and at last they consent to explain each vision to him. +The wretch whose head was being crushed is the hypocrite +who, though outwardly professing to honour the holy book, +fails to abide by its precepts. He whose mouth is being +torn asunder is the liar, backbiter and violator of the fast. +The swimmer in the river of blood is the usurer. Those +writhing in the furnace are adulterers. The men on the black +hill being consumed by fire are Sodomites. The man of +repulsive aspect is the steward of hell, who appoints to each +his torture. The venerable old man is Abraham, who gathers +to his bosom children who die before reaching the age of +reason. The first abode is the paradise of true believers; +and Moslems, who have sinned but die repentant, must wash +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>away their sins in the river before they can enter heaven. +The second is the mansion of the martyrs. All the visions +explained, the guides, who make themselves known as +Gabriel and Michael, call upon Mahomet to raise his eyes, and +in amazement he beholds afar off a castle like a white cloud. +This, his guides tell him, is the celestial mansion that awaits +him, close to the throne of God. Mahomet would fain enter +it at once, but his guides dissuade him, bidding him await +his time.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_6">6. This version shows an advance in its descriptive +features, which are more suggestive of Dante’s scenes. As +in the Divine Comedy, the four spheres of after-life—purgatory, +Abraham’s bosom, hell, and paradise—are +staged separately, although on one plane until paradise is +reached by means of a tree that leads, not as in later versions, +to several celestial spheres, but to one only. Neither is +Mahomet led, as formerly, by one guide; although the two +are angels and not, as in Dante, humans. For the first time, +too, mention is made of the steward who, like Dante’s Minos, +awards the tortures to the damned.⁠<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> But these details are +of less importance than other characteristic features. As in +Dante,⁠<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Jerusalem is the starting-point in this version of the +Moslem myth. Again, Dante’s commentators are agreed +upon the correlativity of the punishments with the sins committed, +which is also a feature in the Moslem Versions A +and B—the sinner suffers in the members or organs that +served the deed.⁠<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II_section_7">7. But coincidence between Version B and Dante’s text +is most marked in the torture of adulterers and usurers. +The naked men and women writhing in a furnace inevitably +suggest the adulterers in Dante who are incessantly swept +on by the gale of hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Even more striking is Dante’s +adaptation of the Moslem punishment of usurers to those +who committed violence and deeds of blood. Submerged in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>the deep waters of a river of blood, they, like the usurers, +strive to gain the shore, only to be forced back by the Centaur +archers (who take the place of the simpler stone-throwers in +the Moslem legend).⁠<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> So strikingly alike are these two +features that other instances of resemblance lose by comparison; +as the torture of the Sodomites, burnt inwardly in +the Moslem story, and rained upon by fire, in Dante⁠<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>; or +the rivers that in both legends separate purgatory from +paradise and of whose sweet waters both Dante and Mahomet +drink.⁠<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III">III<br> +<span class="smcap">Second Cycle—Versions of the “Miraj” or +Ascension</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_1">1. The legends of the second cycle date as far back as those +of the first. They are, however, grouped apart, for, whereas +the former are concerned almost exclusively with the <i>Miraj</i> +or ascension, the latter have as their main theme the Isra or +nocturnal journey on earth.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_2">2. There are three main versions of the legends forming +this second cycle. The first and most authentic comes to us +on the authority of Bukhari and Muslim and must, therefore, +be considerably older than the ninth century. Of the second +version only one fragment is quoted. Here the authorship is +doubtful, although it is attributed to Ibn Abbas, a kinsman +of Mahomet, and may thus have been the work of an +Egyptian author of the ninth century, Ishac the son of +Wahab. The third version is generally regarded as apocryphal; +it may have been the work of a Persian of the eighth +century, Maysara son of Abd ar-Rabihi, or of Omar son of +Sulayman, who lived in Damascus in that century. Summaries +of the three versions are as follows:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_3"><i>Version A of Cycle II</i></p> + +<p>3. In his house (or, according to other versions, in the +Mosque) at Mecca Mahomet is awakened by Gabriel, who, +either alone or helped by angels in human form, prepares the +Prophet for the ascension. His breast is opened and his +heart extracted and washed in water brought in a golden cup +from the well of Zemzem; his breast is then filled with +faith and wisdom. Thereupon Gabriel takes him by the +hand, and the ascent begins, either from the Mosque of +Mecca itself or, as in other versions, the Temple of Jerusalem. +Descriptions of the ascension differ, but, generally, Mahomet, +holding Gabriel’s hand, is made to rise through the air in +flight. In some versions (as in B of the first cycle) the two +are raised to heaven by the miraculous growth of a tree; in +others, a celestial animal, larger than an ass but smaller than +a mule, carries Mahomet, or Mahomet and his guide, from +Mecca to Jerusalem, the gates of paradise and, lastly, the +Throne of God. Of the ascension proper there are ten +stages.</p> + +<p>The first seven correspond to the seven heavens of the +astronomers, but are numbered and not named after their +respective stars. The scene at each is repeated with true +Oriental monotony. Gabriel knocks, and is asked by the +guardian who is without and, upon Gabriel’s answering, the +guardian asks whether he is alone. When the guardian is +satisfied that God has really sent Mahomet as His Prophet, +he welcomes the travellers and bids them enter. In each +heaven one or more prophets are presented to Mahomet, who +is acclaimed Holy Prophet and, at times, holy son or +brother.</p> + +<p>The order in which the prophets appear is generally: +Adam, Jesus and John, Joseph, Idris (or Enoch), Aaron, +Moses, and Abraham. Of these characteristic descriptions +at times are given. Adam is seen between two hosts of men, +now smiling now weeping, as he glances to the right and +left alternately. Mahomet learns from Gabriel that these +hosts are the blessed and the damned. The cousins Jesus +and John appear together; Jesus, of medium stature, with +a fair complexion, and fresh as if just coming from his bath. +Joseph is of wonderful beauty. Moses, with flowing curls, +tall and of stately appearance, bursts into tears when he is +reminded that more Islamites will find salvation than those of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>his faith. Lastly, Abraham, to whom Mahomet bears a +greater resemblance than any son, is seen leaning against the +temple wall of the celestial Jerusalem, a replica of the earthly +city. Every day seventy thousand angels visit this temple, +which in the <i>Koran</i> is known as the <i>House of Habitation</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>The visit to this temple occupies the eighth stage of the +ascension, or the ninth in those versions that introduce the +vision of a gigantic tree of paradise, called in the <i>Koran</i> the +<i>Lotus-tree of the Boundary</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>; for neither man nor angel may +pass beyond it when nearing God. Of fabulous size, its +leaves are as large as the ears of an elephant and its fruit, +like pitchers. From its root spring four rivers: two hidden +that water Paradise, and two visible, the Euphrates and the +Nile, that irrigate the earth. Here, or previously, Mahomet +is proffered glasses of wine, milk, and honey; he chooses the +milk and is applauded by Gabriel for so doing, inasmuch as +his religion is based on nature. The last stage has now been +reached, Mahomet beholds the Throne of God, and the +Almighty Himself reveals to him His mysteries.</p> + +<p>Among these revelations is God’s commandment, to be +transmitted by Mahomet to his people, ordaining fifty +prayers each day. On his descent the Prophet communicates +this commandment to Moses, who urges him four times to +return and beseech the Almighty to reduce the number; and +the prayers finally are reduced to five. Again Moses calls +upon him to return, but Mahomet is loth to do so, and the +descent is completed without further incident.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_4">4. In this version there is no allusion to hell or purgatory, +so that it is only to the <i>Paradiso</i>, or third part of Dante’s +poem, that any resemblance exists. The general lines of +action in both stories are, however, strikingly similar. +Mahomet, purified like Dante, rises through the air holding +Gabriel’s hand just as Dante is led by Beatrice. In both +stories there are as many stages as astronomical heavens. +The difference in number and designation merely denotes the +superior scientific knowledge of a cultured poet whose work +appeared five centuries later than the tales of those inerudite +Moslem dreamers. Apart from this, it is clear that the +seven heavens traversed by Mahomet are identical with +those that Dante names after the seven stars of the Ptolemaic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>system; the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, +and Saturn, to which he adds the sphere of the Fixed Stars, +the Crystalline heaven and the Empyrean. The counterparts +of these in the Mahometan story are the three final +stages: the Lotus-tree, the House of Habitation, and the +Throne of God. In each ascension there are thus ten stages. +Not that there is any need to labour the point of numbers, for +the poet’s licence alone would have admitted of his moulding +the scheme of the Moslem creation to his own ideas. What is +obvious is, that in none of the so-called precursors of the +Divine Comedy could Dante find so typical a model as the +Moslem legend of Version A. Beatrice, human indeed, but +rendered angelic through the Beatific Vision, descends from +heaven with divine permission to conduct Dante to the +Throne of God. Through space they fly; and likewise +Gabriel leads Mahomet. In both ascensions the travellers +pass through the astronomical heavens, tarrying awhile in +each to converse with the blessed and receive enlightenment +on theological problems. The prophets in the Moslem +heavens are the saints in Dante’s poem. The literary +artifice in both works is identical, no matter how they differ +in art and spiritual detail.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_5">5. Version B, given below, belongs to this cycle inasmuch +as the Ascension forms the main theme. It differs from +Version A, however, in that it contains the vision of hell; +and for this reason it may be regarded as a first attempt to +link the <i>Isra</i> with the <i>Miraj</i>. It introduces into the <i>Miraj</i> +a description of hell, which, as a rule, is peculiar to the <i>Isra</i> +or Nocturnal Journey. The parts already given in Version +A need not, therefore, be repeated; an analysis of the more +typical features of B will suffice.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_6"><i>Version B of Cycle II</i></p> + +<p>6. Mahomet, accompanied by Gabriel, ascends to the third +heaven, where he sees a gigantic angel, hideous and terrible +to behold, and incandescent as if a being of fire. Seated on +a bench of flame, he is intent upon forging instruments of +torture out of solid fire. Terrified, yet curious, Mahomet +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>learns from Gabriel that this is the Keeper of Hell. So +fierce is the Keeper’s response to Mahomet’s greeting that +the Prophet, mindful of the smiling welcomes in the other +heavens, is overcome by terror. His fears allayed by +Gabriel, who explains that the angel has been created by +the Almighty to wreak vengeance on sinners, Mahomet +ventures to ask the Keeper to let him see the regions of hell. +“Thou mayst not see them,” refuses the Keeper angrily; +whereupon a voice is heard from on high, commanding: +“Oh, Angel, beware lest thou deny him aught.” Then the +Keeper opens the door so that Mahomet may peep through; +and from the opening fire and smoke burst forth, as if to +warn the Prophet of the awful sights that await him. Hell, +he sees, is formed of seven floors, one underneath the other. +The uppermost, which is reserved for deadly sins, is subdivided +into fourteen mansions, one close above the other, +and each a place of punishment for a different sin.</p> + +<p>The first mansion is an ocean of fire comprising seventy +lesser seas, and on the shore of each sea stands a city of fire. +In each city are seventy thousand dwellings; in each +dwelling, seventy thousand coffins of fire, the tombs of men +and women, who, stung by snakes and scorpions, shriek in +anguish. These wretches, the Keeper enlightens Mahomet, +were tyrants.</p> + +<p>In the second mansion beings with blubber lips writhe +under the red-hot forks of demons, while serpents enter +their mouths and eat their bodies from within. These are +faithless guardians, devoured now by serpents even as they +once devoured the inheritances committed to their trust. +Lower down usurers stagger about, weighed down by the +reptiles in their bellies. Further, shameless women hang by +the hair that they had exposed to the gaze of man. Still +further down liars and slanderers hang by their tongues +from red-hot hooks lacerating their faces with nails of copper. +Those who neglected the rites of prayer and ablution are now +monsters with the heads of dogs and the bodies of swine and +are the food of serpents. In the next mansion drunkards +suffer the torture of raging thirst, which demons affect to +quench with cups of a liquid fire that burns their entrails. +Still lower, hired mourners and professional women singers +hang head downwards and howl with pain as devils cut their +tongues with burning shears. Adulterers are tortured in a +cone-shaped furnace, as described in Version B of Cycle I; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>and their shrieks are drowned by the curses of their fellow +damned at the stench of their putrid flesh. In the next +mansion unfaithful wives hang by their breasts, their hands +tied to their necks. Undutiful children are tortured in a fire +by fiends with red-hot forks. Lower down, shackled in collars +of fire, are those who failed to keep their word. Murderers +are being knifed by demons in endless expiation of their +crime. Lastly, in the fourteenth and lowest mansion of +the first storey, are being crucified on burning pillars those +who failed to keep the rule of prayer; as the flames devour +them, their flesh is seen gradually to peel off their bones.</p> + +<p>At the request of Mahomet, now horror-stricken and on +the verge of swooning, the Keeper closes the door, bidding +the Prophet warn his people of what he has seen. Other +more terrible tortures, he enjoins him, are inflicted in the +six other floors, the cruelty increasing with the depth. This +closes the scene, and Mahomet, as in Version A of Cycle II, +continues his ascent.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_7">7. At first sight there would seem to be no likeness between +this episode and the Divine Comedy. The two essential +parts, the visions of paradise and hell, appear, not as in Dante +in separate settings and at different times, but illogically +intermingled. It is in the third heaven that Mahomet +witnesses the tortures of hell—not, as in former versions, +before his ascent. But, if this circumstance is overlooked +and the episode of hell considered apart from the ascension, +a singular likeness to the Inferno will be apparent.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_8">8. Above all, this version unquestionably provides the +prototype of Dante’s architecture of the realm of pain. +How he mapped out his Inferno everybody knows⁠<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>: a huge, +funnel-shaped chasm down into the centre of the earth, +with nine tiers of steps, stages, or strata, each a prison and +place of punishment for a separate class of sinners. The +greater the depth of the mansion, the greater the sin and the +torture inflicted. Some of the circles are subdivided into +three or more tiers, which correspond to as many grades of +sin. The resemblance to the legend will be at once apparent. +The Moslem hell is similarly formed of floors or tiers that get +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>lower as the sin is greater. Each floor is the mansion of +one class of sinner; and each has its tiers, one above the +other, that correspond to the various subcategories of the +sin. True, the number of main floors in each story differs, +but this is of little moment when compared with other +striking similarities in matters where a merely artistic +imitation would not have required so strict an adherence +to the model. Any other plan could have been adopted by +Dante, but he preferred to follow the Moslem model, with +its great divisions and subdivisions. This scheme admirably +served his purpose for what Dante students term the moral +architecture of the Inferno; that is to say, the distribution +and punishment of the souls in accordance with their crimes. +On one point only do the topographies differ—no mention +is made of the Islamic hell’s being situated below the earth. +But the legend merely states that Mahomet <i>saw</i> hell from +the third heaven, not that hell <i>was</i> there itself. For the +present, however, this point is of secondary interest and will +be dealt with at greater length in later chapters.</p> + +<p>Suffice it to have established the fact that the architecture +of the Inferno had its counterpart in the religious tales of +Islam as far back as the ninth century. The other features +of resemblance between this version and Dante’s poem are +of minor interest.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_9">9. Mahomet’s meeting with the Keeper of Hell, however, +obviously has its parallel in the scene where Dante is refused +passage by the boatman Caronte and grim Minos.⁠<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> The poet +has merely reproduced the Moslem scene in a more artistic +form, adapted from the classical mythology. The Moslem +Keeper, wrathful and glowing like red hot coal; his curt +refusal to open the door; and the imperious command from +on high—all seem like rough sketches of Dante’s boatman, +a “demon with eyes like red hot coals, shooting forth +flames,” whose voice is raised in anger as he exclaims: +“I will not pass thee to the other shore,” and who ultimately +yields at the command from heaven, rendered by +Virgil: “Fret not, Caronte, so is it willed up yonder, where +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>every will is law; question no more.” A further analogy is +afforded by the scene where “dread Minos,” the Keeper of +Hell itself, at the entrance mercilessly appoints the tortures +to the damned. In a fury he drives the poet away until +Virgil intervenes saying: “Hinder him not; his journey is +ordained by fate.” The words would seem to be an echo +of the heavenly warning in the Moslem legend: “Beware +lest thou deny him aught.”</p> + +<p>This dual scene is introduced by Dante, under various +disguises, into other circles of the Inferno. At the entrance +to the fourth circle Plutus assumes the role of Caronte and +Minos.⁠<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> In the fifth circle Phlegyas, and later the devils at +the gates of Dis, repeat the scene with the self-same parleys.⁠<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> +On this last occasion it is an angel from heaven who transmits +the order that allows the travellers to pass.⁠<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> In the +seventh circle Minotaurus offers the resistance, which again +is overcome by Virgil.⁠<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> In the fifth pit of the eighth circle +demons for the last time vainly strive to bar their way.⁠<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_10">10. Meantime, there are other actual features of resemblance. +The violent burst of flame that meets Dante at the +entrance to the first circle of the Inferno⁠<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> compares with the +fire that escapes through the door as Mahomet is about to +scan the first stage of hell in the Moslem legend.</p> + +<p>Here again the first of the fourteen tiers is evidently the +model of Dante’s city of Dis. On reaching the shores of the +Stygian Lake,⁠<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Dante “clearly distinguishes its towers ... +glowing with the heat of a fiery furnace; and the eternal +fire which consumes the city from within spreads over all +a reddish hue.”</p> + +<p>Dis, therefore, is a city of fire, as is the city in the Moslem +hell. Again, once within its walls,⁠<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Virgil and Dante see the +countless tombs, each a bed of fire, wherein, in coffins of red +hot iron, lie the arch-heretics crying aloud in agony. This +is undeniably a copy of the vision where Mahomet sees an +ocean of fire, on whose shores stand cities aflame with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>thousands of red hot coffins in which tyrants in agony expiate +their crimes.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_11">11. A minute examination of the tortures described in the +fourteen minor stages of the Moslem hell will also show that +the Florentine poet with no great imaginative effort might +well have used these as plans for his great images. Thus, +the picture of the reptiles stinging the tyrants, the faithless +guardians and the usurers in the various tiers of the Moslem +hell recurs in the circles of the Inferno where gluttons and +thieves are so tortured.⁠<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> The torture of maddening thirst, +suffered by drunkards in the seventh stage of the Moslem +hell, is applied to forgers in the tenth pit of Dante’s eighth +circle⁠<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a>; and the latter with their swollen bellies have their +prototype in the Moslem usurers. In the same circle Griffolino +of Arezzo and Capocchio of Sienna scratch the scales off their +leprous sores,⁠<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> like the slanderers of the fifth Moslem stage +who lacerate their faces with finger-nails of bronze. The +undutiful children whom Mahomet sees in the eleventh tier, +suffer a similar torture to the <i>barattieri</i> in the fifth pit of circle +eight, who are kept squirming in a lake of burning pitch by +demons armed with spears.⁠<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Lastly, the Moslem torture of +murderers (in the thirteenth tier), who are being perpetually +knifed and resuscitated, is clearly the model of Dante’s +punishment, in the ninth valley of the eighth circle, of the +authors of schism.⁠<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Here, indeed, in sarcastic vein, he places +Mahomet, the very protagonist of the legend upon which he +probably based his work.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_12">12. Closely related to this version and belonging to the +same cycle is Version C. Here again the main theme is the +ascension, although an abortive attempt is made to introduce +the vision of hell into the ascension. The last episodes +of the <i>Miraj</i>, which in A and B are merely alluded to, are +mainly dealt with. Version C is chiefly characterised by +hyperbole and repetition. The fantastic depiction of the +heavenly scenes and persons is in striking contrast to the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>gross materialism shown in the Koran. For his images the +author relies almost exclusively upon light, colour and music.</p> + +<p>The following is an epitome of this version, the text of +which <i>in extenso</i> makes tedious reading.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_13"><i>Version C of Cycle II</i></p> + +<p>13. (<i>a</i>) In the first heaven Mahomet, with Gabriel, sees a +gigantic cock, with a body of bright green and plumage of +dazzling white, whose wings stretch across the horizon and +whose head touches the Throne of God. Ever and anon it +beats its wings and chants a song of praise to God, a song +that is taken up by all the cocks on earth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) He then beholds an angel, half of snow and half of +fire, who calls on all creatures of heaven and earth to unite +in a bond of fellow love, symbolised in his own body by the +blending of the two contrasting elements.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Proceeding, he sees, seated and holding the universe on +his knees, another angel gazing fixedly on a beam of light +upon which writing can be seen. This, Gabriel tells him, is +the Angel of Death who wrests the soul from the body. The +guide describes the anguish of the soul at death and its +exodus from the body; the preliminary judgment by the +angels Munkar and Nakir and the fate of the soul up till +the last day of judgment. He then presents the Prophet to +the Angel, who moves Mahomet to tears by his description +of the part played by him at the hour of death.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Continuing their journey, Mahomet and his guide come +upon the Keeper of Hell. This angel’s description is identical +with that in Version B; and the same episode is repeated +almost literally, with one exception: when the door of hell +is opened, Mahomet recoils from the flames and beseeches +Gabriel to have the angel close the door. Mahomet’s visit to +hell thus comes to nought in this version.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Farther on, they meet hosts of angels, with countless +faces on their breasts and backs, who chant unending +hymns of praise to God.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span></p> + +<p>(Here the legend goes on to describe the ascension up to the +sixth heaven but omits the scenes of the spheres depicted in +versions A and B. The author’s intention seemed to be the +completion of the other versions by adding the visions that +followed after the heavens of the astronomers.)</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) Another multitude of angels is encountered in the +sixth heaven. The body of each angel is studded with wings +and faces, and all their members have tongues with which in +fear and humility they sing songs of praise to God. These, +Gabriel explains, are the cherubim, destined to remain +eternally in the same attitude of obeisance to God. They +may not look at or speak to one another; neither may they +look upwards or downwards to the heavens below. +Mahomet’s greeting they acknowledge by gestures, with +eyes downcast. When Gabriel tells them who Mahomet is, +they bid him welcome and renew their song of praise to the +Almighty.</p> + +<p>(<i>g</i>) Wrapt in admiration, the Prophet is led by Gabriel to +behold in the seventh heaven other still more marvellous +angels. But here Mahomet states that “he dare not relate +what he saw there nor describe those angels”; he merely +states that “at that moment God gave him a strength equal to +that of all the beings on earth, and a new power which +seemed to be of God Himself, that enabled him to turn his +eyes upon those angels, the dazzling light of whom would +otherwise have blinded him.” Gabriel explains to him the +origin of those marvellous creatures, but again Mahomet +“may not relate” what his guide has told him.</p> + +<p>(<i>h</i>) Gabriel now leads him by the hand up to the heaven of +theology, the Divine Dwelling itself. A description of this +abode occupies the greater part of the version. Seventy +rows of gigantic angels appear before him, bearing, like the +others, innumerable wings and faces. “The dazzling +brilliance of the light with which they shone would have +blinded all who endeavoured to behold them.” Mahomet is +stricken with terror, but is comforted by Gabriel, who +assures him that he has yet to see still greater marvels; +for God has vouchsafed to him alone of mortals the privilege +of ascending to mansions even more sublime. In a flash +they rise to a height that in the ordinary course could only +be attained in fifty thousand years. Here, other seventy +rows of angels, similar to the former, chant sweet choruses of +divine praise. The scene is repeated until a total of seven +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>throngs, each numbering seventy rows of angels, is reached. +So close to one another are they that they would seem to +form one mighty heavenly host. Mahomet is awed, and +at this point he interrupts his story to exclaim: “It seemed +to me then as if I had lost all memory of the other marvels of +creation. True, it is not meet that I should speak of what I +saw; but even might I do so, I were not able to convey it by +words. But, had it been that I was to die of terror before +my allotted span was o’er, I surely would have died when I +beheld these angels, the marvel of their forms and the rays +of light emitted by them, and hearkened to the murmur of +their voices. But God in His great mercy comforted me and +renewed my strength, so that I might listen to their hymns +of praise; He gave power unto my eyes, that I might behold +their light.” Mahomet sees that those seven throngs +“surround the Throne of God, Whose praises they sing.”</p> + +<p>(<i>i</i>) The seven stages that follow are monotonous in the +recurrence of exactly the same scenes and the simile of the +sea in each. Mahomet and his guide are wafted into “a +boundless sea of light irradiating with such intensity that +his vision becomes blurred and all creation appears flooded +with the refulgence and consumed in flame.” Purblinded +and terror-stricken, Mahomet proceeds, now to cross a sea +of utter darkness. The violent contrast adds to his fears, +and he fancies that the whole universe is wrapt in darkness. +His guide appears to have forsaken him; but Gabriel, +taking him by the hand, explains that these scenes are but +the portents of their approach to God. In the next stage a +sea of fire, whose waves of flame emit sparks and crackle +loudly, again strikes terror into the Prophet’s heart. “I +verily thought”—he then exclaims “that the entire universe +had caught fire; in terror I raised my hand to my eyes to +blot out the sight and turned to Gabriel.”</p> + +<p>(<i>j</i>) Again reassured by his guide, he now traverses “a +range of immense mountains of snow, whose lofty peaks tower +one above the other as far as the eye can reach and whose +intense whiteness sheds a light as bright as the rays of the +sun”; and again the Prophet stands lost in amazement. +When he sees beyond the snowy heights another sea of fire +burning still more fiercely than the first and that the flames of +the two seas cannot be quenched by the snowy barrier, his +terror grows, and Gabriel redoubles his effort to calm him. +The next stage brings them to an immense ocean of water, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>whose mighty waves rise like lofty mountains to break +ceaselessly one upon the other. Amidst the waters Mahomet +sees angels with myriad wings who shed a light of such +intensity as to baffle description. “Had it not been,” +Mahomet confesses, “that God gave me strength ..., their +light had surely blinded my eyes and my body had been +scorched by the fire of their faces.” Dumbfounded, the +Prophet sees that the enormous waves do not even touch +the knees of these angels, whose heads, Gabriel explains, +reach up to the Throne of the Most High, to Whom their +voices are ever raised in harmonious adoration.</p> + +<p>(<i>k</i>) The last stage is again a sea of light, the refulgence of +which Mahomet paints in terms of extreme hyperbole, at the +same time regretting that “he could not describe it, were he +to make the utmost effort.” “The rays,” he says, “so +nearly blinded me that I saw nothing.” A fervid prayer, +offered up by his angel guide, saves him from blindness. +“God,” he insists, “gave strength and clearness to my +vision, so that I might behold these rays ... and scan the +whole expanse with my eyes. But ... it seemed to me as +if the heavens and earth and all the things therein glittered +and burned, and again my vision was dimmed. The red light +changed to yellow, then white, and then green, and at length +the colours were blended in one luminous mass, so lustrous +that once more my vision failed me.” Another prayer from +Gabriel and Mahomet’s sight is restored and strengthened. +Then does he see, “encompassed by that sea of light and +drawn up in one serried row, other angels circling round the +Throne of God.” The loveliness of these visions defies +description, and here Mahomet falls back on his wonted +subterfuge that, even were it lawful, he could not tell a +hundredth part of what he saw. He merely observes that +those angels, with eyes downcast, sang sweet hymns of +praise; and “as they sang, a flame of light which enveloped +the Divine Throne shone as fire from out their mouths.” +Aghast, Mahomet learns from Gabriel that these, with all +other angels in the realms above the sixth heaven, are +Cherubim.</p> + +<p>(<i>l</i>) The main and final stage of the ascension now begins. +In the words of the Prophet: “Higher and higher through +the celestial ether we rose, faster than the arrow speeding +from the bow, yea, swifter than the wind. And at last we +reached the Throne of the Glorious, Supreme and Almighty +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>One; and, as I gazed upon it, all the works of creation sank +into insignificance. The seven heavens, the seven earths, +the seven hells ... the whole of creation, compared to +that throne, was like a tiny ring of the mesh of a coat of mail +lying in the midst of a boundless desert.”</p> + +<p>(<i>m</i>) As, lost in wonder, Mahomet stands before the +Throne, a green wreath descends, and the Prophet is carried +by it into the presence of God Himself. Astounded at the +marvellous vision before him, he again and for the last time +confesses his inability to describe it. “I saw a thing so +great that neither tongue could tell of nor mind conceive +it. So dazzled were my eyes that I feared I should lose +my sight. However, endowed by God with a spiritual +vision, I began to contemplate all that I had in vain tried +to see before; and I saw a light so bright ... but it is not +meet that I should describe the majesty of His Light. I +then beseeched the Lord my God to bestow upon me steadiness +of vision, and by His grace this came to me. Then +only were the veils drawn aside, and I beheld Him seated +upon His Throne in all His majesty and glory, irradiating +a sublime brilliance ... but more it is not meet that I should +tell of Him.” God now deigns to draw the Prophet nigh to +Him; and, when Mahomet feels the Divine hands upon his +shoulders and looks upon the radiance of His face, he is +thrilled to the core. Intense delight pervades his soul, and, +as if by enchantment, his fears are dispelled. “Methought,” +he says, “when I looked upon my Master that all creatures +in heaven and earth had vanished, for lo I saw nothing else, +neither did I hear the voices of the angels. When at length +it pleased Him to break the Divine spell, it seemed to me as +if I had awakened from a deep sleep, and I had to ponder +before I came to understand where I was and to what +height God in His great mercy had chosen to exalt me.” +In an intimate discourse God now reveals to the Prophet +that he has been chosen as His messenger to all the peoples +of creation and that his nation shall be the greatest of all +nations upon earth. Enraptured, Mahomet listens to the +Deity’s words, when suddenly a curtain of flaming light is +drawn before his eyes and the Almighty is hidden from his +view.</p> + +<p>(<i>n</i>) The wreath that had borne him to the Throne now +carries Mahomet to where Gabriel is waiting, and disappears +on high. It is at this juncture that Mahomet becomes aware +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>of the marvellous change the Beatific Vision has wrought in +his being. “Lo, my God and Master had so strengthened +my spiritual power of sight that with my heart I now saw +what lay behind me as with my eyes I could see what was in +front.” He is astounded, but Gabriel explains the phenomenon +and calls upon him to exercise his powers of vision, +in order that, from their sublime height, he may embrace in +one sweeping glance the splendour of the whole universe. +With ease he can now behold all the marvellous and glittering +lights that had well-nigh blinded him before: the Divine +Throne, the curtain around it, the oceans and the mountains +of the theological heaven, the cherubim, and, finally, the +astronomical heavens shining in all their radiance underneath. +He can even see the surface of the earth.</p> + +<p>(<i>o</i>) Lost in contemplation, Mahomet hearkens to the +harmony of the angels. “Lo,” he says, “I heard the voices +of the cherubim as, around the Throne of God, they chanted +hymns of praise to the Almighty. Each note could I distinguish: +the clear trebles; whisperings as of leaves stirring +in the wind; soft, plaintive notes like the cooing of the dove; +gentle murmurs like the humming of bees; and ever and +anon loud bursts as of thunder.” The solemnity of the +angelic music is reflected in the Prophet’s mind. Perturbed, +he is again heartened by Gabriel, who impresses on him +that he is the chosen of the Lord, Who to him alone has +shown the mercy of allowing him to rise to His Almighty +Throne; soon will he see the heavenly mansion that awaits +him. Gabriel now strives to interpret to the Prophet the +marvels he has witnessed: the seas of light, darkness, fire, +water, pearls and snow are the veils shrouding the glory of +the Throne of God; and the angels in the spheres down to +the sixth heaven are the guardians of the Throne. The duty +of the angels in the lower heavens is to sing praises to God. +The spirit (Gabriel himself) ranks above all these; and next +to him comes Israfil. The angels in the highest sphere who +encircle the Throne are cherubim; and so strong is the +light they emit that no angel in the lower spheres dare raise +his eyes towards them lest he be blinded; and so it is with +the angels in the circles lower still; they dare not look at +those above them lest blindness overcome them.</p> + +<p>(<i>p</i>) Gabriel’s explanations finished, the descent begins, and +“swifter than the arrow and the wind” is their flight. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>description of the gardens of paradise in this legend is +merely a detailed reproduction of the paradise of the Koran. +The Lotus-tree of the Boundary reappears here as a tree of +fabulous magnitude, whose branches, laden with leaves, +whereon dwell the celestial spirits, extend throughout +paradise. The portrayal of the Kauthar, the river of paradise, +is also based on the Koranic description.⁠<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> Another tree, the +Tree of Happiness,⁠<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> also from the Koran, gives the inspiration +for the picture of the mansions of the blessed—a picture in +which the spiritual tone, predominant in other visions, is +absent. The last stage of the journey is through the astronomical +heavens, and on their way Mahomet tells the +prophets he meets of the marvels he has seen. At the same +place on earth where he had called upon him to undertake +the ascension, Gabriel leaves Mahomet. The legend ends +with Mahomet’s astounding assertion that he accomplished +the whole journey in a single night.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_14">14. The monotonous style, the excessive hyperbole and +the constant repetition, coupled with the entire absence of +spiritual effect in the last episode, make it difficult to +associate this version with the artistic poem of Dante. The +most idealistic part of the Divine Comedy is undoubtedly +the Paradiso; and it would, therefore, be as well, before +attempting to compare the two works, to remind the reader +that the final episode of Version C must be regarded as an +addition cleverly introduced by the author to invest the +legend with a semblance of authenticity and orthodoxy. +For at bottom the tale reflects little of the mind of Mahomet, +a polygamist and warrior who led men to battle. It would +rather seem to betray a Moslem with leanings towards +neo-Platonism, or a follower of the <i>Ishraqi</i> and pseudo-Empedoclean +school, so addicted to the usage of similes of +light and geometrical circles in the illustration of metaphysical +ideas.⁠<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> It should also be borne in mind that, in +the tenth century, the authorship of this legend was attributed, +not to an Arab, but a Persian, by name Maysara, +the son of Abd ar-Rabihi. It is possible that, living in the +eighth century, this Persian had retained some traces of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>Zoroastrian creeds of his native country, which had just +been forcibly converted to Islamism.</p> + +<p>The reader, then, before attempting to compare the two +works, should cast one more glance at the Paradiso. Let +him divest the poem of its discourses and dialogues, the +theological doctrine it breathes, its philosophical and +astronomical lore and the allusions to Italian history with +which it is replete, and he will be able, with both works thus +reduced to their simplest outline, to proceed with a methodical +comparison.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_15">15. The most striking analogy between the two works is +the idealistic tone of the general description of paradise. +Dante students have emphasised the gulf that divides his +paradise in this respect from any previous conceptions.⁠<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> +Departing from the beaten track of a material heaven, the +poet made use of the intangible, the most delicate phenomena +of nature. In his celestial spheres life is a feast of light and +sound, and his paradise, the realm of mind emancipated +from the body.</p> + +<p>And light and song also figure largely in the descriptions +of paradise of this Version C. Apart from the sea of darkness, +introduced as a contrast to the seas of light and fire, the +scenes and personal descriptions in the principal stages of +Mahomet’s Ascension are drawn in a perspective of light, +just as are those of Dante. The twenty odd scenes of the +main action, and more especially Mahomet’s progress through +the seventh astronomical sphere, are set in the most vivid +colours. The angels, too, although at times shown in human +form and at others, as monstrous shapes, irradiate a splendour +that dazzles the eyes of the spectator. A comparison of +these with numerous similar descriptions in the Paradiso +makes it clear that in both stories the element of light +reigns supreme.⁠<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> Beatrice grows in brilliance at each stage +of the Ascension. The spirits of the blessed in each sphere +and in the Empyrean appear to Dante as resplendent lights, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>at times assuming the shape of a crown or wreath, at others, +appearing in the allegorical form of the iris, the cross, the +eagle and so forth. God Himself is a light of ineffable +brilliance, and the choirs of angels around him are brilliant +orbs of light. A luminous effect likewise marks each stage +of Dante’s journey. But a more detailed comparison of the +employment of light in the two legends will be made later on.</p> + +<p>And as with light so it is with sound. Excepting the Angel +of Death and the Keeper of Hell, all the angels Mahomet +meets sing songs of praise to the Lord. The words of these +anthems, taken from the Koran, are at times transcribed +literally by Mahomet. On completing the ascension, he again +hears the angels in a symphony that he seeks to describe +by similes taken from the sounds of nature. In Dante’s +poem also the celestial spirits sing hymns of praise from the +Holy Scriptures, and the poet attempts to convey the +majesty of the harmony by comparing it with sounds of +nature and music.⁠<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_16">16. But these are general features of resemblance. Many of +the actual passages are either similar or identical, which +still further proves the close relationship between the two +legends.</p> + +<p>On various occasions Mahomet dwells upon the speed of +his flight, and twice he likens it to the wind and the shaft +sped from the bow. The latter simile is used by Dante in +telling of his ascent to the heaven of the Moon and of Mars⁠<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>; +the former, when he describes the flight of the souls that +come to meet him in the sphere of Venus. Again, he compares +the ascension of the souls in the heaven of Saturn to +the rush of a whirlwind.⁠<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>Inability to describe what he sees is an expedient to which +Mahomet often has resort. Dante affects this hyperbole in +his prologue and in five other Cantos: in the sphere of the +Sun; in the heaven of Gemini; in the Empyrean; when he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>beholds the Virgin Mary; and in his last episode when he +deals with the mystery of the Holy Trinity.⁠<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> + +<p>It will further be noted that Mahomet’s pretext, “that it +is not lawful that he should tell of what he saw,” is found to +recur frequently in the Paradiso.⁠<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>The feature, however, that shows most conclusively the +affinity between the two stories is the one that is repeated +<i>ad nauseam</i> in the Mahometan Ascension. At each stage of +heaven Mahomet is dazzled by the lights, and each time he +is fearful of being blinded. Repeatedly he raises his hands +to his eyes to shield them from the intense radiance, and in +the end he becomes dazed. Gabriel then intercedes with +God and Mahomet is granted a new, preternatural vision, +that enables him to look freely upon the lights that before +had dimmed his sight.</p> + +<p>This scene is reproduced, often with the same words, in +more than ten episodes of Dante’s Paradiso. In the sphere +of the Moon it is the splendour of Beatrice⁠<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a>; in Mars, the +image of Our Lord surrounded by the Martyrs⁠<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>; in the +sphere of the Fixed Stars, the light of the Apostle James, +when the poet exclaims⁠<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>: “As who doth gaze and strain to +see the sun eclipsed a space, who by looking grows bereft of +sight, so did I to this last flame.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> In the eighth sphere the +refulgence of Christ in the image of a sun blurs the poet’s +vision⁠<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a>; at the instance of Beatrice, however, he again tries +his eyesight and finally discerns amid the shadows a brilliant +star, the symbol of the Archangel Gabriel; the movements +of this star his eyes have not the strength to follow.⁠<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> In the +ninth sphere the brilliance of the Divine Essence is such that +he has to close his eyes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> In the tenth sphere the Triumph of +the Blessed calls forth from the poet⁠<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a>: “As a sudden flash +of lightning which so shattereth the visual spirits as to rob +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>the eye of power to realize e’en strongest objects; so there +shone around me a living light, leaving me swathed in such +a web of its glow that naught appeared to me.” But his +fears are assuaged by Beatrice, and he adds⁠<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>: “So soon as +these brief words came into me I felt me to surmount my +proper power; and kindled me with such new-given sight +that there is no such brightness unalloyed that mine eyes +might not hold their own with it.” In the Ninth Canto, when +he beholds the apotheosis of the Divine Essence, he introduces +a still more far-fetched hyperbole. St. Bernard, +guiding Dante in the place of Beatrice, pleads with the +Virgin to grant Dante the favour of being raised to the +Divine Light. His eyes, strengthened, slowly take in the +immense, trinal light, but he says⁠<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a>: “I hold that by the +keenness of the living ray which I endured I had been lost +had mine eyes turned aside from it. And so I was the +bolder, as I mind me, so long to sustain it as to unite my +glance with the Worth infinite. Oh grace abounding, wherein +I presumed to fix my look on the eternal light so long that +I consumed my sight thereon.”</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_17">17. The principal part played by Gabriel in the ascension +is to guide Mahomet and act as his adviser and comforter; +and this very role is assigned by Dante to Beatrice. Gabriel, +however, at times plays a further part, as, for instance, when +he prays to God to help Mahomet and calls upon the Prophet +to thank the Lord for allowing him to visit heaven. A +parallel scene appears in the Tenth Canto of the Paradiso. +In the sphere of the sun, Beatrice exclaims⁠<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a>: “Give thanks, +give thanks to the sun of the angels, who of his grace hath +to this sun of sense exalted thee.” And in the ensuing +verses Dante pours forth heartfelt thanksgivings and effusions +of divine love. The prayers offered up for Dante are too +well known to call for special mention.⁠<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> The most striking +analogy, however, is seen in the following. In the Paradiso +Beatrice leads Dante only as far as the Empyrean, where +St. Bernard takes her place⁠<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a>. In the Moslem legend, Gabriel +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>leaves Mahomet to accomplish the last stage alone; and he +is conveyed to the Divine Throne by a luminous and spiritual +wreath. And herein lies another noteworthy similarity. The +wreath which descends from on high and bears Mahomet up +to the Divinity has its parallel in the “facella, formata in +cerchio a guisa di corona” that Dante sees in the eighth +heaven descending from the Empyrean, whither it returns +escorting the Virgin Mary.⁠<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> + +<p>The solutions furnished by Beatrice, or as on occasion the +blessed, to Dante’s problems of theology and philosophy, +have each an equivalent in the Mahometan ascension. Here, +although occasionally it is an angel, such as the Angel of +Death and the angel guarding hell, that gives the interpretation, +it devolves chiefly upon Gabriel to explain the riddles +of the Moslem hereafter. Especially remarkable is the likeness +between the final episode of the Moslem ascension, +when Gabriel in the highest heaven explains to Mahomet +who the angels inhabiting the celestial spheres are, and +Beatrice’s long dissertation in the ninth heaven on the +nature and being of the various angelic hosts. Further, +Beatrice and Gabriel are agreed upon assigning to the +cherubim a place in the circles nearest to God and the other +circles to angels of lesser rank.⁠<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> True, the Christian angelology, +although derived from the same Hebrew theology and +Alexandrine metaphysics, differs from the Islamic on several +points; but, considered from a literary point of view, this +does not affect the analogy in episode.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_18">18. Let the reader now turn to some of Dante’s angelic +visions and, first, to that of the gigantic eagle formed of +thousands of angels that the poet sees in the Heaven of +Jupiter.⁠<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> All Dante students have admired its beauty and +originality; and yet it is surely admissible to proffer the +suggestion that the picture was inspired by Mahomet’s +vision of the gigantic cock, at the outset of his ascension. +If the unpoetical nature of this domestic fowl, when comparing +it with the eagle, the king of the air and, in classical +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>mythology, the attribute of Jove, be disregarded, it will be +seen that there is a strong resemblance between the two +conceptions. To begin with, Dante’s eagle is a being of +innumerable spirits with wings and faces. These, the spirits +of the blessed, emit an irridescent light and chant in harmony +hymns calling upon mankind to lead a righteous life. As it +chants, the eagle flaps its wings and then comes to rest.⁠<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + +<p>The cock of the Moslem legend is also a gigantic bird that +beats its wings as it chants religious songs, calling mankind +to prayer, and then sits at rest. Version C certainly makes +no allusion to the spiritual nature of the bird, but other +versions and various authentic <i>hadiths</i> expressly state that +it is an angel. In addition, in the Moslem legend, visions +of gigantic angels, each comprising a monstrous agglomeration +of wings and faces, repeatedly recur; and these angels +too, resplendent with light, chant with their innumerable +tongues hymns of praise. So consummate an artist as Dante +might very well have combined these two images to produce +the hybrid and yet most beautiful picture of the eagle.</p> + +<p>The angels with wings of gold that fly over the mystic +rose, by which the abode of bliss in the Paradiso is symbolised,⁠<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> +also appear to be copied from Mahomet’s vision in the +first heaven, where an angel of snow and fire appears. For +these angels also: “had their faces all of living flame ... +and the rest so white that never snow reacheth such limit.”</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_19">19. But the similarities extend even to the general outlines +of entire passages. In the sphere of the Fixed Stars, +Beatrice calls upon Dante to cast his eyes downwards and +endeavour to see how many worlds lie beneath his feet, +in order to prove whether his vision has been strengthened. +Dante exclaims: “With my sight I turned back through +all and every of the seven spheres, and saw this globe such +that I smiled at its sorry semblance.” “And all the seven +were displayed to me, how great they are and swift, and how +distant each from other in repair.” “The thrashing-floor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>which maketh us wax so fierce, as I rolled with the eternal +twins, was all revealed to me from ridge to river-mouth.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>It is surely obvious that the general scheme of this passage +is at once a faithful copy and skilful combination of two +episodes of Version C: when Mahomet beholds the Divine +Throne, whose magnificence makes all former visions pale +into insignificance, and compares its infinite grandeur with +the now dwarfed appearance of the universe; and when, +his spirit having experienced the ecstasy of the Beatific +Vision, he is asked by Gabriel to cast his eyes downwards +and test his supernatural power of sight. With one wondering +glance—the legend runs—he embraces the whole universe, +his eyes penetrating the celestial and astronomical spheres +beneath his feet right down to the surface of the earth.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III_section_20">20. A final and irrefutable argument, however, may be +based on the last episode crowning the Paradiso, when Dante +beholds the Beatific Vision of the Divine Essence in all its +splendour. An examination of this vision will prove of +interest. The Divine Essence is the luminous centre of nine +concentric circles of angelic spirits who, revolving unceasingly +around it, sing Hosannahs to the Lord. Each circle comprises +countless angels.⁠<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> The two first circles are those of +the seraphim and cherubim. Dante is unable to fix his +gaze on the light but soon his sight is strengthened and he +can behold it steadily. He admits that he is powerless to +describe the vision, for the ecstasy of the moment effaced +all memory of it but, even were he able to recall the vision, +’twere not possible for mortal to describe it. Dante’s +attempts to picture the Trinity and the Incarnation need not +be taken into consideration. His description of the vision +is reduced to a vague recollection of the subjective phenomena: +steady and progressive mental contemplation, a +trance in which he is wrapt in admiration, and a feeling of +intense delight and spiritual sweetness that pervades his +soul.⁠<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span></p> + +<p>Dante students have long and in vain sought the origin +of this sublime apotheosis, for none of the religious legends, +so critically studied by the great scholars, Labitte, D’Ancona, +Ozanam and Graf, furnishes the least resemblance in geometrical +conception to these concentric circles of angels who +ever revolve around the Divine Light. Nevertheless, the +striking likeness between Dante’s poem and the Moslem +legend conclusively proves the strength of our argument. +In the latter, too, rows of angels, each row representing +a different rank, with the Cherubim nearest, surround the +Divine Throne. These angels also chant anthems in honour +of the Lord and radiate streams of light; and the number +of rows again is nine. Thus do they also in nine concentric +circles revolve unceasingly around the Throne of God—a +God who in both stories is depicted as a focus of ineffable +light. Again, both protagonists describe the Beatific Vision +twice—Mahomet, when, before undertaking the last stage of +his Ascension and still accompanied by Gabriel, he first +discerns the Divine Throne, and again when Gabriel has left +him; and Dante, when, with Beatrice, he beholds the +Divine Apotheosis from the ninth heaven and a second time +in the final Canto. The psychological effects on both are +also similar. Mahomet, too, is dazzled and fears lest he be +blinded; then God bestows upon him steadiness of vision, +so that he can fix his eyes upon the Divine Light; he also +is incapable of describing the Throne and can only recall +that he experienced a rapture of the soul, preceded by a +sensation of intense delight.</p> + +<p>The stories have many other minor points in common, but +the chief features of resemblance as given above will perhaps +suffice to establish proof of the affinity between the two.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV">IV<br> +<span class="smcap">Third Cycle—Fusion of the Versions of the +“Isra” and the “Miraj”</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">1. The legends of this cycle really form a synthesis of +those of the first two cycles, and their episodes are for the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>greater part repetitions of previous ones. Nevertheless, +although from our point of view they are of minor importance, +they represent a distinct stage in the evolution of the +legend. In the former cycles the <i>Isra</i>, or Nocturnal Journey, +and the <i>Miraj</i>, or Ascension, were related separately; but +here the two are fused into one continuous story. One +version will suffice to illustrate the earliest type of non-Christian +mediæval legend that related, as in Dante’s poem, +in one uninterrupted story the visit to hell and purgatory +and the ascension to paradise. This version may be called +the earliest, for it has been handed down to us in the +voluminous <i>Tafsir</i>, or commentary on the Koran, by the +celebrated historian Tabari, who lived in the 9th century. +Briefly summarised, the legend runs as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_2"><i>Sole Version of Cycle III</i></p> + +<p>2. The introduction is identical with that in Version A of +Cycle 2. Mahomet, either in his house or the Mosque at +Mecca, is suddenly awakened by Gabriel, alone or accompanied +by other angels. He is purified and led on a Nocturnal +Journey to Jerusalem and thence to heaven. The episodes +are as follows: At the outset Mahomet meets an old woman +who, decked in finery, from the roadside endeavours to entice +him to tarry with her; but Mahomet turns a deaf ear and +passes on unheeding. Gabriel explains that this woman is +an allegory of the world. Her tinsel represents the allurements +of the world, which like her is effete, for so short is +life on earth that it resembles the brief years of old age. +Immediately after this vision—or before it in some versions—Mahomet +is called upon to halt by two voices, one from +either side of his path. These are the voices of the Jewish +and Christian faiths, that would fain convert him to their +creeds. Proceeding, he encounters the Devil, who in turn +tries to lure him from his path; but, at Gabriel’s warning, +he hastens on. At last, freed from all temptations, he +arrives at a stage where he is welcomed by Abraham, Moses +and Jesus.</p> + +<p>The visions that follow either represent allegories or +depict the tortures of hell, some of the latter resembling +and others differing from the punishments of the previous +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>versions. Firstly, Mahomet beholds men cutting corn sown but +the day before, and, in amazement, he sees the stubble grow +as fast as the corn is cut. These, Gabriel informs him, are +symbolic of the Moslems who devote their all to the spreading +of the faith and whom God rewards seven-hundredfold. +Then follows the torture of the crushed head, as in Version B +of Cycle 1, and thereafter, the punishment of those who +failed to make the offerings required by rite. Clothed in rags, +these graze like beasts, chewing fetid herbs. Further on, the +adulterers sit at a table bearing both wholesome meat and +raw and putrid flesh. The latter they devour in due punishment +for their lewdness, which led them to reject their +wives and seek the embraces of loose women. At this +juncture the travellers’ path is barred by the trunk of a tree, +and in surmounting it their clothes get torn. This obstacle +is a symbol of the bad Moslems who lead their brothers off +the path of virtue. An aged wood-cutter, who toils to heap +still higher the pile of wood he has collected, although his +strength forbids his carrying his loads away, next comes into +view, symbolising the rich miser who hoards the wealth he +cannot use. Proceeding, they witness the torture of the +hypocritical preachers, who, like the liars in Versions A and B +of Cycle 1, have their tongues and lips torn. A huge bull, +which, rushing out of a narrow shelter, is now vainly trying +to re-enter it, is figurative of the torment undergone by the +conscience of those who speak hasty words they afterwards +regret. The travellers now pass through a valley, where +Mahomet, breathing in the soft perfumed air, listens in +rapture to a song whose words he cannot catch. The valley, +Gabriel explains, represents heaven, and the voice he hears +sings to the Lord, beseeching Him to fulfil His promise to +the faithful. God hearkens to the prayer and renews His +covenant to save all Moslems. A parallel scene in antithetic +setting is now introduced. Mahomet traverses another valley, +which, reeking abominably, represents hell. Another voice +is heard invoking the Lord to punish all sinners, and from +on high God answers that He will wreak His vengeance.</p> + +<p>Leaving the valley of hell behind, the travellers reach the +Mosque of Jerusalem, the goal of their Nocturnal Journey. +The scenes laid here are of little interest. Mahomet, surrounded +by angels, prays, and in turn he is greeted by the +spirits of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus. +Offered glasses of milk, water and wine, he drinks of the milk +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>and water, and, as in Version A of Cycle 2, Gabriel applauds +his choice. The story of the ascension is told in terms that +are almost identical with those of that version. When he +reaches the seventh heaven, however, the passage of Version +B of the first cycle, depicting Abraham, is inserted with +slight variations. Abraham is seen as a venerable old man, +seated at the entrance to paradise between two hosts of +men, the one with white, the other with spotted faces. +The latter bathe in three rivers, emerging from the third +with faces as white as those of the other host which they now +join. The one host, Gabriel explains, are the believers of +unspotted soul and the other, penitent sinners. The three +rivers are symbolic of the mercy, loving-kindness and glory +of God. The final stage, as in Version A of Cycle 2, is the +visit to the Lotus-tree of the Boundary. The legend ends +with the familiar intimate colloquy between God and the +Prophet.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">3. As already suggested, this version is interesting, not +from a comparative point of view, but because it constitutes +a fusion of the versions of Cycles 1 and 2. As the date of the +version is not later than that of the fragmentary tales, it +would seem as if the Moslem traditionists had decided upon +such fusion at an early period. This decision, no doubt, was +based on considerations of art rather than theology, the +object being more to satisfy, with one complete story, the +curiosity of the faithful than to justify the existence of so +many fragmentary and often contradictory versions of one +and the same event. That this latter object, implying the +necessity of accepting as authentic all those different versions, +influenced the theologians of a later epoch, will be seen +further on. In this version there is no trace of it. Tabari, +by whom the version has been handed down to us, although +himself an eminent theologian, merely records it as the work +of story-tellers and omits all mention of the authenticity or +otherwise of the different fragments and versions.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">4. Of the two main parts of the legend, the second (the +ascension) contains little that is new either in descriptive +feature or episode. The first part, on the other hand, could +easily be regarded as a reading of the <i>Isra</i> of a different cycle +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>from those hitherto considered. Its many new episodes are +precisely the visions that do not deal with realities, but are +symbols of abstract ideas, of vices and virtues. A new +element, moral allegory—so marked a feature of Dante’s +poem—is thus introduced. Vossler⁠<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> has pointed out how +successfully Dante combines the two imperfect forms of +mediæval visionary style—the religious or apocalyptic, and +the profane or allegorical; and he lauds Dante’s originality, +for, as he truly remarks, his allegories are not derived from +Capella, Prudentius, or Alan of Lille.⁠<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> The free use of +allegory in this version of the Nocturnal Journey is, therefore, +of interest. No doubt few of the visions can be regarded as +models of the scenes in the Divine Comedy; but their mere +occurrence in such number in a Moslem legend that in other +respects has been shown to have had so great an influence on +Dante, is significant. It may reasonably be supposed that +the origin of other allegories of the great poem which, in +Vossler’s opinion, cannot have been derived from its +Christian or classical precursors, can be traced back to Moslem +literature.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">5. A systematic investigation in this direction will be made +later on. Let it here suffice to cite one typical instance of +the adaptation to the Divine Comedy of Moslem symbols. +The resemblance between the vision of the old woman +appearing at the outset of Mahomet’s journey as a symbol of +the temptation of the world, and the vision seen by Dante +when he reaches the fifth circle of purgatory, is obvious. +The old woman, whom Mahomet sees, concealing under +splendid adornments the ravages that time has made upon +her charms, endeavours to draw him from the path by +flattery and alluring gestures. Not until later does Gabriel +interpret the vision. The old seductress is a symbol of the +world, decked in finery to entice the Prophet. Had she +succeeded, the Moslem people had likewise preferred worldly +well-being to eternal bliss.</p> + +<p>Dante, having traversed the fourth circle of purgatory,⁠<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> +dreams of a woman who stammers and squints, is lame, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>one-armed, and jaundiced. Yet so skilfully does she hide her +defects that it is with difficulty that Dante resists her +fascination. Virgil exposes the hideousness beneath her +clothes, but not until later does he interpret the vision. +The woman is the eternal sorceress, as old as mankind, who +ruins men with her allurements, although it is given to all to +free themselves, even as Dante had done.</p> + +<p>The general outlines of the two episodes are clearly +identical; although in the detail Dante introduces classical +allusions,⁠<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> which are lacking in the Moslem picture. And +indeed all commentators of the Divine Comedy agree that +this vision is symbolic of the false felicity of the world,⁠<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> just +as Gabriel interpreted it to Mahomet as being an allegory of +the fleeting pleasures of earth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> The coincidence is significant.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">6. Lastly, the resemblance of one of the descriptive features +of the garden of Abraham in this version to Dante’s purgatory +is remarkable. Before entering the celestial mansions, +Dante has to be purified thrice in three different streams: +firstly, when he leaves hell and Virgil, on the advice of Cato, +washes away the spots that disfigure his face after his visit to +the infernal regions, restoring the natural colour to his tear-stained +cheeks⁠<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a>; and a second and a third time before +he leaves purgatory, when Matilda and Statius in turn +immerse Dante in the Lethe and Eunoe, the waters of which +efface from the mind the memory of sin and renew the +supernatural power of the soul for good, thus preparing it for +the bliss of heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + +<p>The idea of this threefold purification would seem to be +taken direct from the scene where the souls of penitent +sinners are washed in the three rivers of the garden of +Abraham. The effects, here also, are both physical and +moral: the natural colour is restored to their faces, and their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>souls, cleansed from sin by repentance, are by the grace of +God made fit to enter into the glory of heaven.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_V">V<br> +<span class="smcap">Theological Commentaries on the Legend</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_1">1. To trace step by step the evolution of this legend would +be a task beyond the scope of this work, even if it were +possible with our restricted knowledge of the bibliography +of this branch of Moslem literature. In any case, the +resultant gain, so far as our argument is concerned, would +be but slight. Religious literature is essentially conservative, +and the literature of Islam, pre-eminently so. In +the comparatively brief period of two centuries the legend +of the ascension had assumed a multiplicity of forms, +and each version was authenticated, even by relations of the +Prophet himself. Such testimony went unquestioned by +the masses; and thus it came about that the legend ultimately +became crystallised in one definite form, into which +the main versions regarded as authentic were fused. This +fusion was the work of theologians and interpreters of the +Scriptures in an endeavour, chiefly, to harmonise a number of +apparently contradictory tales. The earliest version of the +legend in its new form was the one of Cycle 3, and this +version remained final. All that appeared later were either +<i>commentaries</i> upon it or <i>allegorico-mystical adaptations</i> and +<i>literary imitations</i> of it. Certainly, an abundant literature, +such as was induced in Europe a few centuries later by +Dante’s poem, grew around the legend. A brief review of the +three aforementioned categories will reveal how, following +upon its definite crystallisation, theologians and men of +letters elaborated the story of the ascension.</p> + +<p>Commentaries by theologians preponderated over all the +other forms. The many exegetical works on the Koran all +deal with the completion and interpretation of the first +verse of the seventeenth chapter, in which the ascension is +alluded to. The various traditional versions of the legend +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>are discussed on the evidence of the most authoritative +theologians. The collections of authentic <i>hadiths</i> also devote +pages to the legend in its different forms. To the same +category belongs a profusion of historical works on Islam +and biographies of Mahomet and the prophets. Each book +has its chapter on the ascension, which, it must be remembered, +is regarded by all true Moslems as an historical fact +and not unnaturally forms an integral part of the story of +the life of Mahomet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> + +<p>But the most interesting of these commentaries are the +treatises written by theologians who collated their data +from the above-mentioned works. One such treatise appeared +as early as the tenth century. This, the work of Abu Laith +of Samarcand, dealt in particular with the Prophet’s colloquy +with God.⁠<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> Not until the twelfth century, however, did this +form of literature reach its culminating point; at all events, +no works of an earlier date have come down to us in such +profusion.⁠<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<p>The authors of almost all these treatises are mainly concerned +with the co-ordination of the various versions of the +<i>Isra</i> and the <i>Miraj</i>; and they solve the problem either by +uniting all the forms into one or by assuming that several +ascensions were made. Other questions, such as the date +of the ascension, the spot whence Mahomet set out, and so +forth, also, however, occupy their attention. Indeed they +went farther and introduced among a host of other points, +the mystical meaning of the purification of the Prophet’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>heart; the composition and sequence of the mansions above +the astronomical heavens; and the visibility of God. However, +so far as our comparison is concerned, this literature +reveals one curious coincidence alone: the Divine Comedy +of Islam—like that of Dante at a later date—had a host of +enthusiastic admirers, who studied it in all its phases. The +meaning of every word was investigated and an explanation +for the most insignificant details sought with a scrupulousness +arising more from religious than literary motives.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_2">2. This coincidence is only natural, however, and in itself +does not constitute a proof. What is of more moment is +that these exegetical treatises supplement the traditional +text of the legend. For in the fused version there appear +many new scenes and episodes, which, as regards their +authenticity and age, can only be attributed to those versions +of the three cycles already examined or to others contemporaneous +with them.⁠<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> Of these new episodes only those +that distinctly resemble scenes in Dante need be considered +here.⁠<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_3">3. At the outset of his Nocturnal Journey—before his +visit to the infernal regions—an afrite, armed with a fire-brand, +bars Mahomet’s way. Attacked and pursued by the +demon, the Prophet is comforted by Gabriel, who teaches +him a prayer, by repeating which he is enabled to extinguish +the demon’s torch.⁠<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p>As Dante and Virgil reach the fifth pit of the eighth circle +of hell, a similar scene unfolds itself.⁠<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> The two poets are +pursued by a horde of demons armed with javelins and led +by a fierce and swarthy devil. Virgil calms Dante’s fears +and utters a brief command, whereupon the devil’s fury +subsides and his weapon falls at his feet.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_4">4. But few new episodes are introduced into the ascension +proper. The first and main one is the scene of the ladder +stretching from the Temple of Jerusalem to heaven. Its +rungs are of gold, silver, and emerald. By it the souls of +the blessed rise, and on either side angels stand in line. By +means of this ladder Mahomet, with Gabriel, reaches heaven +in less time than it takes to tell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> + +<p>The similar scene in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second +Cantos of the Paradiso is familiar to all. In the heaven of +Saturn the poet sees a golden ladder that leads to the last +of the celestial spheres. The spirits of the blessed descend +by its rungs. Beatrice calling upon him to ascend, he finds +himself at the top in less time than it would take to withdraw +the hand from fire.⁠<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_V_section_5">5. The prophets inhabiting the heavens visited by Mahomet +seldom appear alone, as in the previous versions; but each +is surrounded by a group of the blessed, their disciples on +earth. Thus, in the fifth heaven, Aaron tells Biblical stories +to a group of Jewish unbelievers; others, like Enoch, Moses, +and Abraham, discuss theology with Mahomet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> The +Prophet also meets other Biblical and Moslem characters. +In the fourth heaven he sees Mary, the mother of Moses, +with the Virgin Mary⁠<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a>; and in the seventh heaven, two +hosts of Moslems, the one clad in white and the other in +grey.⁠<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> With the light of the Divine Throne shining upon +him, a man unknown to him is seen by Mahomet. This +man, Gabriel explains, is a symbol of the glory that awaits +the contemplative souls.⁠<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> Between heaven and earth he +beholds the prophet Ezekiel begirt by a circle of light and +prostrate in prayer.⁠<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> Bilal, too, he sees, the first Moslem to +hold the sacred office of Muezzin and call the faithful to +prayer.⁠<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> Again, one of his dearest companions, Abu Bakr, +appears to him in fantastic form to act as his guide, when +Gabriel leaves him in the final stages of the ascension.⁠<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> +Lastly, a heavenly maiden, the destined bride of his disciple +Zayd, the son of Haritha, reveals her identity and that of +her intended spouse.⁠<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span></p> + +<p>Thus, by their wealth of incident and profusion of +secondary characters, these versions offer a plan of the +Moslem legend that, unlike the plans of previous versions, +is not so far removed from that of the Divine Comedy. +Dante also imagined the celestial spheres to be peopled by +the blessed, who were allotted to the various heavens according +to their virtues or the profession they followed. The +persons in each group discourse among themselves or with +Dante on religion or philosophy. For the greater part they +are Christians, but Hebrews and even Pagans are also introduced. +Further, both sexes are represented. Some are +famous characters of olden times, but the majority are either +friends or relations of the poet, who, with the memory of +them on earth still fresh in his mind, depicts their moral +traits in masterly, yet measured, terms.</p> + +<p>It is, of course, not claimed that the Moslem legend, at +this, the final stage of its evolution, can compare in its +poetical technique with the Divine Comedy. But in the +general scheme of action, as well as in the roles of the protagonist +and other characters, the resemblance between the +two can hardly be said to be either remote or accidental.⁠<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI">VI<br> +<span class="smcap">Adaptations from the Legend, mainly +Mystical Allegories</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_1">1. The religious authorities of Islam having at last determined +upon a version that was to be regarded as authentic +and as the accepted revelation, the legend may be said to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>have crystallised into a definite form. The imagination of +the faithful could now no longer indulge in further inventions +or additions. Nevertheless, the loss of new episode thus +incurred was amply compensated for by another and more +fertile mode of elaboration; in its final form the legend +underwent considerable literary alteration.</p> + +<p>The glosses originally added in explanation of obscure +words and ellipses become merged in the text. The simplicity +of the primitive versions is lost in figurative language and +other literary adornments. The ascension is the theme of +legends in versified prose and even poems, works in which +the rich fancy of the East is given full play. The lesser +characters, as well as the two protagonists, and even God +Himself, engage in lengthy discourses, interspersed with +rhyme and replete with metaphors and abstruse conceits. +At times inanimate objects, such as the Divine Throne, are +represented as living beings; heavenly animals, like the +serpent that encircles the Throne and the beast that carries +Mahomet, are personified and made to hold long speeches. +Again, the abodes of the beyond are described with a wealth +of detail taken from the Koran and the <i>hadiths</i> of the Prophet +dealing with heaven and hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_2">2. This first attempt at elaboration merely expanded the +text of the legend. Followed a host of adaptations, allegorical +or mystical, in which the ascension—supposed to be an +historical fact—is applied to other physical and spiritual +beings, that are either real or symbolical and earthly or +heavenly. These ascend to the regions of bliss in practically +the same stages as Mahomet did in his <i>Miraj</i>. Brief mention +can be made of only a few of these tales.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_3">3. The most popular is that of the ascension of the soul +at death. On leaving the body, it is led by its guardian +angel up through the astronomical heavens to be judged +before the Throne of God. The following is a short summary +of the ascension:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>At the entrance to each heaven the scene depicted in the +<i>Miraj</i> is repeated. The guardian angel is refused entry until +the identity of the travellers is disclosed. The soul is then +either welcomed or abused according to its conduct during +life. In each sphere it undergoes an examination on one of +the precepts of Islam, in the following order: Faith, prayer, +almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage, honour of parents, love of +fellow-men, religious zeal and purity of heart. From the +Lotus-tree of the Boundary the soul ascends through seas of +light, darkness, fire and water and finally of snow and ice—all +as in Version C of Cycle 2. When the veils that shroud +the Divine Throne are drawn aside the catechism of the soul +by God Himself begins.⁠<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_4">4. In other similar legends,⁠<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> the guardian angels are portrayed +as presenting to God each day the good deeds of the +believers entrusted to their care.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>In each of the seven heavens the angel at the gate denies +admission to the good deed whenever its author is found +guilty of any sin. Only those good deeds that have been +inspired by Divine love may rise through the seven spheres +to the presence of God, Who declares them accepted in His +sight.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_5">5. In these early adaptations, the ascension is accredited +solely to personified metaphysical conceptions or to the souls +of the departed. In each case, moreover, Mahomet himself +is made to tell the story, in order to lend greater authority +to it. The deep religious respect felt for the Prophet forbade +any encroachment. Nevertheless, the Sufis or mystics were +not long in arrogating to themselves the role of protagonist +that had hitherto been reserved for Mahomet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> The pretext +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>for their audacity was provided by the interpretation of the +<i>Miraj</i>, that Mahomet had been raised by God to heaven in +order that he might experience the supreme delight of the +Beatific Vision and his heart be freed from all earthly ties.⁠<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> +It was natural, therefore, for the Sufis to generalise this +interpretation and apply it to the real or symbolical ascension +of the soul, which breaks its worldly bonds and flies towards +God, as the essence of spiritual perfection. Indeed, one of +the most famous masters of early Moslem mysticism, Abu +Yazid al-Bistami, who lived in the ninth century, is credited +with an actual ascension to the Divine Throne through the +same stages as were traversed by Mahomet in his <i>Miraj</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p> + +<p>Thus the legend gradually reaches the climax of its +evolution. The Sufi, as a type of humanity capable of +perfection by gradual purification from passion, rises to such +heights of contemplation that he enjoys a foretaste of eternal +bliss in the Beatific Vision.⁠<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_6">6. The more interesting of these later adaptations are the +work of the Murcian Muhyi ad-Din ibn Arabi, the prince of +Hispano-Moslem mystics, who died twenty-five years before +the Florentine poet was born.⁠<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> One of these works is based +upon the <i>Miraj</i>, in which he seeks to discover a hidden moral. +He treats it as an esoteric teaching of the revelations manifested +to the soul of the mystic in the course of its ascension +to God. This work, which unfortunately has not yet been +edited, is entitled “The Book of the Nocturnal Journey +towards the Majesty of the Most Magnanimous.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>poetical fragment, of which a rendering is given hereunder, +will suffice to indicate its general outline.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The Sufis or mystics are the heirs of the Prophet whose +life and doctrine they follow. By devoting all their days to +meditation and the practice of the mysteries of the Koran +and maintaining the memories of their Beloved, they are +at last led into the presence of God. Boraq, the beast of +heaven that conveys them swiftly on their journey, is the +symbol of divine love. The holy city of Jerusalem, the +emblem of light and truth, forms the first stage of the +journey. Here, as did the Prophet, they tarry close to the +wall, representing purity of heart, that bars access to the +profane. Having partaken of milk, the symbol of the true +direction of revealed doctrine, they knock at the gate of +heaven, allegorical of bodily mortification. Beyond the gate +they see paradise and hell. With the right eye they witness +the happiness of the blessed; with the left, they weep over +the terrors of the infernal fires. They reach the Lotus-tree, +the symbol of faith and virtue, and eat their fill of the fruit, +whereby the most sublime powers of man become perfected. +Thus prepared, they arrive at the final stage of their journey. +The veils enshrouding the spirit are drawn aside and the hidden +secret of the mystery of mysteries is made manifest to them.⁠<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The significance of this subtle poem in its interpretation of +Dante’s allegories is apparent. Upon the author’s own +showing,⁠<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> three esoteric meanings are conveyed by both the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>Divine Comedy and the “Convivio”—the first a personal, +and the second a moral, allegory; whilst the third is anagogical. +Seen in this light, the Divine Comedy is a complex +allegory of Dante’s own life and the redemption of mankind. +Dante, representing mankind, has been led from the straight +path; but, guided by reason, faith and grace, he shakes off +the fetters of evil; and the expiation of, and purification +from, his sins are symbolised by his journey to hell and +purgatory. Having attained moral perfection, he ascends by +the path of contemplation to the eternal bliss of the Divine +Essence. Thus Dante, like the Moslem Sufis in general and +the Murcian Ibn Arabi in particular, availed himself of the +alleged historical fact of the ascension of a man to the +heavens, in order to represent in symbol the mystical drama +of the regeneration of souls by faith and theological virtues.⁠<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>This further surprising coincidence of the allegorical +intentions of the two legends must, therefore, be added to the +many other analogies existing between them. As the symbolical +character of the Divine Comedy is, in the eyes of all +critics, the most forcible proof of its original inspiration, a +closer enquiry into these wonderful coincidences will not be +amiss. The affinity between another mystical allegory of +the Murcian Ibn Arabi and Dante’s poem is obvious.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_7">7. The Ascension in question appears in a voluminous +work entitled <i>Al-Futuhat al-makkiya</i>, or the <i>Revelations of +Mecca</i>. It is the main theme of an entire chapter, the heading +of which, “The Alchemy of Felicity,” in itself implies an +esoteric allegory.⁠<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> The narrative is prefaced with a synopsis, +of which the following is an abstract.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The aim of the soul, from the day on which the Creator +unites it with the body, is to acquire the knowledge of the +essence of its principle, God. In their search for the path +leading to this end, the souls meet with a messenger sent by +God to lead them towards that knowledge of the Creator +wherein lies their happiness. Some gratefully accept the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>heavenly messenger’s guidance⁠<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a>; others disdain it on the +plea that his powers of cognition can in no way be superior to +theirs. The former then follow the direction of the doctrine +as revealed by God to His messenger; whilst the latter are +merely guided by the light of their own reason.</p> + +<p>Here the mystical allegory begins, the protagonists being +two travellers, one of each category. Thus, a theologian and +a rationalist philosopher set out simultaneously on the path +that is to lead them towards God. The first stages of the +journey represent the perfection and happiness enjoyed by +the soul through restraint of the passions. In these stages +the teachings of philosophy and theology practically coincide, +so that both travellers succeed in shaking off the fetters that +bind them to earth and free themselves from the baneful +influence of passion.</p> + +<p>At this point begins the actual Ascension to heaven, the +plan of which is modelled upon the <i>Miraj</i>. The first seven +stages correspond to the astronomical heavens—the Moon, +Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Each +is visited in succession by the two travellers, who ascend at +the same speed, the philosopher mounted on Boraq, the +celestial beast that carried the Prophet and the allegorical +figure of reason, and the theologian, by means of the Rafraf +or shining wreath, representing the light of Divine Grace, +which also conveyed Mahomet to the Divine Throne. But, +although both reach the gates of the heavens at the same +time, their receptions are different. The theologian is +welcomed by the prophets inhabiting each sphere, but the +philosopher is obliged to stand apart until he is received by +the “Intelligences,” who in the neo-Platonic cosmology move +the celestial spheres and to whom in this allegory the humble +role of servants to the prophets is assigned. The theologian +is filled with rejoicing, but his different treatment causes +sadness and pain to the philosopher, who from afar witnesses +the warm welcome given to his companion and only gleans +vague information about the sublime mysteries revealed to +the other by the prophets. Not that the philosopher is +altogether neglected. The “Intelligence” of each sphere +instructs him on problems of physics or cosmology, the +solutions of which are dependent upon the natural influence +exercised by the planet in question on the phenomena of this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>lower world. He finds, however, that the prophets explain +the significance of these problems to the theologian from a +loftier point of view and much more clearly than is done by +natural science alone.</p> + +<p>By this means the author Ibn Arabi ingeniously introduces +many points from his own theological system, and the work +becomes a veritable encyclopædia of philosophy, theology, +and the occult sciences, set forth in the form of debates or +speeches made by the prophets.</p> + +<p>Thus in the heaven of the Moon, Adam instructs the +theologian on the creative influence of Divine names. These +are the prototypes of all creatures and are equivalent to the +prime causes of philosophy. The phenomena of the sublunar +world; the changes in the material elements; the growth of +all living things; the generation of the human body—all +are shown to the philosopher by the “Intelligence” to be +effects of the direct action of this first astronomical sphere. +But the theologian learns their primary and transcendental +cause, which lies hidden in the mystic influence of the +Divine names.</p> + +<p>In the second heaven, whilst the philosopher is received by +the Intelligence of Mercury, the theologian meets the two +prophets Jesus and John, who discuss with him the subject +of miracles, more particularly those performed by the +cabbalistic virtue of certain words, the creative mystery of the +word “Fiat,” and of the Divine breath that brings beings +into existence. Then Jesus, the Spirit of God, reveals to his +disciple the esoteric working of the miracles he performed in +Israel. All these phenomena of healing, restoration of life, +and so forth are derived from this sphere. When effected +<i>praeter ordinem naturae</i>, they are miracles due to the supernatural +alchemic powers of Jesus; when produced naturally, +they are the effect of the virtue possessed by the Intelligence +of Mercury. The latter is all that the philosopher learns.</p> + +<p>A similar difference between the results obtained by the +two travellers holds throughout; and it will suffice to +summarise the knowledge acquired in each sphere.</p> + +<p>In Venus, the prophet Joseph interprets the mystery of +the order, beauty, and harmony of the Cosmos, and expounds +the art of poetry and the interpretation of dreams.</p> + +<p>In the sphere of the Sun, the prophet Enoch explains the +astronomical cause of day and night and its many mystical +applications.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span></p> + +<p>The prophet Aaron, in Mars, talks at length on the government +of nations, and commends to the theologian’s attention +the Revealed Code as a supreme criterion of the Divine +policy, based rather on mercy than on wrath.</p> + +<p>In the heaven of Jupiter, Moses expounds the pantheism of +Ibn Arabi. Starting with the interpretation of the miracle +when he transformed the rod into a serpent, he ends with the +thesis that all form in the universe is mutable; but the +substance is ever the same, namely God in different relations, +which are dependent upon the subjective impression produced +in the mind of the contemplator.</p> + +<p>Lastly, in Saturn, Abraham, reclining upon the wall of +the House of Habitation, explains to the theologian the +problem of the life hereafter. Meanwhile, the dejected +philosopher awaits him in the dark dwelling of the Intelligence. +When, repentant of his conduct, he would be converted +to Islam and share in the supernatural illumination +of the faith, Abraham, the father of the faithful, rejects him +and leads the theologian by the hand into the House of +Habitation.</p> + +<p>Here begins the second part of the ascension. The +theologian leaves the temple and ascends again on high; +while his companion waits below.</p> + +<p>The stages of this second part of the ascension are, with +the exception of two astronomical spheres, all scenes of +mysticism and theology. The theologian first ascends to the +Lotus-tree of the Boundary, the fruit of which are emblems +of the good deeds done by the faithful. At its foot run four +mystic rivers, representing the Pentateuch, the Book of +Psalms, the Gospel and the Koran. The last is the greatest +and is the source of the others.</p> + +<p>Thence the traveller rises to the sphere of the Fixed Stars, +where corruption is unknown and myriads of angelic spirits +dwell in a thousand mansions. Each one he visits and +tastes the supreme delights of God’s elect.</p> + +<p>In the last sphere—the Zodiac—are revealed to him all the +marvels of the celestial paradise, which are derived from the +virtue of this sphere. Immediately thereafter he arrives at the +stool on which rest the feet of the Almighty—the symbols +of His mercy and justice—by whose favour he is instructed +in the dread problem of the eternity of reward and punishment +in the life hereafter.</p> + +<p>The ineffable light radiating from the Throne and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>sweet harmony of the spheres thrill him to the innermost +recesses of his heart. In an ecstasy, he suddenly realises +that he has been raised to the Divine Throne, the symbol of +God’s infinite mercy. The Throne appears to him held on +high by five angels and the three prophets, Adam, Abraham, +and Mahomet; and from them he learns of the mystery of +the Cosmos, which is inscribed within the sphericity of the +body of the universe, which is the Throne of God.</p> + +<p>The remaining stages all belong to the spiritual world, or +world of Platonic ideas. The traveller is finally wafted into +the vapour which is the primitive epiphany or manifestation +of God <i>ad extra</i> and the type of the <i>prime matter</i> common to +Creator and creature in the pseudo-Empedoclean theosophy +of Ibn Arabi.⁠<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> Enraptured, the traveller beholds the +ineffable mysteries of the divine essence and its attributes, +both the absolute and those relative to the creatures. The +sublime vision ending with this apotheosis, the theologian +rejoins the philosopher, who becomes converted to the +Moslem faith so that he too may participate in the glories +of mystical contemplation.⁠<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_8">8. The points of contact between this allegorico-mystical +journey and Dante’s ascension stand forth plainly. A perusal +of the passages in Dante’s <i>Monarchia</i> and <i>Epistola a Can +Grande della Scala</i>, in which he outlines the esoteric meaning +of his Divine Comedy, will clearly show how his interpretation +agrees with that of Ibn Arabi’s allegory. Both +thinkers imagine the journey as a symbol of the life of the +soul in this world, into which it has been placed by the +Creator to prepare for the attainment of its final aim, which +is to enjoy the bliss of the Beatific Vision. Both writers +hold this to be unattainable without supernatural intervention +or theology; for, although philosophic reasoning, +alone, can guide man in the first stages of his mystical +journey, that is to say, in the practice of the virtues, only +the light of grace can raise him to paradise, the symbol of +the highest virtues. The main difference between the two +allegories lies in the fact that, whereas in Ibn Arabi’s work +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>there are two protagonists, in Dante’s story there is one, +who is led successively by two guides, Virgil and Beatrice, +representing philosophy and theology. A further difference +is that Virgil does not accompany Dante to the astronomical +heavens, to which the philosopher of the Moslem allegory +ascends. This is due to the fact that in Ibn Arabi’s cosmological +system the spheres of the stars, as belonging to the +material world, come within the scope of philosophical speculation. +On this point Ibn Arabi certainly was more logical +than the Florentine poet, who is less interested in Beatrice +as a symbol than in her glorification as a real person. The +effect of this difference, however, is practically annulled by +the fact that when he sets out on his ascension with Beatrice, +Dante may be said to be acting in a dual capacity; firstly, +as a philosopher, by the experience gained from Virgil’s +teaching; and secondly, as a theologian, now taught by +Beatrice. Thus in some of the spheres, Dante is seen reasoning +as a philosopher independent of the aid of Beatrice or the +blessed, who, on the other hand, enlighten him on supernatural +or mystical problems. And this is precisely what +happens in Ibn Arabi’s story. The philosopher learns in +each sphere of the natural phenomena produced in the +sublunar world by its physical virtues; whilst the theologian +from the prophets receives the same instruction as the +philosopher on matters pertaining to nature, supplemented +by illumination of mystical and theological subjects.</p> + +<p>A few features of resemblance in episode may help to +complete the parallel.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VI_section_9">9. In Dante’s hell the souls of the damned are seen in the +dwellings in which they are destined to remain for all +eternity. In paradise, however, the blessed descend from +their abode, the Empyrean, and appear to Dante in the +various astronomical spheres, welcoming him or making +him sensible to the various degrees of bliss. They are, +however, supposed to return to the Empyrean, for, in the +heaven of the Fixed Stars Dante again sees them assembled +in one large body.⁠<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p> + +<p>This same artifice was used by Ibn Arabi in his allegorical +adaptation of the <i>Miraj</i>. The prophets in the various spheres +descend to bid him welcome, but in the heaven of the Fixed +Stars he beholds all the spirits of the blessed together, and +at the Divine Throne he sees Adam and Abraham, whom he +had previously seen, the one in the first, and the other in +the seventh heaven.</p> + +<p>The criterion, in accordance with which the souls as first +seen by Dante are distributed, is twofold—astrological and +moral. The blessed either appear in the heaven of the star +that influenced their lives or in a higher or lower sphere +according to the merit of their life.⁠<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> The same principle is +discernible in the allegory of Ibn Arabi. The prophets do +not appear in chronological order; for, whilst Adam is in +the first heaven, Abraham is in the seventh, Moses and Aaron +are in different heavens; and Jesus is in the sphere next to +Adam. The guiding principle is thus either greater dignity +or moral excellence. Moreover, the celestial spheres unlike +the preceding versions where they are numbered, bear the +name of their star. Thus a relationship, similar to that +between each heaven and the souls in the Paradiso, is here +established between the spheres and the prophets appearing +in them. It is true that the meaning underlying this relationship +is nowhere actually expressed. But it is significant that +Joseph, celebrated for beauty and chastity, should be +assigned to the sphere of Venus; Moses, as law-giver to +Israel and victor over Pharaoh, to the sphere of Jupiter, +the vanquisher of the Titans; and Jesus, the Living Word +of God, to Mercury, the messenger of the gods and himself +the god of eloquence.⁠<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> + +<p>Lastly, the desire that obsesses Dante to display his +learning often at the expense even of artistic effect has +a striking parallel in the Moslem tale. Dante made of the +Divine Comedy a veritable scientific treatise by attributing +to Beatrice and others, for the instruction of the pilgrim, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>lengthy dissertations on philosophy, theology and the like. +Ibn Arabi resorts to a similar device to present his theosophical +problems, when he causes these to be discussed in +lengthy and complicated discourses by the prophets.⁠<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> + +<p>Thus the two works agree in subject-matter, action and +allegorical purpose; in their principal and secondary persons; +in the architecture of the astronomical heavens; +and in the didactic trend of ideas and the use of literary +devices to produce in abstract a national cyclopædia. To +these features of resemblance must be added the similarity +in style; both works are so abstruse and involved at times +as to suggest to the reader the mysteriousness of an oracle. +In the face of all these reasons it is not too much to say +that Ibn Arabi’s work is of all Moslem types the most akin +to the Paradiso in particular and the whole Divine Comedy +in general, in so far at least as the latter may be regarded +as a moral and didactic allegory.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII">VII<br> +<span class="smcap">Literary Imitations of the Legend</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_1">1. To adapt the scenes of the ascension of Mahomet to a +story of which the protagonist, though a saint, is a man of +flesh and blood, was permissible perhaps to the Sufis, who +claimed to be able to attain spiritually to the dignity of +prophets and whose aim, in writing such adaptations, was +always a religious one. Presumption, however, would appear +to border on irreverence when the ascension is attributed to +a mere sinner; when the aim is frankly profane; and the +style affected is one of literary frivolity or irreligious irony.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span></p> + +<p>Evidently there are but few such works. One alone has +been handed down to us, and its author, as a writer of +audacious satire on Islam, stands unique.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_2">2. This is the blind poet, Abu-l-Ala al-Maarri, famous to +the present day in Islam, and even in Europe. A Syrian +of the tenth and eleventh centuries of our era, he has been +named “the philosopher of poets and the poet of philosophers.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> +The <i>Risalat al-ghufran</i>, or Treatise on Pardon, is +one of his less-known works.⁠<a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> Written in the form of a +literary epistle, it is really a skilful imitation of those +simpler versions of the Nocturnal Journey in which +Mahomet does not rise to the astronomical heavens.</p> + +<p>The author appears to have had a dual aim in view. +With a touch of irony so delicate as to be almost imperceptible, +he censures the severity of the moralists as contrasted +with God’s infinite mercy, and protests against the +damnation of many men of letters, especially poets, who, +though atheists and sinners, were famous both in ancient +and Islamic Arabic literature. The epistle is a reply to a +literary friend, Ibn al-Qarih, of Aleppo, who, while professing +great admiration for Abu-l-Ala, had inveighed against those +poets and men of letters who lived in impiety or debauchery.⁠<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>Without alluding directly to the problem of the extent of +Divine mercy, he seeks to show with literary skill that +many of the libertine and even pagan poets, who finally +repented, were pardoned and received into paradise. The +theological thesis, however, is of secondary interest. The +main object of the epistle is the interpretation and criticism +of the works of the writers in question.</p> + +<p>This double purpose he achieves by ingeniously harmonising +apologetics and literary criticism in the narration of a +journey, like that of Mahomet, to the realms beyond the +grave.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_3">3. (<i>a</i>) In the prologue he tells how God has miraculously +raised Ibn al-Qarih to the celestial regions, in reward for his +writings in defence of the faith.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) There he first comes to a garden shaded by trees, of +great girth and height, and laden with fruit, beneath which +repentant sinners are seen reclining. Rivers of water, milk, +wine and honey flow through this garden of delight and +pour balm upon the hearts of the poets dwelling therein. +Freed from the envy that embittered their lives on earth, +the men of letters here live in unwonted peace and harmony. +Groups of poets, novelists, grammarians, critics, and philosophers +are engaged in friendly conversation. Drawing near, +Ibn al-Qarih hears Abu Ubayda tell tales of ancient chivalry +and the grammarian, Al-Asmai, recite classical poetry.⁠<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> He +joins in the conversation and expresses sorrow that some of +the pre-Islamic poets, being pagans, should have been denied +admission. Then, mounted on a celestial camel, and chanting +apt verses of old-time poetry, he rides on through the +garden. To a voice suddenly heard asking by whom these +verses were composed, he replies that it was the satirist, +Maymun al-Asha, whereupon the poet himself appears on +the scene. He tells the traveller how, despite his fondness for +the flowing bowl, he had been saved by the Prophet, whose +Divine mission he had foretold. Thereafter Ibn al-Qarih +meets many of the ancient poets who, though infidels, were +saved by Divine mercy. With each he converses at length, +discussing their works.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span></p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) The episodes of this miraculous journey are so numerous +that it would be impossible either to refer to them all or +transcribe the series of animated discussions on learned +subjects so ingeniously introduced into the work. The +traveller meets the most distinguished writers, generally in +select groups which gather and disperse, as in passing he +recognises and talks to them, and then proceeds on his way. +In the course of conversation an absent poet is often alluded +to and, upon the traveller’s expressing a desire to converse +with him, the poet’s abode is pointed out or a guide provided +to lead the traveller thither.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) These wanderings through paradise, though enlivened +by episodes and digressions that enhance the literary value +of the work, are individually of little interest for the purpose +of comparison with Dante.⁠<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) The traveller now attends a celestial feast, followed by +music and dancing, in which all the Chosen join. Eventually +he finds himself in the company of two houris, whose charms +he warmly praises. But his amorous advances meet with +derision from the two beauties, who mockingly ask him +whether he does not recognise them. Upon his replying +that surely they are two heavenly houris, they laughingly +explain that they are women well-known to him on earth—one, +Hamduna, the ugliest creature in Aleppo, who was +repudiated by her husband, a ragpicker, for her foul breath; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>the other, Tawfiq the negress, who handed out the books at +the Baghdad library. An angel who happens to pass by +explains to the bewildered traveller that there are two kinds +of houris—those created in heaven, and women raised to +paradise in reward for their virtues or repentance.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) The delights experienced in paradise awaken a desire to +visit hell, in order that the contrast may render him still more +sensible of the bounty of the Lord. Forthwith he sets out on +the second part of his marvellous journey.</p> + +<p>(<i>g</i>) He first sees strange cities lying scattered in valleys +and but dimly lit by the light from paradise. This region, +he is told, is the garden of the genii who believed in the +Divine mission of Mahomet. At the mouth of a cave sits +Khaytaur, their patriarch. The pilgrim hails him, and +together they discuss the poems attributed to the Jann and +the language spoken by them. Khaytaur satisfies his +curiosity and recites to him the epic poetry of his race.</p> + +<p>(<i>h</i>) Taking leave of the old genie, the traveller has barely +set out again when his path is barred by a lion of ferocious +aspect. At the sight he pauses, when lo! the beast is moved +by the spirit of God to explain that he is the lion whom the +Almighty tamed in order that he might protect Utba, the +son of Abu Lahab and a relative of the Prophet’s, on a +journey to Egypt. In reward for the service, he has been +received into paradise.</p> + +<p>(<i>i</i>) This danger past, the pilgrim proceeds, until of a +sudden a wolf rushes out fiercely to meet him. His fears +are soon calmed, however, when he hears the wolf tell how it +helped to spread the Faith by converting an Arab infidel.⁠<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> + +<p>(<i>j</i>) Pursuing his way to the borders of paradise and hell, +he meets two other pre-Islamic poets: Al-Hutaiya, who has +been saved from hell in recognition of the sincerity of his +satires; and the poetess Al-Khansa, who recites her funereal +elegies at the foot of a lofty volcano, from whose crater +pennons of flame shoot forth. This is the entrance to hell.</p> + +<p>(<i>k</i>) Thither Ibn al-Qarih fearlessly ascends and from the +top discerns Iblis, the king of the infernal regions, struggling +in vain as he lies bound in iron fetters and held down by +fiends armed with long forks. Heaping curses on helpless +Iblis, the traveller accuses him of having consigned countless +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>souls to torture. To an enquiry from Iblis he replies that he +is a man of letters from Aleppo. “A sorry trade, forsooth,” +retorts Iblis, “by which a man can barely earn his daily +bread, let alone support a family—and very risky for the +soul,” he adds, “for how many like you has it not ruined? +You may count yourself lucky to have escaped.” He then +begs to be told of the pleasures of paradise.</p> + +<p>(<i>l</i>) In the course of conversation Baxxar ibn Burd, the +blind but ribald poet happens to be mentioned; and straightway +he rises from the infernal depths, his eyes opened by the +fiends, to add to his torture. Ibn al-Qarih, after lamenting +the poet’s fate, seizes the opportunity to consult him on some +obscure passages in his poems; but the other is in no humour +for talking and makes no reply.</p> + +<p>(<i>m</i>) The traveller now desires to speak with Imru-l-Qays +the vagabond king, held by Mahomet to be the father of the +ancient poets. Iblis points him out close at hand, and again +a lengthy discourse begins on obscure points in the poet’s +<i>qasidas</i>. In the midst of their talk, the traveller catches +sight of Antara, the epic poet who sang of Arabian chivalry. +Wrapt in flame, the bard nevertheless replies to all the +other’s questions about his works. Ibn al-Qarih bewails the +sad lot of so excellent a poet, who to his mind had been +worthy of a better fate.</p> + +<p>(<i>n</i>) Other great pre-Islamic poets appear in succession. +He sees Al-Qama and Tarafa and enquires about their life on +earth and praises their works. But Tarafa rejects all praise, +declaring he would rather have been a simple boor and so +have entered paradise. A similar lament is heard from Aws +ibn Hajar, the poet of the chase and war; who, maddened +by thirst, turns a deaf ear to all enquiries. Proceeding, +the traveller sees another of the damned, whose features are +unknown to him; this, he finds, is the minor poet Abu Kabir +al-Hudali, whom he questions but also in vain; for the poet +suffers such exquisite torture that he can only utter cries of +pain.</p> + +<p>(<i>o</i>) Writhing in flames and roaring like a wild beast lies +another sufferer, whom he also fails to recognise. The +demons tell him it is Al-Akhtal, the Christian poet at the +court of the Ommeyad Caliphs, whose pungent epigrams on +Islam and anacreontic verses have brought this judgment on +him. Over him the visitor gloats, taunting him with the life +of low debauchery he led with Caliph Yazid, the second of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>Ommeyads. The poet heaves a sigh of pain as he recalls +the orgies at the Royal Palace of Damascus, whose walls +resounded with his ribald satires upon Islam, echoed in +sacrilegious appreciation by the Caliph, the supreme head of +the Faith. Carried away by his memories, Al-Akhtal begins +to recite one of those very satires; but this provokes even +Iblis, who rebukes his fiends for letting their charges indulge +in such impiety.</p> + +<p>(<i>p</i>) The traveller is on his way back to paradise, when it +occurs to him that he has forgotten other no less famous poets +in hell. Retracing his steps, he calls aloud for the poet +Muhalhil, whom the demons after some delay point out. In +the lower storeys of hell, too, he sees the Al-Muraqish poets +Ash-Shanfara and Tabatasharran, but, though he plies them +with questions about their lives and loves and verses, they +barely deign to answer him, pleading that they have lost +their memory. Realising the futility of further attempts, +the traveller desists and returns to the celestial garden.</p> + +<p>(<i>q</i>) On the way other incidents, which are related in the +epilogue to the story, occur. Meeting Adam, he questions +him on some Arabic verses attributed to him. Adam affably +points out that, although he spoke Arabic in paradise, when +driven out he adopted Syriac and only recovered the use of +the former when he ascended to heaven, a repentant sinner; +whereas the verses in question, to judge by their meaning, +must have been composed on earth. After touching upon +other literary subjects, the pilgrim leaves Adam and, passing +through a garden in which wonderful serpents address him by +word of mouth, finally reaches paradise.</p> + +<p>(<i>r</i>) At the gate he is met by the houri appointed to attend +him. In reply to her gentle chiding for tarrying so long +below, he pleads the great desire he felt to talk with the +poets in hell. Now that his wish has been gratified, he can +give himself up entirely to the joys of paradise. Side by +side they wander through fields and gardens gay with +flowers, the while his fair companion recites sweet verses +composed by Imru-l-Qays for the day when he should meet +his beloved in paradise.</p> + +<p>(<i>s</i>) Of a sudden he sees another heavenly maiden standing +on the bank of a celestial river and surrounded by a bevy +of beautiful houris; her loveliness of face and form so far +surpasses the beauty of her companions that the traveller +believes her to be the very beloved of Imru-l-Qays the poet.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span></p> + +<p>(<i>t</i>) Awhile he lingers talking with these lovely creatures +and then approaches the abode of the poets who wrote in +the imperfect metre, known as “rejez,” which he discusses +with them. Then assisted by the maidens and pages who +attend him, he is conveyed on a vehicle of gold and topaz +to the heavenly mansion in which he is to live in bliss for +all eternity.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_4">4. As will at once be seen from the above summary, this +literary imitation of the Mahometan ascension is rich in +analogies with the Divine Comedy.</p> + +<p>In the first place, the supernatural element which is so +striking a feature of the <i>Isra</i> and <i>Miraj</i>, is almost wholly +absent. Like Dante, the protagonist is simply a man. Nor +are the secondary persons mainly saints or prophets, but +mere sinners, often indeed repentant infidels. Thus the human +and realistic touch imparted by Dante to the two first parts +of the Divine Comedy is to be found in this earlier Moslem +work. The coincidence in the realism of the two stories is, +of course, not absolute; but, if the discrepancies are for +the moment set aside, a systematic comparison will show +the features of resemblance to be grouped under two headings, +viz., general artifices, common to both stories, and actual +incidents that are either similar or identical in each.⁠<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_5">5. Abu-l-Ala, to achieve his twofold aim of composing +a treatise that should be at once theological and literary, +avails himself of the ingenious device of making the protagonist +of his tale, Ibn al-Qarih, meet a great number of +persons in heaven and hell. Thus the author peoples the +realms of the beyond with a host of men and women, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>Christians, Moslems and pagans, nobles and commoners, +rich and poor, young and old. These for the greater part +are sinners, and almost all are men of letters or poets; for, +as stated above, the author’s main aim was literary criticism, +and his secondary idea, to denounce the narrow-minded +views of the theologians of his day. Nearly all the persons +are historical, and most of them famous writers. Some were +his contemporaries, or lived shortly before his time.</p> + +<p>According as they appear in heaven or hell, their distribution +differs. In heaven, the traveller meets them gathered +in small groups, each formed of a certain class of writer, +such as philologians, lyrical poets, satirists, writers in the +rejez metre, and so forth. In hell, on the other hand, they +appear alone.</p> + +<p>Often the traveller inquires after a writer whom he would +like to see, and they with whom he is conversing point out +the other’s dwelling or provide him with a guide. At times, +the desired person himself appears, when the traveller +frequently fails to recognise him and has to ask his name.</p> + +<p>The conversation both in heaven and hell turns mainly on +literary points connected with the poets’ works; but +allusions are not lacking to the virtues or vices that have +led to their salvation or damnation.</p> + +<p>The liberal principle which guided the author in consigning +his characters to heaven or hell was bound to bring him +into conflict with the narrow-minded clergy and lay masses, +to whom it must have seemed akin to sacrilege to place +men in heaven who on earth had been notorious unbelievers +or libertines. Apart from this religious tolerance, the author +is swayed by literary sympathies or personal feeling. The +sight of the damned almost always moves him to pity, for +only rarely does he gibe with bitter sarcasm at some unfortunate +sufferer; whilst the good fortune of the blessed calls +forth his warmest congratulations.</p> + +<p>Dante has recourse to the same devices, though on the +far grander scale on which the Divine Comedy is planned. +Working on the same lines, he rises above the mere literary +aims of the Moslem tale and conceives the story, much richer +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>in detail than the other, of a transcendental journey to the +realms of the after-life. This gives him a pretext for +displaying his views, not merely on literature, but on +the whole field of intellectual endeavour. The Divine +Comedy is, in fact, an encyclopædia of mediæval learning. +Mankind in general; Italy in the thirteenth century, and +Florence in particular; the Papacy and the Empire; +religious institutions; literature and the other arts—the +history of all is told in its tercets, not in an impersonal or +abstract manner, but as seen through the mind of Dante +under the influence of his poetic temperament. Thus, just +as Abu-l-Ala aimed almost exclusively at displaying his +literary learning and passing judgment on the great Arabic +writers; so did Dante seek to leave in his divine poem a +record of his vast erudition and his views on religion, politics +and art, as practised in his century. Accordingly, the number +of characters in the Divine Comedy is incomparably greater +than in Abu-l-Ala’s tale. But, though more groups are +thus formed, they are of the same variety, the literary +categories of the Moslem story being replaced in Dante’s +poem by classifications according to calling and social +position. The personages of the Divine Comedy, again, are +either legendary, historical or nearly contemporary with the +author; and all are portrayed with a vivid realism.</p> + +<p>In heaven the souls appear to the travellers in groups and +not, as in hell, singly. Thus, the literary coteries of Abu-l-Ala +are equivalent to the crowns or circles seen by Dante in each +heaven and composed of theologians, soldiers, judges and +others.</p> + +<p>The colloquies between Dante and the souls begin in a like +way. Either he inquires for a certain soul, and is directed +to the dwelling; or of a sudden a soul appears, whose +features the poet fails to recognise, and he is obliged to ask +his name.⁠<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a></p> + +<p>It is only natural that the colloquies of Dante should +present a greater variety of subjects than the mainly literary +discussions of Abu-l-Ala; but, in both stories, the conversation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>repeatedly turns upon incidents in the life of the souls +or the mysteries of the after-world. Moreover, certain of +the discourses of Dante with the poets and artists in hell or +purgatory bear a striking resemblance to the animated +<i>causeries</i> of the Moslem tale. Thus, when Dante meets his +former master, Brunetto Latini, they converse on events +of their life on earth; Brunetto mentions the grammarian +Priscian and the lawyer Francesco d’Accorso among his +fellow-sufferers; finally, he recommends to him his <i>Tesoro</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> +In purgatory the poet meets Casella, the Florentine musician, +and begs him to sing “Amor que nella mente mi ragiona,” +a song of Dante’s that Casella set to music.⁠<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> Again, Sordello, +a poet of Mantua, recognises Virgil and lauds his verses.⁠<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> +The painter, Oderisi, discusses Italian art with Dante, +praising the two Guidos, Guinicelli, and Cavalcanti.⁠<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> The +Latin poet, Papinius Statius, tells Dante and Virgil the story +of his life, and of the influence on his Thebaid and Achilleid +of the Aeneid of Virgil; and when the latter discloses his +identity, Statius praises and quotes verses from the master-poet’s +works. In answer to his inquiries about the fate of +other poets, such as Terence and Plautus, Virgil acquaints +him with the lot which has befallen these and other classic +authors.⁠<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> Buonagiunta, a mediocre poet of Dante’s time, +makes himself known to Dante and discusses the “new +style” of Dante’s poems, admitting that they show more +poetic inspiration than those of Jacopo da Lentino or Guittone +da Arezzo.⁠<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> Finally, Dante sees the great poet of Bologna, +Guido Guinicelli, being cleansed in fire from the taint of +lubricity. Dante hails him as the father and master of the +<i>dolce stil nuovo</i>; but Guinicelli modestly refers him to the +Provençal, Arnauld Daniel, whom he points out close at +hand; and, as Dante steps forward to converse with the +troubadour, the latter greets him with verses of great beauty +in his mother tongue.⁠<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> + +<p>A further coincidence is apparent in the spirit of tolerance +displayed by both authors in excluding from hell famous +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>pagans or infidels. Thus, Aeneas, Cæsar, Saladin, Socrates, +Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Cicero, Seneca, Avicenna, and +Averrhoes are placed in the limbo⁠<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> and Cato of Utica in +purgatory.⁠<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> St. Thomas Aquinas shares the same heaven +as one of his greatest adversaries, Sigier of Brabant, a +follower of Averrhoes⁠<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a>; and King David is placed with +Trajan and Ripheus of Troy.⁠<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> On the other hand, many +persons, including popes and princes, Dante condemns to +hell out of mere personal or party feeling. Finally, the +spectacle of eternal bliss or torment rouses in Dante’s heart, +as in that of the Moslem pilgrim, the same feelings alternately +of admiration and pity, joy and wrath.⁠<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_6">6. A comparison of a few of the episodes of the Moslem +journey with incidents in the Divine Comedy will disclose +a resemblance even more striking than the similarity in +general artifice.</p> + +<p>One such episode is the encounter of Ibn al-Qarih with +Hamduna of Aleppo and the negress Tawfiq, whom he +takes to be houris, until they disclose their identity.</p> + +<p>This scene, were it not for the semi-jocular tone of its +description, closely resembles the passages of Dante’s +meeting with La Pia of Sienna, in purgatory; with Piccarda +Donati of Florence, in the heaven of the Moon; and with +Cunizza of Padua, in the sphere of Venus. The two first-mentioned, +like Hamduna, bemoan the trials of their married +life; and Dante admires the wonderful beauty of Piccarda, +as Ibn al-Qarih had marvelled at the fair complexion of the +negress Tawfiq. Moreover, just as the two pseudo-houris +revealed themselves to Ibn al-Qarih, so do the three Christian +beauties, in answer to Dante’s inquiries, make themselves +known to him.⁠<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_7">7. The journey to hell, undertaken by the Moslem immediately +after the above episode, presents further similarities, +though the sequence is inversed; for Dante visits hell before +paradise.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span></p> + +<p>Dante, at the outset of his journey, finds his path barred +by a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Escaping from these +dangers, he meets Virgil, the prince of epopee and patriarch +of the classic poets, who leads him to the garden of the limbo, +where dwell the geniuses of antiquity. Later begins the +descent to hell itself.</p> + +<p>The Moslem pilgrim before encountering any obstacle +meets Khaytaur, the patriarch of the genii. Chanting their +deeds in epic verse the aged spirit sits at the entrance to +the garden wherein they dwell. This garden, like Dante’s +limbo, is an intermediate region between paradise and hell, +of which latter it forms, as it were, the antechamber.</p> + +<p>In vain have Dante students endeavoured to discover +the meaning the poet sought to convey by the symbolic +figure of the three wild beasts that bar the way to hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> +Innumerable as are the hypotheses that have been advanced, +nowhere is so perfect a prototype for this passage to be +found as in this Moslem tale. For, before he reaches hell, +the Moslem pilgrim’s path is barred by a wolf and a lion, +two of the very beasts that attack Dante. Drawing his +inspiration from the Moslem source, the divine poet would +appear to have adapted this episode with some slight changes +to his allegorical purposes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_8">8. Another Moslem episode very similar to a scene in +Dante is the meeting between Adam and the pilgrim, when, +on the latter’s return from hell, they discuss the language +originally spoken by Adam. Dante also meets Adam (in the +eighth heaven), and the burden of their conversation is +likewise the language spoken by the father of mankind +when he dwelt in the garden of Eden.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_9">9. Lastly, the two scenes described on Ibn al-Qarih’s +return to heaven recall the two episodes in Dante’s purgatory +immediately preceding the poet’s ascension to the celestial +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>paradise. The houri who receives the traveller with gentle +words of reproach for his long absence and then converses +with him, as they walk through gardens of flowers, appears +as the prototype of Matilda, who with bright eyes and +laughing lips awaits the poet at the entrance to the wood in +earthly paradise, and with winning grace answers his questions +as they walk through meadows strewn with flowers. +Of a sudden, Dante beholds on the bank of a river of paradise +the marvellous pageant of old men and maidens in whose +midst is Beatrice, his beloved. So, too, the Moslem traveller +is amazed by the sight of a throng of houris, who, gathered +upon the bank of a celestial river, form a court of beauty +around a heavenly maiden, the fair beloved of Imru-l-Qays, +the poet.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VII_section_10">10. A general observation, applying equally to both works, +may serve as a conclusion. Abu-l-Ala, in his literary adaptation +of the legend of the <i>Miraj</i>, pursued an aim that was +mainly artistic; and this is a quality that also characterises +Dante’s immortal poem. For, whatever else the Divine +Comedy may be—an encyclopædia of theological learning, a +moral allegory, and what not—it is above all a sublime work +of literary art, in which the poet tells the story of a legend +of the after-life, cast in the mould of his inspired tercets. +Abu-l-Ala likewise displays supreme skill in the difficult +technique of Arabic metre; and, though it is not actually +written in verse, the <i>Risala</i> is enriched with all the splendour +of that poetic style known in Arabic literature as rhymed +prose.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII">VIII<br> +<span class="smcap">Summary of Comparisons</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_1">1. In the preceding chapters an attempt has been made +to outline the story of the origin and evolution, within the +world of Islam, of the religious legend describing the Nocturnal +Journey and ascension of Mahomet to the realms of the after-life. +The different versions of the legend have been minutely +examined and compared with Dante’s poem; and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>features of resemblance between the two tales have been +demonstrated. It would, then, be as well here to sum up +the points that have thus been established.</p> + +<p>Around a verselet in the Koran alluding to a miraculous +journey of Mahomet to the realms beyond the grave, popular +fancy wove a multiplicity of versions of one and the same +legend. The myth found expression in the tales of the +traditionists, who with a wealth of detail describe the two +main parts of the journey—the visit to hell and the ascension +to paradise. All these versions had become popular throughout +Islam as early as the ninth century of our era; and even +in some of the earlier versions the two parts of the legend +are fused to form, as in the Divine Comedy, a single dramatic +action.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_2">2. In almost all these versions Mahomet, like Dante, as +the supposed author, is made to tell the story. Further, +both journeys are begun at night when the protagonists +awaken from profound sleep. In an imitation of the Moslem +journey a lion and a wolf bar the road to hell, as do a leopard, +lion and she-wolf in Dante’s poem. Khaytaur, the patriarch +of the genii, whom the Moslem traveller meets, is clearly +a counterpart of Virgil, the patriarch of the classics who +leads Dante to the garden of the limbo. Virgil appears +before Dante exactly as Gabriel before Mahomet; and +throughout their journey each guide does his best to satisfy +the pilgrim’s curiosity. The warning of the approach to hell +in both legends is identical, viz., a confused noise and violent +bursts of flame. In both stories again, the wrathful guardians +of the abode of pain exclude the traveller, till their anger is +appeased by an order invoked by the guide from on high. +The fierce demon who pursues Mahomet with a burning +brand at the outset of his Nocturnal Journey has his duplicate +in the devil who pursues Dante in the fifth pit of the eighth +circle; Virgil, by a brief word of command, disarms the +fiend, just as Gabriel, by a prayer taught to the Prophet, +quenched the fire of the glowing brand.</p> + +<p>The general architecture of the Inferno is but a faithful +copy of the Moslem hell. Both are in the shape of a vast +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>funnel or inverted cone and consist of a series of storeys, +each the abode of one class of sinner. In each, moreover, +there are various subdivisions corresponding to as many +subcategories of sinners. The greater the depth, the greater +is the degree of sin and the pain inflicted. The ethical system +in the two hells is also much alike, the atonement is either +analogous to, or the reverse of, the sin committed. Finally, +both hells are situate beneath the city of Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>Nor are instances of close resemblance between the torments +in the hells lacking. For instance, the adulterers, who +in Dante’s poem are swept hither and thither by a hellish +storm, are in the Moslem legend hurled upwards and downwards +by a hurricane of flame. The description of the first +circle of the Moslem hell exactly tallies with the picture of +the city of Dis—a sea of flame on whose shores stand countless +tombs aglow with fire. The usurers, like the souls in +Dante who have been guilty of crimes of violence, swim in +a lake of blood, guarded by fiends who hurl fiery stones at +them. Gluttons and thieves are seen by Dante, tortured +by serpents, as are the tyrants, the faithless guardians and +the usurers in the Moslem hell. The maddening thirst of the +forgers in the Divine Comedy is also suffered by the Moslem +drunkards; whilst the forgers with the swollen bellies have +their counterpart in the usurers of another Moslem version. +Again, Griffolino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Sienna scratch +the scab off their leprous sores, as do the slanderers in the +hell of Islam. The <i>barattieri</i>, held down in a lake of boiling +pitch by the forks of fiends, suffer like the undutiful children +in the Moslem legend, who, submerged in flame, are at each +cry for mercy prodded by demons armed with forks. Finally, +the awful punishment, dealt out in Dante’s poem to the +authors of schisms, of being knifed by demons and brought +to life again, only for the torture to be repeated without end, +is the grim torment appointed in the Moslem hell to +murderers.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_3">3. The Moslem traveller, heartened by his guide, toils up +a steep mountain, even as Dante, encouraged by Virgil, +ascends the mount of purgatory. Allegorical visions abound +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>in both legends and, at times, they agree in symbol and +signification. Thus, for example, the woman who, despite +her loathsome ugliness, endeavours in the fourth circle of +purgatory to lure Dante from his path is almost a counterpart +of the hag who tempts Mahomet at the beginning of his +journey. Moreover, Gabriel and Virgil agree that the vision +is a symbol of the false attractions of the world. A river +separates purgatory from paradise in both stories, and each +traveller drinks of its waters. Nor is this all; after his visit +to hell, Dante thrice has to submit to lustral ablution. Virgil, +upon the advice of Cato, with his own hands washes Dante’s +face, and, upon leaving purgatory, the pilgrim is immersed +by Matilda and Statius in the rivers of Lethe and Eunoe, +the waters of which efface all memory of sin. In the Moslem +legend, the souls are likewise purified three times in rivers +that flow through the garden of Abraham and whose waters +render their faces white and cleanse their souls from sin. +At the gates of paradise the Moslem traveller is met by a +comely maid, who receives him kindly, and together they +walk through the gardens of paradise, until in amazement +he beholds the houris on the bank of a stream forming a court +of beauty around the beloved of the poet Imru-l-Qays. +Dante, when he enters the earthly paradise, also meets a fair +maiden, Matilda, and is walking by her side through fields +rich with flowers, when on the banks of a stream he sees +the marvellous procession of old men and maidens who +accompany Beatrice, his beloved, as she descends from +heaven to meet him.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_4">4. The architecture of both the Christian and the Moslem +heavens is identical, inasmuch as it is based upon the +Ptolemaic system. As they pass through the nine heavens, +the travellers meet the spirits of the blessed whose real +home, however, is the last sphere or Empyrean, where they +are ultimately found all together. The denomination also +of the nine spheres is in some cases the same, namely, that +of their respective planets. Occasionally, too, the ethical +systems are alike; the souls are grouped in the spheres +according to their different virtues. At times, again, their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>distribution in both legends is based upon astrology, or upon +a combination of astrology and ethics.</p> + +<p>In some versions of the Moslem legend, the description of +heaven may be said to be as spiritual as the picture that has +immortalised the Paradiso. The phenomena of light and +sound are alone used by both travellers to convey their +impression of the ethereal spheres. Both are dazzled by a +light which grows in brilliance at every stage. In fear of +blindness, they raise their hands to their eyes; but their +guides calm their fears, and God empowers them to gaze +upon the new light. Both travellers frequently confess their +inability to describe the majesty of the sights they see. +Both again, led by their guides, ascend through the air in +flight, with a speed that is compared to the wind and the +arrow. The duties of both guides are manifold; not only +do they lead the pilgrims and comfort them, but they pray to +God on their behalf and call upon them to thank the Lord +for the signal favour He has shown them.</p> + +<p>And, just as Beatrice leaves Dante at the last stages of his +ascension, so Gabriel leaves Mahomet when the Prophet is +wafted to the Divine Presence by the aid of a luminous +wreath.</p> + +<p>In each of the planetary heavens and in the different +mansions the Moslem traveller meets many of the Biblical +prophets, surrounded by the souls of their followers on earth. +He also meets many personages famous in the Bible or +Moslem lore. Into the literary imitation of the Islamic +legend there is introduced a host of men and women who, +although of all ranks and faiths, are nearly all writers of +note in the history of Islam; many are contemporaries and +even acquaintances of the traveller, and all are grouped in +circles according to their school of literature. Thus it is that +both the heaven and hell of this imitation are peopled by the +same multitude of minor personages that forms so striking a +feature of the Divine Comedy. Both authors, too, have +resort to the same device for introducing new actors into their +scenes: either the traveller inquires where a certain soul is +to be found; or of a sudden the latter appears and remains +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>unrecognised until the guide, or a soul at hand, makes his +identity known to the traveller. In both legends the +pilgrims converse with the souls in heaven and hell on +theological and literary subjects, or on events in the lives on +earth of the departed.</p> + +<p>Lastly, in allotting the souls to the various regions of the +world to come, the two writers—although at times influenced +by personal feeling are in the main guided by the same spirit +of tolerance. Both, as they behold the souls in bliss or in +pain, give vent to feelings of joy or pity, although occasionally +they gloat over the sufferings of the damned.</p> + +<p>But it is not merely in general outline that the two +ascensions coincide; even the episodes in the visions of +paradise are at times alike, if not identical.</p> + +<p>Dante, for example, in the heaven of Jupiter sees a mighty +eagle formed of myriads of resplendent spirits all wings and +faces, which, chanting exhortations to man to cleave to +righteousness, flaps its wings and then comes to rest. +Mahomet sees in heaven a gigantic angel in the form of a cock, +which moves its wings whilst chanting hymns calling mankind +to prayer, and then rests. He sees other angels, each +an agglomeration of countless faces and wings, who resplendent +with light sing songs of praise with tongues innumerable. +These two visions merged in one, at once suggest Dante’s +heavenly eagle.</p> + +<p>In the heaven of Saturn Dante beholds a golden ladder +that leads upwards to the last sphere. He sees the spirits of +the blessed descending by this ladder and, at the instance of +Beatrice, he and his guide ascend by it in less time than +“it takes to withdraw the hand from fire.” Mahomet, in +his ascension, sees a ladder rising from Jerusalem to the +highest heaven; angels stand on either side, and by its rungs +of silver, gold, and emerald the souls ascend; led by Gabriel, +the Prophet rises by it “in less than the twinkling of an eye.”</p> + +<p>Dante meets in heaven Piccarda of his native city and +Cunizza of Padua, women well known to him; and in like +manner the Moslem traveller (in the literary imitation of the +Mahometan ascension) meets two women, acquaintances of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>his, to wit, Hamduna of his own town of Aleppo and the +negress Tawfiq, of Baghdad. In both legends the women +make themselves known to the pilgrim, tell him of the +troubles of their married life or leave him struck with +admiration at their matchless beauty.</p> + +<p>Like Dante, the same Moslem traveller meets Adam in +heaven and converses with him on the subject of the primitive +language he spoke in the Garden of Eden.</p> + +<p>The examination of the theological virtues which Dante +undergoes in the eighth sphere of heaven, is similar to that to +which the soul of the departed is subjected in some allegorical +adaptations of the <i>Miraj</i>.</p> + +<p>The angels flying over the mystic rose of Dante’s paradise, +with faces of flame and bodies whiter than snow, have their +counterpart in the angel, half fire and half snow, seen by +Mahomet.</p> + +<p>As they stand on high above the planetary heavens, both +pilgrims are urged by their guides to cast their eyes downwards, +and they see with amazement how small the created +world is in comparison with the heavenly universe.</p> + +<p>The apotheoses in both ascensions are exactly alike. In +each legend the traveller, exalted to the Divine Presence, +describes the Beatific Vision as follows: God is the focus of +an intense light, surrounded by nine concentric circles of +myriads of angelic spirits, who shed a wonderful radiance +around. In a row near the centre are the Cherubim. Twice +does the traveller behold the majestic sight of those nine +circles ceaselessly revolving around the Divine Light; once +from afar, before he reaches the end of his journey, and again +as he stands before the Throne of God. The effects of the +Beatific Vision on the minds of the two pilgrims are again +identical. At first they are so dazzled by the brilliance of the +light that they believe they have been blinded, but gradually +their sight is strengthened until finally they can gaze steadfastly +upon it. Both are incapable of describing the Vision +and only remember that they fell into an ecstasy that was +preceded by a wondrous feeling of supreme delight.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_5">5. Nor does the similarity between the two journeys end +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>here. A common spirit may also be seen to pervade the two +legends.</p> + +<p>The moral meaning that Dante sought to convey in his +Divine Comedy had previously been imparted by the Sufis, +and particularly by the Murcian Ibn Arabi. The Moslem +mystics, like Dante, made use of a dramatic story—which +was alleged to be true—of the journey of a man, Mahomet, +to the nether regions and his ascension to the heavens, in +order to symbolise the regeneration of the soul by faith and +the practice of the theological virtues. In Dante’s conception, +as in Ibn Arabi’s, the journey is symbolic of the moral life +of man, whom God has placed in the world to work out his +destiny and attain to supreme bliss, as represented by the +Beatific Vision. This he cannot do without the guidance of +theology; for natural reason can only lead him through the +first stages of the journey, which symbolise the moral and +intellectual virtues. Those sublime mansions of paradise, +which stand for the theological virtues, can only be reached +by the aid of illuminative grace. Accordingly, the pilgrim +in the imitations of the Mahometan ascension of Ibn Arabi +and others, is no longer Mahomet, or even a saint, but +merely a man and a sinner, like Dante; often, like Dante, +he is a philosopher, a theologian or a poet. The minor +characters too, even those appearing in heaven, are real +men and sinners and often repentant infidels. Thus, like +the Divine Comedy, the Moslem ascension combines in one +story the antithetical elements of realism and allegorical +idealism.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_6">6. The same involved and enigmatical style characterises +Dante’s poem and the ascension of Ibn Arabi. Moreover, +both authors seek to display their vast erudition by attributing +to their characters lengthy and abstruse discourses on +philosophy, theology and astronomy. If, in addition, it is +borne in mind that the Moslem ascension, like that of Dante, +had a host of commentators, who endeavoured to discover +the many meanings conveyed by the slightest detail; that +the poet Abu-l-Ala’s work was written with the definite +purpose of handing down to posterity a masterpiece of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>literary art and that its rhymed prose presented technical +difficulties as great as, or perhaps greater than, those of +Dante’s tercets, in view of the accumulation of evidence, +the following facts must be accepted as undeniable:—</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_7">7. Six hundred years at least before Dante Alighieri conceived +his marvellous poem, there existed in Islam a religious +legend narrating the journey of Mahomet to the abodes of +the after-life. In the course of time from the eighth to the +thirteenth centuries of our era—Moslem traditionists, +theologians, interpreters of the Scriptures, mystics, philosophers +and poets—all united in weaving around the original +legend a fabric of religious narrative; at times their stories +were amplifications, at others, allegorical adaptations or +literary imitations. A comparison with the Divine Comedy +of all these versions combined bewrays many points of +resemblance, and even of absolute coincidence, in the general +architecture and ethical structure of hell and paradise; in +the description of the tortures and rewards; in the general +lines of the dramatic action; in the episodes and incidents +of the journey; in the allegorical signification; in the roles +assigned to the protagonist and to the minor personages; +and, finally, in intrinsic literary value.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_VIII_section_8">8. The interesting problems to which these coincidences +give rise will be considered at a later stage; but to forestall +any objections that might be made, a few words may be +added on the origin of the Moslem legend.</p> + +<p>The story of the Nocturnal Journey and the ascension of +Mahomet is not autochthonous in Islam. Its real source is +in the religious literatures of other and older civilisations. +But the question of the origin of the <i>Miraj</i> is of secondary +interest. Let it suffice to say that its genesis may have +been influenced by many similar tales, Hebrew, Persian, and +Christian. It is not difficult to find features common to the +Moslem legend and the Judæo-Christian ascensions of Moses, +Enoch, Baruch and Isaiah; or the fabulous journey of +Ardâ Virâf to the Persian paradise; or finally, the descent +of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the bosom of Abraham blended +into one story with His glorious ascension and the uplifting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>of St. Paul to the third heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> None of these journeys +and ascensions, however, was so fully developed or expanded +in the literature to which it belonged as the Islamic legend. +Appearing, as it did, after the others, the Moslem tale was +able to draw upon them and mould into the form of one +story both the diverse incident they offered and much new +matter that was the spontaneous outcome of Arabian fancy. +In Islam, moreover, the legend was the wider spread among +both learned and illiterate, seeing that it was accepted as +an article of faith. To the present day it is the occasion of +a religious festival celebrated throughout Islam and of +a national holiday in Turkey, Egypt and Morocco,⁠<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> which +proves how deep-rooted and widely disseminated is the +belief of the Moslem people in the fabulous ascension of +their Prophet.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_II">PART II<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>THE DIVINE COMEDY COMPARED WITH OTHER +MOSLEM LEGENDS ON THE AFTER-LIFE</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak">PART II<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>THE DIVINE COMEDY COMPARED WITH OTHER +MOSLEM LEGENDS ON THE AFTER-LIFE</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_I">I<br> +<span class="smcap">Introduction</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_I_section_1">1. The close resemblance that the Divine Comedy has been +shown to bear to the legend of the <i>Miraj</i> gives rise to +a multiplicity of problems in the history of literature, all +relevant to the originality of Dante’s poem. These problems +are so important that a more minute examination of the +poem in its several parts—limbo, hell, purgatory and the +earthly and celestial paradises—is required in order to resolve +whether or not many of the descriptive features and even +whole scenes and episodes, although successfully standing +the test of comparison with the <i>Miraj</i>, are, nevertheless, +traceable to other Moslem legends and beliefs.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_I_section_2">2. As a preliminary, it may be well briefly to set forth +the doctrine of Islam on the future life; for it will be +possible to admit or reject <i>a priori</i> the likelihood of any +resemblance between the conceptions of Dante and the +Arabs according as the Islamic doctrine agrees or disagrees +with the teaching of Christianity on the same point.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_I_section_3">3. Now, on no question are the two religions in closer +agreement than on that of the future life, in which, according +to both, the souls exist in four different states. By the +eleventh century at the latest definite expression had been +given to this doctrine by the orthodox clergy of Islam, and +notably by the great moralist and theologian, Algazel.⁠<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> + +<p>The state of everlasting damnation, reserved for the souls +of those who denying God gave themselves up to worldly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>pleasures is equivalent to the Christian hell; and, just as +in the latter the pain inflicted is both physical and moral, +so in the Moslem state the soul, in addition to being subjected +to the torture of everlasting fire, is made to suffer anguish +through its separation from God.</p> + +<p>Everlasting salvation, corresponding to the Christian +heaven, is the state of those souls that lived in the true +faith and died either innocent or repentant, free from all +taint of sin. Their reward is double, for over and above the +sensual pleasures promised by Moslem revelation, they +experience the infinitely greater bliss of the contemplation +of the Divine essence.</p> + +<p>The two states intermediate between heaven and hell +approximate to our purgatory and limbo. According to +Algazel, the punishment in purgatory differs from that in +hell only in that it is not eternal, but temporary. True, the +Christian purgatory is the place where venial sins are expiated, +or deadly sins whose guilt has been washed away; whereas +the Moslem purgatory is assigned to those souls who, although +guilty of deadly sin, have until the moment of death kept the +root of faith alive within their hearts and been deprived by +death alone of the possibility of repentance. As, according to +Algazel, the faith that saves is not the dead but the living +faith expressed in religious feeling and good deeds, this act +of living faith in God and in the intercession of the Prophet +is then practically the same as the spirit of contrition required +to save the Christian.</p> + +<p>The fourth state, which represents the Christian limbo, is +that of the souls who, having neither served nor offended +God, are exempt from punishment, although denied eternal +bliss. This is the condition of lunatics, idiots, the children of +infidels, and those adults who, never having heard the call +of Islam, may be said to have died in ignorance of their +infidelity.</p> + +<p>The brief outlines sketched above will suffice to show how +similar are the moral foundations upon which the Christian +and Moslem conceptions of the after-life are based. Nor is +this a matter for wonder, seeing that so great an authority +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>as St. John of Damascus held Islam to be but an heretical +form of Christianity, heretical inasmuch as it denied both +the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ,⁠<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> and that Algazel +himself confessed the whole of the teaching of the Christian +faith, apart from these two points of doctrine, to be infallible +truth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_II">II<br> +<span class="smcap">The Moslem Limbo in the Divine Comedy</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_II_section_1">1. The first of the nether regions visited by Dante is that +set apart for such souls as have done neither good nor evil. +To this place Dante gives the name of “limbo.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a></p> + +<p>The Latin noun “limbus,” the origin of which is obscure, +is used by classical writers, such as Virgil, Ovid, and Statius, +with the meaning of “fringe or border adorning the lower +part of a garment.” In the sixth century it is used with the +meaning of “coast.” In the Bible and ecclesiastical writings +the abode of indifferent souls is named the “Bosom of +Abraham,” but never the “limbo”; and it is not known +who introduced the term into Christian literature. It appears +suddenly in the works of the commentators of Peter the +Lombard, contemporaries of Dante, who designate by it +both the abode of unbaptised children (<i>limbus puerorum</i>) and +the dwelling of the patriarchs of the Old Testament (<i>limbus +patrum</i>).⁠<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span></p> + +<p>Dante places this abode immediately above hell, as if it +were an antechamber of the latter, and divides it into two +parts—the ante-inferno, a wide plain inhabited by the +indifferent souls,⁠<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> and the angels that remained neutral in +Lucifer’s rebellion against God,⁠<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> and the limbo proper, a +deep and shaded valley, in the midst of which stands a +fortress surrounded by seven walls with seven gates leading +to a pleasant meadow.⁠<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> + +<p>The limbo is inhabited by children that died innocent, +but unbaptised, and, in addition, by a host of men and +women who, though righteous, were either pre-Christian +pagans or true followers of Mahomet and who, moreover, +are famous as poets, moralists, philosophers, or heroes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a></p> + +<p>The suffering of these spirits is purely moral, and arises +from their insatiable longing to behold God. Debarred from +the joys of paradise, and exempt from the physical punishment +of hell, they may be said to be in suspense (<i>sospesi</i>) +between heaven and hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> This intermediate state would +appear to give them special opportunities of knowing and +dealing with both the blessed and the damned. Thus Virgil +is in direct communication, from the limbo, with Beatrice⁠<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a>; +and, as he guides Dante through hell and purgatory, he names +and describes to him the sinners and fiends, whose features +are evidently well known to him.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_II_section_2">2. The absence of almost all Biblical or theological precedents +for Dante’s picture need hardly be insisted upon. +The name, the picturesque description of the place, the exact +classification of the dwellers, who are pagans and at times +even Moslems, the many details of their life and condition—none +of these can find full justification in Catholic dogma, +which is as discreet on these as on most other points of +eschatology.⁠<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span></p> + +<p>In Islam it is otherwise. The absence of any one and +unquestionable authority to distinguish between matters of +faith and of free thought enabled a large number of myths +and legends to be introduced from other Oriental religions—especially +Judaism, Mazdaism, and Eastern Christianity—and, +being attributed to the Prophet and his companions, +to acquire a weight almost equal with the text of the Koran.</p> + +<p>A search in this direction may perhaps provide a clue to +the reading of the riddle of Dante’s limbo, which Christian +theology leaves unsolved.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_II_section_3">3. The Koran (VII, 44, 46) speaks of a mansion “Al +Aaraf” that separates the blessed from the wicked. The +word “Aaraf” by derivation means “the upper part of a +curtain or veil”; it is also used to denote “the mane of a +horse, the crest of a cock and, in general, the highest or most +prominent part of anything”; in its wider sense it is applied +to “any limit or boundary between things.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> Thus, it is +similar to the classical <i>limbus</i>; but, whereas <i>limbus</i> did not +acquire the meaning of a region beyond the grave until the +thirteenth century, the Arabic word had this meaning, in +addition to its ordinary meaning, as early as the time of +Mahomet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p> + +<p>The Moslem limbo is variously described in the legends—as +a pleasant vale studded with fruit trees; as a valley lying +behind a lofty mountain; as a circular wall of great height, +with battlements and a gate, rising between heaven and hell; +or simply as an eminence or mount. These conceptions, +grouped together, present a picture not unlike that of +Dante’s limbo; especially, if the picture is completed with +the description, recurrent in the <i>Miraj</i>, of the Garden of +Abraham and the entrance to the Moslem hell, which, like the +castle that forms the antechamber of Dante’s hell, also has +seven gates. Again, this castle, surrounded as it is by seven +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>walls with seven gates, is an almost exact reproduction of the +Islamic castle of the garden of paradise, which is surrounded +by eight walls with eight gates⁠<a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a>; as if Dante, in blending the +Moslem designs of heaven and hell, had sought to symbolise +the neutral nature of the souls dwelling in the limbo.</p> + +<p>The Moslem limbo has, on the authority of Algazel himself, +been shown to be the abode of those that lived neither in +virtue nor in vice. In keeping with this doctrine, Moslem +tradition specifies the following groups: Martyrs of holy +warfare who are denied the reward of paradise through +having disobeyed their parents; men of learning whose +merit was nullified by their vanity; infant children of +Moslems and infidels; and, finally, angels of the male sex or +genii that believed in the Prophet. These groups correspond +very fairly to the groups in Dante’s limbo of the unbaptised +children and the heroes, poets and philosophers whose virtues +and talents were neutralised by their lack of faith. As +regards the angels of male sex, they are indeed as enigmatical +as Dante’s neutral angels.</p> + +<p>The only suffering that, according to the Koran and the +theologians, is inflicted on the inhabitants of the Moslem +limbo is a vain longing to enter paradise: “They cannot +enter for all their longing.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> As the good they have done is +balanced by their sins, they neither sink into hell nor rise to +heaven, but remain in suspense between the two.⁠<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> Thus +placed, they are acquainted and converse with both the +blessed and the damned.⁠<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span></p> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_III">III<br> +<span class="smcap">The Moslem Hell in the Divine Comedy</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_III_section_1">1. Dante lovers of all ages have dwelt admiringly upon the +originality shown by the poet in his conception of the +architecture of hell. His compatriot Christoforo Landino +wrote as follows in the fifteenth century⁠<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a>: “Benche questo +poeta in ogni cosa sia maraviglioso, nientedimeno non posso +sanza sommo stupore considerare la sua nuova, ne mai da +alcuno altro escogitata inventione.” And in modern times, +Rossi, after showing how feeble were the stereotyped descriptions +of hell prior to Dante’s and how poor in this respect +were the Biblical and classical sources available to him, +concludes by saying: “L’ingegno poderoso e l’alta fantasia +del poeta svolsero e rimutarono con piena libertà questo +abbozzo, fecondarono quegli elementi e ne trassero un tutto +nuovo, originale, grandioso, definito in ogni parte con +esatteza quasi matematica.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> + +<p>The admiration of the critic is justified. But, before the +originality of Dante’s conception can be regarded as established +beyond all doubt, it must be shown that no similar +description existed in the literature of other religions. This +demonstration has often been attempted. Vossler, for +instance, has given a complete summary of the researches +made by Dantists in their endeavour to find religious, +philosophical and artistic precedents for the Divine Comedy.⁠<a id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> +With wonderful scholarship he has reconstructed what he +calls the <i>prehistory</i> of the sublime poem. The myths contained +in religions prior to Christianity, as well as the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>teaching of the Old and New Testaments, are drawn upon as +sources. One religion alone is excluded from his survey—the +Mahometan.⁠<a id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> Yet of all religions Islam is the richest in +legends on the after-life.⁠<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> Islam, the spurious offspring of +Judaism and Christianity, blended the doctrine of the Old +and New Testaments with elements drawn from other +Oriental faiths; and the fact that it appeared at a later date +and spread rapidly through countries inhabited by the most +religious peoples of the ancient world aided the process of +assimilation. Accordingly, in no other religious lore do we +find so minute and graphic descriptions of the abodes and +life of the blessed and the wicked souls as in the Koran and +the traditions built up around it; and a comparison of the +Moslem hell with Dante’s Inferno may well throw new light +upon the question of the originality of the great poet’s +conception.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_III_section_2">2. Beginning with the general outlines of the two conceptions, +we find no precise topography of hell in the Koran.⁠<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> +But Moslem tradition agrees with Dante in placing hell +beneath the earth’s crust; the tales represent it as a dark +chasm, or concave opening in the earth, so deep that a stone +or ball of lead dropped into it would take seventy years to +reach the bottom.⁠<a id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> As in the Divine Comedy, its mouth is +laid at Jerusalem, near or behind the Eastern wall of the +temple of Solomon.⁠<a id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> Dante maintains the unity of his +architectural design by placing the celestial Jerusalem in a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>vertical line with the city on earth; and the same vertical +projection applies, as will be shown later, to the Moslem +paradise.</p> + +<p>But there are further coincidences. In Version B of Cycle 2 +of the <i>Miraj</i> the Moslem hell was seen to be formed, like +that of Dante, of a series of concentric circular strata +gradually descending from the mouth to the bottom. This +conception of the structure of hell was invented by the +Moslem traditionists in their endeavour to interpret the +Koranic text (XV, 44), which says: “(Hell) has seven +gates; to each gate, a separate group.” The commentators +could furnish no explanation of this verse, if the current +meaning of “door” or “gate” were to be given to the +Arabic word <i>bab</i>. Accordingly, a metaphorical interpretation +was soon applied to the word in the sense of “step” +or “circular stratum,” which allowed hell to be conceived +as a place of imprisonment consisting of seven pits, each +reserved for one class of sinners.⁠<a id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> To give this interpretation +greater authority, it was attributed to Ali, the son-in-law +of Mahomet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Know ye of what manner are the gates of hell?” he +asked his hearers, and they answered, “as are the gates +we know”; but he said, “not so, for they are thus,” and, +as he spake, he laid one hand flat upon the other.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The idea of parallel planes thus suggested is carried +further in other tales, attributed either to Ali or to Ibn Abbas, +Mahomet’s uncle. In these the words “step” or “circular +stratum” are used in place of “gate”; the seven divisions +are expressly stated to lie one above the other; and the +distance between each is measured in terms of hyperbole.⁠<a id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>The division into seven is characteristic of Moslem cosmography. +The Koran itself says (LXV, 12): “Seven are the +astronomical heavens and seven the earths, as are seven the +seas, the gates of hell and the mansions of paradise.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> +Dante, in dividing each of the realms of hell, purgatory +and paradise into ten regions, betrays a similar obsession for +symmetry, coupled with a belief in the esoteric virtue of +a given number.⁠<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> Although the coincidence does not extend +to the numbers themselves, the principle underlying both +cosmographies is the same.</p> + +<p>Like the different circles of the Inferno, each of the stages +of the Moslem hell has a name of its own and certain physical +features peculiar to it, and is reserved for one class of sinners +condemned to one particular torture. It would be difficult, +if not impossible, to reduce to one scheme the heterogeneous +descriptions furnished in the tales. Nor is it claimed that +they agree in detail with Dante’s description of hell. But +a brief review of some of these tales will, notwithstanding +the simplicity of the setting, reveal the general features of +resemblance mentioned above. Thus a tradition dating +from the second century of the Hegira gives the divisions +of hell, reckoned downwards, as the following⁠<a id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>1. <i>Jahannam</i>, or Gehenna, for Moslems guilty of deadly +sins. 2. <i>Lazi</i>, or glowing fire, for Christians. 3. <i>Al-Hatma</i>, +or greedy fire, for Jews. 4. <i>As-Sair</i>, or flaming fire, for +Sabians. 5. <i>Saqar</i>, or burning fire, for Zoroastrians. 6. <i>Al-Jahim</i>, +or intense fire, for polytheists. 7. <i>Al-Hawiya</i>, or +abysm, for hypocrites.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Other traditions classify the seven earths into which God +divided our planet and which correspond to the seven stages +of hell, as follows⁠<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>1. <i>Adim</i>, or surface, inhabited by mankind. 2. <i>Basit</i>, or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>plain, the prison of the winds, inhabited by men that eat +their own flesh and drink their own blood. 3. <i>Thaqil</i>, or +region of distress, the antechamber of hell in which dwell +men with the mouth of a dog, the ears of a goat, the cloven +hoof of an ox and the wool of a sheep. 4. <i>Batih</i>, or place of +torrents, a valley through which flows a stream of boiling +sulphur to torment the wicked; the dwellers in this valley +have no eyes and in place of feet, have wings. 5. <i>Hayn</i>, or +region of adversity, in which serpents of enormous size +devour the infidels. 6. <i>Masika</i>, or store and <i>Sijin</i>, or +dungeon, the office where sins are recorded and where the +souls are tormented by scorpions of the size of mules. +7. <i>As-Saqar</i>, or place of burning, and <i>Athara</i>, place of damp +and great cold; this is the home of Iblis, who is chained in +the midst of the rebel angels, his hands fastened one in front +of and the other behind him, except when set free by God +to chastise his fiends.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>It need hardly be pointed out how great the distance is +that separates this scheme, childish in its simplicity, from +the complex moral structure of Dante’s hell. It should be +borne in mind, however, that here we are not dealing with +the systematic works of accomplished writers—they will be +discussed at a later stage—but with popular tales that +lived, and still live, in the mouth of the illiterate people; +and they are quoted, not as counterparts of the Inferno, +but as rough sketches, in which analogies, even of detail, +with the poem are to be found.⁠<a id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> Thus, the second stage is, +like Dante’s second circle, a place of winds; and in the +fifth region enormous serpents devour the sinners, as in the +eighth circle of Dante they do the thieves. Again, the +glacial region of the last surface is an exact counterpart +of Dante’s lowest circle, with Lucifer corresponding to Iblis +the Moslem king of evil; Iblis, moreover, appears chained +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>with one hand in front and one behind, just as does the +giant Ephialtes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a></p> + +<p>As more and more traditions come to be consulted, each +adding fresh picturesque details, the description will be +found to lose its original baldness and acquire a relief as +marked as that of Dante’s picture. These tales were collected +by the ascetics of Islam, who have handed the collections +down to us in their writings.⁠<a id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> A comparison of the +picture of the Moslem hell with the Inferno shows a remarkable +resemblance. Like the latter, the former is depicted +with a wealth of orographic, hydrographic and architectural +features—rocks, hills and mountains, chasms and valleys; +rivers, lakes and seas; sepulchres, dungeons, castles and +bridges. As in the Inferno, many of these topographical +features bear special names; and, again, in the naming the +same principles are followed as in Dante. The latter either +names the regions after the sinners suffering in them, such +as the abodes of the traitors⁠<a id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a>; or, like the eighth circle, +Malebolge, from the physical and moral conditions of the +place itself. Apart from the names of the principal stages +that are quoted above, the hell of Islam has many names for +special topographical features.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Thus, a mountain formed of the smoke of hell is named +<i>Zal Yahmum</i>; a rock on which libertines are tortured is +called <i>Sijin</i>, or dungeon; <i>Khandaq as-sokran</i> is the name of a +pit from the bottom of which spring water and blood wherewith +drunkards seek to quench their thirst; <i>Maubiq</i>, or +perdition, is a valley through which runs a river of fire; +<i>Atham</i>, or place of crimes, is the name of another valley; +<i>Al-Wayl</i>, or misery, is the deepest of the valleys, in which the +pus from the sores of the sinners gathers and is drunk by the +polytheists; <i>Al-Khabal</i>, or ruin, and <i>Al-Hazan</i>, or sorrow, are +the names of two other valleys; <i>Lamlam</i> is the name of a +round valley, the intense heat of which strikes terror into the +hearts of all the dwellers in hell; <i>Al-Gassaq</i>, or infection, is a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>spring from which flows sweat exuded by serpents, in the +poisonous waters of which the flesh of the damned rots away +from the bone.⁠<a id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> Some regions take their names from famous +sinners, such as the abode of tyrants, from Pharaoh; that of +the polytheists, from Abu Jahl; and so forth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>From this brief summary it will be seen that the hell of +primitive Islam agrees with Dante’s hell in being an abyss of +great depth, formed of stages, steps or circular strata, each +lying at a depth proportionate to the torture meted out +therein; each main stage is subdivided into a number of +secondary storeys; and in both schemes the stages or steps +bear special names and are set apart for certain categories of +sinners.</p> + +<p>The agreement in outline between the two conceptions +cannot be explained on the ground that both were derived +from a common early Christian model; for the eschatology +of early Christianity, both Occidental and Oriental, is of +marked sobriety.⁠<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> Nor is it in Islam that the origin of this +complex architectural scheme must be sought, but farther +East, particularly in Buddhism.⁠<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_III_section_3">3. The outlines of hell, traced by the early Moslem traditionists, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>were filled in with a wealth of detail by the theologians +of later centuries; the mystics, especially, enhanced +the tales with fantastic comment and even endeavoured +graphically to represent by means of designs the picture thus +formed.</p> + +<p>Prominent among the mystics living before Dante’s time +was Ibn Arabi of Murcia, whose allegorical ascensions have +been shown to be curiously similar to the work of Dante.⁠<a id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> +Entire chapters of his monumental work, <i>Futuhat</i>, are +devoted to the description of hell, which is represented in the +traditional manner as a pit or abyss of fabulous depth, +formed of seven steps or circular strata.⁠<a id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> The innovations +introduced by the Sufi are, however, of great interest. Above +all, the sinners are distributed among the seven circles +according to the nature of their sins and the organ, or part +of the body, with which they committed them, viz., the +eyes, ears, tongue, hands, belly, pudenda, and feet. Thus, +the principle governing the distribution is no longer dogmatic, +but, as in the Divine Comedy, ethical. Ibn Arabi, indeed, +combines both principles, inasmuch as he subdivides each +circle into quadrants, reserved for unbelievers, polytheists, +atheists, and hypocrites respectively. In addition, and on a +different principle, each circle is divided into semi-circles—the +one for sinners guilty of <i>external</i> sin, or sin actually +committed; the other for those who committed the same sin +<i>internally</i>, or in thought. Finally, each circle is composed +of a hundred secondary circles or steps, subdivided into +abodes or cells, the total number of which equals the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>number of mansions in heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> But Ibn Arabi goes +further than this. Accustomed to the use of geometrical +design for the illustration of the most abstruse metaphysical +thought, he has recourse to this means for interpreting his +conception of hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> As a follower of the school of Ibn +Masarra, he, like other Spanish Sufis, conceived hell to have +the external aspect of a serpent.⁠<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> And indeed, as the Moslem +hell, like that of Dante, consists of a structure of circular +layers or strata, the diameter of which decreases with their +depth, the whole seen from above in ground plan would +provide a figure formed of concentric circles not unlike the +spiral formed by the coils of a serpent. This is, in fact, the +plan that Ibn Arabi has given us in his <i>Futuhat</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> and which is +here reproduced in <a href="#hell-figure1">Fig. 1</a>.</p> + +<p>The Dantists also, in graphic illustration of the poet’s +descriptions, have drawn designs of the architectural plan of +hell and the other regions beyond the grave. Thus, Manfredi +Porena in his “Commento grafico alla Divina Commedia per +use delle scuole” (Milan, 1902) gives a ground plan of Dante’s +hell (see upper part of <a href="#hell-figure2">Fig. 2</a>) that is almost identical with Ibn +Arabi’s design, the main difference lying in the number of circles, +of which there are ten in Dante and seven in Ibn Arabi.</p> + +<p>Porena also gives the elevation of the inferno (see lower +part of <a href="#hell-figure2">Fig. 2</a>), which resembles the section of an amphitheatre +having ten steps or tiers. The same elevation appears +in Fraticelli’s edition of the Divine Comedy. Ibn Arabi +does not give us this figure, but the elevation of the Islamic +hell was drawn by the Sufis and their design appears in the +Turkish encyclopædia, “Maʿrifet Nameh,” by Ibrahim +Hakki.⁠<a id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> A glance at the reproduction of this design in <a href="#hell-figure3">Fig. 3</a> +will show it to be identical with the elevation of Dante’s hell.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="hell-figure1" style="max-width: 31.25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/hell-figure1.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <p>Fig. 1</p> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp45" id="hell-figure2" style="max-width: 43.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/hell-figure2.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <p>Fig. 2</p> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="hell-figure3" style="max-width: 31.25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/hell-figure3.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <p>Fig. 3</p> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span></p> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV">IV<br> +<span class="smcap">The Moslem Hell in the Divine +Comedy</span>—<i>continued</i></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">1. Having studied the setting, we may now proceed to a +consideration of the personages appearing in hell and the +tortures they suffer. The comparison with the <i>Miraj</i> revealed +general features of resemblance in this respect, such as the +observance, in the infliction of the tortures, of what Dantists +aptly term the law of the <i>contrapasso</i>. Other analogies in the +systems of punishment may be passed over as being due possibly +to parallel and independent imitation of the mediæval <i>lex +talionis</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> More interesting is the resemblance of picturesque +detail to be found in actual episodes of the two descriptions.</p> + +<p>Setting out on our task in the footsteps of Dante and his +guide we are at once struck by the fact that they never turn +to the right, but always to the left. To this apparently +insignificant detail the Dantists have rightly attributed an +allegorical meaning. They seem, however, to have overlooked +the fact that this is in reality a Moslem feature; for +the mystics, and particularly Ibn Arabi, taught that in hell +there is no right hand, just as in heaven there is no left +hand. The belief is based on a text of the Koran, which +says that the blessed are guided on their way to glory by +the light of their virtues shining on their right hand—whence +Ibn Arabi infers that the damned move towards the left.⁠<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_2">2. In the second circle Dante sees the adulterers swept +hither and thither in the darkness of a hellish storm. An +outline of this scene appeared in Version B of Cycle 1 of the +<i>Miraj</i>; and, as has just been seen, in the legends describing +the division of the Moslem hell into seven stages or tiers +the second is also referred to as the region of winds. In +addition, there is a tale attributed to Mahomet that says: +“In hell there blows a dark storm of wind, with which God +torments such of the wicked as He chooses.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> This wind is +the same dread gale that God sent to punish the city of Ad +for its wickedness, a scene that is repeatedly described in +terms similar to those used by Dante, in the commentaries +on the Koran and the collections of legends of the +Prophet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A black cloud or storm, a hurricane wraps all in gloom +except for the sinister light from what appears to be a flame +in its midst; a dry and desolating wind roars as it whirls +around; the ground trembles under the perpetual blast, +which sweeps all before it; with each violent gust men and +women are swept along, thrown up into the air and dashed +to the ground; this hurricane is the dread instrument of +Divine vengeance, the merciless torture of sinners who gave +themselves up to the delights of the senses, to gluttony and +lust; tossed hither and thither by the gale and smitten by +the wind, they cry out in bitter anguish.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Compare this scene with that described by Dante: A +hellish storm, a wind of utter darkness but for streaks of +purple light⁠<a id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> blows furiously without ceasing; roaring like +the sea in tempest, it sweeps the lustful along in its whirl, +turning them around, vexing and bruising them; it carries +them now in this, then in that direction, it throws them up +and casts them down; and, as it wounds them, it wrings +cries of pain and anguish from the sufferers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span></p> + +<p>As may be seen, the similarity of the descriptions extends +to the very wording of the texts.⁠<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">3. Let us now descend to the sixth circle of the inferno. +Version B of Cycle 2 of the legend of the <i>Miraj</i> told how +Mahomet beheld a sea of fire, on the shores of which stood +cities formed of countless fiery sepulchres, in which the wicked +lie tortured. The literal resemblance of this scene to the +city of Dis in the sixth circle, described in Cantos IX, X +and XI of the Inferno, was remarked upon above.⁠<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> It may +be added here that the punishment of sinners in coffins of +fire is mentioned in several other Moslem legends describing +the tortures of hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">4. The torture of the Sodomites in the third ring of the +seventh circle also has its parallel in the Moslem hell. Dante +depicts them as unceasingly treading the circle they inhabit, +under a rain of fire that sears their naked bodies.⁠<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> One of the +sinners is his former master, Brunetto Latini, and, as he walks +awhile with him, he expresses his astonishment and grief at +finding him there, for he remembers the wise teaching he +received from him on earth.</p> + +<p>A double series of Moslem traditions may be quoted as +prototypes of this episode. In the first place, the Moslem +hell contains a torture very similar to that of the rain of +fire:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A rain of boiling water or molten brass will fall unceasingly +upon their heads and, penetrating their skin, will eat away +their entrails and emanate from between their feet, when +the body will return to its former state.⁠<a id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>More specifically, though indeed referring to the fate of +the wicked at the final judgment, it is stated in the Koran +(LV, 35): “Upon you shall God send down flames of fire +and molten brass.”</p> + +<p>The second group of tales refers to the punishment of the +wise men whose conduct was at variance with their teaching.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Cast into hell, they will be made to go round and round +without rest, even as a donkey in turning the wheel of a well +or a mill. Some of their disciples, on beholding them from +heaven, will descend and accompany them in their ceaseless +rotation, asking, ‘What has brought you hither, seeing +that it was but from you we learnt?’ In other versions +the disciple exclaims: ‘Master! What has befallen thee? +Didst not thou haply teach us what to do and what not +to do?’ In other versions again they ask, ‘How came +ye to enter hell seeing that we gained heaven but by your +teaching?’ To which the sages make reply: ‘We bade +you do what was right, but we ourselves did otherwise.’”⁠<a id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>As will be seen, the similarity between the two texts, the +Moslem and the Christian, extends down to the very form +of expression.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">5. The first valley of Malebolge, Dante’s eighth circle, +contains the panders, who, as they hurry naked through +the valley, are scourged by fiends.⁠<a id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> This is the very punishment +allotted by Moslem tradition to those that neglected +the rite of prayer or falsely accused people of adultery—angels +or fiends, the tradition runs, shall whip both classes +of sinners, smiting them cruelly on the face, ribs and +shoulders.⁠<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a></p> + +<p>As for the flatterers, whom immersed in filth Dante +places in the second chasm,⁠<a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> their punishment is equivalent +to that of the drunkards in the Moslem hell, whose thirst +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>is quenched with the loathsome lees of hell, the sweat, +the pus and the blood flowing from the wounds of the other +sinners.⁠<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a></p> + +<p>The third fosse of Malebolge is set with pits of fire, in which +the Simonists are roasted head downwards. A parallel to +this scene is the Moslem torture of murderers, who +are likewise held in pits of fire.⁠<a id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">6. On reaching the fourth pit, Dante meets with a procession +of sinners whose necks he describes as being strangely +twisted, for their faces are turned towards their backs. +More than once he seeks to describe the strange sight, by +saying that the tears of these souls fell down their backs, +that their shoulders were turned into their breasts, that they +walked backwards, and so forth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a></p> + +<p>This curious torture, the originality of which has often +been commented on, would seem to be but an adaptation +of a passage in the Koran, which reads:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Ye that have received the Scriptures, beware of disbelieving +in what God has sent down from heaven in witness +of your holy books, <i>lest We should wipe out your features +and turn your faces in the opposite direction</i>.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The warning that God is thus supposed to address to the +Jews who denied the truth of the Koran, was variously +interpreted both in a literal and figurative sense. The +ninth century commentator Tabari has recorded the different +meanings.⁠<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> But the literal interpretation prevailed, supported +as it was by a belief in Islam, based on Talmudic +legend, according to which some of the demons appear to man +in the same distorted shape.⁠<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> Moslem tales of the Day of +Judgment also depict certain sinners as brought to life again +in this condition—with their faces turned towards their backs +they read their sentence, which is fixed to their shoulders.⁠<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> +The very vividness of the picture stamped it on the Moslem +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>mind with the result that it was used both in the popular +sermons addressed to the Moriscoes and in the works of +thinkers such as Algazel.⁠<a id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_7">7. The torture of hypocrites in the sixth pit of Malebolge +also appears to be an adaptation from two scenes, common +in Moslem tradition, blended into one. Dante depicts them +as walking slowly along, groaning under the weight of leaden +mantles, the external gilt of which dazzles the eye.⁠<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> In the +Arabian tales of the Day of Judgment misers are punished +by being obliged to walk on and on without rest under the +weight of the hoards they had gathered on earth⁠<a id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a>; and +both the Koran and the traditions of Islam represent sinners, +particularly carnal sinners, as being clothed in tunics or +mantles of metal glowing with heat.⁠<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + +<p>While conversing with two of the hypocrites the poet is +horror-stricken at the sight of the awful suffering of Caiaphas, +who lies impaled upon the ground and writhes in agony +as he is trampled under foot by the other hypocrites.⁠<a id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> + +<p>This is another instance of the artistic blending of scenes +characteristic of the Moslem legends on the after-life. +A <i>hadith</i>, attributed to Ibn Abbas, describing in pathetic +language the tortures of the final judgment and hell, contains +the following passage:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“How many youths of tender age and fresh in features +will be crying out in hell: ‘Alas, my unhappy childhood, +my luckless youth! Woe is me that my strength should +have failed me and my young body been so wretched in +its weakness!’ For they will lie in bitter affliction fixed +to the ground with stakes.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The complementary scene is related in the following +apocryphal tradition:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“He who in this life treats his neighbour with contempt +will be brought to life again on the Day of Judgment in the +figure of an ant and all mankind will trample him under +foot. Thereafter he shall enter hell.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_8">8. The seventh pit of Malebolge is the place where thieves +expiate their crimes. Dante sees them rushing hither and +thither in a vain attempt to escape the hydras that, after +seizing and twining themselves around their victims, sting +them in the neck, face and navel with fangs so poisonous +that their flesh is consumed and reduced to ashes, only to +reappear for the torture to be renewed.⁠<a id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> Dante enhances his +description with features borrowed from the classical poets, +more particularly Ovid. If these are eliminated, the picture +will be found to agree very fairly with several scenes of +torture that abound in Moslem tales of the final judgment +and hell, especially the tales of the <i>Corra</i>, the collection +that has so often been drawn upon for the purposes of this +work.⁠<a id="FNanchor_217" href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> If allowance is made for Oriental hyperbole, a comparison +with the following will at once suggest a likeness +between the two:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“On the Day of Judgment the miser who had refused to +give the ritual alms will find himself face to face with a +serpent of great size, with eyes of fire and teeth of iron, +which will pursue him saying, ‘Give me thy miserly right +hand that I may tear it from thee.’ The miser will attempt +to flee, whereupon the serpent will say, ‘Where dost thou +hope to find refuge from thy sins?’ and, coiling itself around +him, will bite off his right hand and devour it, when the +hand will at once grow again. Thereupon the serpent will +devour his left hand, which likewise will reappear. At each +bite of the serpent, the miser will utter such a shriek of pain +that all around him will be stricken with horror.”—“In +the valley of hell called Lamlam there are snakes, as thick +as a camel’s neck and as long as a month’s journey, that +sting all who neglected the rite of prayer; the poison they +inject burns the flesh throughout seventy years.”—“There +is another valley in hell called the Sad Valley, in which are +scorpions like black mules, each provided with seventy fangs +swollen with poison to sting the sinners who were remiss in +prayer; the virus they deposit burns in the wounds a +thousand years, when the flesh of their victims rots away.”—“The +drunkard will be taken to a den full of scorpions as +large as camels, which will seize hold of him by the feet.”—“Usurers +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>will lie in hell with their bellies open and swarming +with snakes and scorpions.”—“Adulterers will be stung by +serpents in the very parts of their bodies on which they +bestowed their kisses.”—“The infidel will be seized by the +hydra of the naked head, which will devour his flesh from +head to foot, but the flesh will grow again over his bones so +that the hydra may again devour it from foot to head.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_9">9. As Dante sets foot in the ninth pit of Malebolge he +meets with a sight so awful that he is at a loss for words to +describe it.⁠<a id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> A crowd of sinners guilty of having sown +discord among men are being driven round the valley by +demons who with sharp swords cut them in twain; but as +the victim moves on the wounds heal, only to be opened +afresh on his return. Three scenes of torture particularly +attract the poet’s attention. Mahomet, with his entrails +trailing at his feet, is seen following his cousin Ali, who +appears cut open from chin to belly. Mosca degli Uberti, +whose hands have been cut off, raises his bleeding stumps as +he makes himself known to Dante. Finally, Bertrand de +Born appears decapitated, holding his head by the hair in his +hand like a lantern.</p> + +<p>The outlines of this scene in general and of the three +episodes already existed in Moslem legend.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“He who takes his own life”—says a tradition⁠<a id="FNanchor_219" href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a>—“shall +with the same knife be done to death throughout eternity by +the angels in the valleys of hell.... At each stab a jet of +blood blacker than pitch will spout from the wound, which +will heal again at once for the torture to be repeated without +end.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The picture that Dante draws of Mahomet and Ali occurs +in many Moslem tales of hell, one of which depicts two groups +of sinners as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Cursing and wailing they tread the space between two +circles of hell; the ones drag their entrails behind them as they +go; the others are spewing blood and matter.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Variants of these legends depict the sinners treading, like +an ass that turns the wheel of a grindstone, round and round +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>the valley in hell, with their entrails, torn out by the fiends, +trailing behind them. The very same torture, moreover, +was allotted to two men notorious throughout Islam for their +cruelty, the fifth Ommeyad Caliph Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwan +and his bloodthirsty general Al-Hajjaj, whom tradition +represented either as walking in hell with their bowels +dangling between their legs, or as being assassinated seventy +times for each murder they had committed on earth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p> + +<p>The bloody fate of Mosca degli Uberti also has its Moslem +counterpart in the torture of thieves and the avaricious:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“He who bereaves another of a part of his wealth shall on +the Day of Judgment appear before God bereft of both +hands.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_221" href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Lastly, the horrifying apparition of Bertrand de Born +would seem to be but an artistic adaptation of a scene in a +Moslem description of the final judgment:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“On that day the victim of murder will appear before +God carrying in one hand his head hanging by the hair, with +the blood pouring from the veins of his neck and, dragging his +murderer with him, will cry out ‘Oh, Lord! Ask Thou of +this man why he killed me.’”⁠<a id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV_section_10">10. In the last chasm of Malebolge deceivers and falsifiers +of all kinds are seen undergoing various forms of torture; +some lie piled one upon the other or drag themselves along on +all fours; itching all over, they scratch the scab from off +their sores or tear one another with their teeth; others lie +with swollen bellies, suffering unquenchable thirst.⁠<a id="FNanchor_223" href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a></p> + +<p>In Version B of Cycle 2 of the <i>Miraj</i> three similar scenes +were described, showing the tortures suffered by slanderers, +usurers and drunkards. Many other tales in Islam also depict +the torture of sinners in terms greatly resembling those of +Dante. Thus it is said, “The itch will seize upon the +sinners, who will scratch themselves to the bone;” or, “They +will suffer such pangs of hunger that they will devour their +own bodies”; or, again, “A maddening thirst will consume +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>them and they will cry out, ‘Oh, but for a sip of water to +slake my thirst!’”⁠<a id="FNanchor_224" href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_V">V<br> +<span class="smcap">The Moslem Hell in the Divine Comedy +(Conclusion)</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_1">1. To reach the place allotted to the traitors, Dante and +his guide are obliged to cross a deep chasm inhabited by +sinners of giant stature who have been guilty of rebellion +against God. The chief of these are Nimrod and the giants +of classical mythology, Ephialtes, Briareus, and Antaeus. +The last-named takes the poets in his hand and gently +deposits them in the abyss of the lowest circle.⁠<a id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> Dante +delights in describing the giants in terms of hyperbole. The +head of Nimrod appears to him as large as the Cone of St. +Peter’s, or rather more than five fathoms in height and +width; his other members are in proportion, so that his total +stature, according to the commentators, would be forty-three +fathoms.</p> + +<p>The Christian works prior to the Divine Comedy provide no +satisfactory explanation of this scene. True, the personality +of the giants is well defined in the Bible and in mythology, +but none of these sources warrants their being placed in hell. +The Moslem sources, however, at once furnish a key to the +riddle. The eschatological books of Islam devote whole +chapters to the tales of the Prophet describing the enormous +stature of the infidels who, like Dante’s giants, occupy the +lowest circle of hell and whose proportions are measured, +hyperbolically indeed, but with a mathematical exactitude +similar to that displayed by Dante.⁠<a id="FNanchor_226" href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“On the Day of Judgment the infidels will appear with +black faces, their stature increased to a height of sixty +fathoms and their heads crowned with a diadem of fire....” +“The bodies of the sinners are of the size of mountains.... +Each of their teeth is as large as a man and the rest of their +body is in proportion. Their thighs are as big as Mount +Albaida (three miles distant from Mecca). The space they +fill when seated is as the distance from Mecca to Medina. +Their bodies are so massive that a roaring noise, as of wild +beasts, is heard between the skin and the flesh. Their total +stature is forty-two fathoms.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The object of giving the victim this monstrous size is +simply to provide more material for torture. Finally, the +hypothesis of the Moslem origin of Dante’s picture is supported +by two facts—the one, that Iblis lies in the lowest +circle chained in the same curious manner as the giant +Ephialtes, with one hand in front and the other behind⁠<a id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a>; +the other, that Islam relegates Nimrod and Pharaoh, as the +prototypes of Satanic pride, to the same region in which +Iblis suffers punishment for his rebellion.⁠<a id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> Dante accuses +Nimrod of the same sin of rebellion and places him at the +entrance to the lowest circle, that of Lucifer.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_2">2. One and the same torture, that of cold, is suffered by +all sinners in this lowest circle. The lake Cocytus, which fills +the entire space, is kept frozen by the icy blast from the +wings of Lucifer; and in its congealed waters traitors of four +different classes are shown in diverse attitudes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a></p> + +<p>It need hardly be remarked that Biblical eschatology +makes no mention of any torture of cold in hell. The Moslem +doctrine, however, places this torture on the same footing +as torture by fire.⁠<a id="FNanchor_230" href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> True, the Koran alludes to it but +vaguely in saying that the blessed shall suffer neither from +the heat of the sun nor the cold of <i>zamharir</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_231" href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> But, as comment +on this passage, there arose a number of traditions, +attributed to Mahomet, in which intense cold is acknowledged +as a torture of hell and, indeed, a torture more painful +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>even than that of heat.⁠<a id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> Its introduction into the Moslem +scheme of hell was due, not merely to a desire for symmetry +and antithesis in torture, but rather to the assimilation by +Islam of a Zoroastrian belief. The theologian Jahiz, writing +in the ninth century, says that this torture is peculiar to +the Persian hell of Zoroaster, by whose religion fire is held +sacred.⁠<a id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> If, therefore, it is accepted unhesitatingly by Tabari +a century later, it is probable that it had in the meantime +been introduced by Zoroastrians converted to Islam. More +interesting, however, than the question of the remote origin, +is the fact that some of the traditions interpret the Koranic +<i>zamharir</i> as a frozen lake.⁠<a id="FNanchor_234" href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> “What is the <i>zamharir</i> of hell?” +they asked Mahomet, and he replied, “It is a pit into which +the unbeliever is cast, in which his members are rent asunder +by intense cold.” If it is borne in mind that the word had +the scientific meaning of “glacial wind” or “air of the +atmospheric region intermediate between the earth and the +sphere of the moon”⁠<a id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> it will be seen that, as in Dante’s hell, +the sinners of Islam suffered the double torment of exposure +to an icy blast of wind and contact with frozen water.</p> + +<p>The picturesque description of the various attitudes in +which Dante depicts the different groups of traitors is a +feature that constantly recurs in the pictures of the Moslem +hell, though not indeed in connection with the torture of +cold. Thus, a tradition attributed to Ibn Abbas says that +“some are punished standing, some lying on their sides; +others lie stretched out on their backs, or stand leaning on +their elbows; while many are to be seen hanging head +downwards.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> A very popular legend of hell adds:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The fire will be well aware of the guilt of the sinners +and the suffering they deserve.... Thus, in some it will +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>reach the ankles; in others, the knees, the waist, the chest, +and even the neck.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>One Moslem scene of torture is even identical with the most +violent of the postures in which Dante places the sinners in +the frozen lake of Cocytus:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The fiends will seize the sinner from behind, will break +his ribs in twain and, bending back his belly, with his hair +will tie his feet.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_3">3. At the bottom of the lowest pit of hell, that is to say, +at the centre of the earth, Dante places Lucifer, the king of +the realm of pain, set in the ice from the lower part of his +chest downwards. Of gigantic stature and monstrously misshapen, +he bears on the trunk three faces, underneath which +are enormous wings shaped like the wings of a bat; the +flapping of these wings produces the icy wind that blows in +this region. With his three mouths he devours three traitors. +Dante in terror manages to slip between the hairy shoulders +of Lucifer and the ice and reach the southern hemisphere +through a long subterranean passage. As he escapes, he +beholds the enormous legs of Lucifer hanging unsupported +in the air; and Virgil explains how the fallen angel, on +being cast out of heaven, with his head had struck the surface +of the southern hemisphere and, penetrating to the centre +of the earth, had remained fixed there to that day.⁠<a id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a></p> + +<p>The originality of this picture has always been greatly +admired. Graf, bringing all his erudition and insight to bear +on the subject, detects three elements in the demonology +of Dante—theological elements, based on Thomistic doctrine; +popular elements, in harmony with opinion current at his +time; and elements peculiar to Dante, such as he may have +acquired in exile, particularly at the University of Bologna.⁠<a id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a> +Among the last-named he includes this description, saying, +“Questa mirabile immaginazione è, per quanto io so, tutta +propria di Dante.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_V_section_4">4. However much the power and beauty of Dante’s description +are to be admired, prototypes of it are not lacking +in the theological literature of Islam.</p> + +<p>The position of Lucifer, fixed in the lowest pit of hell, has +been shown to be common to many Moslem descriptions. +Nor, given the principle of the division of sinners, could he +be conceived in any other place; for the Iblis of Islam being, +like Lucifer, the father of all rebellion against God, must +necessarily suffer the severest torture.</p> + +<p>But the similarity of the two conceptions extends even to +the very nature of the torture. Ibn Arabi definitely states +that Iblis is exposed to the torture of ice, and this assertion +he bases on the fact that Iblis, like all demons, is a genie +and thus was created from fire; his punishment, he infers, +must therefore by contrast consist in exposure to the severest +cold, or <i>zamharir</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> Contemporaries of Ibn Arabi had on +similar grounds accounted for the immunity of the fiends from +the effect of the fire of hell. Thus, Abu-l-Hasan al-Ashari +argues that the demons, being fallen angels, were created +from light and, accordingly, are insensible to torture by fire.⁠<a id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a></p> + +<p>As to Lucifer’s monstrous appearance, the multiplicity of +faces is the very stigma that for their double-dealing is +imposed upon traitors in the Moslem hell; and Lucifer, it +must be remembered, as a rebel against God, is the +arch-traitor and, as such, is confined by Dante in the traitors’ +pit. An early apocryphal tradition says: “He who in this +world has a double face and a double tongue, to him shall +God give two faces and two tongues in hell.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_243" href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> Other early +legends depict the fiends also as two-headed monsters.⁠<a id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> Even +hell itself, considered not as the place, but as the embodiment +of tortures, is vividly represented as a hydra-headed monster +in Moslem legends of the Day of Judgment; with its many +mouths this monster devours sinners of different categories, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>and some versions even fix the number at three.⁠<a id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> Finally, +the many popular tales of fantastic voyages frequently +describe similar monsters—such as the beast named Malikan, +which has two wings and numerous heads and faces and +devours the animals of the sea that land upon its island; +or Dahlan, which is depicted as a fiend that rides upon a bird +like an ostrich and seizes on all men that set foot upon its +isle in the Indian Ocean.⁠<a id="FNanchor_246" href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p> + +<p>There remains to be considered Dante’s description of the +fall of Lucifer from heaven. The only allusion in pre-Dante +Christian literature to the fall of Lucifer is the brief passage +in the Gospel according to St. Luke (X, 18): “And he said +unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” +The Koran, on the other hand, describes the rebellion and +expulsion from heaven of Iblis in more than seven +passages⁠<a id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a>; and, though no details of his descent are +given, these were filled in by the traditions depicting +the punishment God inflicted on Adam and Eve, the +serpent and Iblis.⁠<a id="FNanchor_248" href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> In addition, there exists a cycle of +cosmogonical legends, which serve to complete the myth of +the fall of Iblis.</p> + +<p>Mention has been made in a former chapter of tales +describing the division of the earth into seven floors or +stages, which were identified with the seven mansions of +hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> These tales were intended to explain the cosmogonical +legends above referred to; and all are in the +end but comment on a passage of the Koran to the effect +that heaven and earth were created as one sole mass +and only later were separated and each divided into several +strata.⁠<a id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></p> + +<p>“Immediately after their division,” the legend says, “God +sent an angel from His throne, who, falling upon the earth, +penetrated the seven strata thereof and there remained, +sustaining them upon his shoulders, with one hand stretched +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>towards the East and the other towards the West, his feet +lacking all support.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a></p> + +<p>The legend does not indeed identify Iblis with this angel, +but the fact that he was sent from the very throne of God +and <i>fell</i> to earth would seem to favour the suggestion.</p> + +<p>The two myths, blended together, may well have served +as a model for Dante’s picture. That there exist grounds +for this hypothesis may be shown by a review of the different +features of resemblance furnished by the Moslem descriptions. +Iblis is an angel cast out of heaven for rebellion against +God, who, in falling to the earth, penetrates its several +strata and is embedded in the ice, with his feet unsupported; +although of gigantic stature—he supports the different +strata—he is yet an angel and thus provided with wings; +but sin has changed his beauty into hideousness and thus +he appears as a many-headed beast that devours men, as +a monster that is half man, half ostrich.⁠<a id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI">VI<br> +<span class="smcap">The Moslem Purgatory in the Divine Comedy</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_1">1. Through the dark and winding passage leading from +the centre of the earth to the surface of the southern hemisphere +Dante and his guide pass to reach the shores of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>purgatory, which the poet conceives as a lofty mountain +shaped like a truncated cone and set in the midst of a boundless +ocean. Seven terraces divide this mountain into as +many mansions of expiation, one for each capital sin; and +at the foot two mansions form the antechamber of purgatory, +where the disobedient and negligent spirits await admittance. +On the table-land at the top of the mountain and bordering +on the sphere of the ether is the earthly paradise. The +mount of purgatory may thus be variously considered as +consisting of seven, nine or ten mansions, which are connected +by a steep and arduous path. The spirits in purgatory +are those guilty merely of venial sin, or of deadly sins for +which full penitence has not been done; these they expiate +in the successive mansions under the guard of angels who +guide them in their ascent—a task that is rendered easier +by the prayers of their friends on earth. Dante, too, though +only in a mystical sense, is subjected to this progressive +purification, the guardian angel marking his brow seven +times with the letter P, the symbol of sin, which is washed +away in each of the seven terraces. As they rise, the ascent +becomes easier and, finally, the poets reach the summit, or +earthly paradise, where, by bathing in the waters of two +rivers, Dante cleanses his soul and is prepared for his entry +into heaven.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_2">2. Nothing in Christian eschatology seems to warrant so +detailed and precise a description of the site of purgatory. +Not until a century after the appearance of the Divine +Comedy did the existence of purgatory as a special condition +of the soul, engaged in temporary expiation of sin, become +a dogma of the Christian faith.⁠<a id="FNanchor_253" href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> The site was never mentioned, +either at the Council of Florence held in that century, +or at the Council of Trent, or on any other occasion, for, as +a matter of fact, the Church has always endeavoured to +avoid fantastic descriptions of the realms beyond the grave, +and particularly of purgatory.⁠<a id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> Not that purgatory was an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>innovation of the fifteenth century; indeed, the belief in +it was deeply rooted in scholastic and patristic tradition, as +well as in revealed doctrine. But the dogma never went +beyond the admission of its existence as a state of the soul, +and ecclesiastical tradition, especially of Western Christianity, +was ever discreetly silent upon its site and descriptive detail. +Prior to Dante, only a few writers, such as Hugh of +St. Victor, St. Thomas and Ricardo de Media Villa, had +made timid attempts to portray purgatory, and their +conceptions differed greatly from Dante’s picture. Landino, +accordingly, concludes his review of all possible models, +classical or Christian, with the remark: “Ma Dante, huomo +di mirabile ingegno e di mirabile inventione, trovo nuovo +sito, il quale niente e contra sustantialmente all opinione +christiana.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_3">3. As has been seen, Islam, the successor of Eastern +Christianity, admitted purgatory as a state of temporary +penitence to be undergone by all sinners that die in the true +faith.⁠<a id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> To determine its locality and the nature of the trials +to which the souls are subjected, it is necessary to have +recourse to the plethora of Islamic legends on the after-life. +The dogmas of the resurrection of the body and the final +judgment caused a certain confusion in the minds of the +theologians who were called upon to decide the question of +the penalties and rewards awaiting the soul during the time +between death and the end of the world. Are the souls alone, +or the bodies also, subject to sanction? Can the dead body +feel physical pain and pleasure if it is not resuscitated in +the tomb? Again, what useful purpose can be served by +final judgment, if sentence and sanction are to begin at +death? As it is impossible to make a critical selection of the +legends or to distinguish between tales dealing with expiation +immediately after death and those describing purgation following +upon final judgment, a few descriptive features taken +indiscriminately from the whole group of legends will be +compared with the corresponding scenes in Dante.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span></p> + +<p>To begin with, the purgatory of Islam is represented as +being near to, but separate from hell; and, whereas the +latter is placed in the interior of the earth, the former is +described as lying outside and above the earth. This is +clearly borne out by a tradition which, in addition to this +topographical feature, gives an outline of the expiation of +sin⁠<a id="FNanchor_257" href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“There are two hells, or gehennas; the one the <i>internal</i>, +the other the <i>external</i> fire. The former none shall ever leave, +but the latter is the place in which God chastises the faithful +for their sins. Then, when at His will the angels, prophets +and saints intercede on their behalf, the blackened bodies of +the sinners will be withdrawn from the fire and cast upon the +banks of a river in paradise, called the River of Life. When +sprinkled with the waters of the river they will come to life +again like seeds sprouting in dung. Their bodies made whole, +they will be bidden to enter the river and to wash themselves +and drink of its waters, so that later they may be called +upon to enter heaven. In heaven they will be known as the +‘Men of Hell’ until such time as God shall consent to remove +this stigma, when the brow of each will bear the legend +‘Freedman of God.’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Thus, the final episode of Dante’s purgatory, in which, +when the poet enters the garden of the terrestrial paradise, +the allegorical mark of sin is wiped from off his brow and +he is washed in the rivers of Lethe and Eunoe, is given in +this Moslem legend with typical details similar in their turn +to those already noted in versions of the <i>Miraj</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a></p> + +<p>A tale of another cycle describes purgatory essentially as +Dante conceived it, as “a mount rising between hell and +heaven on which the sinners are imprisoned.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> True, purgatory +here is either confused or blended with the limbo, for +the region is named <i>Al Aaraf</i>, and is said to be inhabited by +Moslem sinners whose sins are counterbalanced by their +virtues. But, inasmuch as these sinners, after being purified +of their sins in the River of Life, are capable of entering +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>heaven, the characteristics of purgatory may be said to +prevail.</p> + +<p>So far, then, the purgatory of Islam stands revealed as a +hill or mount definitely situated outside and above hell and +rising between it and heaven. The description is carried +further in the legends, adopted by Islam from Persian +eschatology, that deal with the bridge or path that has to +be traversed by the souls before they can enter heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> +The Persian Chinvat, or luminous bridge, which stretches +over the abyss of hell between heaven and a mountain rising +from the centre of the earth, assumed in Islam the various +forms of a path or road; a lofty structure, vaulted bridge or +viaduct; a natural bridge or slippery passage; or, again, +a slope or ramp difficult of ascent. With the exception of the +image of the bridge, these features reappear in the Purgatorio; +and even Dante’s mount is in reality but an enormous +bridge, providing as it does the only means of passing from +earth to heaven and rising above hell, or, rather, like the +<i>sirat</i> or path described in the Moslem books of eschatology, +above the back of the abyss of hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_4">4. Ibn Arabi, commenting in his <i>Futuhat</i> upon the words +attributed to Mahomet on this point says, “the souls that +are not cast into hell shall be detained in the <i>sirat</i>, where +strict account shall be taken of their sins, for which they +will be punished.” He adds that “the <i>sirat</i> will be over +the back of hell and form the sole means of entering paradise.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> +In another passage he completes the picture saying, as if +indeed he were speaking of Dante’s conception, “the <i>sirat</i> +will rise in a straight line from the earth to the surface of +the stellar sphere and end in a meadow lying outside the +walls of the heavenly paradise; the souls will first enter +this meadow, called the paradise of delight.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span></p> + +<p>In other legends two <i>sirats</i> appear, and the souls that +have succeeded in passing the first without falling into hell +are subjected to the trial of the second. The latter is often +represented as a high structure (<i>cantara</i>) between hell and +heaven, which serves as a place of temporary expiation of +sin: “in it the souls will be detained until they mutually +restore the debts that by their guilt they contracted on +earth, and they are purified”; whereupon angels will receive +them with loving words of welcome and guide them on the +path that leads to eternal bliss.⁠<a id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a></p> + +<p>The resemblance of the purgatory of Islam to that of +Dante is most striking, however, in the form given to it by the +mystics, who multiply the primitive <i>cantara</i>, or place of +expiation, into a number of chambers, enclosures or abodes. +As usual, it is Ibn Arabi who paints the picture with the +greatest detail.⁠<a id="FNanchor_265" href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> In the legend of the Prophet that he has +handed down to us, there are fifty stations, distributed into +four main groups. Of these the last is the most interesting to +us, since, like Dante’s purgatory, it consists of seven +enclosures, called bridges or slippery passages, beset with +obstacles which the souls have to surmount by ascending +seven steep slopes of a height hyperbolically couched in +terms of thousands of years. The principle on which these +different abodes of trial and expiation are distinguished is, as +in Dante, ethical; it is based on the seven capital sins of +Islam, which consist in the breaking of the rules of faith, +prayer, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage, ablution, and just +dealing with one’s neighbour.</p> + +<p>Once started in this direction, the imagination of the +faithful soon overstepped the narrow limits of the scheme +outlined above, and the topography was amplified by the +addition of other partial purgatories of ten, twelve, or +fifteen sections. Here, again, the principle is ethical; +although it must be confessed that the distribution is neither +logical nor based on any philosophical or theological system, +but is rather the outcome of a desire on the part of the casuist +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>to leave no wrongdoing unpunished. The result is thus a +heterogeneity of vices and failings.⁠<a id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a></p> + +<p>Judging by the wealth of detail with which the place of +expiation is described in the eschatology of Islam, it is +evident, then, that in the matter of topography Dante’s +conception can hardly be claimed to be original.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_5">5. As for his description of the punishments of purgatory, +no such claim has ever been made. Indeed, having exhausted +the whole gamut of suffering in his picture of hell, he would +no doubt find it difficult to conceive new torments, so that a +very brief comparison of Dante’s with the Moslem scenes will +be sufficient for our argument.</p> + +<p>The disobedient and neglectful souls are punished merely +by being withheld indefinitely from the place of expiation. +At the foot of the mount they lie, awaiting the help of +friends and relations, the prayers of whom will shorten the +term of Divine wrath. It is in this antechamber of purgatory +that Manfred of Sicily and Belacqua make themselves known +to Dante and implore him to give news of their sad fate to +their friends on earth. Under the shade of a rock Belacqua +with his head between his knees sits in an attitude of utter +dejection.⁠<a id="FNanchor_267" href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a></p> + +<p>In the religious literature of Islam similar scenes abound in +the form of visions of souls in purgatory, who appear to their +relations in their sleep and beseech them to pray for their +eternal rest.⁠<a id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> One scene in particular bears a striking +resemblance to Dante’s description; Abu Dolaf al-Ijli, a +soldier of the time of Caliph Al-Mamun, appears to his son +Dolaf, who thus describes the vision:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“In a dream I saw my father lying in a place of horror, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>with dark walls around it and its floor covered with ashes. +Naked and sitting with his head resting upon his knees, he +called out to me, ‘Dolaf,’ and I replied, ‘May God have thee +in His keeping.’ Then did he recite the following verses: +‘Tell our family of the fate awaiting them in this dread +purgatory and how account is taken of all our deeds. Hide +nothing from them, but thou, have pity on my awful loneliness +and terrible fate. If in death we were but left alone, +it would at least be a comfort to us! But, alas! We are +brought to life again and must answer for all our deeds.’ +And with these words he vanished, and I awoke.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_269" href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI_section_6">6. The torments of Dante’s Purgatorio, like those of the +Inferno, are based on the principle of correlation between +punishment and sin. Thus, in the first circle the souls that +are being purified of the sin of pride are seen wending their +way bowed down under a heavy load of stones. This is the +very suffering assigned by Islam to the avaricious and such as +grew rich by evil means. Tales attributed to Mahomet say⁠<a id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Men of my persuasion will come to me on the Day of +Judgment, their shoulders burdened with the goods of this +world, and they will implore my aid.... But I shall turn +my back upon them, saying, ‘the faith ye profess is known to +me, but your deeds I know not.’ For he who stole but a +palm of land shall be obliged by God to bear it upon his neck, +down to the bottommost part of the earth.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Other legends depict the avaricious as vainly endeavouring +to cross the <i>sirat</i> under the burden of their riches, or as +wandering hither and thither, borne down by the weight of +their wealth.</p> + +<p>In the second circle Dante portrays the envious with their +eyelids sewn together and weeping bitterly as they pray for +pardon.</p> + +<p>Blindness, though in a milder form, is also one of the +punishments reserved in Islam for those that failed to +practise the virtues they preached.⁠<a id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> An apocryphal tradition +of Mahomet runs:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“He who reads the Koran but ignores its teaching shall +appear blind on the Day of Judgment. To his cry ‘Oh, +Lord! Why hast Thou brought me to life again, deprived of +my sight, whereas aforetime I could see?’ God will give +answer, ‘Even as my words reached thine eyes and thou +didst heed them not, so shall I pay no heed to thee to-day.’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The wrathful, in Dante’s third circle, are enveloped in a +cloud of smoke so dense that although their voices can be +heard, they themselves cannot be seen.</p> + +<p>This is the very torment, referred to in the Koran as +a plague of smoke that God will send on the Day of Judgment +to punish them that mocked His prophets.⁠<a id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a> The +traditionists, in their comment on this passage, filled in the +details of the picture, which thus comes to bear a striking +resemblance to Dante’s scene.⁠<a id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The smoke will be so dense that the whole earth will +resemble a house that is on fire; the plague will last forty +days and forty nights, until the earth from East to West is +full of smoke, which will enter the eyes, ears and nostrils of +the infidels, suffocating and blinding them, and even the +true believers will suffer from faintness; men will call out +one to another, but though their voices will be heard, they +themselves will not be seen, so thick will be the fog.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The punishment meted out in the fourth circle of the +Purgatorio to the slothful, who are made to run without +ceasing, may be passed over as of slight interest. More +striking is the torture of the avaricious, in the fifth circle, +who as they lie face downwards on the ground, bound hand +and foot, bewail their fate with bitter tears.</p> + +<p>Sadness and moral pain are among the typical features of +the purgatory of Islam that recur in the descriptions of the +different abodes or stations.⁠<a id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Should the soul have been guilty of any of these failings, +it will remain in its allotted abode a thousand years downcast +and ashamed, naked, hungered and athirst, until such time +as it shall have made restitution unto God.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span></p> + +<p>The peculiar posture, moreover, in which Dante depicts +the avaricious, is that in which, according to Islam, sinners +in general, and inebriates in particular, are found on the +Day of Judgment and in purgatory itself. A tradition of +the Prophet runs: “He, who on earth made you walk +upright, may on the Day of Judgment cause you to walk +upon your faces.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> And the author of the <i>Corra</i> describes +the punishment of the drunkard as follows: “He shall +come to life again with his hands and feet fettered and be +obliged to drag himself along the ground.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_276" href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> Of the passage +of the <i>sirat</i> a tradition attributed to Mahomet says:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Some will pass with the swiftness of a race-horse, of +the wind, or of lightning; others will merely run or walk; +while others, again, will crawl on all fours, like an infant, +or drag themselves along on their bellies.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>In Dante’s sixth circle, where the vice of gluttony is +punished, the souls, famished and parched with thirst, are +tantalised by the sight and odour of the fruit of two trees, +offshoots of the tree growing on high in the earthly paradise.</p> + +<p>As has just been seen, the cravings of hunger and thirst +are characteristic torments of the purgatory of Islam. It is +a further curious coincidence that in a Moslem legend +narrating the passage of the soul along the <i>sirat</i>, or path of +expiation, this incident of the tree should be thrice repeated.⁠<a id="FNanchor_278" href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> +Three trees grow by the side of the path at different stages, +the last one standing at the gate of paradise. The soul, +in its painful progress, begs to be allowed to rest in their +shade and eat of their luscious fruit, and God finally grants +the prayer. Though the ending is different, the general +outline of the incident is very similar in both stories.</p> + +<p>The last circle of the Purgatorio is the place of expiation +of the sin of lust. Tormented with thirst and scorched by +the flames, the souls cry aloud to God for forgiveness. Dante +speaks to several who are known to him, and they entreat +him to intercede on their behalf.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span></p> + +<p>Fire is the most common of all the torments, occurring +as it does in almost every eschatological system; in some, +indeed, it constitutes the only form of punishment. It +would, therefore, be superfluous to point out parallel scenes +in Islamic descriptions of the after-life.⁠<a id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> The Moslem +traditionists, however, are careful to distinguish between the +expiatory flames of purgatory and the eternal fire of hell. +The former, being temporary and merely serving to purify, +are limited both as to duration and extent, proportionately +to the nature of the sin for which atonement is being made. +Numerous are the legends describing the different degrees of +this torture and telling of the laments and prayers, addressed +by the sufferers to the angels, Mahomet, and the saints, +begging them to intercede with God on their behalf.⁠<a id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII">VII<br> +<span class="smcap">The Earthly Paradise of Islam in the +Divine Comedy.</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_1">1. The summit of the Mount of Purgatory is a broad table-land, +which Dante describes as a garden of great beauty. +This is the earthly paradise, or Garden of Eden, in which our +first ancestors dwelt while yet in a state of innocence. As +he treads the ground, which is fragrant with flowers, a gentle +breeze, laden with the perfumes of paradise, fans his tear-stained +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>cheeks. In the shade of verdant trees, the rustling +of whose leaves murmurs a soft accompaniment to the song +of a thousand birds, he comes to a limpid stream, whose +course he follows; here he walks, accompanied by a fair +maiden, Matilda, who, gathering flowers as she trips along +the further bank, explains to him the nature of the garden. +Virgil’s mission is now ended, and he is soon to leave Dante; +for, of a sudden, they behold advancing from beyond the +stream a marvellous procession of maidens and elders, who, +richly attired, lead in triumph a car in which, surrounded by +angelic spirits and greeted with songs of welcome, appears +Beatrice, the poet’s beloved. Calling him by name, she +sternly rebukes Dante for his disregard of the holy counsel +she gave him in his dreams, for his faithlessness in following +other less worthy loves, and for his sins. Dante, confused +and repentant, confesses his unworthiness. He is then +immersed by Matilda and the maidens that serve Beatrice +in the stream of Lethe, on whose banks they are gathered, +and upon drinking of its waters loses all memory of sin. +Thereafter he succumbs to sleep in the shade of the tree of +paradise, and finally, is bathed in the waters of Eunoe, from +which he emerges “born again, even as trees renewed with +fresh foliage, pure and ready to mount to the stars.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a></p> + +<p>Graf, after minute study of the mediæval legends bearing +on the earthly paradise, has shown that there existed +precedents for the site chosen by Dante, inasmuch as others +before him had laid this garden in the southern hemisphere +and on the peak of a high mountain.⁠<a id="FNanchor_282" href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a> But he asserts that +no one before Dante had thought of placing it precisely +on the summit of purgatory. An examination of Islamic +literature will therefore be of interest, as it may furnish the +key to this riddle of topography by revealing analogies both +in outline and in detail with this closing scene of the +Purgatorio.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_2">2. From the earliest centuries in Islam the question of +the site of the garden in which God had placed Adam and +Eve had given rise to animated controversy. The passages +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>in which the Koran tells the Biblical story in a slightly +altered form, led to a confusion between this paradise and +the abode of glory, thus causing it to be laid in heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_283" href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> +According to another interpretation, however, it was supposed +to be situated on earth, more precisely, in the East and on +the highest of all mountains. This explanation, whilst +more in keeping with the Biblical narrative, had the advantage +of being reconcilable with the words used in the Koran; for +the expulsion of Adam and Eve to the earth would merely +mean that God drove them from the summit to the foot +of the mountain⁠<a id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a>; it would also account for the delights of +the Garden of Eden and its difference from other places on +the surface of the earth. This view, though indeed held +from early times, was mainly propounded by the <i>Mutazili</i> +heretics, the philosophers and the mystics. A Spanish +<i>Mutazili</i> ascetic of the ninth century, Mondir ibn Said +al-Belloti, who was chief cadi of Cordova, was its most +ardent champion; and in the tenth century it became +popular throughout Islam through the <i>Rasail</i> or encyclopædia +compiled by the <i>Ikhwan as-safa</i>, or Brethren of Purity, +a heretical sect established in Basra.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Lying on the summit of the Mountain of the Hyacinth, +which no human being may ascend, paradise was a garden +of the East; a soft breeze blew day and night, winter and +summer, over its perfumed ground. The garden was well +watered by streams and shaded by lofty trees; it was full +of luscious fruit, of sweet-smelling plants, of flowers of +different kinds; harmless animals lived there and birds +of song....”⁠<a id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The earthly paradise that is here depicted in terms similar +to those used by Dante was situated, therefore, on the +summit of the highest mountain of the earth. Exactly which +mountain was referred to is not easy to determine, for on +this point opinion differed. Some authors placed it in Syria +or in Persia; others in Chaldea or in India.⁠<a id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> Eventually the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>belief that it lay in the last-named country was the most +generally accepted.⁠<a id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a> The Brethren of Purity refer to the +mountain as the “Mount of the Hyacinth,” which, according +to Arab geographers, is the mountain rising in Ceylon, now +known as “Adam’s Peak.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> Rising out of the Indian Ocean +to a height of seven thousand feet, it is visible from afar at +sea, and this fact would no doubt account for the exaggerated +height attributed to it, for its summit was supposed +to reach to the sky.</p> + +<p>The very name the mountain still bears is a perpetuation +of the Islamic legend. Ibn Batutah, of Tangier, the famous +fourteenth century traveller, who journeyed to the ends of +the world, as it was then known, has left us a picturesque +description of its difficult ascent, which Moslem pilgrims +were wont to undertake in the belief that a rock on the +summit bore the footprint of our father Adam.⁠<a id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a></p> + +<p>A high mount, rising in the middle of an island in the ocean +covering the southern hemisphere is, in Dante’s conception, +the site of the earthly paradise. According to Islam, it is a +high mountain rising in the middle of an island in the Indian +Ocean.⁠<a id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> Dante’s, it is true, is but a small isle lying in the +antipodes of Jerusalem, whereas the island of Ceylon is +larger and is situated on the equator; but the difference in +topography is slight.⁠<a id="FNanchor_291" href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_3">3. As Graf has pointed out, however, Dante’s conception +of the site of the earthly paradise was no novelty in mediæval +Christian literature, so that coincidence with Islam on this +point alone would not suffice as proof of Moslem influence. +But, as mentioned above, there is an element in Dante’s +topography that Graf does not hesitate to ascribe to the +poet’s inventive genius, to wit, the position of the earthly +paradise on the summit of the mount of expiation, and its +conception as the goal of the sinner in his arduous ascent +and the last stage of purgation, in which the soul is cleansed +of sin and made fit to cross the threshold of eternal bliss.⁠<a id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a></p> + +<p>Among the many Moslem legends dealing with the entry +of the souls into the theological heaven there is a whole +cycle describing their adventures from the time they finally +emerge from the <i>sirat</i> or path of purgatory. Close to the +<i>sirat</i>, and forming as it were the last stage of purgatory, +lies the marvellous garden of paradise, which, although not +indeed stated to be the earthly paradise, is depicted with all +the features proper to it. Its pleasant pastures, gay with +flowers, are watered by two rivers, and two only, in which +the souls are immersed and cleansed from sin, and of whose +waters they drink; upon emerging, the souls rest, as does +Dante, in the shade of trees and are then led by a choir +of angels to the abode of glory. But a still more remarkable +coincidence is, that on the threshold of the celestial mansion +the soul is welcomed by a maiden of surpassing beauty, his +promised bride, who for long has awaited his coming, yearning +to be united with him in a love at once spiritual and chaste.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_4">4. The resemblance to Dante’s picture borne by this brief +sketch is such as to call for a more detailed examination of +these legends and a comparison of this episode with Dante’s +story. Originating in the form of gloss on a verselet of the +Koran, the myth in its earliest and crudest version reads as +follows:⁠<a id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The souls that are about to enter paradise first come to two +springs; they drink of the waters of the one, and God blots +all rancour and hatred from their hearts; they bathe in the +waters of the other, and their complexions become brilliant, +and the purity and splendour of bliss is seen shining on their +faces.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>These bare outlines were soon filled in by the traditionists, +who in the course of time built up the story that has been +handed down to us in its most complete and classical form +by Shakir ibn Muslim, of Orihuela. Composed in rhymed +verse, it is of such extraordinary length that only the most +interesting passages can be given here.⁠<a id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“When the souls have left hell behind them and have +traversed the <i>sirat</i>, or path of purgatory, they issue upon the +plain that leads to paradise.⁠<a id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> Accompanying them are the +angels of Divine mercy, who cheer and guide them on their +way to glory and wish them joy of their victory and salvation.⁠<a id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a> +As they approach the entrance to paradise a gentle +breeze, laden with perfume, brings balm to their souls and +wipes away the memory of the suffering they endured in the +course of their judgment and in the various mansions.... +At the gate of paradise stand two mighty trees, lovelier than +any ever seen on earth. Their fragrance, the richness of +their foliage, the beauty of their blossom, the perfume of +their fruit, the lustre of their leaves—nothing could ever +surpass. The birds on their branches sing in sweet harmony +with the rustling of the leaves....⁠<a id="FNanchor_298" href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> At the foot of either tree +there springs a fountain of the purest water, clearer than +beryl, cooler and whiter than freshly melted snow; these +springs are the source of two limpid streams, whose beds are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>seen to be of pearls and rubies....⁠<a id="FNanchor_299" href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a> Along their banks +spread gardens and groves of trees in blossom, laden with +fruit and harbouring birds of sweet song.... The souls +bathe in the two rivers; from the one they emerge whole in +body and cleansed from the marks of fire, with the lustre +of health and joy upon their faces; they drink of the waters +of the river and, as all memory of past affliction leaves them, +so is all trace of envy, rancour and hatred blotted from their +hearts; they then bathe in the other stream, and later find +peaceful repose in the shade of the two trees....⁠<a id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a> And, +even as they rest, the angels of the Lord call upon them, +saying, ‘Oh, beloved of God, these trees are not your +dwelling; nigh unto God is your appointed place. Rise, +therefore, and march onward, till ye reach the mansion of +rest and everlasting bliss.’⁠<a id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> And they rise and proceed +through the paths of paradise, following the voice of the +angel herald, who leads them on from garden to garden until +they meet with a brilliant procession of youths and maidens, +dressed in rich attire and mounted on coursers ... who greet +each one with shouts of joy and congratulation upon his +triumph.... ‘Be thou welcome, beloved son of God! +Enter thy mansion, covered with glory and honour.’ As he +enters, behold! a damsel of surpassing beauty, arrayed in +robes of brilliant hue, awaits him seated in a tabernacle ... +the splendour of her countenance dazzles him and his heart +is enraptured with the perfection, grace, and brilliant beauty +with which God has endowed her. Indeed, were it not that +God had granted him extraordinary powers of vision, he +would be bereft of both sight and sense by the intensity of +the light shining in her and the splendour radiating from her +presence.⁠<a id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a> The voice of an angel announces to him, ‘Oh, +beloved one of God! This is thy precious bride, thy dearly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>beloved partner in the life of heaven; this is the mistress +of the damsels, the coy maiden hidden from the gaze of man.’ +But hardly has she caught sight of him when, unable to +restrain the impulse of her love, she hastens towards him +with fond words of welcome, ‘Oh, beloved of God! How +I have yearned to see thee!’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Of the many points of resemblance shown by this legend to +Dante’s story of the earthly paradise, some are so evident as to +be hardly worthy of mention. The scenic features, for +example, are clearly identical, recourse being had to the +same rhetorical figures to depict the beauty of the gardens—such +as the wealth of flowers, the perfumed air, the soft +climate, and the gentle breeze on which is wafted the sweet +song of birds. The rivers in which the souls are washed are +two in number in Dante’s poem and in the Moslem story, as +against four in the Biblical paradise. Lastly, both gardens +adjoin the path of purgatory, of which in fact they constitute +the last division, for in them the soul undergoes final purification +from the stain of sin and is prepared for entry into the +realm of glory. The resemblance even extends to the +manner of purification: the soul is bathed in both rivers +and, in addition, drinks of their waters. The effects of the +double ablution are also similar; all physical and moral +trace of sin is blotted out and new life imparted to the soul. +After ablution, the pilgrim seeks rest in the shade of a tree. +Finally comes the procession of youths and maidens leading +in the heavenly bride; the meeting of bride and bridegroom +and their mutual recognition.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_5">5. In spite of long and minute research, no literary +precedent has so far been found for this latter scene.⁠<a id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> Yet, +as the Dantists justly claim, it is of supreme moment for the +whole of Dante’s poem, for it not only sheds light on the +riddles that precede it, but also foreshadows the significance +of what is to come; and, indeed, but for this scene of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>meeting of Dante and Beatrice, neither the descent to hell +nor the ascension to paradise would be susceptible of a +satisfactory interpretation. At the same time, it must be +admitted that the scene bears but little trace of the Christian +spirit and is in strange contrast to the asceticism and the +horror of sexual love that are characteristic of ecclesiastic +literature in general, and that of the Middle Ages in particular.⁠<a id="FNanchor_304" href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> +To arrange, as the climax of a journey to the +regions beyond the grave, the meeting of the pilgrim with his +lost Beloved is a poetic conceit that will in vain be sought for +in any of the Christian precursors of the Divine Comedy. +Dante was well aware of how singular the note he struck was. +So novel did the glorification of Beatrice, which is the +avowed object of his poem, appear to him, that many years +before, when the plan of the Divine Comedy was shaping +in his mind, he remarked about his future poem, “Spero di +dire di lei quello que mai non fu detto d’alcuna.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_305" href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> No doubt +this glorification of Beatrice has its immediate roots in the +spirit of chivalry that inspired the troubadours of Provence +and the Italian poets of the “dolce stil nuovo”; in the +spiritual and romantic love of woman underlying that literary +movement; and in the mixture of mysticism and sensuality +revealed in the temperament of Dante, the man and poet. +These explanations may, indeed, lay bare the inner workings +of the poet’s mind, but they leave unsolved the riddle of the +outer literary form in which his mentality manifested itself in +this episode of the earthly paradise. In a later chapter of +this work it will be shown that the origin of the “dolce stil +nuovo” movement itself is most probably to be sought +outside Christianity and that long before the appearance of +the troubadours in Europe romantic love had inspired the +poets of Arabia, and provided food for the speculative minds +of Moslem mystics.⁠<a id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> Here it will suffice to point to the outstanding +fact that an episode so typical of the Divine Comedy +as the meeting of Beatrice and Dante, and, being foreign +to the very spirit of Christianity, unprecedented in Christian +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>legend, has a striking parallel in Moslem tradition. Nor is the +tale translated above unique; rather is it the final stage in +the evolution of a series of legends that tell the fantastic +story of the entry of the blessed soul into paradise. The +Moslem heaven, as will be seen later on, is not exclusively the +paradise of coarse delight, as depicted in the Koran and many +of the traditions, that has become stamped on the mind of +educated Europe. By the side of that picture there is +another, painted by the ascetics and mystics, that reveals a +heaven of purer love, in which, in addition to the large-eyed +houris and the wives the blessed knew on earth, a spiritual +bride also awaits him. This is his Heavenly Betrothed, +who from on high has been waiting and watching for the +advent of her lover, guiding him on the path of virtue, +inspiring him with lofty aims and ever encouraging him to +persevere to the triumphant end, when they will be united in +eternal bliss. When death at last leads the blessed soul to +paradise, it is she who sallies forth to welcome him, radiant +indeed with beauty, yet not as an instrument of carnal +delight, but rather as a spiritual companion and moral +redemptress who wishes the soul joy of his victory and +reproves him for having on occasions forsaken her for other, +earthly loves. The picture of this Heavenly Bride is so +strikingly like that of Beatrice that it will not be amiss to +quote some of the legends on this subject.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_6">6. A very interesting description of the entry of the +blessed soul into paradise is contained in the tenth century +work <i>Corrat Aloyun</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The angel Ridwan leads him to the tabernacle where his +bride awaits him. She greets him with the words, “Oh, +friend of God, how I have longed to meet thee! Blessed +be the Lord, who has united us! God created me for thee +and engraved thy name upon my heart. While thou on +earth wast serving God in prayer and fasting, day and night, +God bade his angel Ridwan carry me on his wings so that I +might behold thy good deeds from heaven. The love I felt +for thee caused me to watch over thy progress unbeknown to +thee. When in the dark of night thy prayer went up, my +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>heart was glad within me, and I said to thee, ‘Serve and +thou shalt be served, sow and thou shalt reap! God has +advanced thee in glory, for thy virtues have found favour in +His sight, and He will bring us together in heaven.... +But, when I found thee neglectful and half-hearted, I felt +sad.’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Another legend of the same cycle, attributed to the eighth +century traditionist Ibn Wahab, introduces the reproaches +of the bride for her bridegroom’s earthly loves.⁠<a id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“They will say to a woman in paradise, ‘Would’st thou +see thy spouse who is yet on earth?’ and, as she assents, +they will draw aside the veils that separate her from him, +so that she may look upon his face and long for the moment +of his coming, even as on earth a woman longs for her absent +man. It may be that between him and his spouse on earth +there have been grounds for resentment such as are common +among wives and husbands, and she will reproach him +saying, ‘Oh, wretched man! Why dost thou not forswear +(such loves) that, compared with mine, shall last thee but a +night or two?’”⁠<a id="FNanchor_309" href="#Footnote_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The similarity between these two descriptions and the +two scenes in which Beatrice comes to the moral aid of +Dante is surely evident. Beatrice, when from on high she +sees that her beloved poet is in danger of forfeiting salvation +and, therewith, her companionship in paradise, descends +from heaven to implore Virgil’s assistance in setting the +pilgrim on the right path. The scene forms, as it were, the +prologue to the poem.⁠<a id="FNanchor_310" href="#Footnote_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a> When Dante reaches the earthly +paradise, she again descends and to her greeting adds reproof +for his backsliding, his indulgence in earthly loves, and his +neglect of the holy counsel she gave him in his dreams.⁠<a id="FNanchor_311" href="#Footnote_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a></p> + +<p>Tales of visions, based on the legends of the same cycle, +are common in Islamic literature. They all tell of a beautiful +and angelic maiden who appears to the devout in their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>dreams, to inspire them with holy thoughts and urge them +to serve God with the promise that she will be theirs in the +life to come.</p> + +<p>A tale attributed to Ali al-Talhi, who lived prior to the +tenth century, reads as follows⁠<a id="FNanchor_312" href="#Footnote_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“In a dream I beheld a woman fairer than any of this world. +‘Who art thou?’ I asked, and she replied, ‘I am a houri.’ +I said to her, ‘Pray let me be thy husband,’ to which she +replied, ‘Ask me in marriage of my Lord and name my +dowry.’ I asked, ‘What is thy dowry?’ and she answered, +‘That thou shouldst keep thy soul unspotted from the +world.’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Another story, attributed to the ninth century ascetic +Ahmed ibn Abu-l-Hawari, runs:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“In a dream I saw a maiden of the most perfect beauty, +whose countenance shone with celestial splendour. To my +asking, ‘Whence comes that brilliance on thy face?’ she +replied, ‘Dost thou remember that night spent by thee in +weeping (and devotion)?’ ‘I remember,’ I answered, and +she said, ‘I took those tears of thine and with them anointed +my face, since when it has shone in brilliance.’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A tale, attributed to Utba al-Ghulam, certainly dates +before the eleventh century:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“In a dream I saw a houri of beautiful features, who said +to me, ‘I love thee passionately and trust thou wilt do no +deed that might keep us apart.’ I replied, ‘Thrice have I +abandoned the things of this world and hope never to regain +them, so that I may be able to meet thee (in heaven).’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Sulayman ad-Darani, a great ascetic of the ninth century +of our era, is the protagonist of a similar tale⁠<a id="FNanchor_313" href="#Footnote_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“I saw in a dream a maiden of a beauty ‘as splendid as +the moon,’ clad in a mantle that ‘seemed as if made of +light.’⁠<a id="FNanchor_314" href="#Footnote_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> Said the maiden to me, ‘Thou sleepest, oh! delight +of my soul. Perchance thou knowest not that I am thy +bride? Rise, for thy prayer is light and thy Lord deserveth +thy thanks...!’ and, with a cry, she flew off through the +air.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span></p> + +<p>Other legends tell of the visions seen by martyrs of holy +warfare, the soldier ascetics of Islam, who later had their +counterpart in the knights of the Christian military orders. +In those quoted below, the meeting with the heavenly bride, +who appears either alone or accompanied by her handmaidens, +is described in terms similar to those used by +Dante, and the subject of the earthly loves of the protagonist +is also alluded to.</p> + +<p>A tale told by Abd ar-Rahman ibn Zayd, of the eighth +century, runs as follows⁠<a id="FNanchor_315" href="#Footnote_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“A youth, moved to devotion by spiritual reading, +distributes all his patrimony among the poor, keeping only +enough to buy a mount and arms, with which he sets off +to the holy war. Whilst on service, he fasts during the day-time +and spends the nights in prayer and vigil as he guards +the horses of his sleeping comrades. One day he cries out +in a loud voice: ‘Oh, how I long to be with the large-eyed +maiden!’ and to his companions he explains how in a dream +his soul found itself in a lovely garden watered by a river; +on the bank of the river stood a group of fair maidens in +rich attire, who welcomed him saying, ‘This is the bridegroom +of the large-eyed maiden whom we serve.’ Proceeding +on his way, he comes to a second river, where other maidens +again welcome him.⁠<a id="FNanchor_316" href="#Footnote_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a> A few steps further, and he meets +the heavenly maiden herself enthroned on a seat of gold +within a tabernacle of pearl. When she beholds her betrothed, +she wishes him joy of having come to her, but warns him +that his present coming is not final. ‘The spirit of life yet +breathes within thee, but to-night thou shalt break thy fast +in my company.’”⁠<a id="FNanchor_317" href="#Footnote_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The following legend was told by Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak +in the eighth century⁠<a id="FNanchor_318" href="#Footnote_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A soldier in the holy war tells of a vision he had when +faint from wounds received on the field of battle. “I seemed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span>to be led to a mansion built of rubies, wherein I saw a woman +whose beauty enraptured me. She bade me welcome, saying +she was not like my wife on earth, whose behaviour she +then related to me. I laughed and would fain have clasped +her in my arms, but she held me at a distance saying, +‘To-morrow in the evening thou shalt come to me,’ and +I wept because she would not let me draw nigh to her.” +The legend ends by saying that on the morrow that same +soldier died in battle.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A legend, related by Ismail ibn Hayyan, of the ninth +century, also tells of a vision seen by a martyr of holy +warfare as he fainted away:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>He finds himself led by a man to the mansion of the +heavenly maiden, through palaces of paradise inhabited by +youths whose beauty is painted in hyperbolic terms. Finally +there comes to greet him the beautiful woman who tells him +she is his bride and who reminds him of the women of this +world with such detail that she appears to be speaking +from a record made in a book.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII_section_7">7. The features of resemblance found in this comparison +of Dante’s story of the earthly paradise with Islamic legend +may be summarised as follows: On either hand, this +paradise is represented as a garden of delight, situated on +the summit of a high mountain rising on an island in the +ocean; other Islamic legends tell of a garden lying at the +gate of paradise and forming both the antechamber to glory +and the last stage of purgatory, where the souls undergo +final purification by being washed in the waters of two +streams; in this garden also the soul is met and welcomed +by the heavenly bride, a figure who in appearance and +attitude bears a striking resemblance to the Beatrice of +Dante.</p> + +<p>Versions of the <i>Miraj</i> described a similar garden as being +watered by rivers in which the souls are purified before +they enter heaven. That garden was called the Garden +of Abraham. Thus, in Islam, there was a threefold garden +beyond the grave—the Garden of Abraham, or Limbo; +the Garden of Eden, or earthly paradise; and the garden +of paradise, lying between purgatory and the theological +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>heaven. Features of all three gardens appear blended in +the Divine Comedy in a form foreign to Christian legend, as +it existed prior to Dante.</p> + +<p>The <i>Risala</i> of Abu-l-Ala al-Maarri, the literary imitation +of the <i>Miraj</i> that was quoted in a former chapter, depicted +a similar scene. In a garden lying at the gate of the celestial +paradise the traveller, on the banks of a river, meets a maiden +who has been sent by God to welcome and guide him; she +leads him to the presence of the beloved of the poet Imru-l-Qays, +who appears in the wake of a procession of beautiful +maidens.⁠<a id="FNanchor_319" href="#Footnote_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a></p> + +<p>It would thus seem that there was nothing to prevent the +legend of the ascension from being extended to include the +legends quoted in this chapter, dealing, as they also do, +with the after-life. The idea might indeed prove tempting +to so consummate an artist as Dante, who, saturated with +classical and Christian learning, might well know how to +weave into the outline of the story of Mahomet the scenes +provided in these legends and the features available in +mythology and ecclesiastical tradition, in order to paint +his picture of the earthly paradise, in which elements from +the Garden of Eden, the Parnassus of the Ancients, and the +Paradise of Islam are blended into one.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII">VIII<br> +<span class="smcap">The Celestial Paradise of Islam in the +Divine Comedy</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_1">1. As we have now reached a point in our argument when +it might appear that we were treading on dangerous ground, +a few words by way of preface to this chapter may not be +amiss. The very suggestion of a comparison between Dante’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>paradise and the paradise of Islam will most likely occasion +surprise even in the minds of people of moderate culture. +Surely, it will be thought, any such comparison can only +serve to show up the utter antagonism between the two +conceptions. Indeed, the spiritualism of Dante’s paradise +seems so far removed from the coarse and sensual materialism +of the paradise depicted in the Koran that, if the question +were to be decided on that issue alone, there could be but +one answer. The Koran, however, as has already been +pointed out, does not stand for all Islam, nor does it constitute +the main source of its dogma. The traditions early +attributed to Mahomet, the explanations of the commentators, +and the speculations of theologians and mystics, +played at least as great a part as the letter of the Koran +in determining the essential points of the creed of the Moslem +paradise. Of outstanding interest in this connection is +the tradition of the ascension of Mahomet. This legend in +its various forms, and particularly in Version C of Cycle 2, +showed very clearly that paradise was by no means generally +conceived on the gross and sensual lines described in the +Koran; on the contrary, the picture drawn there was almost +exclusively one of light, colour and music, which are the very +elements that Dante used to express his conception.</p> + +<p>The spiritual interpretation of the delights of paradise +must have begun in the first centuries of Islam. The famous +traditionist and kinsman of Mahomet, Ibn Abbas, was of +old credited with a saying which is significant of its early +origin: “In paradise there is none of the things of this +world; only their names are there.” The earliest traditionists +even place in the mouth of the very Prophet who +had described in such glowing terms the sensual joys awaiting +the blessed, the same sublime words by which Isaiah and +St. Paul had represented the glory of heaven; for a <i>hadith</i> +attributed to Mahomet says, “I have prepared for my holy +servants such things as the eye hath not seen, nor the ear +heard, nor the mind of man imagined.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_320" href="#Footnote_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a> To this Divine +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>promise the Prophet added the verse of the Koran (XXXII, +17): “The soul knows not of the delights awaiting it in +reward for its good deeds.” The Moslem books on eschatology +record many similar <i>hadiths</i> attributed to Mahomet, in +which the Beatific Vision is represented as the supreme bliss +reserved for the souls in paradise.⁠<a id="FNanchor_321" href="#Footnote_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> It will thus be seen that +from the very first centuries Islam had begun to conceive, +apart from the sensual paradise of the Koran, a spiritual +and essentially Christian heaven, in which beatitude consists +in the contemplation of the splendour of the Divine essence.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_2">2. To trace back each of the many controversies that +arose in the centuries following would be to exceed the +limits of our task. In the end the idealistic conception of +paradise emerged triumphant alike over the exegesis of the +Koran and the arguments against the anthropomorphism of +God of the Mutazili and Kharijite heretics.⁠<a id="FNanchor_322" href="#Footnote_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a> By the time +that the dogma of Islam was given definite shape by its +greatest theologians, the Beatific Vision was considered to +be the principal, if not the only prize of heaven, and the +sensual delights extolled in the text of revelation were +discreetly ignored.</p> + +<p>The mystics and the philosophers, imbued as they were +with Christian theology and neo-Platonic metaphysics contributed +to the gradual elimination of the sensual conception +of paradise by giving its material delights a mystical or +allegorical meaning. And this line of thought was followed +by the two great thinkers of the twelfth century, the theologian +and mystic, Algazel, and the theologian and +philosopher, Averrhoes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_323" href="#Footnote_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> Algazel states that, with the +exception of the materialists, who denied the immortality +of the soul, all cultured minds in Islam more or less openly +scouted the idea of any sensuality in connection with the +delights of paradise⁠<a id="FNanchor_324" href="#Footnote_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a>; the philosophers averred that these +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>delights were purely imaginary; the mystics went further +and denied their existence; and both philosophers and +mystics for the joys depicted in the Koran substituted the +sole and sovereign delight of the intellectual vision or contemplation +of the essence of God, the enjoyment of which +they made equivalent to all the physical and ideal pleasures +that man is capable of feeling.⁠<a id="FNanchor_325" href="#Footnote_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> This denial, more or less +complete in substance, was, however, attenuated in form, +to avoid disappointing the masses, who were incapable of +so lofty a conception. To save appearances, the philosophers +and Sufis affected acceptance of the material descriptions +of the Koran on the grounds that they were symbols, the +spiritual meaning of which was the patrimony of the enlightened. +Algazel and Averrhoes, the champions alike of +faith and reason, found means to reconcile the points of view +of both the learned and the vulgar by declaring that heaven, +as the supreme aim and ultimate bliss of all men, would be +a state in which each would attain his particular desire. +Those who in this life were tied down to things material, +would in heaven be capable of deriving joy only from sensual +delights, though they could not say of what these were +to consist; whilst those whose conceptions and desires were +free from all material taint, would find delight in the enjoyment +of the Beatific Vision alone.</p> + +<p>Thus, Algazel and Averrhoes in their picture of the +mediæval beliefs of Islam provide us with two heavens—the +one, material, and the other, ideal. A few years later, Ibn +Arabi of Murcia expressed his views on the question in the +same concise terms.⁠<a id="FNanchor_326" href="#Footnote_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“There are two heavens—the one, sensible; and the +other, ideal. In the one, both the animal spirits and the +rational souls enjoy bliss; in the other, the rational souls +alone. The latter paradise is the heaven of knowledge and +intuition.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Not content with this formula, he proceeds to explain the +psychological motives that led Divine Providence to lay +greater stress upon the sensible than upon the ideal paradise +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>in the Koran, in contrast to the teaching of Christian +revelation. And Ibn Arabi’s explanation, arguing as it +does the Christian origin of the spiritual conception of +paradise in Islam, is so significant that it is worthy of +literal transcription.⁠<a id="FNanchor_327" href="#Footnote_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“God has depicted paradise in accordance with the +different degrees of man’s understanding. The Messiah +defined the delights of paradise as purely spiritual, when, +in concluding the instructions given to his disciples in his +testament, he said, ‘Should ye do as I have bidden you, +ye will sit with me to-morrow in the Kingdom of Heaven +by the side of my Lord and your Lord and behold around +His throne the angels singing His praise and glorifying +His holiness. And there ye will enjoy all manner of delights +and yet will partake not of either food or drink.’⁠<a id="FNanchor_328" href="#Footnote_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> But, +if the Messiah was so explicit on this point and had recourse +to none of the allegories found in our Book, it was simply +because his words were spoken to a people conversant with +the Torah and the books of the prophets, whose mind was +thus prepared for his words. Not so with our Prophet +Mahomet. His Divine mission fell among a rude people, +who dwelt in deserts and on mountains; who lacked the +discipline of learning and believed neither in the resurrection +nor in the future life; who were ignorant even of the +pleasures of the princes of this world, let alone those of the +kings in heaven! Accordingly, most of the descriptions of +paradise in his book are based on the body, in order that +they might be understood by the people and serve as an +incentive to their minds.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_3">3. The evidence furnished by the Moslem thinkers, +Algazel, Averrhoes and Ibn Arabi, is fully confirmed by the +writings of the two Christian scholastics who were most +versed in Islam—the Spaniards, Raymond Lull and Raymond +Martin. Far from falling into the common error of attributing +to all Moslems the belief in a voluptuous paradise, they +repeat almost literally what those thinkers had affirmed; +and Raymond Martin even quotes passages from Algazel, +full of the loftiest metaphysical thought, in which this prince +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>of Moslem mystics pictures the sublime delights of the Beatific +Vision.⁠<a id="FNanchor_329" href="#Footnote_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a></p> + +<p>If, therefore, at the very time at which Dante was composing +the Divine Comedy two Christian theologians knew +of a Moslem paradise just as adaptable as Dante’s to the +purest and most spiritual Christian doctrine, the idea of +comparing the two conceptions, based as they are on dogmas +that are so much alike, can no longer be considered as out +of place. That a connection between the two artistic conceptions +does exist will appear the less unlikely if it is borne +in mind that Dante’s paradise has no precedent in Christian +mediæval literature. Dantists have shown that in none of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>the so-called “precursors” of the Divine Comedy could the +poet have found inspiration for his delicate picture. Whereas, +to Dante paradise is pure light, and the life of the blessed, +one of ecstatic contemplation and Divine Love, in the rude +conception of most of his Christian predecessors—who were +merely monks or <i>jongleurs</i>—life in heaven is but a grotesque +exaggeration of the life of the refectory and the choir, or +of the life at the court of a feudal lord.⁠<a id="FNanchor_330" href="#Footnote_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a> Thus, the question +of determining the values to be attributed to the conceptions +of paradise current in the Middle Ages may in all fairness be +reduced to the following terms: In the Moslem world two +antithetical ideas flourished almost simultaneously—the +coarse and sensual paradise of the Koran, and the spiritual +picture of the philosophers and the mystics. In the Christian +world, the same two ideas existed—the materialistic conception, +equivalent to that of the Koran, which flourished +prior to the Divine Comedy, and the spiritual picture, which +was solely the work of the Florentine poet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_331" href="#Footnote_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> Dante himself +appears to disdain the conceptions of his Christian predecessors +when, in announcing his ascension to paradise, he +says, “If God ... wills that I may behold his court in +a manner quite outside modern use.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_332" href="#Footnote_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a></p> + +<p>Once the mind is free from the prejudice, as common as +it is ill-founded, that regards all Islamic conception of +paradise as materialistic, it will the more readily grasp how +it came about that Islam, as early as the eighth century of +our era, conceived so spiritual a picture of heaven as that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>found in Version C of Cycle 2 of the legend of the <i>Miraj</i>. The +many striking features of resemblance borne by that description +to the paradise of Dante were exhaustively dealt with +in the first part of this work, and the wealth of coincidence +afforded room for so minute a comparison that but little +is now needed to complete the parallel.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_4">4. To begin with the general scheme of the Paradiso, we +know that Dante’s paradise is formed of the nine astronomical +heavens of the Ptolemaic system. In the first seven heavens +it is only by chance that the poet sees the blessed, who are +distributed according to their merits. Their real residence +is in the Empyrean, or immobile sphere, which is thus the +true paradise or theological heaven. There Dante pictures +them as seated on thrones, benches or seats of light in the +form of an amphitheatre, which gives the whole assembly +the appearance of an immense rose of light, in the centre of +which God stands revealed to the contemplation of His +Chosen. The Empyrean is the celestial Jerusalem and lies +in the vertical projection of the earthly Jerusalem, whilst +beneath the latter opens the abyss of hell. The most perfect +symmetry exists between the realm of reward and the realm +of punishment. Both contain ten mansions and, just as the +depth of each infernal mansion indicates the gravity of the +sin punished therein, so does each degree of merit find its +reward in a correspondingly high mansion in heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_333" href="#Footnote_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a></p> + +<p>Most, if not all, of the architectural features of this plan +have already been shown to exist in one or other of the +versions of the legend of the <i>Miraj</i>. Thus, many of those +versions represent the astronomical spheres as being inhabited +by saints, prophets, and angels, who were seen to be allotted +to the spheres according to their merit.⁠<a id="FNanchor_334" href="#Footnote_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a> This conceit, +though shared by Dante and Islam, had however no Biblical +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>foundation; for neither the Old nor the New Testament +definitely mentions the astronomical heavens as being the +dwelling-places of the blessed. The idea can only have +been derived either from the Cabbalists or some of the +apocryphal Christian writers⁠<a id="FNanchor_335" href="#Footnote_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a>; for the Fathers of the Church +and the early ecclesiastical writers were careful not to +attempt any specific localisation of the theological heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_336" href="#Footnote_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a></p> + +<p>One outstanding feature of Dante’s general scheme of +paradise has been universally admired for its originality. +The site of glory, or celestial Jerusalem, he places directly +above the Jerusalem on earth, which according to the poet +occupies the centre of our northern hemisphere.⁠<a id="FNanchor_337" href="#Footnote_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a></p> + +<p>Exactly the same conception existed in Islam as early as +the seventh century, that is to say, in the time of Mahomet +himself. A legend attributed to the famous traditionist and +companion of the Prophet, Kaab al-Akhbar, a Jewish convert +who introduced many rabbinical myths into Islam, runs: +“Paradise is in the seventh heaven, opposite Jerusalem and +the rock (of the Temple); if a stone were dropped from +paradise, it would surely fall upon the rock.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_338" href="#Footnote_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> Similar +rabbinical sayings, attributed to the same traditionist, or to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>another Jewish convert, Wahb ibn Munabbih, and sometimes +to the kinsman of the Prophet, Ibn Abbas, must have contributed +to spread the belief that paradise lay in the vertical +projection of Jerusalem and its Temple. Indeed, geographical +treatises of the tenth century describe Jerusalem as +follows⁠<a id="FNanchor_339" href="#Footnote_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a>:—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Jerusalem is the navel of the earth. The Gate of Heaven +stands open on its temple. In Jerusalem is the Divine Light +and the Divine Fire. To visit Jerusalem is to enter heaven. +God said of the rock (of the Temple), ‘Thou art My lower +throne; from thee heaven rises unto Me; underneath thee +stretches the earth; in thee lie My heaven and My hell.’ +From Jerusalem Jacob saw the ladder that rose to heaven. +Jesus ascended into heaven from Jerusalem and thither He +will descend again. That part of the earth that is nearest to +heaven is Jerusalem.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>It should be remembered that in several versions of the +<i>Miraj</i> Mahomet began his ascension from the same rock of the +Temple of Jerusalem, and this the commentators explain by +quoting in a slightly altered form the legend mentioned +above as told by Kaab al-Akhbar: “The Gate of heaven, +named the Mount of the Angels, lies opposite Jerusalem.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_340" href="#Footnote_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a></p> + +<p>This obsession for symmetry in design is characteristic of +Moslem eschatology, in which the world beyond the grave was +conceived on the lines of this world. All versions of the +Mahometan ascension tell of a temple in heaven called the +“House of Habitation,” which is but the counterpart of the +Holy Shrine at Mecca; and, as the Caaba is supposed to have +been built by Abraham, so the latter is represented as +residing near the heavenly temple. Moreover, in some +legends this temple of paradise is supposed to lie in the +vertical projection of the Caaba, just as the Celestial +Jerusalem lies directly above the Jerusalem on earth. One +of these legends Ibn Arabi quotes: “Were the House of +Habitation to fall to the earth, it would assuredly fall on the +temple of the Caaba.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_341" href="#Footnote_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a></p> + +<p>Nor does this desire for symmetry, which so imbued the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>minds of Moslem traditionists, end there. The realms of +pain and of reward, hell and heaven, correspond in design +just as perfectly as they do in Dante’s design. This may be +seen from the general plan that Ibn Arabi traces with almost +mathematical precision.⁠<a id="FNanchor_342" href="#Footnote_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The degrees of heaven are as many in number as the +degrees of hell; for each degree in the one has its counterpart +in the other. This is but natural, for man can but comply, +or fail to comply with any one precept. If he complies with +it, he gains a degree of glory commensurate with his merit; +but, if he fails to do so, he suffers condign punishment in hell. +Thus, were a stone to fall from any one degree in paradise, it +would of a surety fall in a straight line on the corresponding +degree in hell.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_5">5. The actual description of Dante’s abode of glory is +contained in Cantos XXX, XXXI, and XXXII of the +Paradiso.⁠<a id="FNanchor_343" href="#Footnote_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> As the rays spread from the centre of Divine +Light throughout the Empyrean, they create a number of +luminous circumferences of immense diameter on planes that +lessen in extent as they gradually descend. Each of these +circles, like the tier of an amphitheatre, is formed of a row of +seats, benches or thrones. The ranks thus formed Dante +likens to the petals of an immense rose, each petal of the +mystic flower representing a seat in glory, and the petals on +one and the same plane, a circle or tier of the celestial +amphitheatre. Dante also compares the abode of bliss to a +realm, a garden, or a hill around which the blessed are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>grouped in ecstatic contemplation of the Divine Light; +but the simile he mainly uses is that of the mystic rose, +which, although he never actually employs the figure, he +derived, no doubt, from the more graphic image of an +amphitheatre.</p> + +<p>The moral principle underlying the distribution of the +blessed in the various tiers of the amphitheatre is applied +with as strict a regard for symmetry as is shown in the +geometrical design. All is governed by law and nothing is +left to chance. The greater or lesser height of each circle +corresponds to the greater or lesser degree of holiness attained +by the souls, who, again, occupy a position on the left or right +in each circle according to the nature of their faith before or +after the advent of Christ. Further, the saints of the Old +Testament are separated from those of the New Testament by +subdivisions within each sector, some of which are in a +vertical, others in a horizontal, sense. Men and women, +children and adults, all are grouped in their respective classes +in the various parts of the rose. Perfect symmetry marks +the whole scheme throughout. Thus we find that Eve, the +mother of human sinners, sits underneath Mary, the Mother +of Christ the Redeemer; on the left of Mary sits Adam, +the father of mankind, and on her right, St. Peter, the father +of the Church. The blessed occupy their seats in Glory for +one or the other of two reasons—either owing to their works +plus grace, or to Divine grace alone; in the former category +are the adults, in the latter, the children who were only saved +through the faith of their parents. A third class, formed of +the children and adults who sit in the places left vacant by +rebel angels, might indeed be added. In conclusion, the +spirits occupying the principal seats in the first circles, +though not actually so classified by Dante, fall into three +groups—the patriarchs and apostles, such as Adam, Moses, +John the Baptist, St. Peter, and St. John the Evangelist; +beneath them, the holy doctors of the religious orders, such +as St. Francis, St. Benedict, and St. Augustine; and, still +lower, the laymen and clergy who followed the teaching of +these doctors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span></p> + +<p>In spite of these differences in degree, the life of the blessed +is essentially one and the same. With their gaze fixed on +the focus of Divine light, they contemplate God and know +Him more or less perfectly according to the strength of +their vision, which, in turn, depends on the purity and +intensity of the Divine love they felt on earth. The difference +in degree is made outwardly manifest by the greater or +lesser brilliance each spirit emits; but it does not imply +any essential difference either in the vision itself or in the +spiritual delight of the souls; nor can it give rise to any +desire on the part of those in the lower ranks to occupy a +higher seat, and still less can it cause any feeling of envy, +for this would be incompatible with the spirit of brotherly +love that unites them in the love of God; each, moreover, +is aware that the joy experienced in the degree allotted to +him is greater than he could possibly deserve.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII_section_6">6. Of this clearly defined scheme the Dantists have been +able to trace but little to other Christian authors; indeed, +with the exception of the situation of paradise in the Empyrean, +almost the whole of Dante’s architecture of heaven +has been attributed to the inventive faculty of the poet +himself. Again, therefore, before pronouncing final judgment +on the originality or otherwise of the conception, we +would suggest that the Moslem sources be consulted. In this +respect especial interest attaches to the works of the mystical +writers of Islam, and more particularly to the detailed and +picturesque descriptions of the realm of glory given by the +Sufi of Murcia, Ibn Arabi.</p> + +<p>The division of heaven into seven mansions, in diametric +opposition to the seven stages of hell, dates from the early +centuries of Islam. Ibn Abbas, in a <i>hadith</i> that is repeated +again and again in the holy books of Islam, refers to these +divisions indiscriminately as gardens, gates, mansions, +stages or circular strata; and with names derived from the +Koran he enumerates them in the following order⁠<a id="FNanchor_344" href="#Footnote_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a>: The +first and highest is the mansion of the Divine Majesty; the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>second, the mansion of peace; the third, the Garden of +Eden; the fourth, the garden of refuge; the fifth, the +garden of eternity; the sixth, the garden of paradise; and +the seventh, the garden of delight. Other versions of the +<i>hadith</i> change the order of the mansions, add one to their +number, or vary the names given above.</p> + +<p>As early as the tenth century a moral principle, in the form +of a graduation of the bliss of glory, was introduced into the +architectural scheme. The author of the <i>Corra</i>, who lived +at Samarcand in that century, says that at intervals, according +to their merits, God grants the Beatific Vision to His +blessed; they, for example, who mortified their flesh and +gave their whole life to His service, shall enjoy the vision +every Friday; those who indulged in the pleasures to which +youth is prone, shall behold it but once a month; and they +who only served God toward the end of their days, but once +a year; whilst such as spent their life in sin and only repented +on their death-bed, shall see the vision but once throughout +eternity.⁠<a id="FNanchor_345" href="#Footnote_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a></p> + +<p>Other <i>hadiths</i> attempt to connect the seven or eight +mansions of bliss with as many categories of blessed.⁠<a id="FNanchor_346" href="#Footnote_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a> One +such classification may serve as an example: The first +heaven is reserved for the prophets, the envoys of God, the +martyrs, and the saints; the second for such as fulfilled the +rites of prayer and ablution; the third for men of holy +meditation; the fourth, for the devout in religious practice; +the fifth, for the ascetics; the sixth, for those militant in +the spiritual strife with passion; the seventh, for pilgrims; +and the eighth, for those who were chaste and charitable +towards their neighbours.</p> + +<p>From these <i>hadiths</i> the mystics gradually elaborated their +doctrine of the Beatific Vision, which, besides being originally +Christian, was influenced by the neo-Platonic tradition of +Moslem philosophy. Ibn Ayshun, of Toledo, who lived in +the first half of the tenth century, describes the vision of the +countenance of God as being like the contemplation of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>sun or moon when unhidden by clouds.⁠<a id="FNanchor_347" href="#Footnote_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a> Two centuries later, +Shakir Ibn Muslim, of Orihuela, enumerates the different +aspects in which God appears to the blessed according to +his attributes of perfection, beauty, eloquence, mercy, +bounty, wisdom, and kindness.⁠<a id="FNanchor_348" href="#Footnote_348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a> The author of the <i>Tadhkira</i>, +in the middle of the thirteenth century, completes the +doctrine by stating that even after each vision of the Divine +essence the eternal light continues to reign in the souls of +the blessed, so that the bliss of glory may be uninterrupted.⁠<a id="FNanchor_349" href="#Footnote_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> +The Cordovan ascetic further establishes a difference of +degree in the enjoyment of the vision, according to the +merit of the soul; to each precept of the Divine law there +corresponds a degree of bliss that can only be attained by +compliance with that precept.⁠<a id="FNanchor_350" href="#Footnote_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a> In the twelfth century, the +famous Oriental theologian and philosopher, Fakhr ad-Din +ar-Razi, availed himself of the elements contained in the +Koran and the <i>hadiths</i> to trace a general scheme of paradise +showing eight main divisions, subdivided into a hundred +degrees or stages.⁠<a id="FNanchor_351" href="#Footnote_351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a> Thus, in the centuries immediately preceding +the Divine Comedy the structure of paradise, as +conceived in the mind of Eastern and Western Islam, appears +complete in outline and detail.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span></p> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX">IX<br> +<span class="smcap">The Celestial Paradise of Islam in the +Divine Comedy—(Conclusion)</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_1">1. Of the doctrine of paradise in general it may be safely +said that nobody succeeded like the Murcian, Ibn Arabi, +in blending all previous conceptions into one harmonious +whole. Not only is Ibn Arabi’s scheme embellished by the +artistry of its author, but it is so illustrated by means of +geometrical sketches that the general plan of his various +heavenly mansions can be seen at a glance. This, from our +point of view, is its most interesting feature.</p> + +<p>In the cosmology of Ibn Arabi, the entire universe is +represented by a circle or sphere⁠<a id="FNanchor_352" href="#Footnote_352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a>; and the plan of the cosmos +consists of a series of concentric spheres, which rise one +above another with progressively increasing radii. At present +we are only concerned with the units comprised between +the earth and the Divine Throne. These, beginning at the +bottom, are in turn⁠<a id="FNanchor_353" href="#Footnote_353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a>: the spheres of the earth, water, air +and ether; then, in the astronomical world, follow in succession +the spheres of the moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, +Jupiter, Saturn, and that of the Fixed Stars; still further +is the sphere without stars or the <i>primum mobile</i>, where the +astronomical world ends, and, finally, above all, shining like +a focus of eternal light, the Throne of God Himself.</p> + +<p>The paradise of the elect Ibn Arabi places between the +heaven of the Fixed Stars and that of the <i>primum mobile</i>. +Here, other eight concentric spheres, rising, as before +behind and above each other, represent the eight mansions +of the celestial paradise. These appear in the following +order: 1. The abode of grace; 2. The mansion of perseverance; +3. The abode of peace; 4. The garden of eternity; +5. The garden of refuge; 6. The garden of delight; 7. The +garden of paradise; 8. The Garden of Eden.⁠<a id="FNanchor_354" href="#Footnote_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span></p> + +<p>Each of these eight spheres⁠<a id="FNanchor_355" href="#Footnote_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a> is divided into innumerable +<i>grades</i>—Ibn Arabi, like Dante, claims that the number of +these is considerably more than several thousand—which +are grouped to form one hundred different categories. These +in turn represent a still more limited number of classes of +the chosen, which, if the followers of Mahomet only are +considered, do not number more than twelve. Each grade +contains countless individual <i>mansions</i> or <i>dwelling-places</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_356" href="#Footnote_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="paradise-figure1" style="max-width: 31.25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/paradise-figure1.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <p>Fig. 1</p> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_2">2. Now, no great effort of imagination is required to trace +the analogy between this fantastic conception and Dante’s +rose. True, Ibn Arabi does not employ the simile of the rose +in his text; but a mere glance at his plan, which, drawn +with geometric precision, he himself has handed down to us, +will at once suggest such a simile.</p> + +<p>The figure given here (see <a href="#paradise-figure1">Fig. 1</a>) is as it appears in the +<i>Futuhat</i>, III, 554, with the Arabic names translated. In its +construction it is identical with the figure appearing under +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>the number 32 in Manfredi Porena’s <i>Commento grafico alla +Divina Commedia</i> as the plan of Dante’s rose (see <a href="#paradise-figure2">Fig. 2</a>). +Porena in his description compares it to an amphitheatre the +tiers of which are occupied by the elect.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_3">3. Apart from this similarity in geometrical design, there +is a further affinity between Dante’s rose and a Moslem +myth whereby paradise is likened to a tree. Ibn Arabi, +availing himself of a tradition very popular in Islam,⁠<a id="FNanchor_357" href="#Footnote_357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a> +introduces into his plan a mighty tree depending from the +heaven of the <i>primum mobile</i>, or roof of the abode of glory, +whose foliage spreads throughout the seven celestial spheres +and each branch of which penetrates one of the countless +individual mansions of bliss. This tree he calls the tree of +happiness, or bliss (see <a href="#paradise-figure1">Fig. 1</a>). Now, if this tree were to be +depicted on Ibn Arabi’s plan of the mansions of glory, the +effect of its myriad branches extending to their set places +on each of the seven strata of paradise would be to give +the whole figure the appearance of seven concentric circles +of leaves; and this is exactly the impression one gets on +looking into a rose.⁠<a id="FNanchor_358" href="#Footnote_358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="paradise-figure2" style="max-width: 43.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/paradise-figure2.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <p>Fig. 2</p> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="paradise-figure3" style="max-width: 43.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/paradise-figure3.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <p>Fig. 3</p> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Nor does this mythical tree of Islam, growing downwards +from the heaven of the highest sphere, appear to have been +out of Dante’s ken. His conception of the astronomical +spheres (and they also from time to time serve as mansions +of the blessed) is likewise that of a huge inverted tree, each +one of whose branches corresponds to one of the astronomical +spheres and whose roots are in the Empyrean. This image +he forms when he reaches the sphere of Jupiter.⁠<a id="FNanchor_359" href="#Footnote_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a> It must +be admitted, however, that Dante’s simile is not nearly so +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span>closely related to the Moslem model as is the same simile +of one of his imitators. We refer to Federigo Frezzi in his +<i>Quadriregio</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_360" href="#Footnote_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a>:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Poscia trovammo la pianta più bella</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Del paradiso, la pianta felice</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Che conserva la vita e rinnovella.</div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Su dentro al cielo avea la sua radice</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>E giù inverso terra i rami spande</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ov’era un canto che qui non si dice.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Era la cima lata e tanto grande</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Che più, al mio parer, che duo gran miglia</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Era dall’una all’altra delle bande.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The other similes Dante uses in describing paradise—when +he compares it to a walled garden, to a kingdom over which +Christ and Mary reign, and to a hill around which the elect +gather to contemplate the Divine light—are also to be found +in Ibn Arabi. To him, indeed, the whole of paradise is +simply a huge garden divided into seven circular parts by +means of seven walls or luminous spheres⁠<a id="FNanchor_361" href="#Footnote_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a>; and its most +sublime mansion, Eden, Ibn Arabi terms the palace or +mansion of the King,⁠<a id="FNanchor_362" href="#Footnote_362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a> because here there rises a “hill of +exceeding whiteness around which the elect gather to contemplate +the Almighty.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_363" href="#Footnote_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_4">4. We will now proceed to compare the moral structure of +Dante’s paradise with that of Ibn Arabi. The outstanding +feature of both works is the tendency of the writers to +exaggerate the number of divisions and subdivisions of the +various categories in which the elect are placed. Ibn Arabi, +indeed, insists that “no good deed that ever was performed +is without its own appropriate reward in paradise.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_364" href="#Footnote_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a> The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>chief categories are eight in number, just as in the human +body there are eight organs, controlled by the soul: the +eyes, ears, tongue, hands, stomach, pudenda, feet, and +heart. It will be remembered that this principle formed the +basis of the moral structure of hell, for Ibn Arabi, as well as +Dante, held that the strictest symmetry should be observed +in the conceptions of the two worlds of the after-life. Of +the eight categories in question, then, each has its reward +in one of the eight spheres or strata of the celestial paradise.</p> + +<p>Further, these eight rewards are subdivided into a multiplicity +of grades, each one of which is assigned to a specific +virtuous deed. The age of the blessed—to cite but one +example, which is eminently Dantean—is taken into consideration +when the rewards are administered, so that an +old man, who has led a sinless life in the faith of Islam, is +appointed to a higher grade than a younger man of equal +innocence, even although both may have been distinguished +for the same virtue.</p> + +<p>Another striking similarity between the two works is to +be found in the allotment of the various places that the +elect occupy in each of the eight spheres of glory. According +to Ibn Arabi, three reasons determine the allocation: the +first, grace alone, in which category are placed children who +died before reason came and adults who lived according to +the natural law; the second, personal virtue or good deeds +performed by adults; and the third, inheritance of the +celestial mansions left unoccupied by the damned.⁠<a id="FNanchor_365" href="#Footnote_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a> To +strengthen the parallel, Ibn Arabi points out that the second +reason does not imply that the happiness of glory is only +the due reward for good done on earth. It is, he explains, +something much greater than a mere recompense.⁠<a id="FNanchor_366" href="#Footnote_366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a></p> + +<p>By way of exemplifying how the elect are distributed, +Ibn Arabi enumerates four of the principal categories in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>higher grades: first, the prophets or God’s messengers, who +occupy pulpits in the highest grade; secondly, the saints, +who, as disciples of the prophets, are seated on thrones in +the next grade; thirdly, the wise men, who, having in life +acquired a scientific knowledge of God, are placed in chairs +in a still lower grade; and fourthly, the pure in heart, who, +having only gained a knowledge of Divine things through +revelation, occupy gradins beneath the others.⁠<a id="FNanchor_367" href="#Footnote_367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a> Dante’s +distribution is on the same lines. In the highest seats he +places the prophets, such as Adam and Moses, and the +apostles, St. Peter, St. John, and so forth; beneath these, +the doctors of the religious orders, St. Francis, St. Benedict, +and St. Augustine; and lastly, the faithful, who obeyed the +commandments.⁠<a id="FNanchor_368" href="#Footnote_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a> It is also worthy of note that Dante in his +description of the seats of the blessed uses the same terms +as Ibn Arabi, namely, <i>thrones</i> or <i>chairs</i>, <i>gradins</i> or <i>forms</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_369" href="#Footnote_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a></p> + +<p>In the four general categories in question Ibn Arabi again +distinguishes, although somewhat vaguely, between the +Moslem elect and those who, before Islam, professed the +other religions revealed by the prophets of Israel, of whom, +according to Moslem theology, Christ was one.⁠<a id="FNanchor_370" href="#Footnote_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a> This vagueness +is surprising, seeing that the Dantean division of the +two elects had been established in Moslem tradition long +before Ibn Arabi’s time. A <i>hadith</i>, attributed to Ali, son-in-law +of the prophet, clearly defines it⁠<a id="FNanchor_371" href="#Footnote_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“At the Divine Throne are two pearls, one white and the +other yellow, each of which contains 70,000 mansions. The +white pearl is for Mahomet and his flock; the yellow for +Abraham and his.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span></p> + +<p>The analogy between this idea and Dante’s distribution is +obvious. In the mystic rose the prophets, patriarchs and +saints of the Old Testament are placed in the left sector and +those who lived after Christ in the right.⁠<a id="FNanchor_372" href="#Footnote_372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a> The similitude, +however, extends to the actual details. Just as Ibn Arabi +couples Mahomet with Adam in the same degree of the +Beatific Vision, so does Dante place Adam with St. Peter +in the mystic rose.⁠<a id="FNanchor_373" href="#Footnote_373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_5">5. Let us now study awhile the scene of the glorious +triumph of the elect as depicted by the Murcian mystic. +Briefly, the <i>Futuhat</i> description is as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The blessed gather around the snow-white hill to await +the epiphany of the Lord. As they stand, each in his respective +grade and place and magnificently arrayed,⁠<a id="FNanchor_374" href="#Footnote_374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a> a dazzling +light shines forth before which they fall prostrate. Through +their eyes into the inmost recesses of their bodies and souls +the light penetrates, so that each of the blessed becomes all +eye and ear and sees and hears with his entire spirit, such +is the virtue conferred on them by the light. Thus are they +prepared for the presence of the Almighty. And then the +Prophet appears before them, saying, ‘Prepare, then, ye +chosen, for the manifestation of the Lord.’ The three veils +that enshroud the Almighty—the veils of glory, majesty +and power—are drawn aside at His will, and the truth is +revealed, one vision, yet in the dual epiphany of the two +names, the beautiful and the good. The magnificence of the +Lord leaves the elect spellbound, and the brilliance of the +wonderful vision pervades their beings.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“This vision, although in itself one and the same so far +as the elect are concerned, has, nevertheless, different +aspects.⁠<a id="FNanchor_375" href="#Footnote_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a> Those prophets, who only acquired their knowledge +of God through the faith received from God Himself and +did not increase that knowledge by reason and contemplation, +will behold the vision through the eye of faith. The saint +whose faith in God was inspired by a prophet will see it +through the mirror of that prophet. If, however, he also +gained a knowledge of God through contemplation, then will +he have two visions, one of science and the other of faith. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span>And so also will it be with the prophet. Similarly, the saint +who, unenlightened by any prophet, acquired his knowledge, +either through his own reason or direct from the Almighty, +or in both of these ways, will be ranged in the Beatific Vision +with the men of science or those of simple faith, or with both +of these classes. Those who obtained from God the mystic +intuition only will occupy a grade in glory apart from all +the other elect. To sum up, the three aspects which God +presents to the elect correspond to the different ways in +which a knowledge of Him was gained on earth; and he +who acquired that knowledge in all three ways will witness +three Divine manifestations in the same instant. The +visions of the elect in these three categories are graded thus: +the prophets who received supernatural inspiration from God +excel those saints who followed their teaching; while those +who were neither prophets nor their disciples but simply +saints and friends of God will, if they achieved the desired +end by rational contemplation, be inferior in the Beatific +Vision to the mystics, because reason, like a veil, will intervene +between them and the Divine truth, and their efforts +to raise it will be of no avail. In like manner the followers +of the prophets will be unable to raise the veil of prophetic +revelation. And so it is that the Beatific Vision, pure and +unalloyed, will be the heritage exclusively of the prophets +and those mystics who, like the prophets, received Divine +inspiration on earth.”</p> + +<p>“In each grade of vision a relative degree of bliss will be +experienced.⁠<a id="FNanchor_376" href="#Footnote_376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a> Thus, the joy of some of the saints will be +purely intellectual and that of others, emotional, physical, or +imaginative, as the case may be. As for the mass of the +faithful, the enjoyment derived by each from the Beatific +Vision will also be proportional to his capacity for understanding +the theological dogmas of his master. Further, as +the mentality of the multitude is chiefly imaginative, so +will be their knowledge of God and their participation in +the Beatific Vision. This, too, will be the lot of the majority +of the men of rational science, few of whom, although +superior to the multitude, are on earth able to conceive the +absolute abstraction from all matter. Hence it is that the +greater part of the truths revealed by God through religion +have been presented to the multitude in a form adapted to +its understanding, though invariably accompanied by vague +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>allusions, which are intelligible only to a select few of those +of superior intellect.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_377" href="#Footnote_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Continuing, Ibn Arabi from time to time gives further +interesting details⁠<a id="FNanchor_378" href="#Footnote_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“In the Beatific Vision God manifests Himself to the elect +in a general epiphany, which, nevertheless, assumes various +forms corresponding to the mental conceptions of God formed +by the faithful on earth. There is, then, one single epiphany, +which is multiple only by reason of the difference of forms +in which it is received. The Vision impregnates the elect +with Divine light, each experiencing the Vision according +to the knowledge of the Divine dogma or dogmas gained by +him on earth.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The Divine light pervades the beings of the elect and +radiates from them, reflected as if by mirrors, on everything +around them. The spiritual enjoyment produced by +the contemplation of this reflection is even greater than that +of the Vision itself. For, at the moment when they experience +the Beatific Vision, the elect are transported and, +losing all consciousness, cannot appreciate the joys of the +Vision. Delight they feel, but the very intensity of the +delight makes it impossible for them to realise it. The +reflected light, on the other hand, does not overpower them, +and they are thus able to participate in all its joys.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The fact of there being different grades of glory engenders +no bitter feeling, much less envy, in the minds of those of +the elect that occupy the lower grades. Ibn Arabi makes +this point clear.⁠<a id="FNanchor_379" href="#Footnote_379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Each knows his allotted grade and seeks it as a child +seeks its mother’s breast, and iron, the lodestone. To occupy +or even aspire to a higher grade is impossible. In the grade +in which he is placed each sees the realisation of his highest +hopes. He loves his own grade passionately and cannot +conceive that a higher could exist. If it were not so, heaven +would not be heaven but a mansion of grief and bitter disillusion. +Nevertheless, those in the superior participate in +the enjoyment of the lower grades.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_6">6. From this description, so rich in detail, in picturesque +images and in philosophico-theological ideas, we may now +select those cardinal theses that are prominent in Ibn Arabi +and compare them with Dante’s ideas.⁠<a id="FNanchor_380" href="#Footnote_380" class="fnanchor">[380]</a></p> + +<p>Firstly, the life of glory, according to the Murcian mystic, +consists fundamentally in the Beatific Vision, which is conceived +as a manifestation, revelation, or epiphany of the +Divine light. God is a focus of light, the rays of which +serve to prepare the elect to look upon the Almighty.</p> + +<p>The parallel between this conception of Ibn Arabi and +that of Dante need not be insisted upon; both in idea and +artistic execution the two are identical.⁠<a id="FNanchor_381" href="#Footnote_381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a> For the latter, +mediæval Christian literature furnishes no precedent whatever. +The former, however, the idea or theological thesis +of the necessity of a Divine light with which to behold the +Almighty, had been conceived and discussed by the scholastics +long before Dante’s time. St. Thomas Aquinas freely +refers to a <i>lumen gloriae</i>, which strengthens the human +understanding for participation in the Beatific Vision.⁠<a id="FNanchor_382" href="#Footnote_382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a></p> + +<p>At the same time it is certain that St. Thomas Aquinas +himself admits seeking inspiration, not among the Holy +Fathers and scholastic theologians, but among the Moslem +philosophers.⁠<a id="FNanchor_383" href="#Footnote_383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a> It is the authority of Alfarabius, Avicenna, +Avempace and Averrhoes that he quotes, when he attempts +to explain the Beatific Vision in terms of philosophy, and it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>is the theory of Averrhoes, of the vision of the substances +separated by the soul, that he accepts as the one most suitable +for the elect’s vision of God.⁠<a id="FNanchor_384" href="#Footnote_384" class="fnanchor">[384]</a></p> + +<p>That Aquinas should not have recourse to patristic or +scholastic literature was but natural, seeing he would find +there little or no information about so abstruse a theme. +The chroniclers of dogma recognise that the philosophic +explanation of this article of the Christian faith is not to be +found in the Holy Fathers nor in the early theologians. St. +John Chrysostom even denies the vision of the Divine +essence. St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and with the latter +all the Latins up to the eighth century, placed the blessed, +according to the Scripture, <i>face to face</i> with the Divinity in +the Vision; and they make the least possible comment on +the sacred text to avoid falling into any anthropomorphic +error, maintaining that it is impossible for the human eye +to look upon the Vision.⁠<a id="FNanchor_385" href="#Footnote_385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a> Those that go more deeply into the +subject, like St. Epiphanes, merely arrive at the conclusion +that the soul requires assistance before it can look upon +God.⁠<a id="FNanchor_386" href="#Footnote_386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a> What the nature of this assistance is, neither the +Scriptures nor the Holy Fathers have determined. This is +admitted by Petavius. Although the sacred texts tell of a +Divine <i>lumen</i>, this has no bearing on the scholastic theory +of the <i>lumen gloriae</i>. St. Thomas, indeed, held that the +<i>lumen gloriae</i> is a principle of vision, as it were a habit or +faculty of seeing (akin to the sensitive faculty inherent in +the eye), by means of which principle the human mind is +trained to behold God. On the other hand, the <i>lumen</i> of +the Psalms (XXXV, 10), “In lumine tuo videbimus lumen,” +was regarded by Origenes, St. Cyril, the pseudo-Dionysius, +and St. Augustine, as a synonym of Christ, in Whose light +we should see the Father. From which Petavius concludes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>that the theory of the <i>lumen gloriae</i> is a novelty introduced +by the scholastics.⁠<a id="FNanchor_387" href="#Footnote_387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a> He finishes by citing Plotinus as the only +thinker that saw even vaguely the necessity, for the Vision +of God, of a <i>lumen</i> which is God Himself. Had there only +been added to his great store of patristic learning some +knowledge of Moslem theology (which was unknown in his +century), he would have completed the cycle of his historical +investigations and filled the gap of centuries that separates +Plotinus from the scholastics.</p> + +<p>He would have found, indeed, in Algazel and in the +Spaniards, Ibn Hazm and Averrhoes—to mention but three +great theologians—the roots from which the theory of the +<i>lumen gloriae</i> sprouted. Algazel dedicates a complete +chapter of his <i>Ihia</i> to the development of this theory.⁠<a id="FNanchor_388" href="#Footnote_388" class="fnanchor">[388]</a> Long +before St. Thomas, he defined the Beatific Vision as a perfection +of the understanding and, in order to convey an idea +of the vision of glory, he establishes a complete, although +metaphorical, parallel between it and the physical vision. +He says:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>As the physical vision is a complement and perfection of +the fantastic representation of the object, the Beatific Vision +is a clearer and more perfect perception of God as He appears +to the mind in this life. He proceeds⁠<a id="FNanchor_389" href="#Footnote_389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a>: “God will reveal +Himself to the elect in all the splendour of His manifestation. +This epiphany, compared with the knowledge of God possessed +by the elect, will be like the manifestation of an object in +a mirror compared with a fantastic representation of it. +That epiphany of God is what we call the Beatific Vision. +It is, then, a real vision, provided it is clear that here we do +not understand by <i>vision</i> a complement of the imaginative +representation of the imaginable object, represented in a +concrete form, with dimensions, site, etc. The knowledge +which you have gained of God on earth will be completed in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>heaven and will become presence or experience. Between +this presence in the future life and the knowledge acquired +on earth there will be no more difference than what comes +from a greater manifestation and clearness.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Ibn Hazm, the great eleventh-century theologian of +Cordova, expounds a similar doctrine:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“We do not admit the possibility of seeing God with a +sort of human vision. We simply maintain that God will +be seen by means of a power distinct from that which we +have in our eyes, a power that will be inspired in us by God. +Some people call it a <i>sixth sense</i>. And the proof lies in the +fact that, as we now know God with our souls, which in this +life He has strengthened to that end, so afterwards God may +strengthen our vision in order that we may behold Him.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_390" href="#Footnote_390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>We have already seen how Averrhoes’ theory was accepted +by St. Thomas as an explanation of the Beatific Vision. +But he goes further. In one of his theological treatises,⁠<a id="FNanchor_391" href="#Footnote_391" class="fnanchor">[391]</a> +dealing with the texts of the Koran which compare God to +a light, he says:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“God, being the cause of the existence of all beings and +the cause of our being able to see them, has rightly been +called <i>Light</i>; for the same relation exists between light and +the colours, that is to say, light is the cause of their existence +and also of our being able to see them. Nor can any doubt +exist about the dogma of the vision of God, which is a light, +in the life to come.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>And after refuting all objections, he concludes, like +Algazel, by asserting that the Vision will consist in an +increased knowledge of the Divine essence.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_7">7. The analogies, however, between Dante’s conception and +that of Ibn Arabi are not limited to the general theory of the +<i>lumen gloriae</i>. Other even more striking similarities are:</p> + +<p>Secondly. In both descriptions the elect are in the same +attitude, their gaze fixed on the focus of Divine light.⁠<a id="FNanchor_392" href="#Footnote_392" class="fnanchor">[392]</a> The +different grades in the Beatific Vision depend, according to +Dante, on the degree of love that each of the elect shows for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>God, whereas in Ibn Arabi it appears to be the nature of the +knowledge that the souls possessed of the Divinity that +counts.⁠<a id="FNanchor_393" href="#Footnote_393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a> It would seem, then, that Dante adopted the point +of view of a voluntaryist, and Ibn Arabi, that of an intellectualist. +The difference, however, is more apparent than +real. For Dante frequently appears to adopt Ibn Arabi’s +standpoint as an intellectualist; on several occasions he +attributes the grade of glory to the nature of the faith or the +illuminating grace with which the soul knew God.⁠<a id="FNanchor_394" href="#Footnote_394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a> Further +Ibn Arabi, like all Moslem mystics, is essentially a voluntaryist; +virtue, in his opinion, is based, not on theological +knowledge or dead faith, but on divine love, at once the +cause and the fruit of the knowledge that the soul has +gained of God. He therefore reserves a prominent grade in +the Beatific Vision for the contemplative mystics and places +in an inferior position such saints as were also philosophers.⁠<a id="FNanchor_395" href="#Footnote_395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a> +This doctrine was expounded by Algazel before Ibn Arabi. +The happiness of heaven—he writes in his <i>Ihia</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_396" href="#Footnote_396" class="fnanchor">[396]</a>—will be +proportionate to the intensity of the love for God, just as +this love will be commensurate with the knowledge of God +gained by the elect on earth and called by Revelation, +faith.</p> + +<p>Thirdly. The difference in grades is shown, not in the +Beatific Vision itself, but in the variety of forms in which +the Divine light is made manifest to the elect and in the +greater or lesser brilliance of the light they receive and +reflect.⁠<a id="FNanchor_397" href="#Footnote_397" class="fnanchor">[397]</a> These three ideas of Ibn Arabi have also their +respective parallels in Dante’s conception. In <i>Par.</i> XXX, +121, he says: “There, distance makes no difference, for +where God governs the natural law has no power whatever.” +In this way Dante establishes the essential unity of the +vision in its different grades. If in these grades there is any +difference, it is not in the thing seen but in the way of seeing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>it. Accordingly, in <i>Par.</i> XXXIII, 109, he adds: “Not because +there were more than one aspect of the light I saw, which +itself is immutable, but because my vision, strengthened by +its contemplation, was able to see it in another manner.”</p> + +<p>Finally, that the light acquired is reflected by the elect, +and its greater or lesser brilliance distinguishes their greater +or lesser glory, are points frequently alluded to by Dante in +the Paradiso.⁠<a id="FNanchor_398" href="#Footnote_398" class="fnanchor">[398]</a> The Dantists have explained this theme by +the Thomist doctrine of the endowments of the glorious +body, one of which is the radiance it derives from the glory +of the soul.⁠<a id="FNanchor_399" href="#Footnote_399" class="fnanchor">[399]</a> Now, we have already seen how Ibn Arabi, +before St. Thomas, likewise explains the radiance of the +elect by the superabundance of Divine light, which pervades +the body of each blessed and is reflected from all around it. +Nor was this an original idea of Ibn Arabi’s, but merely a +repetition of the doctrine of the <i>Ishraqi</i> mystics. Indeed, in +the tenth century of our era, the author of the <i>Corra</i>, having +discovered it in some <i>hadiths</i> of a still earlier date, used the +theme in his description of paradise. In those pictures of +the glorious life, the external brightness of the elect indicates +the grade of glory of each. The following passages put the +matter beyond all doubt⁠<a id="FNanchor_400" href="#Footnote_400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“He who belongs to the highest category of the elect so +illumines the others that the whole of heaven is bright +with the radiance of his face.” Again, it is stated that “the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>elect see one another in paradise as we see stars shining in +the sky”; that “if one of the elect were to descend to +earth, he would eclipse the light of the sun”; that Fatima, +the daughter of Mahomet, is called the Brilliant, the Splendid, +on account of the intensity of her light; that “the robes +of the blessed reflect the Divine light”; that “when the +Almighty appears in the Beatific Vision and the light of the +Divine countenance falls on the faces of the elect, it causes +them to shine with such brilliance that they appear transfigured +with ecstasy”; and, lastly, that after the Beatific +Vision the elect marvel at their own greater brilliance, +increased by the reflection of the countenance of God.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Fourthly. The Beatific Vision will engender joy or delight, +proportional to the various grades of the Vision, but so +intense as to produce ecstasy in the soul. As is well-known, +this idea of Ibn Arabi’s reappears in full in Dante’s work.⁠<a id="FNanchor_401" href="#Footnote_401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a> +The idea of proportion may, it is true, have been taken from +the Thomist doctrine rather than from Islamic sources.⁠<a id="FNanchor_402" href="#Footnote_402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a> +Not so the idea of the ecstasy; of this there is not a word +in the Thomist doctrine, which confines itself to an explanation +of the philosophic origin of the three endowments of +the blessed soul: vision, delectation, and comprehension of +the Divine essence. Whereas, if the ecstasy in Dante be +psychologically analysed and compared with that in Ibn +Arabi, various constituent elements common to both will +be found: loss of memory, somnolence or semi-consciousness, +produced on the soul by the intensity of delight.⁠<a id="FNanchor_403" href="#Footnote_403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a></p> + +<p>Fifthly. The fact of there being different grades in the +Beatific Vision excites no feeling of envy or sadness among +those in the lower grades. Each accepts his share of the glory +as if it were impossible even to desire anything greater. And +this is so, because all love the grade they occupy; and, +further, because, if it were not thus, heaven would not be a +mansion of peace and delight.⁠<a id="FNanchor_404" href="#Footnote_404" class="fnanchor">[404]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span></p> + +<p>Dante puts the same explanation in the mouth of Piccarda⁠<a id="FNanchor_405" href="#Footnote_405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a>: +“Our desires, awakened only by the love of the Holy Spirit, +are satisfied in the way that He determined.” To Dante’s +inquiry whether there is no desire on the part of the souls +to attain to a higher place, Piccarda replies: “Brother, +a feeling of charity quells such a desire, and we long for +nothing more than what we have. Were we to aspire to a +higher sphere, our wish would be at variance with the will +of the Almighty, and such disagreement does not exist in +the kingdom of heaven.” Dante, satisfied with the explanation, +concludes: “Then I understood why in the heavens +all is paradise, notwithstanding the different degrees of +bliss.”</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX_section_8">8. The identity thus established between the five fundamental +theses of the Murcian Ibn Arabi on the Beatific Vision +and Dante’s is strong enough to render comment unnecessary. +In comparison, the other similarities, such as picturesque +details and artistic devices, used in both descriptions +in an attempt to delineate by geometrical figures the +Divine truth as seen in the glorious vision, are vague.</p> + +<p>The analogy that was revealed in the discussion of Version +C of the second cycle of the <i>Miraj</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_406" href="#Footnote_406" class="fnanchor">[406]</a> between the apotheosis +witnessed by Mahomet and that described by Dante need not +be dwelt upon. It is as well to recall, however, that the image +representing the Divinity in that version, which dates back +to the eighth century, is identical with that employed by +Dante: a focus of light, surrounded by concentric circles, +composed of tiers of resplendent angels. This description +was perpetuated in Islam, and Ibn Arabi frequently reproduced +it in his <i>Futuhat</i>, notably in his portrayal of God at +the final judgment.⁠<a id="FNanchor_407" href="#Footnote_407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a></p> + +<p>But the similarity extends further. Dante, having arrived +at the spiritual cusp of his glorious ascension, attempts to +explain the mystery of the Trinity by means of the same +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>geometrical circular symbol: three circumferences, of equal +size and multi-coloured, the first two of which seem to be +a reflection of the other, after the manner of two rainbows, +and the third as of fire, emitted by the other two.⁠<a id="FNanchor_408" href="#Footnote_408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a> Now, +the more shrewd among the commentators, although +acknowledging the ingenuity shown by Dante in his conception, +admit that this geometrical symbol of the three +circles, as a representation of the persons of the Trinity, is +more of an enigma than it is explanatory. No details are +given of the colour of the first two circles or of the geometrical +relationship between the three, whether they are +concentric or eccentric, whether they are tangent to or cut +each other—in fact, no help whatever to interpret the symbol +is given.⁠<a id="FNanchor_409" href="#Footnote_409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a> One fact, however, stands out: Dante uses the +symbol of the circle to represent God in all His aspects—as +One in the Essence, as the Father, as the Son, and as the +Holy Ghost. Thus, the symbol of the circle represents God +conceived both as the principle of emanation and as the +emanation itself.</p> + +<p>Now, it is well known that the same use of the circle as a +symbol of the Divinity was made in the Plotinian metaphysics.⁠<a id="FNanchor_410" href="#Footnote_410" class="fnanchor">[410]</a> +The <i>Apocryphal Theology</i> of Aristoteles, as also +the apocryphal book of Hermes Trismegistus and the <i>Liber +de Causis</i>, made this symbol known to the Moslems and the +scholastics; but it was the Moslems, the <i>Ishraqi</i> mystics +in particular, who had recourse to the circle on every possible +occasion to explain their ideas on emanation, both in their +metaphysics and their cosmology.⁠<a id="FNanchor_411" href="#Footnote_411" class="fnanchor">[411]</a></p> + +<p>The Murcian Ibn Arabi, more than any of the <i>Ishraqis</i>, +employs circles, concentric and eccentric, secant and tangent, +to represent the Almighty, whether in His abstract individuality, +in His attributes, names and relations, in His +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>manifestations <i>ad extra</i>, or in His emanation.⁠<a id="FNanchor_412" href="#Footnote_412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a> A circle of +white light on a red background, also of light, with two radii +projecting from it, as it gently moves but never changes, is +the symbol by which he represents the individual essentiality +of God.⁠<a id="FNanchor_413" href="#Footnote_413" class="fnanchor">[413]</a> The procession of the beings who emanate from +God the essence is also symbolised in the <i>Futuhat</i> by a circle.⁠<a id="FNanchor_414" href="#Footnote_414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a> +The centre, like a focus of light, is God, from Whom the +contingent beings emanate, just as the radii of a circle +proceed from one central point to terminate in a series of +points which, when joined together, form the circumference, +symbolical of the cosmos; and just as these points are in +their essence indistinguishable the one from the other, so +also in the emanation of God is there a unity of substance +and a multiplicity of epiphanies; the beings are merely the +aspects, or the names and forms under which the Divine light +appears.</p> + +<p>These emanations likewise are represented by circles⁠<a id="FNanchor_415" href="#Footnote_415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a>; at +the innumerable points on the first circumference, the centre +of which is God, an infinity of other circumferences cut the +circle; and these in turn produce other circles, secant as +before, and so on <i>ad infinitum</i>. As the circles multiply, the +centre of their origin, God, becomes hidden, nevertheless, +all reflect the light of His first epiphany. All the ingenious +and paradoxical similitudes which Ibn Arabi deduces from +this symbol of the Divine emanation are founded upon one +main idea, the basis of his pantheism, half emanative, half +immanent. God and the creatures are one and the same +substance; the multiplicity of the emanations in no wise +changes the essence of their origin; and these emanations +are merely distinct affinities, who represent the immanence +of the origin from which they spring.</p> + +<p>This general plan of the Divine emanation becomes less +involved when Ibn Arabi proceeds to represent the ontological +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>categories alone by the symbol of concentric circles.⁠<a id="FNanchor_416" href="#Footnote_416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a> +The supreme series of these consists of three substances, +hypostases or emanations from the One Absolute: first, +the Spiritual Substance, from which proceed all those +beings who are not God; secondly, the Universal Intellect, +which is the Divine light by which the beings of the Spiritual +Substance receive objective reality; thirdly, the Universal +Soul, likewise an emanation from the One, through the +Intellect.⁠<a id="FNanchor_417" href="#Footnote_417" class="fnanchor">[417]</a> This triad of substances, which to Ibn Arabi +represents the essence of God, is shown in the <i>Futuhat</i> by +a geometrical figure composed of three circles: the largest, +which encircles the whole figure, represents the Spiritual +Substance; inside, two smaller eccentric circles, almost +tangent to one another, symbolise the Intellect and the +Soul. Ibn Arabi gives no reasons for these graphic details +of his plan, but the mere fact of his using the three circles +as a symbol for the three hypostases of his Trinity, to wit, +the principle of prime aptitude for the existence of all beings, +the principle of active potency to give such existence, and +the principle of life of the cosmos, is in itself an interesting +point and one that will repay the study of those who, while +appreciating the subtle ingenuity of the Florentine poet, are +not content merely to admire his artistic creations but are +eager to find out whence he derived his ideas.⁠<a id="FNanchor_418" href="#Footnote_418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a> For, in spite +of there being an abyss of differences between the pantheistic +triad of Ibn Arabi and the Catholic dogma of the Trinity,⁠<a id="FNanchor_419" href="#Footnote_419" class="fnanchor">[419]</a> +this in no wise affects the symbolical representation of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>two conceptions by a geometrical plan. To adapt this plan +to a representation of either conception would constitute +neither an absurdity in metaphysics nor a danger from the +point of view of dogma, provided that the key to the enigma +were kept discreetly hidden and concrete details in its interpretation +were omitted; and this is exactly what Dante +did. In describing his symbol of the three circles, he confines +himself to stating that the three are one only as regards +“continenza,” i.e., substance, and that they are of different +colours, to distinguish the Three Divine Persons, in the +unity of essence.⁠<a id="FNanchor_420" href="#Footnote_420" class="fnanchor">[420]</a></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="three-circles" style="max-width: 25.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/three-circles.jpg" alt=""> +</figure> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X">X<br> +<span class="smcap">Synthesis of all the Partial Comparisons</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_1">1. The many minute comparisons made in this second +part of our work will now enable us to present, in the form +of a synthesis of the partial results, the following conclusions:</p> + +<p>A considerable number of the details and topographical +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span>descriptions in the Divine Comedy, although they have no +parallels in the <i>Miraj</i>, have, nevertheless, their precedents +in Islamic literature, whether it be in the Koran, in the +<i>hadiths</i>, in the Moslem legends of the final judgment, or in the +doctrine of the theologians, philosophers, and mystics.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_2">2. Among all the Islamic thinkers, the Murcian Ibn Arabi +stands out as the most likely to have furnished Dante with +his model for the hereafter. The infernal regions, the astronomical +heavens, the circles of the mystic rose, the choirs of +angels around the focus of Divine light, the three circles +symbolising the Trinity—all are described by Dante exactly +as Ibn Arabi described them. This similarity betrays a +relation such as exists between copy and model. That it +should be a mere coincidence is impossible. The historical +facts are these: in the thirteenth century, twenty-five years +before the birth of the Florentine poet, Ibn Arabi introduced +into his <i>Futuhat</i> plans of the hereafter, all of which were +circular or spherical in design. Eighty years after, Dante +produces a marvellous poetical description of the after-life, +the topographical details of which are so precise that they +enabled the poet’s commentators in the twentieth century +to represent them graphically by geometrical plans; and +these plans are essentially identical with those designed by +Ibn Arabi seven centuries before. If imitation by Dante +can be disproved, the manifest similarity is either an insolvable +mystery or a miracle of originality.⁠<a id="FNanchor_421" href="#Footnote_421" class="fnanchor">[421]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_3">3. Over and above this identity in construction there is +a striking analogy in decoration. Indeed, the Aaraf seems +to be the prototype of the limbo: the Gehenna, the model +of the Inferno; the Sirat of the Purgatorio; the meadow +between purgatory and hell, of the Terrestrial Paradise; and +the eight gardens, of the Mystic Rose or Dantean Paradise.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_4">4. The same unity in architectural design and the same +hankering after symmetry, physical as well as moral, are +exhibited in both descriptions. Jerusalem is the pivot on +which the other world revolves; beneath it is hell, in the +last storey of which Lucifer is imprisoned; vertically above +Jerusalem is the theological heaven, where dwell the Divinity +and the elect; here, the number, as well as the subdivision, +of the mansions is identical with that of the infernal regions, +with the result that each place in hell has its antithesis in +heaven.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_5">5. The likeness between the two extends to many of the +episodes and scenes, some of which are literally identical. +For instance, the classification of the inhabitants of the limbo +and their moral suffering are analogous to those of the +Aaraf; the black tempest of the adulterers is the Koranic +wind of Ad; the rain of fire that beats down upon the +Sodomites, who are driven round in a circle; the punishment +of the soothsayers, whose heads are reversed; Caiaphas, +crucified upon the ground and trampled upon; the robbers, +devoured by serpents; the authors of schism, with their +bowels protruding and their arms cut off, or with their head, +talking, in their hands; the giants, whose abnormal proportions +are described in parallel terms; the torture of the ice, +which is the Moslem <i>zamharir</i>, suffered by traitors; the +picture of Lucifer, fast in ice like the Islamic Iblis; the dense +smoke that envelops the passionate in purgatory, identical +with that which, according to the Koran, will appear on the +Day of Judgment; the double ablution in the two rivers of +the earthly paradise, and the meeting of Dante with Beatrice, +which is a parallel scene to that of the entry of the soul into +the Islamic paradise, after ablution in two rivers, and of the +meeting with its heavenly bride; and, lastly, the description +of the Beatific Vision as a Divine <i>lumen</i>, which produces +outward brilliance, intellectual clarity, and ecstatic delight.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_6">6. If to all these analogies of architecture, topography, and +setting, are added those that were brought out in full relief +in the first part of this work, it will be apparent that the +religious literature of Islam alone, in the sole theme of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span>after-life—a theme mainly developed around the <i>Miraj</i>—offers +to investigators a more abundant harvest of ideas, +images, symbols, and descriptions, similar to those of Dante, +than all the other religious literatures together that have +up to now been consulted by Dantists in their endeavours +to explain the genesis of the Divine Comedy.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X_section_7">7. And here our study might be concluded, were it not +for one important doubt that may assail the mind of the +investigator.</p> + +<p>The artistic devices and theological-philosophic conceptions +introduced by Dante into his poem are attributed by +Dantists to the poet’s own inventive genius, stimulated to a +certain extent by his acquaintance with sundry popular +legends that were broadcast throughout Europe in the +centuries immediately preceding his appearance. These +mediæval legends are technically referred to as the “precursors +of the Divine Comedy.”</p> + +<p>Now, it is certain that none of these furnishes the same +explanation for so many elements of Dante’s work as does +the legend of the <i>Miraj</i>, and, taken altogether, they fail to +throw light upon many details which the <i>Miraj</i> and Islamic +literature in general explain in full. Further, the analogies +between the Divine Comedy and its precursors are too slight +to establish any relation such as exists between model and +copy.</p> + +<p>In spite of all this, however, it might be possible to ignore +the hypothesis of Moslem influence over Dante’s poem and +fall back on the theory that the poem was conceived in the +womb of Christian literature and evolved from the seeds of +eschatology contained in its mediæval precursors. To rebut +this theory and render the argument in favour of our hypothesis +conclusive, further investigation is, therefore, necessary. +The origin of the eschatological elements in the precursory +legends must be inquired into, in order to ascertain +whether they were indeed all of native Christian growth, +or whether they do not also show signs of Moslem ancestry +such as the Divine Comedy has revealed to us.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_III">PART III<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>MOSLEM FEATURES IN THE CHRISTIAN LEGENDS +PRECURSORY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak">PART III<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>MOSLEM FEATURES IN THE CHRISTIAN LEGENDS +PRECURSORY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_I">I<br> +<span class="smcap">Introduction</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_1">1. The belief in the immortality of the soul and the natural +desire of man to lift the veil shrouding the mysteries of the +after-life appear to have been the psychological motives that +inspired the authors of the many legends, popular throughout +mediæval Christian Europe, the main theme of which is the +picturesque description of a fantastic journey to the realms +beyond the grave. These are the legends that, in the opinion +of the scholars, provided Dante with the raw material for +his poem.⁠<a id="FNanchor_422" href="#Footnote_422" class="fnanchor">[422]</a> Accordingly, they have been collected and +analysed with scrupulous care by the leading critics, who, +needless to add, consider them to be of purely Christian origin, +either the spontaneous outcome of popular imagination or +the result of centuries of monastic learning embellished by +the artistic fancy of the troubadour.⁠<a id="FNanchor_423" href="#Footnote_423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a> The main centre from +which these legends radiated over Europe appears indeed to +have been the monasteries of Ireland. But it is interesting +to note the marked difference between the legends that +appeared before and those that appeared after the eleventh +century. The monastic tales prior to that century are so +poor in material and inartistic in treatment, the scenes +representing the future life of the soul so trivial and at times +coarse that, even had Dante known of their existence, they +could scarcely have served as models for his work. This is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>admitted by D’Ancona himself. Later on, however, fresh +tales appear, revealing a more fertile imagination and greater +refinement on the part of the authors. These D’Ancona calls +“veri abbozzi e prenunziamenti del poema dantesco.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_424" href="#Footnote_424" class="fnanchor">[424]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_2">2. How is this sudden change in the development of the +eschatological theme in Western Christian literature to be +accounted for? The hypothesis of the influence of elements, +foreign to Western culture but adaptable thereto—inasmuch +as their origin may in the end be traced back to the same +early Christian stock—would not appear to be extravagant. +Graf has observed that many particulars of the universal +myth of paradise, although omitted from the Biblical narrative, +reappear in these Christian legends; and he adds +significantly that <i>it is not known whence they came nor by +what means they were transmitted</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_425" href="#Footnote_425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a> Yet Graf made most +methodical use of all the sources available to modern European +erudition. The eschatological literature of Islam alone +seems to have escaped the attention of this keen critic, for +the Arabic texts, when not translated into some European +tongue, were as a sealed book to him. In the following pages +an attempt will be made to fill this gap by examining the +Moslem legends for evidence of poetic features that may have +influenced the Christian legends and thus explain their +remarkable efflorescence in the eleventh century.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_3">3. General evidence of such influence may be found in a +feature observed by Graf himself. He notes that in many +of the more popular legends of that date the souls of the +deserving, before being admitted to eternal bliss, are led to +a place other than the theological heaven, there to await +the day of resurrection and judgment. But, as Graf states, +from the fifth century onwards it was a dogma of the Church +that the righteous were straightway admitted to the Beatific +Vision, and any doctrine to the contrary was accursed.⁠<a id="FNanchor_426" href="#Footnote_426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a> Can +stronger evidence exist of the non-Catholic origin of those +legends? Islam, on the other hand, holds that from the +time of death until the day of resurrection the souls of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>just await judgment either in their graves, miraculously +transformed into dwellings of temporary bliss, or in a garden +of happiness lying apart from heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_427" href="#Footnote_427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a> The souls of martyrs +alone appear to be immediately admitted to heaven, or +rather to a Divine bower at the gate leading to the theological +heaven. As will be shown hereunder, the scenes of this life +of bliss prior to judgment bear a strong resemblance to +several episodes of the Christian legends; and this similarity +in descriptive detail, added to the coincidence of dogmatic +belief, would seem to confirm the hypothesis of the Moslem +origin of those legends. Nor is this belief, which, while still +alive in Islam, had long been abandoned as heterodox by +Western Christianity, the only proof of Moslem inspiration. +Ozanam and D’Ancona state that many of the more poetic +and edifying of these legends never received the official +approval of the Church,⁠<a id="FNanchor_428" href="#Footnote_428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a> as if the latter had divined the +existence, beneath the veil of poetic adornment, of a doctrine +not altogether compatible with the orthodox creed. Indeed +the palpable evidence of Islamic influence that will be found +in many of these mediæval legends fully justifies that +attitude.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_I_section_4">4. In the following chapters the comparison of these +legends with the Moslem tales is based—be it frankly +admitted—not upon their entire texts, but upon the summaries +furnished by the critics. Less minute, therefore, than +the comparison aimed at in the two former parts of this +work, it will serve to give a brief survey rather than a +definite solution of this interesting literary problem.</p> + +<p>Nor is any attempt made to group the Christian legends +according to any new system. Where not already collected +in cycles, they will be considered separately, even at the +risk of repetition. Such repetition will not extend, however, +to particulars the Islamic origin of which has already been +proved. To these brief allusion only will be made and special +attention paid to new features for which no Moslem precedent +has so far been found.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span></p> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_II">II<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of Visions of Hell</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_1">1. <i>Legend of the Three Monks of the East or of St. Macarius.</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_429" href="#Footnote_429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a>—Labitte +and D’Ancona ascribe this legend to the sixth, +seventh or eighth century; but Ozanam maintains that it +must be later than Islam, seeing that in the epilogue the +saint inquires of his guests what news they have of the +Saracens. Graf considers it to be of Græco-Christian origin, +but the mystery surrounding the person of the saint himself +contributes to render the origin of the story still more +obscure.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_2">2. We will briefly examine the descriptive features that +may point to a Moslem origin.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>In the course of their long and adventurous pilgrimage +the three monks cross Syria, Persia and Ethiopia. Passing +through a country inhabited by dog-headed men, they +traverse a land of pygmies and reach a territory swarming +with dragons, basilisks, asps and other venomous creatures. +Pursuing their way, they cross a desert region strewn with +stones and rocks and, passing through the country of +elephants, finally come to a land of deep shadow, behind +which rises the monument erected by Alexander the Great +as a boundary marking the end of the world.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The early Moslem tales referred to in a former chapter +as being the remote prototypes of Dante’s hell, and notably a +<i>hadith</i> of the time of Mahomet, give a similar division of the +earth into seven regions, some of which are identical with +those of the legend. Thus, the dog-headed men appear in +the third earth of the <i>hadith</i>; the fifth is full of serpents and +scorpions; and the fourth is formed of sulphurous stones.⁠<a id="FNanchor_430" href="#Footnote_430" class="fnanchor">[430]</a> +Finally, the region of darkness recurs in all the versions of +the tale of Dulcarnain, who in Arabic legend is identified +with Alexander the Great; and the monument appears as +a wall built, according to the Koran, by Dulcarnain as a +protection against the peoples of Gog and Magog, who, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>according to a version of the Islamic legend—like the +pygmies of the Christian legend, whose stature was only +an ell—measured but a hand and a half in height.⁠<a id="FNanchor_431" href="#Footnote_431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a></p> + +<p>The three monks then penetrate into the infernal regions +and there witness tortures, some of which are noteworthy +for their resemblance to Moslem punishments already +mentioned. Thus, as in all the versions of the <i>Miraj</i>, sinners +are seen tormented by serpents in a lake of burning sulphur; +further on, the monks behold a giant chained in the midst +of flames—a figure that also appeared in the <i>hadiths</i> depicting +hell⁠<a id="FNanchor_432" href="#Footnote_432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a>; again, a woman is shown tormented by an enormous +serpent in a manner as horrible as that of the Moslem +tortures⁠<a id="FNanchor_433" href="#Footnote_433" class="fnanchor">[433]</a>; and so on.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_3">3. The Moslem character of the tale, however, is most +apparent from the following episode:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The pilgrims have left hell behind them and now enter a +wood of lofty trees, upon the branches of which sit a multitude +of souls reincarnate in the form of birds. These cry out +to God with the voices of human beings begging Him to +forgive them their sins and explain to them the wonders +they have witnessed.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Graf, in seeking to account for the frequent occurrence of +this myth in mediæval legend, finds no precedent but that +of early Christian symbolism, in which the soul is represented +in the form of a bird. But in Christian symbolism +the dove alone represented the Holy Ghost and only very +occasionally, on the monuments of the Catacombs, the souls +of the faithful. Moreover, the legend does not speak of +symbols, but of the reincarnation of souls in birds, which +live in a wood close, it is precisely stated, to paradise—features +that will be seen to have a more satisfactory explanation +in Moslem <i>hadiths</i>.</p> + +<p>From early times it was a general belief in Islam that the +spirits of men who fell in Holy Warfare and, occasionally, +the souls of the faithful lived, incarnate in birds such as +starlings, in a garden or wood at the gates of paradise, +awaiting the day of resurrection. These birds, some of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>which are white and others green, fly freely through the +garden and rest on the branches of the trees, the fruits of +which they eat. They drink of the waters of the rivers +flowing through the garden and spend their time in converse +with God. The souls of Moslem children are likewise transferred +to little birds, which fly about among the others. All +these birds know and speak to one another. According to +other <i>hadiths</i>, they are as white as doves or of a brilliant +white like foam.</p> + +<p>Some <i>hadiths</i> quote the colloquies God is supposed to hold +with these birds, and the text remotely resembles the words +attributed to the human birds in the Christian legend. +Thus⁠<a id="FNanchor_434" href="#Footnote_434" class="fnanchor">[434]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>God asks them, “Know ye perchance of a better fate +than that reserved unto you?” and they answer, “No. +Our sole desire were that our spirits might return to our +bodies once more to fight and be sacrificed in Thy service.” +In other <i>hadiths</i>, the birds in which live the souls of the +faithful other than martyrs, are made to utter the prayer, +“Gather us, O Lord, to our brethren and grant us that +which Thou hast promised unto us.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>This belief was so deeply rooted in Islam that it gave rise +to other holy legends as well as to theological polemics.⁠<a id="FNanchor_435" href="#Footnote_435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a> +In the legends, a bird incarnating the spirit of an ascetic +or mystic is supposed to appear on earth. In their polemics, +the theologians in all earnestness discuss the nature of this +being, which in the body of a bird harbours the mind of +a man.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_4">4. <i>Vision of St. Paul.</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_436" href="#Footnote_436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a>—The passage in the Second Epistle +to the Corinthians (XII, 2-4), in which the Apostle refers +to his being wafted to the third heaven, was the nucleus +round which this legend grew. It first appeared in the form +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>of an Apocalypse written in Greek about the fourth century, +and does not seem to have spread to Western Christianity +before the ninth century. Indeed, as a vision it only dates +from the twelfth, and in its more literary forms from the +thirteenth century. In transmission from East to West it +underwent considerable changes, which have not yet been +explained.⁠<a id="FNanchor_437" href="#Footnote_437" class="fnanchor">[437]</a> A comparison of the later texts with similar +Moslem legends may therefore be of interest as pointing to +the hidden channel by which the tale reached Western +Europe.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_5">5. As in the <i>Miraj</i>, Mahomet was accompanied by Gabriel, +so St. Paul in his nocturnal ascension is led by the Archangel +Michael.</p> + +<p>The first torture of hell witnessed by St. Paul—that of +the avaricious, hanging by their feet, their tongues, or ears +from the branches of trees—is evidently an adaptation from +the Isra; and it must be confessed that in the Moslem story +there exists a relation between the sin committed and the +member tortured that is altogether lacking in the Christian +legend.</p> + +<p>Over a turbid river, in the Pauline vision, stretches a +bridge <i>as fine as a hair</i>, connecting this world with paradise; +this bridge the righteous souls cross with ease, but the wicked +fall into the river. Here the plagiarism is flagrant; for this +is clearly a copy of the “sirat” or Moslem bridge crossed on +the Day of Judgment, according to a Koranic myth, the +Persian origin of which has been explained above.⁠<a id="FNanchor_438" href="#Footnote_438" class="fnanchor">[438]</a> Indeed, +one of the early traditionists, Abu Said al-Khadari, in describing +the “sirat” as being <i>finer than a hair</i>, uses the very +same simile as the author of the Pauline vision.⁠<a id="FNanchor_439" href="#Footnote_439" class="fnanchor">[439]</a> It need +hardly be pointed out that the position of this bridge, +stretching from the earth to heaven across hell, is the same +in both Christian and Moslem legends.</p> + +<p>A wheel of fire that in ceaseless rotation torments the +sinners is another instance of a torture copied from Islam. +It will be remembered that in several <i>hadiths</i> a precedent was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>found for the torture appointed by Dante to Sodomites⁠<a id="FNanchor_440" href="#Footnote_440" class="fnanchor">[440]</a>; +among them is one dating from the eighth century that +says, “In hell there are people bound to flaming wheels, +the wheels of wells that turn in ceaseless rotation.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_441" href="#Footnote_441" class="fnanchor">[441]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_II_section_6">6. Although other picturesque features may be passed over +as of minor importance,⁠<a id="FNanchor_442" href="#Footnote_442" class="fnanchor">[442]</a> the end of this apocryphal vision +is remarkable for two scenes of singular poetic beauty. In +the first of these, St. Paul from hell sees angels leading a +righteous soul to paradise, while demons drag off a wicked +soul to torture. All the religious books of Islam devote a +chapter to this subject. Thus, the author of the <i>Tadhkira</i> +comments at length on a <i>hadith</i>, in which the death of the +righteous man is contrasted with that of the sinner; and +the fate of their souls, as they are led by angels or demons +to heaven or hell, is depicted in awe-inspiring scenes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_443" href="#Footnote_443" class="fnanchor">[443]</a> But, +as this scene of the Pauline vision recurs in many other +Christian legends, all bearing upon the same struggle between +angels and devils for the possession of the soul, its study +may be held over until later, when these particular legends +will be dealt with in detail.</p> + +<p>The final vision of St. Paul is summarised by D’Ancona as +follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The sinners humbly beg the Apostle to intercede on their +behalf. The <i>Miserere</i>, uttered by millions of souls, fills the +four heavens and reaches to the throne of Christ, Who +thereupon descends and sternly rebukes the reprobates. For +the sake of His disciple, however, He grants them a weekly +respite from torture, from the ninth hour of Saturday to +the first hour of Monday.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>In the summary of the Greek Apocalypse, given by Graf, +the analogous scene is as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The Archangel Gabriel descends with the heavenly hosts, +and the damned implore his assistance. St. Paul, who has +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>wept over the indescribable tortures he has just witnessed, +joins the angels in their intercession on behalf of the sufferers. +Christ appears and, moved to pity by their prayers, grants +the sinners an annual respite on Easter Sunday, the anniversary +of His resurrection.⁠<a id="FNanchor_444" href="#Footnote_444" class="fnanchor">[444]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Graf has pointed out that the main difference between the +Greek Apocalypse and the Western <i>Visio Pauli</i> lies in the +fact that, whereas in the former the respite from torture +is annual, in the latter it is weekly.⁠<a id="FNanchor_445" href="#Footnote_445" class="fnanchor">[445]</a> When and by whom +was this change introduced? Islamic legends prior to the +<i>Visio latina</i> show the same belief in a weekly day of rest +for the damned, extending from the eve of Friday to the +morn of Saturday. The point will be more fully dealt with +when the cycle of Christian legends on this subject of a +respite comes under discussion. Meanwhile, the conclusion +to be drawn is, that the <i>Visio Pauli</i> reached Western Europe +through Moslem adaptations of the Greek Apocalypse. A +brief survey of these Islamic legends will complete the comparison.</p> + +<p>One, current in the ninth century, forms but a new +episode in the legend of Mahomet’s ascension.⁠<a id="FNanchor_446" href="#Footnote_446" class="fnanchor">[446]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Mahomet from heaven hears the cries of pain uttered by +the undutiful children in hell and, moved to pity, intercedes +with God on their behalf; but God refuses to grant his +request, unless the parents join him in his prayers. After +witnessing the torture of the children, Mahomet returns +weeping to the Throne of God and thrice repeats his entreaties, +only to meet with the same answer. The Prophet then +appeals in pleading tones to the parents, who are in heaven; +but they, remembering the ingratitude of their children, +are loth to act. However, in the end he succeeds in softening +their hearts and obtains permission to lead them to hell, +where at the sight of their tortured children they burst into +bitter tears. The sinners reply with cries for mercy, and +the entreaties of the parents, added to those of the Prophet, +finally obtain the pardon of the sinners.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A similar legend, telling of the delivery from hell of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>Moslem sufferers through the intercession of the Prophet, +is given in the <i>Tadhkira</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_447" href="#Footnote_447" class="fnanchor">[447]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>From the bottommost pit of hell the damned, with cries +of anguish, call on Mahomet to intercede on behalf of his +flock. At the same time they beg the Lord to forgive them +their sins, addressing Him in terms similar to those of the +<i>Miserere</i> of the Pauline vision, “Have mercy upon us, O +Lord!” God grants their pardon and sends Gabriel to +deliver the believers from hell.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III">III<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of Visions of Hell</span>—<i>continued</i></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_1">1. <i>Legend of Tundal.</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_448" href="#Footnote_448" class="fnanchor">[448]</a>—As the protagonist lived in 1149, +there is no doubt that this legend dates from the second +half of the twelfth century. The author of the Latin version, +an Irish monk, states that he composed it from a text written +in a barbarous tongue.⁠<a id="FNanchor_449" href="#Footnote_449" class="fnanchor">[449]</a> Was this an Arabic text? The +great number of Moslem features, several of them very +striking, would seem to suggest it.</p> + +<p>The legend tells of a journey, undertaken by the soul of +Tundal upon his apparent death, to the realms beyond the +grave, and describes many scenes the Moslem origin of which +has already been sufficiently proved—the tortures by fire, +by intense cold, and by the fiends wielding red hot prongs; +the river of sulphur, the narrow bridge that only the righteous +succeed in crossing, and many others.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_2">2. But there are other more interesting visions. Thus, +at the further side of the bridge of hell is a monster, named +Acheronte, which, with its mighty jaws opening wide, is +seen devouring two sinners. The literary device whereby +hell is represented as a monstrous fiend rather than as a +place of torture is to be found in Islam many centuries +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>earlier. The Moslem <i>hadiths</i> on the final judgment describe +a monster, called Gehenna, which, according to some versions, +with its many mouths devours three sinners.⁠<a id="FNanchor_450" href="#Footnote_450" class="fnanchor">[450]</a></p> + +<p>Tundal further tells of a place of expiation for souls that, +being neither good nor wicked, are spared the torments of +hell, but are not worthy of association with the saints. The +prototype of this region has been shown to be the Moslem +Aaraf.⁠<a id="FNanchor_451" href="#Footnote_451" class="fnanchor">[451]</a></p> + +<p>In another part of hell Tundal sees demons, who with +heavy hammers deal furious blows at sinners stretched upon +anvils. This vision is evidently an adaptation of the Moslem +scene of the <i>punishment in the grave</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_452" href="#Footnote_452" class="fnanchor">[452]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Two demons, black and of sinister and repulsive mien, +appear before the sinner as soon as he is buried. So misshapen +are they that they cannot be likened to angels, men, +or animals. In his hands each bears, for the purpose of +Divine vengeance, an iron hammer, so heavy that not all +the men in the world could lift it. In thunderous tones they +begin to question the soul on the sincerity of his belief in +God and the Prophet. Paralysed with terror at the sight of +the monsters, whose eyes flash like lightning in the darkness +of the grave, the sinner is too conscious of his guilt to give +a ready reply to the fiends, who at each faltering answer +bring down their hammers with terrific force seven times +alternately upon the wretch’s head.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The picture is so vivid that the story must undoubtedly +have created a profound impression; and, indeed, it is to +be found in an adapted form in many a mediæval legend. +Thus, the tale of Hugh, Margrave of Brandenburg, tells +how, when hunting in a wood, he came across some men +of a black colour and deformed shape torturing souls by +beating them with hammers as they lay stretched on anvils.⁠<a id="FNanchor_453" href="#Footnote_453" class="fnanchor">[453]</a> +This picture agrees even more literally with the Islamic +model than does the scene in the legend of Tundal.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_3">3. There remain three episodes that unquestionably are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>copies of Islamic descriptions. These are the very three +scenes that prompted D’Ancona to remark,⁠<a id="FNanchor_454" href="#Footnote_454" class="fnanchor">[454]</a> “Never perhaps +has man shown such wealth of imagination in the +invention of infernal tortures as did the anonymous monk +that composed this legend”—a remark that the eminent +critic would surely not have hazarded, had he known of the +existence of the Moslem originals. The first of these scenes +depicts Lucifer.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Surrounded by demons and chained to a red hot grill, +he roars in agony; and, as if seeking vengeance for his own +suffering, with his hundred hands he clutches at innumerable +souls and crushes them between his fingers even as a +man would crush a bunch of grapes. The mangled bodies +are then to be seen floating in the fiery vapour of his breath, +alternately attracted and repelled by the respiration of the +monster.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The posture of Lucifer, chained down amidst his fiendish +host, is a Moslem feature that has already been referred to.⁠<a id="FNanchor_455" href="#Footnote_455" class="fnanchor">[455]</a></p> + +<p>The idea of the alternate attraction and repulsion of the +bodies by his breathing appears to be taken from the scene +of the <i>Isra</i> in which the bodies of the adulterers are shown +floating up and down in the heat of the furnace. The most +striking feature—that of Lucifer crushing the bodies of the +sinners in his numerous hands—is modelled upon a <i>hadith</i> +of the eighth century, which reads as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“God has created an angel with as many fingers as there +are sinners condemned to fire, and each sinner is tortured by +a finger. I swear by Allah that the firmament would melt +with heat, were that angel to place but one of his fingers +upon it!”⁠<a id="FNanchor_456" href="#Footnote_456" class="fnanchor">[456]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_4">4. The second episode is prefaced by D’Ancona with the +following remark:</p> + +<p>“The sole aim of the legend of Tundal is to provoke terror. +With a refinement of torture truly mediæval, the souls of +the damned are first taken to see the delights of the life led +by the elect, in order that their suffering be all the greater: +<i>ut magis doleant</i>.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_457" href="#Footnote_457" class="fnanchor">[457]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span></p> + +<p>This pathetic scene is frequently to be found in the +religious works of Islam. According to the Moslem creed, +identical on this point with the Christian, the moral suffering +of sinners is intended to be far greater than their physical +suffering. Algazel develops this theme in his <i>Ihia</i>. +The grief of the sinners over their exclusion from heaven, +he avers, would not be so intense were it not that God, +to add to their punishment, has ordered them to be shown +paradise from outside.⁠<a id="FNanchor_458" href="#Footnote_458" class="fnanchor">[458]</a> In proof, he quotes the following +<i>hadith</i>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>On the day of judgment God will ordain that some of the +damned be led to heaven; but, when they are near enough to +inhale the delicious perfumes with which the air is laden, +and behold the castles of paradise and the delights awaiting +the blessed, a Voice will of a sudden be heard saying: +“Withdraw them, for they are unworthy of a place in +heaven”; and as they are turned away, they will be filled +with a sorrow such as no one yet has felt or ever will feel. +Then will they cry out, “Oh, Lord! Hadst Thou but cast +us into hell without showing us the rewards prepared for +Thy chosen, it had been easier for us to bear our torment”; +and God will answer, “To-day shall ye taste the pain of +torture, ye to whom I have denied the prize.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_459" href="#Footnote_459" class="fnanchor">[459]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>This scene, in which cruelty is blended with sarcasm, shows +no trace of the sweet message of pity preached by the +Gospel, but rather breathes the spirit of vengeance that is +characteristic of the Old Testament and is transparent in +more than one passage of the Koran. Some of these passages +are glossed in the <i>Tadhkira</i> with other <i>hadiths</i>, attributed to +the converted Jew, Kaab al-Akhbar, describing various +practical jokes played upon the sinners. Thus, the gates of +hell are opened, as if to let the sufferers escape, to be quickly +closed again whenever an attempt is made to pass through +them; or, a pretence is made of allowing the sinners to +enter paradise, the gate of which is then slammed in their +faces. Under the heading of “Tricks played upon the +Damned,” these cruel hoaxes prove that the comic and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>grotesque element found in many of the pre-Dante Christian +legends was not wanting in the tales of Islam.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_5">5. The last episode in the legend of Tundal that may be +said to be of Moslem origin forms a striking picture:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The protagonist confesses to having stolen a cow from a +fellow-priest and, as a punishment, his angel-guide obliges +him to cross the narrow bridge leading to paradise at the +same time warding off the attacks of that very cow.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>D’Ancona points out a similar scene in the vision of the +usurer Gottschalk, in which the Burgrave of Reiningen is +condemned to be tossed and trampled upon by a mad cow, +of which he had once robbed a poor widow.⁠<a id="FNanchor_460" href="#Footnote_460" class="fnanchor">[460]</a></p> + +<p>The episode appears to be a copy of an early Moslem +<i>hadith</i>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“I swear by Him in whose hands lies my soul that every +owner of a sheep, a cow, or a camel, who has omitted to pay +the ritual tax, will be confronted on the day of judgment +by the animal in the fiercest form it ever assumed on earth; +it will gore him with horns of fire and trample upon him +until his ribs are broken and his belly split in twain; in +vain will he cry out for help, for in the form of a wolf or a +lion the beast will continue to torment him in hell.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_461" href="#Footnote_461" class="fnanchor">[461]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_6">6. <i>Legend of Purgatory of St. Patrick.</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_462" href="#Footnote_462" class="fnanchor">[462]</a>—This legend appeared +in Ireland in the second half of the twelfth century +and rapidly became popular throughout Christendom. +Calderon immortalised it in his drama of the same title, and +there is hardly a nation in Western Europe that has not +drawn upon the legend for some literary purpose or other. +The theme is a journey to the realms of the after-world by +one Owen, an Irish knight, who is bold enough to penetrate +into the cave by which, according to tradition, St. Patrick +communicated with the other world. As D’Ancona observes, +the legend is not remarkable for originality. “The visionaries,” +he says, “begin to copy one another, and this is but +natural, seeing that their imaginative powers have become +exhausted.” The remark is very true and applies exactly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>to the present thesis; for most, if not all, of the picturesque +features of this legend existed in Moslem eschatology.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_III_section_7">7. Thus, Moslem models exist for the following scenes, +common to so many of the legends: the torture by serpents; +the submersion of sinners in a river of molten metal, on the +banks of which stand demons ready to harpoon them; the +passage of the narrow and slippery bridge; the monster whose +breath alternately attracts and repels the bodies of the +sinners; the wheel of fire; the pit of sulphur; the sinners +hanging by their eyelids or nostrils, or head downwards, +over flames of sulphur.</p> + +<p>Other features of greater interest also appear to be of +Islamic origin. Thus, the sinners lying crucified to the +ground existed, as was shown in connection with Dante’s +picture of Caiaphas, in the Moslem hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_463" href="#Footnote_463" class="fnanchor">[463]</a></p> + +<p>The blast of bitterly cold wind to which other sinners are +exposed, is but the <i>zamharir</i> of Islam in one of its accepted +meanings.⁠<a id="FNanchor_464" href="#Footnote_464" class="fnanchor">[464]</a></p> + +<p>Finally, the burning sepulchres in which some of the +sinners lie buried, and the garments of fire covering others, +have been shown to be of Islamic origin.⁠<a id="FNanchor_465" href="#Footnote_465" class="fnanchor">[465]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IV">IV<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of Visions of Hell (Conclusion)</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">1. <i>Vision of Alberic.</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_466" href="#Footnote_466" class="fnanchor">[466]</a>—This legend is here included, not +because the scenes depicted in it are in any way original, +but because ever since the first publication of the Latin +text in 1824 by the Abbé Cancellieri the Dantists have considered +it to be one of the most important precursors of the +Divine Comedy. Like the vision of St. Patrick, it dates from +the thirteenth century, but was written in Italy, at the +monastery of Montecasino. The monk, Alberic, is the protagonist +and narrator of this journey to the realms of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>after-life, which he is represented as having made in his +childhood while unconscious during an illness.</p> + +<p>The main episodes of the vision are those that have +repeatedly been shown to be of Moslem origin. Thus, the +lascivious are punished by being submerged in ice; apostates +are shown devoured by serpents; murderers lie in the +traditional lake of boiling blood; wicked mothers hang by +their breasts from hooks, while adulteresses hang over fires. +Then there is the scene of the monster whose breathing +attracts and repels bodies, and that of Lucifer bound with +heavy chains in a deep pit in the centre of hell. Finally, we +have the most common scene of all, the narrow bridge that +leads to heaven.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_2">2. <i>The Song of the Sun in the Edda.</i>—Among the forerunners +of the Divine Comedy, Ozanam includes the famous +Solar Liod contained in the Edda Saemundar.⁠<a id="FNanchor_467" href="#Footnote_467" class="fnanchor">[467]</a> Remote as +the origin of these tales may be, the Solar Liod itself does not +seem to be much older than the eleventh century. Ozanam +himself observes that the poet depicts the realms of the +after-life in a manner differing from the pagan traditions +of his country. Moreover, the picture contains three distinctly +Moslem features. In the first place, the lower world +is divided into seven regions, as in the Islamic tales. Secondly, +the souls in hell are represented as birds whose plumage is +blackened by smoke. Now, just as in the discussion of the +legend of St. Macarius it was shown to be a common feature +of Moslem tales to depict the souls of the righteous as incarnate +in birds of white or green plumage, so in a later chapter +it will be shown that the incarnation of the souls of the +wicked in birds of black plumage is an idea also prevalent +in Islam. Lastly, the author of the Solar Liod depicts +thieves as moving in groups in hell, laden with burdens of +lead. Surely this scene also is derived from a Moslem <i>hadith</i>, +which says: “On the day of judgment the rich man who +failed to serve God shall be obliged to carry his riches on his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>back and at the passage of the bridge he shall stagger under +his burden.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_468" href="#Footnote_468" class="fnanchor">[468]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">3. <i>Vision of Turcill.</i>—This thirteenth-century vision contains, +in addition to many Moslem features common to other +legends, the scene in which a lawyer is forced to swallow his +illicit gains.⁠<a id="FNanchor_469" href="#Footnote_469" class="fnanchor">[469]</a> The ninth century legend of Wettin showed the +powerful of this world similarly expiating their crimes of +rapine.⁠<a id="FNanchor_470" href="#Footnote_470" class="fnanchor">[470]</a> But this striking punishment was found in the +<i>Isra</i>, where at one stage the faithless guardians and usurers +are tortured by having stones of fire and darts of iron, +symbolic of their ill-gotten gains, thrust down their throats, +and in another scene lie helpless on the ground, their bellies +swollen with the proceeds of their usury. The great age of +the <i>hadiths</i> relating this torture is confirmed by Tabari in +his ninth century commentary.⁠<a id="FNanchor_471" href="#Footnote_471" class="fnanchor">[471]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">4. <i>Vision of the Abbot Joachim.</i>—This twelfth-century +vision contains the scene, so common in Moslem <i>hadiths</i>, of +the narrow and slippery bridge leading across a river of +burning sulphur that runs through hell. The souls of the +righteous cross this bridge <i>with the swiftness of an eagle</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_472" href="#Footnote_472" class="fnanchor">[472]</a> +The same simile occurs in a <i>hadith</i> which reads: “Some will +cross the bridge with the speed of lightning, others like the +wind, <i>others again like birds</i>.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_473" href="#Footnote_473" class="fnanchor">[473]</a></p> + +<p>At the farther side of the bridge rises a wall, upon which +the garden of paradise is built. This picture appears to be +a copy of the Aaraf, which is represented in the Koran as a +garden and a wall rising between hell and paradise.⁠<a id="FNanchor_474" href="#Footnote_474" class="fnanchor">[474]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">5. <i>Vision of the Bard of Regio Emilia.</i>—This is an apocalyptic +treatise composed in the thirteenth century in verse +and in the vulgar dialect. Vossler states that it is difficult +to understand how a nameless travelling minstrel could by +his own unaided efforts have conceived so clear and comparatively +logical a system of the after-world; and this +very symmetry leads the critic to attach prime importance +to this vision as being a prototype of Dante’s conception.⁠<a id="FNanchor_475" href="#Footnote_475" class="fnanchor">[475]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>The troubadour imagines hell as divided into eight regions, +each of which has a name and distinctive features of its own.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The first, called Ago, is full of fire; the second, Tartaro, +is the region of discord; the third, Averno, of cruelty; the +fourth, Asiro, of evil memories; the fifth, Gena, is a region +of sulphur; the sixth, Grabasso, is a place of trial; the +seventh, Baratro, is characterised by depth; and the eighth, +Abisso, is full of fiery furnaces and boiling pitch. The total +circumference exceeds a thousand miles. Access is afforded +by means of ten gates lying a hundred miles apart; each +gate has its special features and is reserved for one particular +class of sinners. Mountains, rivers and lakes of fire are seen +at the entrance. The first gate is called the Gate of Tears, +and the others are the Gates of Pain, Terror, Chains, Sulphur, +Serpents, Thirst, and so forth.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">6. The comparison made in a former chapter of the symmetric +plan of Dante’s hell with its Moslem prototypes +shows how little originality exists in the conception of the +Italian troubadour.⁠<a id="FNanchor_476" href="#Footnote_476" class="fnanchor">[476]</a> The two meanings of <i>storey</i> and <i>gate</i>, +given in Moslem exegesis to the Koranic word <i>bab</i>, he placidly +accepts and simply adapts his facts to the double interpretation +by representing hell as having ten gates besides eight +regions or storeys. The same solution finally predominated +among the Sufis, for the Murcian Ibn Arabi imagined hell as +having seven strata and seven gates. The dimensions of +hell are stated with similar precision, though with greater +hyperbole, in the <i>hadiths</i>, which fix the distance between the +gates as equal to what a man might cover on foot in seventy +years.⁠<a id="FNanchor_477" href="#Footnote_477" class="fnanchor">[477]</a> Again, according to some <i>hadiths</i>, there are mountains +and rivers of fire at the entrance to hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_478" href="#Footnote_478" class="fnanchor">[478]</a> Lastly, it +has repeatedly been shown that each stage of the Moslem +hell had a name and special features of its own and was +reserved for one category of sinners. Indeed, to judge by +the names, the bard of Regio Emilia may well be suspected +of having availed himself of the <i>hadith</i> of Ibn Jurayj.⁠<a id="FNanchor_479" href="#Footnote_479" class="fnanchor">[479]</a> For, +having exhausted his stock of classical and Biblical names +with Tartaro, Averno, Baratro and Abisso, he seems to have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>resorted to transcribing roughly the Arabic terms. Thus, +while Ago appears to be derived from Haguia, Asiro is +clearly copied from Asair, and Gena from Gehenam.⁠<a id="FNanchor_480" href="#Footnote_480" class="fnanchor">[480]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_V">V<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends on the Weighing of Souls</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_1">1. Throughout a whole cycle of legends, which D’Ancona +groups with the political legends, there recurs a scene the +immediate, though not remote, origin of which is Islamic. +The protagonists of these legends are the Emperors Charlemagne +and Henry III., and King Rudolph of Burgundy.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>These princes are brought up before the Divine tribunal, +and their sins are cast on to the balance by demons; but, +just as the scale is about to sink under the heavy weight, a +saint, such as St. James, St. Denis or St. Lawrence, throws +on the other scale all the good deeds of the prince, the +sanctuaries he erected, the ornaments he presented to +churches and abbeys, and so on. These outweigh the sins, +and the soul is saved from hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_481" href="#Footnote_481" class="fnanchor">[481]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_2">2. That the religious myth of the weighing of the souls on +scales at Divine judgment had its early origin in Egypt +is well known.⁠<a id="FNanchor_482" href="#Footnote_482" class="fnanchor">[482]</a> The myth reappeared in the Persian eschatology +of the Avesta,⁠<a id="FNanchor_483" href="#Footnote_483" class="fnanchor">[483]</a> and it had penetrated into Arabia by +Mahomet’s time, as is shown, among other passages, by +Ch. XXI, 48, of the Koran: “We shall set up true scales +on the Day of Judgment. No soul shall be unjustly dealt with, +though the works to be judged should weigh no more than +a grain of mustard seed.” The traditionists, needless to +say, soon seized upon the theme and adorned it with realistic +scenes, some of which are identical with those of the +Christian legends.⁠<a id="FNanchor_484" href="#Footnote_484" class="fnanchor">[484]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A Moslem is brought up before the Divine tribunal on the +Day of Judgment. His sins, recorded in ninety-nine books, +are read out to him and, after he has confessed, the books +are placed on one of the scales, which naturally falls; whereupon +God Himself places on the other scale a scrap of paper +containing the profession of faith made by the sinner in his +lifetime. The scales are turned, and the Moslem is saved. +According to other legends Mahomet intervenes by placing +on the right hand scale a scrap of paper representing the +prayers addressed to him by the sinner. Often the realistic +effect is enhanced by the substitution of objects for the +pieces of paper. Thus, a small bag containing a handful of +earth, which the sinner once threw on the grave of a fellow-man +that his soul might have peace, alone suffices to outweigh +a heap of sins. In many legends the sinners are shown +co-operating towards their mutual salvation: Those rich +in virtue assist their needy brethren by lending them their +surplus merits; and often the anxious sinner is to be seen +threading his way through the groups of souls in search of +a friend who can oblige him with the one virtue he may lack, +by the weight of which he hopes to turn the balance in his +favour.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>As it is inconceivable that in that obscure age Western +Christianity should have had direct knowledge of the Egypto-Persian +myth, the immediate origin of the Christian legends +must be sought for in the Islamic tales. This hypothesis +is confirmed by the fact that in both the <i>hadiths</i> and the +Christian legends the same <i>Deus ex machina</i> effect is introduced.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_3">3. The same explanation may throw light upon a point +in mediæval art that has hitherto remained obscure. Mâle, +in his work “L’art religieux du XIIIme siècle en France,” +calls attention to the fact that in the porches of the Gothic +cathedrals of France St. Michael is represented with scales +in his hand weighing the good and evil deeds of men.⁠<a id="FNanchor_485" href="#Footnote_485" class="fnanchor">[485]</a> +Apart from a few vague phrases of St. Augustine and St. +John Chrysostom to the effect that the deeds of men will +be weighed “as in a balance,” Mâle finds no authority for +this scene and concludes, that the image must have been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>formed in the popular mind by spontaneous evolution from +those allusions of the Saints, and may thus have reached the +artists.</p> + +<p>A more specific explanation is provided by the effect of +Moslem influence in producing legends in Christianity +similar to those existing in Islam. In the Bible and in +Christian doctrine generally, St. Michael is the <i>princeps +militiae coelestis</i>, and as such he is represented, clad in +armour, in early mediæval monuments, notably in an eighth-century +window of the Cathedral of Châlons-sur-Marne. +In paintings and bas-reliefs of a later date, however, as in +Van der Weyden’s Day of Judgment in the Hospital of +Beaune, and in that of Memling at Dantzig, he is always +shown with the scales in his hand. The inference to be drawn +is that the myth of the scales was introduced in the ninth +or tenth century and, in the course of adaptation, the Archangel +Gabriel (who in Islam was entrusted with the weighing) +was replaced by the Archangel St. Michael, one of whose +functions indeed, according to the doctrine of the Church +is to lead the souls of the deceased to the Divine throne +and introduce them into heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_486" href="#Footnote_486" class="fnanchor">[486]</a> This adaptation was not +only unauthorised by the Catholic Church, but condemned +by learned religious critics. Thus, the seventeenth century +Spanish friar, Interián de Ayala, in his work “El pintor +cristiano y erudito,” says: “It will appear even stranger +to see the Archangel Michael himself depicted with scales +in his hand; the origin of this, I must frankly confess, is +unknown to me.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_487" href="#Footnote_487" class="fnanchor">[487]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_V_section_4">4. Nor is this instance of the influence of Islam upon +mediæval art by any means exceptional. Both Mâle and +Friar Interián point out other scenes of the day of judgment +as equally unauthorised by Catholic tradition,⁠<a id="FNanchor_488" href="#Footnote_488" class="fnanchor">[488]</a> and +notably the scene of intercession. In the sculpture of several +French cathedrals of the thirteenth century; in the fourteenth +century Day of Judgment at the Campo Santo of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span>Pisa; in that of Fra Angelico at the Academy of Florence +belonging to the fifteenth century—in all the Virgin Mary +is shown, either alone or accompanied by St. John the +Baptist, kneeling at the throne of Christ, the Judge, and +interceding for the sinners. The scene is, of course, quite +contrary to the spirit of that day of wrath, when there shall +be neither intercession nor pardon. With the Moslem creed, +however, it is in perfect agreement. Algazel—to quote the +highest authority only—states that, after the Moslem +sinners have been sentenced, God in His mercy will hearken +to the pleading of the prophets and saints that stand highest +in His favour.⁠<a id="FNanchor_489" href="#Footnote_489" class="fnanchor">[489]</a> As evidence he adduces many passages in +the Koran and <i>hadiths</i> of the Prophet, in which the scene +is described in picturesque detail.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Mahomet, the leader of the prophets, draws nigh to the +seat of the Divine Judge casting, as he passes, a look of +compassion on the unhappy throng of Moslem sinners. In +vain have the other prophets interceded for them; their +sole hope now lies with him. Moved to pity by their entreaties +and at the special request of Jesus, he prostrates himself +before the throne of God and obtains the desired pardon.⁠<a id="FNanchor_490" href="#Footnote_490" class="fnanchor">[490]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Lastly, the scenes in mediæval and renaissance pictures +of the day of judgment in which the sinners are shown +coming to life again naked, are denounced by Friar Interián +as shameless and unchristian.⁠<a id="FNanchor_491" href="#Footnote_491" class="fnanchor">[491]</a> Those scenes, though indeed +lacking all authority of the Church, are strictly in accordance +with Moslem doctrine, which categorically states that on +the day of judgment all men will meet before the throne +of God naked and uncircumcised.⁠<a id="FNanchor_492" href="#Footnote_492" class="fnanchor">[492]</a> In fact, their very +nakedness is a cause of physical suffering; for, as the sun +will on that day draw nearer to the earth, they will sweat +exceedingly and suffer greatly from thirst. This detail was +even objected to by the early Moslems, and Aysha, the +Prophet’s wife, pointed out how unseemly was such promiscuous +nakedness. But Mahomet replied:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Oh, Aysha! On that dread day none will bethink himself +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>of casting eyes upon his neighbour, for each one will be +intent upon his own thoughts.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_493" href="#Footnote_493" class="fnanchor">[493]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Nevertheless, <i>hadiths</i> of a later date sought to lessen the +crudeness of the scene by reserving such nakedness to +infidels.⁠<a id="FNanchor_494" href="#Footnote_494" class="fnanchor">[494]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VI">VI<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of Paradise</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VI_section_1">1. D’Ancona paid due heed to the materialism shown in +the conceptions of paradise in almost all the Christian +legends precursory of the Divine Comedy, and concluded +that Dante, in tracing his spiritual and ethereal picture of +paradise, was uninfluenced by those legends. The contrast +between Dante and his Christian predecessors was referred +to in the discussion of the Paradiso,⁠<a id="FNanchor_495" href="#Footnote_495" class="fnanchor">[495]</a> when it was suggested +that the materialistic pictures of heaven appearing in the +mediæval Christian legends were themselves based on Moslem +models. Now is the occasion to prove that assertion.</p> + +<p>To begin with, these Christian legends bear a general +resemblance to the Moslem tales in that they often make +no distinction between the earthly and the heavenly paradise.⁠<a id="FNanchor_496" href="#Footnote_496" class="fnanchor">[496]</a> +This confusion, it will be remembered, is characteristic +of Islamic stories, and particularly of some versions of the +ascension of Mahomet. In these, a garden of bliss, watered +by clear streams, is the scene of the theological paradise, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span>which, although not specifically laid on earth, is not supposed +to be in the firmament of the heavens.⁠<a id="FNanchor_497" href="#Footnote_497" class="fnanchor">[497]</a></p> + +<p>This Moslem conception of paradise as a garden reappears +in some poetical legends of thirteenth-century Christian +Europe. For instance, in the poem “Le vergier du paradis,” +published by Jubinal,⁠<a id="FNanchor_498" href="#Footnote_498" class="fnanchor">[498]</a> paradise is represented as a garden +watered by limpid streams and shaded by trees; the air +is scented with rare perfumes and the sweet music of instruments +and the song of birds enchant the ear; within the +bowers of this garden are castles of marvellous beauty, +built of gold and precious stones. Were it not for some +exclusively Islamic features, the picture might indeed have +been evolved from the Celestial Jerusalem of Revelations.⁠<a id="FNanchor_499" href="#Footnote_499" class="fnanchor">[499]</a> +Some of these features are of interest.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VI_section_2">2. The protagonist of the legend of Turcill, in passing +through the garden of paradise, sees Adam seated at the foot +of a miraculous tree, close to the source of the four Biblical +rivers.⁠<a id="FNanchor_500" href="#Footnote_500" class="fnanchor">[500]</a> He observes that “Adam appeared to be smiling +with one eye, and weeping with the other; smiling at the +thought of those of his descendants who would find eternal +life, and weeping at the thought of those destined to eternal +damnation.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>This episode, for which Graf quotes no precedent, is +undeniably based upon a scene in the ascension of Mahomet⁠<a id="FNanchor_501" href="#Footnote_501" class="fnanchor">[501]</a>; +and the fact that the version in question is included in the +collection of Bukhari and Muslim is proof that it was current +in Islam before the ninth century.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VI_section_3">3. But, apart from mere episode, in many Christian +legends of paradise the general outline of the conception is +of Moslem origin. This conception is mostly modelled +upon one type; paradise is conceived as the court of a +feudal lord who receives his retainers at a brilliant gathering +enlivened by music and dancing. The <i>Cour du paradis</i>, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>the work of an anonymous Provençal troubadour of the +thirteenth century, describes the reception as follows⁠<a id="FNanchor_502" href="#Footnote_502" class="fnanchor">[502]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>On All Saints Day the Lord holds a festive meeting at +His court. St. Simon and St. Jude are sent to each dwelling +in paradise to invite the blessed to the party; they call +in turn at the mansions of the angels, the patriarchs, the +apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, the innocent children, +the virgins and the widows. In these groups the blessed +flock to the reception, where they sing songs of heavenly +love and tread the same measures as are danced on earth; +Mary and Mary Magdalene lead the singing and dancing.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The <i>Visione dei gaudii de’ santi</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_503" href="#Footnote_503" class="fnanchor">[503]</a> a legend of Dante’s time, +depicts the blessed as barons and paradise as a feudal castle +with battlements and towers of crystal and precious stones. +This picture is reproduced in the poem of the minstrel +Giacomino of Verona, in which the saints are represented +as knights militant under the banner of the Virgin, who in +reward crowns them with wreaths of flowers of a perfume +sweeter than musk or amber, and bestows upon them +precious gifts of harness set with gold and emeralds and of +chargers swifter than the hart or the wind chasing over the +sea.⁠<a id="FNanchor_504" href="#Footnote_504" class="fnanchor">[504]</a></p> + +<p>In other legends, the festival in paradise is conceived on +less worldly lines, more as a religious ceremony; in place +of the cavalcade of knights is a holy procession led by the +Lord, and then follows a meeting, at which St. Stephen +recites the Epistle, and St. John the Gospel.⁠<a id="FNanchor_505" href="#Footnote_505" class="fnanchor">[505]</a></p> + +<p>It is significant that long before the tenth century there +existed in Islam a whole cycle of <i>hadiths</i> the very title of +which—“The Court of Holiness”—suggests a resemblance +to the Christian legends. As a matter of fact, the same +general ideas underlie both. Paradise is conceived either as +a courtly gathering where there is music and dancing, or, +again, as a religious festival. The likeness extends down to +actual detail, which would seem to be undeniable evidence of +imitation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span></p> + +<p>This cycle of <i>hadiths</i> comprises, not only those legends +upon which the Beatific Vision of the mystics was founded, +but others created by the traditionists to satisfy the ruder +tastes of the early Moslems, whose only interests ever lay +in the direction of the miraculous.⁠<a id="FNanchor_506" href="#Footnote_506" class="fnanchor">[506]</a></p> + +<p>The <i>hadiths</i> of the “Court of Holiness” begin, like the +Christian legends, with the invitation of the blessed to the +reception at the heavenly court. The invitation is for Friday, +the festive day of Islam, on which the elect, in addition to +their continual bliss, are granted the special favour of gazing +upon the face of the Almighty. Thus the enjoyment of the +Beatific Vision is not constant, but weekly; and in the +“Cour du Paradis” the blessed only behold the Almighty +once a year. The point is important in that it is quite unauthorised +by Christian doctrine.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Early on Friday morn angel messengers call upon the +blessed in their mansions and deliver a sealed invitation to +each together with rich gifts of jewelry for his adornment. +The reception is held in two castles, built of pearls, that +stand in the gardens of paradise—the one destined for the +men, under Mahomet, and the other for the women, under +Fatima. Reclining on soft cushions, the guests listen to +houris chanting hymns of praise to the Lord to the accompaniment +of countless flutes that hang from the trees and +are sounded by the softest of breezes. Enraptured by the +music, the blessed feel an impulse to dance; so, in order +that they may be spared the physical exertion, they are +provided with instruments fitted with wings, on which they +sway hither and thither to the rhythm of the music. After +the dancing follows the reception by God, Who speaks to +each guest in turn, whereupon they retire each to his dwelling.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The analogy of this version to the “Cour du Paradis” +is obvious. In other versions, the reception is followed by +a religious ceremony.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The blessed beg to be allowed the pleasure of holy prayer, +which was their delight on earth. God bids David ascend the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span>pulpit, and in an inspired voice he chants one of his +Psalms. Thereupon Mahomet in even more impressive +tones recites a chapter from the Koran. Finally God shows +Himself to each of the guests, who then retire to their +mansions.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A third version of the <i>hadith</i> appears to be the prototype +of the Christian legends that represent the heavenly +festivity as a brilliant cavalcade. After the prologue of the +invitation common to all the readings, the story proceeds +as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>After all the guests have mounted, the men on horses of +the purest breed and the women on she-camels, they are led +by Mahomet and Fatima to the court. Mahomet, mounted +on Boraq, hoists the Green Standard of the Glory of God, +which is borne by angels on a staff of light above his head. +The prophets Adam, Moses, and Jesus join the procession, +as it passes their castles. In other versions, Mahomet is +surrounded by Abu Bakr, Adam, and Omar and preceded +by the first muezzin Bilal, who rides at the head of the +heavenly muezzins. The cavalcade follows the flowery +banks of the river Kauthar till it reaches the golden walls +of the castle of the King of Heaven. Gabriel climbs to the +battlements and summons all the blessed to join in the +festivity. They arrive in groups led by their respective +prophets and take up their place behind Mahomet and his +flock. Inside the castle walls the sward is perfumed and +shaded by trees, whose branches are laden with fruit +and peopled with countless birds of song. Here the +reception is held in a manner similar to that already +described.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The resemblance between this version and the Christian +legends of the cavalcade of knights extends even to descriptive +detail. Mary presents her knights with coursers such +as never were seen on earth, red in colour, and swifter than +the hart or the wind sweeping over the sea; their trappings +are of gold resplendent with emeralds. The terms of the +Moslem legend are almost identical:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>God saith to His angels, “Give My elect steeds of the +purest breed, yet such as they have never ridden.” And the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>angels proffered them coursers of a ruby red, the trappings +of which are set with emeralds; with their wings of gold +and hoofs of silver, they can outrun the swiftest race-horse +and fly faster than lightning....⁠<a id="FNanchor_507" href="#Footnote_507" class="fnanchor">[507]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VII">VII<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of Sea Voyages</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_1">1. Through the Christian literature of the Middle Ages +from the eleventh century onwards runs a rich vein of legend, +which Dante students have explored in search of a possible +clue to the genesis of the Divine Comedy. The theme, it +may be said, is also a visit to places, which, being inaccessible +to the ordinary mortal, may readily be identifiable with the +regions beyond the grave. These legends, having three main +characteristics in common, may be grouped in one cycle. +They are tales of wonderful voyages to fantastic islands; +the protagonists are either adventurers, or saints, or conquerors, +who are invariably more mythical than historical; +and the aim of these is generally a religious one—to spread +the Gospel, to do penance, to find the isle of earthly paradise +or the fountain of life, or to seek the immortal prophets, +Enoch and Elijah.⁠<a id="FNanchor_508" href="#Footnote_508" class="fnanchor">[508]</a></p> + +<p>These legends may be roughly subdivided into three +groups corresponding to the natures of the protagonist. +Tales of mere adventure are the voyages of Harold of Norway +and Gorm of Denmark; the Celtic voyages of Maldwin, +of the sons of Conall Dearg Ua-Corra, and of Snedhgus and +MacRiaghla. Of the adventurous pilgrimages by sea the +most celebrated is the voyage of St. Brandan, a veritable +monastic odyssey, imitations of which are the stories of the +voyages of St. Barintus, St. Mernoc, St. Malo, St. Amarus, +and the Armorican monks. Voyages of conquest are the +parallels to the voyage of Alexander the Great, such as the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span>legends of Hugh of Bordeaux, Baldwin of Seeburg, Ugger +the Dane, Hugh of Auvergne, and Guerin the Mean.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_2">2. By the tenth century, at the very latest—the epoch +of flourishing trade in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean—Islam +had produced and given widespread popularity to +a whole cycle of similar legends; and the hypothesis that +their influence was responsible for the genesis of the Christian +legends is strengthened by the fact that they show the +same three characteristics mentioned above. They also are +stories of wondrous adventure in fabulous islands. The +protagonists are seldom historical persons and, like the +heroes of the Christian legends, are either adventurers or +conquerors, religious devotees or pseudo-prophets. Thirdly, +the aim of most of these voyages is religious. The adventurers +set out to seek Mahomet or spread the gospel of +Islam; to visit hell and the paradise of saints and martyrs; +or to find the abode either of the prophets Enoch and Elijah +or of the fabulous pseudo-prophet Khidr, who is the protagonist +of some of the legends.</p> + +<p>Like their Christian counterparts, these Moslem legends +may be grouped, in accordance with the nature of the protagonist +in each, under three headings. The voyages of +Sindbad the Sailor, of Hassan of Basra, of Azim, of Ganisa, +and of the Prince of Karizme, are purely voyages of adventure. +The heroes of the religious voyages are prophets or +ascetics, who are either wholly mythical or are historical +personages clothed in mythical garb, such as Khidr, Moses, +Joseph, Jonah, and Boluqiya. To this group also belong the +tales of the birth of Mahomet, the tales of Abd al-Mutallib the +Wise, Yarab the Judge, Tamim Dari the Soldier, Abu Talib +the Lawyer, Zesbet, Abu al-Fawaris, and Sayf al-Muluk. +The third group comprises the expeditions that are partly +warlike and partly religious; typical of these is the Koranic +legend of Dulcarnain, a mythical figure that in Moslem +legend is strangely interwoven with the figure of Alexander +the Great as depicted by the pseudo-Callisthenes.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_3">3. This similarity in outline shown by the two legendary +cycles is in itself significant of Moslem influence. But there +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>is further evidence. Victor Chauvin, in his monumental +work on the bibliography of Moslem fiction, has traced a +number of episodes and descriptive features from the Moslem +to Christian tales.⁠<a id="FNanchor_509" href="#Footnote_509" class="fnanchor">[509]</a> Thus, the legends of Herzog Ernst, +of Heinrich der Loewe, of Reinfried of Brunswick, of Hugh +of Bordeaux, and of Guerin the Mean, would all appear to +be derived from the Arabic story of the Prince of Karizme. +Hence Chauvin’s conclusion that “the direct or indirect +influence of Oriental tales of marvellous voyages is to be +seen in several works of mediæval fiction.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_510" href="#Footnote_510" class="fnanchor">[510]</a> In addition, +there is the testimony of the Dutchman, De Goeje, the +eminent Arabic scholar, whose inquiry into the close relationship +between the “Voyage of St. Brandan,” the most +typical of Irish tales, and the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, +has won at least the partial adhesion of so great an authority +on Romance philology as Graf.⁠<a id="FNanchor_511" href="#Footnote_511" class="fnanchor">[511]</a> Thus, the problem may be +regarded as practically solved, and there only remains to +add a few data corroborative of De Goeje, and to point out +the hitherto unsuspected Arabic origin of some other +Christian legends.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_4">4. A typical instance of imitation from a Moslem source +is provided by the “Voyage of St. Brandan.” De Goeje +attributes its origin to the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor +and a few other tales of adventurous voyages that are +briefly recorded by Al-Idrisi. Even more likely sources, +however, would appear to have been the tales of Boluqiya +and of Dulcarnain, which, having been handed down by +Thaalabi, must have been known before the eleventh +century. Other Islamic tales of remote date also come into +consideration.</p> + +<p>St. Brandan chances upon an uninhabited castle on an +island, and in the castle a table laden with the richest food, +of which he and his followers eat their fill.⁠<a id="FNanchor_512" href="#Footnote_512" class="fnanchor">[512]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Boluqiya, on arriving at an island, likewise finds beneath +a tree a table set with food of different kinds. A bird greets +him from the branches of the tree and invites him to partake +of the food, which has been prepared by the order of God +for all His servants who come on foreign pilgrimage; and +Boluqiya eats his fill.⁠<a id="FNanchor_513" href="#Footnote_513" class="fnanchor">[513]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>On another island, visited by St. Brandan and his monks, +grow trees, from which they cut wood and make a fire to +cook their food. But what appeared to them an island was, +in fact, an enormous whale, which, upon feeling the heat +of the fire upon its back, begins to move and the monks +throw themselves into the sea and swim to safety.</p> + +<p>This episode, as has been pointed out by De Goeje, and +before De Goeje by Reinaud and D’Avezac, is identical +with that of the island-whale which Sindbad and his companions +come across on the first of their voyages. This +fact, however, does not dispose of the difficulty; for the +legend of St. Brandan, though none of its extant versions +dates back further than the eleventh century, is by some +supposed to be derived from earlier Irish sources. Hence it +is that Schroeder even goes so far as to suppose that the +episode of the whale passed from Ireland to the East, and +Graf himself does not deny the possibility of this.⁠<a id="FNanchor_514" href="#Footnote_514" class="fnanchor">[514]</a> Weighty +arguments can, however, be adduced against this theory. +For one thing, the myth is contained in remote works of +Oriental literature,⁠<a id="FNanchor_515" href="#Footnote_515" class="fnanchor">[515]</a> for both the Talmud and the Avesta +mention a sea-serpent or tortoise on whose back the same +scene is enacted; so that, as any direct imitation of these +works by the author of the legend of St. Brandan is out of +the question, it is reasonable to suppose that Arabic literature +was the medium of communication. Is it possible that +the tale of Sindbad the Sailor formed this connecting link? +In default of any documentary evidence of the date of the +Arabic tale, De Goeje has recourse to an argument which, +though interesting, is not conclusive. “In the oldest forms +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>of the legend that I know,” he says, “the island-whale is +devoid of all vegetation. The tale of Sindbad and the +<i>Navigatio</i> (of St. Brandan) alone mention trees as growing +on the fish.” Accordingly, he argues, as it appeared in the +East in its simple as well as its more complex form, the tale +originated there rather than in Ireland, where it appeared +only in the latter form, and that at a comparatively late +time. De Goeje’s argument would have been strengthened +had he been able to produce an Arabic document giving +the myth in its more complex form before the tale of Sindbad +appeared. Such a document does exist in the <i>Book of +Animals</i>, written by Al Jahiz, of Basra, who lived from +781 to 869 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, or more than a century prior to the date +attributed to the tale of Sindbad,⁠<a id="FNanchor_516" href="#Footnote_516" class="fnanchor">[516]</a> and certainly long before +the composition of the Irish tales that have been regarded +as the sources of the “Voyage of St. Brandan.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_517" href="#Footnote_517" class="fnanchor">[517]</a> Al Jahiz, +speaking of monsters that are supposed to live in the sea, +mentions the sea-serpent or dragon, a certain crustacean +of the sea called “<i>sarathan</i>,” and an enormous fish, which +undoubtedly is the whale. He is inclined to doubt the +existence of the two first-mentioned animals.⁠<a id="FNanchor_518" href="#Footnote_518" class="fnanchor">[518]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“To tell the truth,” he says, “we have never heard of +these” (the sea-serpents) “except in tales of magic and in +sailors’ yarns. To believe in the existence of the sea dragon +is akin to believing in the existence of the phœnix. Never +did I hear the dragon spoken of, but those present called +the teller of the tale a liar.... As to the <i>sarathan</i>, I have +never yet met anybody who could assure me he had seen it +with his own eyes. Of course, if we were to believe all that +sailors tell ... for they claim that on occasions they have +landed on certain islands having woods and valleys and +fissures and have lit a great fire; and when the monster +felt the fire on its back, it began to glide away with them +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span>and all the plants growing on it, so that only such as managed +to flee were saved. This tale outdoes the most fabulous +and preposterous of stories.... However, as for the fish, +I state that it is as true as I am alive that I have with my +own eyes seen the fish of enormous size called <i>Albala</i> (the +whale) and it was killed with unerring aim.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Originating in Persia, the myth lived on in the neighbouring +countries and, seeing that Al Jahiz gives it as a common +theme of the sea legends of his time, must have passed into +Islam at least as early as the eighth century. Thus, it is +included in the popular tenth-century story of Sindbad the +Sailor, and is handed down in various Arabic works to the +twelfth century. Algazel refers to it in his <i>Ihia</i>, written at +the beginning of that century. Speaking of the immensity +of the ocean, he says, “in it live animals of so great a size +that when the back of one of them appears upon the water +it is taken for an island and sailors land upon it; but should +they perchance light a fire, the monster, feeling the heat, +moves and the sailors become aware that it is alive.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_519" href="#Footnote_519" class="fnanchor">[519]</a></p> + +<p>The further arguments adduced by Schroeder in support +of his theory, that the myth of the whale arose in the north, +are feeble. His assertion that the whale is only to be found +in the northern seas we have just seen categorically denied +by Al Jahiz. Surely the myth would be more likely to arise +among a people to whose seas whales would only come +from time to time rather than in the northern countries, +where their appearance was too common an occurrence even +to suggest such a fable.</p> + +<p>The next island to which St. Brandan comes is inhabited +by a multitude of birds which are gifted with speech and +conceal certain angelic spirits beneath their plumage.</p> + +<p>Boluqiya, it will be remembered, also meets a marvellous +bird, endowed with the gift of speech, which invites him to +partake of the food spread upon a table. It explains that +it was one of the birds of paradise sent by God to offer +Adam, after he was driven out of Eden, food from that very +table. Later it is this same bird, or another, also of white +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>plumage, that is charged with carrying Boluqiya on its wings +from the island to his home. It is seen, then, that the Moslem +legend also mentions birds of white plumage, that are gifted +with speech and act as angels or messengers of God. Moreover, +in the discussion of the legend of St. Macarius, Moslem +precedents were shown to exist for the idea of supposing +human souls incarnate in birds gifted with speech from the +time of death until the day of judgment. Some <i>hadiths</i> even +go further⁠<a id="FNanchor_520" href="#Footnote_520" class="fnanchor">[520]</a>; speaking precisely of white birds, endowed +with the gift of speech, they say that they incarnate, not +human souls, but angelic spirits, to wit, the angels that are +entrusted with the duty of judging the soul after death. +Again, several religious legends attest the Moslem belief +that flocks of white birds, beyond all doubt angels incarnate, +attended the burial of ascetics as if to receive their souls and +lead them up to heaven.⁠<a id="FNanchor_521" href="#Footnote_521" class="fnanchor">[521]</a> The strong hold this myth had +on the Moslem imagination explains why in all books on the +interpretation of dreams birds are said to signify angels.⁠<a id="FNanchor_522" href="#Footnote_522" class="fnanchor">[522]</a></p> + +<p>Proceeding on his voyage, St. Brandan lands on another +island, inhabited by holy monks whose only sustenance is +the bread that falls from heaven; these monks observe strict +silence and are subject neither to illness nor old age.</p> + +<p>This episode is simply an amalgamation of two scenes +appearing in some versions of the expeditions of Dulcarnain—the +scene of the island of the monks and the island of +the wise men.⁠<a id="FNanchor_523" href="#Footnote_523" class="fnanchor">[523]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>On the former island Dulcarnain finds ascetics so emaciated +by the austerity of their holy life that they appear as black +as coal; the fish and herbs provided for them by God are +their only nourishment, yet they assure Dulcarnain that they +feel no desire for the things of this world. On the other +island the wise men ask him whether with all his vaunted +power he can vouchsafe them eternal life and freedom from +sickness. To his answer that he cannot, they reply that +God has granted them this, and many other things besides.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Another island in the voyage of St. Brandan is described +as bearing enormous vines, from which hang bunches of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span>grapes of monstrous size; the seeds alone are as large as +apples and suffice to satisfy the hunger and slake the thirst +of the saint and all his companions.</p> + +<p>This incident is undoubtedly founded on the <i>hadiths</i> telling +of the gardens of paradise, in which grow vines of monstrous +size.⁠<a id="FNanchor_524" href="#Footnote_524" class="fnanchor">[524]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Does the vine grow in heaven?” asked one of the first +disciples of Mahomet, and upon the Prophet’s answering +that it did, the disciple inquired, “Of what size are the +fruit?” “As the distance covered by a raven in a month’s +uninterrupted flight,” was the answer. “And what is the +size of the seeds?” “Of that of a large jar.” “Then, +with a single seed I and all my family could eat their fill?” +“And thy whole tribe as well,” concluded Mahomet. Other +<i>hadiths</i> even state the exact length of each bunch of grapes +to be twelve cubits.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Continuing his pilgrimage, St. Brandan comes to an +enormous column of the clearest crystal; rising from the +bottom of the sea it appears to touch the sky, and around +it is what seems to be a great pavilion formed of a silvery +substance with large meshes.</p> + +<p>Two very similar descriptions are found in the Islamic +fables of Solomon, which depict a submarine dome and an +aerial city.⁠<a id="FNanchor_525" href="#Footnote_525" class="fnanchor">[525]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Solomon sees rising from the bottom of the sea a pavilion, +tent, tabernacle, or tower, vaulted like a dome, which is +made of crystal and is beaten by the waves; from a gate +emerges a youth, who proceeds to relate to him his life of +solitary devotion beneath the waters. The aerial city is +erected by the genii at the order of Solomon, who bids them +build him a city or palace of crystal a hundred thousand +fathoms in extent and a thousand storeys high, of solid +foundations but with a dome airy and lighter than water; +the whole to be transparent so that the light of the sun and +the moon may penetrate its walls; a white cupola, surmounting +the highest storey and crowned by a brilliant +banner, with a resplendent light lit up the route of Solomon’s +army during the night, when the king, floating through space +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>in his aerial castle as in an airship driven by the wind, sallied +forth on an expedition.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Upon reaching the regions of the damned, St. Brandan +and his companions find Judas sad, and naked but for a +rag over his face, seated upon a rock in the midst of the +ocean. Other similar Christian legends show Judas standing +in a pool or pit through which flow all the waters of the +world; or again, he is represented as being consumed +internally with fire in spite of the waters that beat incessantly +upon him. The picture is an adaptation from the Moslem +legends of the torment of Cain, one of which, dating from the +eighth century, reads as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A man of the Yemen, named Abd Allah, with various +companions set out on a voyage, in the course of which they +came to a sea that was wrapt in darkness. For several days +they sailed onwards until suddenly the veil of darkness +lifted and they found themselves close to an inhabited coast. +“I went ashore,” said Abd Allah, “in search of water, but +all the houses I came to were closed; in vain I knocked at +the doors, for no one answered. Of a sudden two horsemen +appeared, mounted on snow-white steeds, who said to me: +‘Abd Allah! follow yonder path and thou wilt come to a +pool of water; drink thy fill and be not afeared at what +thou seest there.’ I inquired of them about the empty +houses through which the wind whistled, and they told me +they were the dwellings of the souls of the dead. Upon +arriving at the pool, I found a man leaning head downwards +and seeking to reach the water with his hand. When he +saw me, he cried out: ‘Abd Allah, I pray thee, give me to +drink,’ and I filled the cup to give him water, but lo! my +hand was stayed. I said to him, ‘Oh, servant of the Lord! +thou hast seen that I would fain have served thee. Tell +me, then, who thou art!’ And he answered, ‘I am the +son of Adam who first shed blood upon earth.’”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Another tale, also dating from the eighth century, is +similar:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A shipwrecked sailor saves himself by clinging to a spar +and is flung upon the shore of an island. Proceeding along +the shore, he comes to a stream the course of which he +follows to a spot where the water seems to flow from the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>bottom of the earth. There he finds, chained by the feet +just out of reach of the water, a man who begs him to slake +his thirst, saying he is the son of Adam that slew his brother +and since that deed is chastised for every murder that is +committed on earth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_526" href="#Footnote_526" class="fnanchor">[526]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The last incident in the voyage of St. Brandan that is +worthy of note is his meeting with the hermit Paul, who +lives on a rock in the middle of the ocean, fed by a lark for +the last hundred and forty years, and will there remain alive +until the day of judgment.</p> + +<p>Here, blended into one, we have two characters—the +historical person of St. Paul the Hermit, who, fed by a raven +until his death, lived in the desert of Thebes, and the mythical +figure of Khidr, in the conformation of which Islam combined +features of Elijah, Elishah, the Wandering Jew, and +St. George. Khidr, like Elijah, is immortal, and in many +legends is depicted as a sea-hermit, praying in the midst of +a desert island, or on a rock beaten by the waves, where he +is fed by a bird, which brings him food and water in its beak, +or from a table sent down from heaven. There, it is said, he +will live until the day of judgment and, having often been +seen by shipwrecked sailors, he is regarded in Islam as +the patron saint of mariners.⁠<a id="FNanchor_527" href="#Footnote_527" class="fnanchor">[527]</a></p> + +<p>St. Brandan now approaches the Isle of Paradise, which is +the goal of his pilgrimage; but, like Abd Allah of the +Yemen, and like Dulcarnain in his search for the Fountain +of Life, he first has to pass through a region of darkness. +The German version of the voyage, moreover, contains two +interesting features. The ground of the Isle of Paradise +is, like the ground traversed by Dulcarnain, strewn with +precious stones; and from a fountain spring four rivers, of +milk, of wine, of oil, and of honey, similar to the rivers +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span>that water the gardens of paradise in the Koran (XLVII, +16-17).</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_5">5. It would thus seem that everything points to the same +conclusion, namely, that an Eastern or, to be more precise, +an Islamic origin must be given to this legend—the legend +that Renan regarded as “the most perfect expression of +the Celtic ideal and one of the most admirable creations of +the human mind,”⁠<a id="FNanchor_528" href="#Footnote_528" class="fnanchor">[528]</a> and that Graf, though admitting the +influence of the story of Sindbad the Sailor, nevertheless +believes to be Gaelic in foundation. Other Romance scholars, +however—owing to their lack of all documentary evidence, +they could never go beyond mere suppositions—came nearer +to the truth. Labitte, for instance, was struck by “le tour, +l’imagination brillante et presque orientale qu’elle décèle”;⁠<a id="FNanchor_529" href="#Footnote_529" class="fnanchor">[529]</a> +and D’Ancona admits that Eastern fables are mixed among +its other elements.⁠<a id="FNanchor_530" href="#Footnote_530" class="fnanchor">[530]</a> The very monotony of rhythm in the +narration; the precise number of seven voyages, corresponding +to the seven seas through which Boluqiya also sailed; +the fantastic adventures, which led St. Vincent of Beauvais +and the Bollandists to describe these legends as <i>apocrypha +deliramenta</i>; and, lastly, the many episodes traced to Islamic +sources by De Goeje⁠<a id="FNanchor_531" href="#Footnote_531" class="fnanchor">[531]</a> and in the above pages—all go to +warrant the conclusion that, if the voyage of St. Brandan +and other similar legends were indeed written by an Irish +monk on a basis of Celtic tradition, the plethora of Islamic +elements that were grafted on to the native stock was such +as to change their original character.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VII_section_6">6. The same conclusion may be drawn from an examination +of the other tales of voyages that are more warlike +expeditions than mere pilgrimages. In these legends traces +of the Arabic stories of the fabulous Dulcarnain are frequently +to be found.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span></p> + +<p>Thus, in the legend of the Frisian sailors, narrated by +Adam of Bremen in the eleventh century, the adventurers, +after traversing a dark region of the ocean, arrive at an +island the inhabitants of which hide in caves while the sun +is on the horizon, that is to say, at midday, the time of the +arrival of the strangers.⁠<a id="FNanchor_532" href="#Footnote_532" class="fnanchor">[532]</a></p> + +<p>This detail is characteristic of the country described in +the legends of the voyage of Dulcarnain as being that in +which the sun rises, “the inhabitants of which do not +build houses, but take refuge in caves until the sun goes +down, when they sally forth to seek their living.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_533" href="#Footnote_533" class="fnanchor">[533]</a> The tenth +century Moslem record is based on <i>hadiths</i> of a much earlier +date, and they in their turn were written as gloss on a +passage of the Koran (XVIII, 89), which alludes to the +fabulous voyage of Dulcarnain to “the country where the +sun shines on people to whom We have given no protection +from its rays.”</p> + +<p>A more striking instance of imitation from the Arabic is +seen, however, in the final episode of the Latin and German +versions of the voyage of Alexander the Great to the earthly +paradise.⁠<a id="FNanchor_534" href="#Footnote_534" class="fnanchor">[534]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The guardian of paradise presents Alexander with a +precious stone, the hidden virtues of which, he says, will cure +him of his ambition. Alexander returns with the stone to +where his army awaits him, and of all his followers a wise +Hebrew alone is capable of solving the riddle. The stone, he +finds, outweighs whatever quantity of gold is put in the +balance, but, when covered with a little dust, it at once +loses its weight and becomes as light as a feather. The aged +Hebrew concludes his interpretation with the words: “This +precious stone is an image of the human eye; when alive, +it is insatiable, but, when dead and covered with earth, it +aspires to nought.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Graf, after tracing the story to its most ancient sources +both in Greek and Hebrew lore, comes to the conclusion +that its model is to be sought in a tale of the Babylonian +Talmud, though that tale mentions a real human eye. A +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>more likely model, however, is provided by the Arabian +story, recorded in the tenth century and attributed to Ali, +the son-in-law of Mahomet⁠<a id="FNanchor_535" href="#Footnote_535" class="fnanchor">[535]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Alexander, or rather the Koranic Dulcarnain, with his +army reaches the region of darkness that lies before the +Fountain of Life, and, beyond this region, he beholds a +palace rising to an enormous height. Advancing to the gate, +he speaks to the youthful guardian, who hands him an +object like a stone, saying, “If this be satisfied, thou also +wilt be satisfied; if it be hungry, then wilt thou be hungry +too.” Alexander returns to his companions with the stone +and summons the wise men to discuss the riddle. They +test the stone in the balance with first one, then two, +and finally a thousand similar stones, and find to their +amazement that it outweighs them all. Khidr, a counsellor +of Alexander’s, upon seeing that all the sages are unable to +solve the riddle, thereupon intervenes and places on one of +the scales an ordinary stone and, on the other, the miraculous +stone covered with a handful of dust; and, to the amazement +of all, the scales now balance. To Alexander, Khidr +then explains the riddle as follows: “God has granted thee +the utmost power achievable by man, yet thou art not +satisfied. For man is never satisfied until dust cover him +and the earth fill his belly.” According to another, longer, +version, Khidr ends his explanation with the words: “The +stone is the human eye, which, whilst alive, even though +it should possess the whole world, is insatiable, and which +only death can satisfy.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_536" href="#Footnote_536" class="fnanchor">[536]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII">VIII<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of Sleepers</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_1">1. Graf has reviewed all the legends on this theme that +were common in Christian Europe from the thirteenth +century onwards.⁠<a id="FNanchor_537" href="#Footnote_537" class="fnanchor">[537]</a> In the main they tell the same story. +The protagonists are monks or princes who, after visiting +the earthly paradise, return to their homes believing that +their absence has lasted but a few hours or days; whereas +in reality long years, even centuries, have passed; astonished +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>at the change in their surroundings, they try to make themselves +known, only to meet with incredulity; in the end +they succeed in establishing their identity either by the +testimony of some venerable old man, who vaguely remembers +the story of their disappearance, or by the aid of books +of record.</p> + +<p>Of the three principal legends of this cycle, the Italian +one of the monks of the Jihun dates from the fourteenth +century:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Three monks set out to seek the earthly paradise, and after +many adventures succeed in finding it. They return under +the delusion that they have been absent but three days, +whereas three whole centuries have elapsed. The monastery +still stands, but the monks are strangers who do not recognise +them. With the aid of old records they manage to prove +their identity, and forty days after recounting their experiences +they turn into dust.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The German legend of the Cistercian monk, Felix, also +dates from the fourteenth century:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Felix doubts that the bliss of heaven can last eternally +without cloying the elect. But one day, listening in the +garden to the sweet song of a little bird of white plumage, +he falls into a trance. The clanging of the bell calling to +Matins awakens him and he hastens towards the monastery +to find that he is unknown to the porter, who, on hearing +his explanations, believes him to be either drunk or mad +and turns him away. Nor do the monks recognise him, +although one of them, a centenarian and infirm, does +remember that when he was a novice a monk named Felix +disappeared; and it is found that the books record his +supposed death. A century had passed in what seemed to +Felix a single hour.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Another Italian legend, which is later than the eleventh +century, tells a similar story of a young prince:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Three days after his wedding, the prince sets out from his +castle and is miraculously led to a garden of paradise, where +he remains for three hundred years, which to him appear +but three hours. On his return, he finds his home strangely +changed; for his wife and parents, having given him up for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>dead, had converted the castle into a monastery and his hall +into a church. On the tower, where formerly had flown +the standard of his family with the eagle, he sees a banner +with the cross. He makes himself known to the porter and +tells his story to the monks and people of the village, who +listen to him in awe. The story is recorded, but the prince, +upon eating the bread of man, ages and dies and is buried +by the side of his wife.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Occasionally, this theme is introduced into stories of +fabulous voyages, as in the legend of the Armorican monks, +which is an imitation of the voyage of St. Brandan⁠<a id="FNanchor_538" href="#Footnote_538" class="fnanchor">[538]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>After visiting the isle of paradise, the monks return to +their monastery and find everything changed; church and +town have disappeared, and a new king rules over a strange +people. They have been absent for three hundred years.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The Spanish legend of San Amaro, which is still current +in Spain, belongs to the same group:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>After many wonderful adventures at sea, the saint visits +the earthly paradise and, on returning to the place where his +companions were to await him, finds a city built by them; +and, in a monastery erected to his memory, he dies. His +absence, which he had believed to be but of an hour’s duration, +had lasted two centuries.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_2">2. From the eighth century onwards there existed in +Islam two groups of legends, which deal with this subject +pretty much after the manner of the Christian legends. +The protagonists are either prophets—Hebrew or mythical—or +noble Christian martyrs, who, after a sleep of centuries, +which to them appear brief hours, return to their homes +where they finally succeed in proving their identity by +means either of witnesses of venerable age or of ancient +documents.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_3">3. The tales of the first group were composed by companions +of the Prophet as gloss on a passage of the Koran +(II, 261), in which the theme is outlined as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Behold him who, passing one day by a ruined and deserted +city, cried out, “How shall God bring this dead city to life +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>again?” God laid the hand of death upon this man for +a hundred years and then, bringing him to life again, asked +him: “How long hast thou lain here?” “A few hours, +or maybe a day,” answered the man. And God replied: +“Thou hast lain there for a hundred years. Behold thy food +and thy drink, they are yet good; and, lo! there is thine ass. +We have proposed thee as a sign (of wonder) to the people. +Behold how the bones are brought to life again and are +clothed with flesh.” And when (this miracle) was made +manifest (the man) exclaimed: “Verily, I see that God is +all-powerful.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Around this nucleus, which had its origin in a Talmudic +source, three legends appeared, one of which, dating from +the eighth century, reads as follows⁠<a id="FNanchor_539" href="#Footnote_539" class="fnanchor">[539]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem and its temple and +carries off the surviving Israelites into captivity at Babylon. +Jeremiah (in other versions, Esdras), who had sought refuge +in the desert, returns to find the city in ruins and he doubts +whether God will be able to rebuild the city and its temple. +God sends him into a profound slumber, which lasts for a +hundred years. In the meantime, the ass he was mounted +on dies, but the wine and figs he carried with him remain +intact. God shields the prophet from beasts and birds of +prey and renders him invisible to man. A hundred years +later, and thirty years after God has caused Jerusalem to +be rebuilt, Jeremiah is brought to life again and, when he +opens his eyes, he sees the bones of the ass lying scattered +on the ground. A voice from heaven calls upon them to +unite and clothe themselves with flesh and skin, and the ass +returns to life. God asks Jeremiah how long he thinks he +has slept and, when he answers “a few hours or a day,” +tells him that he has slept a hundred years.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The second tale dates from the seventh century:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Esdras, who had been carried off into captivity at Babylon +in his boyhood, escapes some years later and, mounted on +an ass, sets out for his native country. Passing on his way +through a deserted village on the banks of the Tigris, he eats +his fill of the fruit of the trees and, having drunk the juice +of the grapes, he stores the remainder in a pitcher and some +figs in a basket. He does not believe that God could ever +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>rebuild the ruined village and, having tied up his ass, he falls +asleep. God sends death upon him for a hundred years and +then brings him to life again. The angel Gabriel asks him +how long he thinks he has been asleep, and he replies “A day +or less.” Gabriel tells him that he has slept a hundred years +and bids him observe that the ass, the figs and the wine are +intact. Thereupon Esdras returns to his native country and +finds that his children and grandchildren have grown old, +whilst his own hair and beard are still black.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>The third legend is attributed to Ibn Abbas, and provides +the conclusion to the two former versions:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Upon awakening from his hundred years’ sleep, Esdras +returns to his native village, where no one will believe his +story. At last he finds an old woman who had been his +father’s servant and is now a hundred and twenty years of +age, blind and paralytic. “Esdras,” replies the old woman +to his story, “was hearkened to by the Lord in his prayers. +If thou art he, pray then to God that He restore my sight, +that I may see thee.” Esdras cures the old woman of her +infirmities, and she leads him to the house where a son of his +is still alive, although a hundred and eighteen years old. +Even his grandchildren are of great age. None will believe +either him or the old woman, until finally his son recognises +him by a birth-mark he bears between his shoulders.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>According to a variant version, he is recognised by his +knowledge of the Torah⁠<a id="FNanchor_540" href="#Footnote_540" class="fnanchor">[540]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>During their captivity at Babylon, the Israelites lose their +knowledge of the Mosaic Law. Esdras, on his return, is +scoffed at as a liar and is only believed when he recites by +heart and writes out the whole of the Torah and the text is +found to agree literally with an old copy found buried in a +vineyard.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_4">4. The Islamic tales belonging to the second group of this +cycle were also woven around a passage of the Koran (XVIII, +8-24), which in its turn was based upon a Christian legend +of the East, the tale of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. The +fact that this Islamic myth had its remote origin in +Christianity renders it of little interest as far as our argument +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>is concerned, so that especially as Guidi has published an +Italian version of the Oriental texts, both Christian and +Moslem, we need give here only the outline of the Moslem +tale, as it appears in the four versions handed down by +Thaalabi and translated by Guidi⁠<a id="FNanchor_541" href="#Footnote_541" class="fnanchor">[541]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>During the persecution under Dacian seven Christian +nobles of Ephesus seek refuge in a cave where, after a frugal +meal, they fall asleep for three hundred years. Their kinsmen +give them up for lost, and record on a tablet the story +and date of their disappearance. At the end of the three +centuries God restores them to life, and they awake thinking +they have slept but a day. Under this delusion, one of them +sets out for Ephesus to purchase provisions and secretly +bring back tidings of the persecution. As he proceeds, his +astonishment increases at the changes he sees on every side. +Over the gate of the city a banner bearing the inscription, +“There is but One God, and Jesus is His Spirit,” puzzles him +greatly. In the city the people are all strange and, when he +tenders a coin of the time of Dacian in payment of bread, +he arouses suspicion and is led before the authorities on the +charge of having found secret treasure. In vain does he +attempt to vindicate his story, for the authorities refuse to +listen to him until he can find someone who can identify +him. He ultimately succeeds in reaching his own house, +when a grandson of his, though blind and infirm with great +age, recognises him. The tablet recording his disappearance +is also found and thus his story is corroborated. The authorities +and townsfolk seek out his companions, who now +definitively die and are buried with great pomp.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_VIII_section_5">5. The close resemblance of the Islamic tales of both the +above-mentioned groups to the Christian mediæval legends +related by Graf is too evident to be ignored. But, it will be +asked, is this resemblance to be attributed to Moslem +influence upon Christian folklore? Graf, with all his erudition, +makes no mention of the precedents that these Christian +tales may have had in other literatures.⁠<a id="FNanchor_542" href="#Footnote_542" class="fnanchor">[542]</a> And, indeed, the +question is not an easy one to answer. Guidi has shown⁠<a id="FNanchor_543" href="#Footnote_543" class="fnanchor">[543]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span>that the Islamic tales of Jeremiah and Esdras are derived +from rabbinical stories, the protagonist of which is either +Abimelech or the Rabbi, Joni Hamaggel. Now both of +these probably lived before the third century of our era, +but there is no evidence to prove that these Jewish tales, +as such, ever spread to the West. On the other hand, the +Islamic legends of the Seven Sleepers are based on a Syrian +legend that appeared, also in the East, in the sixth century; +and this tale, we know, in that very century passed to the +West, where it is found in a Latin version that St. Gregory, +of Tours, included in one of his books on the saints.⁠<a id="FNanchor_544" href="#Footnote_544" class="fnanchor">[544]</a> But are +we, on that account, to suppose that the Christian mediæval +tales mentioned by Graf grew solely from the seed sown by +St. Gregory and were uninfluenced by the Islamic legends? +If so, how can it be explained that that seed should have +taken over six centuries to germinate and did not produce +its crop of legends until the thirteenth century?</p> + +<p>That is the problem, in so far as the influence of the myth +of the Seven Sleepers on the similar Christian tales of the +thirteenth century is concerned. But there still remains the +other group of Islamic legends, of which the protagonists +are Jeremiah and Esdras. The resemblance of these to the +Christian tales is no less striking; and here there can be +less doubt about the direct Moslem influence, for there is +nothing to show that the early rabbinical models ever passed +to Christian Europe.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IX">IX<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of the Respite from Torture</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_1">1. Until the sixth century the question whether the sufferings +of the sinners in hell were to be regarded as eternal or +not was still debated by the Fathers of the Church. Indeed +some doctors, mainly of the Eastern Church, favoured +temporality.⁠<a id="FNanchor_545" href="#Footnote_545" class="fnanchor">[545]</a> Western opinion prevailed, however, and by +the Council of Constantinople the doctrine of everlasting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span>punishment was definitely established as part of the Catholic +dogma. It is, then, all the more strange to find, in the +eleventh century, legends popular in Western Christendom +treating mainly of a respite from, or mitigation of, the sufferings +of the damned.⁠<a id="FNanchor_546" href="#Footnote_546" class="fnanchor">[546]</a> The myth first appeared in the vision +of St. Paul. But, as was pointed out in the discussion of +that legend, the primitive Greek version spoke of a <i>yearly</i> +respite, whereas in the Latin versions, dating from the +twelfth century, the respite is <i>weekly</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_547" href="#Footnote_547" class="fnanchor">[547]</a> The difference is +significant, as explaining the genesis of the later forms of +the legend from Moslem models; for, whilst the doctrine +of a weekly respite lacks foundation in Christian tradition, +and particularly in that of the West, it was indeed fully +justified in the dogma of Islam.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_2">2. Even more striking influence of Islamic influence is +shown by another Christian tale, told in substantially the +same terms by St. Peter Damian, in the eleventh century, +and Conrad of Querfurt and St. Vincent of Beauvais, in the +twelfth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_548" href="#Footnote_548" class="fnanchor">[548]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A cavern situated in the volcanic region of Pozzuoli, to +the west of Naples, or on the volcanic island of Ischia in the +gulf of the same city, and washed by black and evil-smelling +waters, was supposed to be the mouth of hell. At sunset +every Saturday, birds of a sulphur-blackened plumage and +fearsome aspect were believed to rise from the waters of +that cave and fly away to the neighbouring mountains. +There they would stay stretching and pruning their wings +until the early morn of the following Monday, when they +would return and enter the waters of the cave. These birds +were generally believed to be the souls of the dwellers in +hell, who thus enjoyed a respite from their tortures.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_3">3. It was a doctrine of Islam,⁠<a id="FNanchor_549" href="#Footnote_549" class="fnanchor">[549]</a> quoted even by Graf, that +the torture of both believers and infidels ceased for the day +and night on Friday, during which time the soul is allowed +to visit its tomb and there receive the prayers offered up on +its behalf. The belief, which inspired many very popular +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>legends,⁠<a id="FNanchor_550" href="#Footnote_550" class="fnanchor">[550]</a> is based on the sanctity of the day and is as old +as the Moslem religion; indeed from the first century of +the Hegira onwards it was held for certain that Moslems +who died during the day or night of Friday were exempt +from the private judgment of the soul that is peculiar to +Islam.⁠<a id="FNanchor_551" href="#Footnote_551" class="fnanchor">[551]</a></p> + +<p>That the souls of the wicked are incarnate in birds of +black plumage is a belief attributed to Mahomet himself, +just as the myth that holds the saintly soul or angelic +spirit to be incarnate in white birds has been shown to be of +Moslem origin.⁠<a id="FNanchor_552" href="#Footnote_552" class="fnanchor">[552]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“The souls of the host of Pharaoh are imprisoned in hell +in the body or belly of birds of a black hue; these birds sit +on nests of fire in the bottommost depths of the seventh earth +and eat and drink fire.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_553" href="#Footnote_553" class="fnanchor">[553]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>That these black birds rise to the surface, in respite from +their torture, and precisely from the waters on the seashore, +is told in a Moslem legend so strikingly similar to the +Christian tale as actually to appear to be its model or +prototype. The legend in question is attributed to Al-Awzai, +a writer of the eighth century, and is related by Ibn Abu +Aldunya, of the ninth century⁠<a id="FNanchor_554" href="#Footnote_554" class="fnanchor">[554]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A man of Askalon inquired of Al-Awzai, “Oh, Abuamer! +We see birds of a black plumage rise from the sea and when +they return at night, behold! their plumage is white.” And +Al-Awzai said to him, “Dost thou not know what those +birds are?” And he answered, “Yes.” And Al-Awzai +proceeded, “In the entrails of those birds are the souls of +the host of Pharaoh; they are exposed to the fires of hell, +which burn and blacken their plumes. After a while they +lose those plumes, but, when they return to their nests, +once again they are burnt in the fire. Thus shall they continue +to the day of judgment, when a Voice shall say: Cast +the host of Pharaoh into the bottommost pit.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_4">4. Closely related to this subject of respite from torture +is that of the mitigation of suffering when a debt is paid. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span>Graf quotes, among others, the legend related by Cæsar of +Heidenbach in the thirteenth century.⁠<a id="FNanchor_555" href="#Footnote_555" class="fnanchor">[555]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>After his death a soldier appears before a certain man +and tells him that he is in hell for an act of robbery. He +begs the man tell his children of his wish that the property +be restored to its rightful owner, so that his punishment +may be lightened, but the children turn a deaf ear to the +other’s pleadings.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>It was a Moslem belief, borne out by numerous <i>hadiths</i>, +that debts left behind on earth either delayed or hampered +the soul in its ascension to heaven⁠<a id="FNanchor_556" href="#Footnote_556" class="fnanchor">[556]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Thus, at a certain funeral Mahomet decreed that no prayers +should be said for the deceased until his debts had been +paid. On another occasion, he addressed the children of +the deceased thus, “Your father stands at the gates of +heaven, detained by a debt. If ye wish, ye may yet ransom +him; if not, ye must leave him to be dealt with by the +wrath of God.” In other <i>hadiths</i>, Mahomet is represented as +ordering a son of the deceased to pay the debts in order to +obtain a remission of his father’s suffering.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Around these <i>hadiths</i> there grew up legends very similar +to the Christian tale described above. One such legend, +dating from the ninth century, runs as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>To two ascetics, who lived in the eighth century, there +appeared a man who, seated on boards floating in the bottom +of a pit, cried out to them in a hoarse voice, saying he was +a citizen of Antioch who had just died and was held prisoner +in that pit until a debt of his were paid. He added, “My +children live at Antioch unmindful of me and of my debt.” +The two ascetics proceed to Antioch and pay the debt, and +the next night the deceased again appears to them and thanks +them for their act of charity.⁠<a id="FNanchor_557" href="#Footnote_557" class="fnanchor">[557]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_IX_section_5">5. In conclusion, it was a common belief in mediæval +Europe that prayers, fasting and almsgiving served to obtain +mitigation, not merely of the expiatory suffering in purgatory, +but even of the punishments of hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_558" href="#Footnote_558" class="fnanchor">[558]</a> This belief persisted +in the face of the opposition of the Church, which adhered +the more rigidly to the doctrine of everlasting damnation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>as being the one feature distinguishing hell from purgatory. +But the rigidity of the official theology was set off by what +Graf happily terms the theology of sentiment, as expressed +in many popular legends. These, Graf is of opinion, were the +spontaneous outcome of the feelings of pity to which the +masses are ever prone. That such feelings may lead to +popular reactions, unconsciously heterodox, against the +strictness of doctrine based on intellectual exegesis, is undeniable; +but the growth of the belief in question may have +been stimulated by contact with Moslem eschatology, which +on this point was much more benign than the official Christian +doctrine.</p> + +<p>Islam, as is well known, condemns only the infidel and the +polytheist to eternal punishment; the true believer, however +sinning, will one day see an end to his suffering. And even +this temporary torture may be alleviated by the prayers +of those on earth. Suyuti, with many other authors, has left +us a collection of authoritative texts on this point.⁠<a id="FNanchor_559" href="#Footnote_559" class="fnanchor">[559]</a> These +show that prayer, almsgiving, pilgrimage, fasting, and even +such pious or merely beneficent works as the erection and +endowment of mosques, hostels, schools, or the construction +of bridges and irrigation works, all serve to influence the lot +of the soul; but special importance is attached to the offering +up of prayers on Fridays on the tomb of the deceased. Thus +Islam, in adopting the milder views of a minority of Eastern +churchmen, may have been the medium through which this +belief was transmitted to the West after it had been unanimously +rejected as heretical by the Councils, the Fathers, and +the Doctors of the Roman Church.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_X">X<br> +<span class="smcap">Legends of the Debate Between Angels and +Devils for Possession of the Soul</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_1">1. A common subject of Christian mediæval legend is the +inquest held on the soul immediately after death by angels +and devils as a preliminary to final judgment. Graf, in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span><i>Demonologia di Dante</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_560" href="#Footnote_560" class="fnanchor">[560]</a> + and Batiouchkof, in <i>Le débat de l’âme +et du corps</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_561" href="#Footnote_561" class="fnanchor">[561]</a> have analysed these legends, the main elements +of which are the following:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>i. Every soul has one or more angels and devils to guard +and tempt it during life.</p> + +<p>ii. At death these angels and devils fight for possession of +the soul.</p> + +<p>iii. Often the debate is conducted with the aid of two +books, one recording the sins, and the other the +virtues of the soul.</p> + +<p>iv. In other legends, the virtues and vices appear in person +to bear witness.</p> + +<p>v. Or again, the members of the body accuse the soul of +the sins they committed.</p> + +<p>vi. The balance is also used to decide the debate.</p> + +<p>vii. Finally, the angels or devils carry off the soul to +heaven or hell.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_2">2. Christian doctrine furnishes but scant authority for +these features, especially the more striking ones enumerated +under iv, v and vi. These are precisely the elements that +were most common in Islam, which had derived them from +other Oriental religions, particularly the Zoroastrian religion.</p> + +<p>The belief in a guardian angel, based as it is on the Gospel +and conserved in patristic writings, formed part of the +Christian faith both in the East and West. From the fifth +century onwards it was, though not dogma, commonly +believed that, in addition, everyone had a devil to tempt +him. That, at death, the angel and devil fought for the +soul, was again merely a popular belief, the earliest documentary +evidence of which is to be found in a seventh +century vision of the after-life composed by St. Boniface, +the apostle of Germany. It reappears in the ninth century +Germanic poem <i>Muspilli</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_562" href="#Footnote_562" class="fnanchor">[562]</a>; and it is noteworthy that both +these legends are enhanced by the introduction of elements +iv and v personifying the virtues and vices and the members +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>of the body, features of Islamic or Zoroastrian origin,⁠<a id="FNanchor_563" href="#Footnote_563" class="fnanchor">[563]</a> which +then make their first appearance in Christian eschatology.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_3">3. Islam, in contrast to Christianity, contained in its early +<i>hadiths</i> the sources of all the elements detected in the +mediæval legends. These tales, with the exception of those +dealing with the balance⁠<a id="FNanchor_564" href="#Footnote_564" class="fnanchor">[564]</a>, are briefly summarised on the +following pages:</p> + +<p class="center">1. <i>Hadiths on Topic</i> i</p> + +<p>Algazel records the following <i>hadith</i> without mentioning +the companion of the Prophet who related it:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“At his birth each man has an angel allotted to him by +God, and a devil by Satan, who whisper good and evil +suggestions into his right and left ear respectively.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_565" href="#Footnote_565" class="fnanchor">[565]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A <i>hadith</i> by Jabir ibn Abd Allah, of the seventh century:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>In this tale Mahomet says that God has appointed a +guardian angel to each man and two other angels to record +his good and evil deeds. At his death these angels return +to heaven, whence they will descend to bear witness on the +day of judgment.⁠<a id="FNanchor_566" href="#Footnote_566" class="fnanchor">[566]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A <i>hadith</i> by Al-Hasan, of the seventh century, says:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“To every man lying on his death-bed there appear his +guardians, who show him his good and evil deeds. At the +sight of the former, he smiles; at the sight of the latter, he +frowns.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_567" href="#Footnote_567" class="fnanchor">[567]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A <i>hadith</i> by Salman, also of the seventh century, reads:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“A man who lay on his death-bed told the Prophet that +a black and a white figure had appeared before him. The +Prophet inquired, ‘Which stood the nearer to thee?’ and +the man replied, ‘The black figure.’ ‘Then,’ said the +Prophet, ‘great is the evil and little is the good.’”⁠<a id="FNanchor_568" href="#Footnote_568" class="fnanchor">[568]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Finally, a <i>hadith</i> by Wahb ibn Al-Ward, of the eighth +century, says:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“To everyone at his death there appear the two angels +who during his life were the guardians of his deeds....”⁠<a id="FNanchor_569" href="#Footnote_569" class="fnanchor">[569]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span></p> + +<p class="center">2. <i>Hadiths dealing mainly with the fight for the soul</i></p> + +<p>A <i>hadith</i> by Ibrahim, son of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, of +the seventh century:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Abd ar-Rahman, who had been given up for dead, tells +how, as he lay prostrate, two demons of fearsome aspect +appeared before him, saying, “Rise, for we will lead thee to +the Supreme Judge.” On their way they met two angels +of mercy, who cried out, “Whither would ye lead him? +Leave him to us, for God has destined him to enter heaven.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_570" href="#Footnote_570" class="fnanchor">[570]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A seventh-century <i>hadith</i> of the Caliph Muawya, but +attributed to Mahomet:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A murderer, moved to repentance, proceeds to a monastery +to end his days in prayer. But death overtakes him on +the way. The angels of wrath and of mercy appear on the +scene and fight for his soul. The dispute is decided by the +soul being allotted to the nearest dwelling. This, upon +measurement, is found to be the monastery, and the +murderer is saved.⁠<a id="FNanchor_571" href="#Footnote_571" class="fnanchor">[571]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><i>Hadith</i> of Abu Hurayra, also of the seventh century:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>A person relates his experiences during a trance. A man +of beautiful features and sweet-smelling breath had hardly +placed him in his grave, when a woman of repulsive mien +and evil odour appeared and accused him of his sins. She +then disputes with the other for his soul. During the dispute +he withdraws at the woman’s bidding and, in a mosque +near by, finds a man reciting the same verses of the Koran +that he used to delight in reciting. These verses are adduced +in his favour, and the man of the beautiful countenance +claims him as saved.⁠<a id="FNanchor_572" href="#Footnote_572" class="fnanchor">[572]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Legend of Daud ibn Abu Hind, of the eighth century:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Daud, as he lies sick, sees a black figure of monstrous +shape appear, whom he takes to be a demon come to carry +him off to hell. At that moment two men in white tunics +descend through the ceiling, who, after warding off the other, +seat themselves at the foot and head of Daud’s bed; they +feel his palate and toes and conclude that both show signs +of a life of prayer.⁠<a id="FNanchor_573" href="#Footnote_573" class="fnanchor">[573]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span></p> + +<p>The legend of the seventh-century traditionist, Shahr ibn +Hawshab, is similar:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Two white angels seat themselves on the right of the sick-bed, +and two black angels, on the left, and dispute over the +soul. An examination of the dying man’s tongue, which shows +traces of having uttered a certain prayer, finally settles the +dispute in his favour.⁠<a id="FNanchor_574" href="#Footnote_574" class="fnanchor">[574]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="center">3. <i>Legends introducing the books of record</i></p> + +<p>These legends are all based on the passages of the Koran⁠<a id="FNanchor_575" href="#Footnote_575" class="fnanchor">[575]</a> +treating of the two books in which angels record the good +and evil deeds of each man. These books were mentioned +in one of the tales of Group i, and many other similar legends +might be quoted. Thus, a <i>hadith</i> attributed to Ibn Abbas⁠<a id="FNanchor_576" href="#Footnote_576" class="fnanchor">[576]</a> +tells of the recording angels and describes minutely the pens, +the ink, and the sheets they use.⁠<a id="FNanchor_577" href="#Footnote_577" class="fnanchor">[577]</a></p> + +<p class="center">4. <i>Legends treating mainly of the personification of virtues +and vices</i></p> + +<p>This feature, though also of Zoroastrian origin, attained +its full development in the eschatological lore of Islam.</p> + +<p>A <i>hadith</i> quoted from earlier traditionists by Ibn Abu +Aldunya, of the ninth century, says:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“No man dies but his good and evil deeds appear in +person before him, and he turns his eyes away from the evil +towards the good deeds.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_578" href="#Footnote_578" class="fnanchor">[578]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A <i>hadith</i> attributed to Mahomet says:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“At the death-bed of the believer attend his prayers, his +fasting, the alms he gave....”⁠<a id="FNanchor_579" href="#Footnote_579" class="fnanchor">[579]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>A <i>hadith</i> quoted by a companion of the Prophet reads:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>At the judgment of the soul the Koran will appear in its +defence before the angels Munkar and Nakir. It will ask +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span>the soul, “Dost thou know me? I am the Koran which +thou didst recite and which delivered thee from evil. Fear +not.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_580" href="#Footnote_580" class="fnanchor">[580]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Other similar <i>hadiths</i> relate as follows⁠<a id="FNanchor_581" href="#Footnote_581" class="fnanchor">[581]</a>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>To the righteous soul there appears in the grave a man of +great beauty, dressed in fine garments and scented with rare +perfumes, who says, “I am thy good deed.” To the wicked +soul appear its vices, in evil shape.</p> + +<p>His prayer places itself on the right of the virtuous soul; +his fasting, on the left; the Koran, at his head; the virtue +of walking to the Mosque, at his feet; his fortitude in +adversity, at the side of the tomb. The punishment of the +soul, which then appears in person, is driven off by these +virtues.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="center">5. <i>Legends in which the members of the body are personified</i></p> + +<p>A typical legend of this group, though attributed to +Mahomet, is recorded in the tenth-century <i>Corra</i>:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>An adulterer is brought before the Divine Judge, and the +thigh relates the sin it committed. The accused indignantly +denies the charge, but God imposes silence on the lying +tongue. Each of the members then confesses its share in +the sin, and their evidence is borne out by the recording +angels and the earth. At God’s bidding the angels seize +the sinner and cast him into the pit.⁠<a id="FNanchor_582" href="#Footnote_582" class="fnanchor">[582]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="center">6. <i>Legends of feature</i> vii.</p> + +<p>All the legends of this group are variants of the <i>hadith</i> +of the Prophet relating the death of the upright man and +the sinner.⁠<a id="FNanchor_583" href="#Footnote_583" class="fnanchor">[583]</a> A brief outline is here given:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>The angel of death extracts the soul from the body gently +or violently, according as it is righteous or sinning. The +angels guard the body as it is lowered to the grave. The +devil, upon seeing a soul escape him, turns in anger upon his +host of demons, who explain that they were powerless, as +the soul was free of sin. The soul is then led through the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>astronomical heavens to the Throne of God. A similar, but +antithetical, story is told of the death of the sinner.⁠<a id="FNanchor_584" href="#Footnote_584" class="fnanchor">[584]</a></p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_4">4. Summarising the partial comparisons contained in this +third part of our work, we may divide the Moslem features +appearing in the mediæval Christian legends precursory of +the Divine Comedy into two categories.⁠<a id="FNanchor_585" href="#Footnote_585" class="fnanchor">[585]</a> The first category +is formed of those Islamic features that reappeared in Dante’s +poem and accordingly were treated at greater length in the +first and second parts of this work. These, with the Christian +legends in which they appear, may briefly be enumerated +as follows:</p> + +<p>Division of hell into seven regions (<i>St. Macarius</i>, <i>Edda</i>), +or eight storeys (<i>Bard of Regio Emilia</i>). Typical tortures of +hell, such as the tunics of fire (<i>St. Patrick</i>); fiery sepulchres +(<i>St. Patrick</i>); molten metal and sulphur (<i>St. Patrick</i> and +<i>Tundal</i>); immersion of the sinners in a lake (<i>St. Macarius</i>, +<i>St. Patrick</i>, and <i>Alberic</i>); graduation of the fire (<i>St. Paul</i>); +demons armed with prongs (<i>Tundal</i>); torture by the monster +(<i>Tundal</i>); attraction and repulsion of the damned by its +breathing (<i>Tundal</i>, <i>St. Patrick</i>, and <i>St. Paul</i>); sinners +hanging head downwards (<i>St. Patrick</i>, <i>Alberic</i>, and <i>St. Paul</i>); +or crucified to the ground (<i>St. Patrick</i>); or devoured by +serpents (<i>St. Macarius</i>, <i>St. Patrick</i>, and <i>Alberic</i>); or laden +with burdens (<i>Edda</i>); or forced to swallow their illicit gains +(<i>Turcill</i>); the torture of ice (<i>Tundal</i>, <i>St. Patrick</i>, and +<i>Alberic</i>); the picture of the giant held in chains (<i>St. +Macarius</i>); and Lucifer bound in the bottommost pit of +hell (<i>Alberic</i>).</p> + +<p>The second category consists of Moslem features detected +in the Christian legends, but not appearing in the Divine +Comedy. These features, not having been mentioned in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>two former parts of this work, have been dealt with in this +part at greater length. The more important among them +are the following:</p> + +<p>The myth of the balance (<i>Ch. V</i>); the slippery bridge +(<i>Tundal</i>, <i>St. Patrick</i>, <i>St. Paul</i>, <i>Abbot Joachim</i>); the torture +of the sepulchre (<i>Hugh of Brandenburg</i>, <i>St. Brandan</i>); the +intercession at the final judgment (<i>Ch. V</i>); the nakedness +of sinners (<i>Ch. V</i>); the torture by the mad cow (<i>Tundal</i>); +the vision of heaven granted to the sinners in order to +increase their suffering (<i>Tundal</i>); the devil with the hundred +hands (<i>Tundal</i>); the damned incarnate in birds of black +plumage (<i>Edda</i>, and others in <i>Ch. IX</i>); the saintly souls and +angels incarnate in white birds (<i>St. Macarius</i>, <i>St. Brandan</i>); +Adam in paradise, smiling and crying at the same time +(<i>Turcill</i>); the life of glory conceived as a courtly or religious +festival (<i>Cour du Paradis</i>, <i>Vergier du Paradis</i>, <i>Visione dei +gaudii de’ santi</i>). Finally, the main characteristics of the +cycles examined in the last four chapters: the voyages, +particularly the voyage of St. Brandan with its scenes, such +as the table decked with food, the enormous vines, the +torture of Judas, the description of the sea hermit, the +island-whale; the legends of sleepers; the tales of respite +from torture; the legends of the debate for the soul, with +the striking features of the books of record, the personification +of virtues and vices, and the accusation by the members +of the body.</p> + +<p>In view of the abundance of Islamic features present in +the pre-Dante Christian legends, there is but one conclusion +to be drawn: The many poetic conceptions of the after-life +current throughout Europe before Dante’s time had grown +from contact with Islam rather than from the native stock, +for several of those poetic myths or their descriptive features +had no foundation in Christian doctrine but owed their +origin to other religions of the East, whence they were +transmitted in a new and richer form by Islam.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_III_CHAPTER_X_section_5">5. The doubt that had assailed the mind at the end of +the second part of our work is thus dispelled. The natural +inference to be drawn at that stage of our inquiry from the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>great number of analogies detected in the Divine Comedy +and the eschatological literature of Islam was that there +existed some relation connecting the poem with that literature. +To that hypothesis, however, it was possible to object +the hypothesis put forward by the Dantists, that the conception +of the divine poem could only have been influenced, +and that indirectly, by the precursory Christian legends. +But, once it has been shown that these legends also bear +unmistakable signs of Moslem influence, that objection falls +to the ground, and Dante now appears connected to Islam +by a double tie—the indirect relation of the Islamic features +present in his Christian precursors, and the direct relation +of the Islamic elements contained in the Divine Comedy.</p> + +<p>One question arises at this culminating point of our +investigation: could Dante have known of the Moslem +works on the after-life, and, if so, by what channels? The +answer to this question will complete the chain of reasoning.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_IV">PART IV<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>PROBABILITY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF ISLAMIC +MODELS TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE AND PARTICULARLY TO DANTE</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak">PART IV<br> +<span class="smaller"><i>PROBABILITY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF ISLAMIC +MODELS TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE AND PARTICULARLY TO DANTE</i></span></h2> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_I">I.<br> +<span class="smcap">Introduction</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_I_section_1">1. Whenever it is required to prove—in so far as historical +matters admit of proof—a case of literary imitation, an +answer must first be found to three pertinent questions.⁠<a id="FNanchor_586" href="#Footnote_586" class="fnanchor">[586]</a> +Firstly, do there exist between the alleged copy and its model +so many and so striking features of resemblance as to render +it morally impossible to attribute them to mere chance or +to derivation from a common source? Secondly, can that +which is assumed to be the model be shown to have existed +prior to the copy or imitation? Thirdly, could the author +of the supposed copy have known of the original; or, +alternatively, is it evident that the two writers were separated +by so wide a gulf as to make all communication impossible?</p> + +<p>The first and second questions, which really furnish the +key to the problem, have been sufficiently determined above. +The third is of less interest. For, even if the historical +data about the connection between the model and the copy +were vague, this would not detract from the force of the +argument based upon their likeness, especially when the +points of resemblance are so clearly defined and so recurrent +that the likeness cannot be ascribed to chance.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_I_section_2">2. This is the case with the present problem. For it might +be possible to attribute to mere coincidence, or to a common +Christian origin, the <i>general</i> features of resemblance between +Dante’s and the Islamic solution of the theological problem +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>of the after-life, that is to say, the <i>ideas</i> or doctrines common +to both eschatological conceptions. But, when these doctrines +appear clothed in the same artistic form, when the ideas are +represented by the same symbols and described with similar +details, then the hypothesis of chance coincidence can no +longer be maintained.</p> + +<p>The difference is obvious. The ideas or doctrines are +limited in number. Being the outcome of a trend of thought +followed by mankind throughout the ages, they all necessarily +fall within a few main categories. Not so the images. These, +which are but the reflexion of the <i>actual</i> forms of <i>material</i> +objects, are as numerous and varied as the objects themselves. +It is morally impossible, therefore, that two conceptions of +one and the same idea actually agreeing in detail should be +formed in two minds, unless there existed a connecting link +between the two. Such a miracle would be all the more +unlikely, as the coincidence would be one, not of the conceptions +of two particular minds, but of the artistic fancy +of an individual, and the imaginings of a collective body +such as Islam. In other words, it would be necessary to +admit the possibility of Dante’s having, by his sole mental +effort, conceived in a few years the same fantastic picture +of life beyond the grave as took the Moslem traditionists, +mystics and poets centuries of artistic endeavour to elaborate. +The claim to so marvellous an originality would require to +be substantiated by evidence showing how this miracle +came to be accomplished by Dante Alighieri. The burden +of proof would thus be on the Dantists, and it would be for +them to explain the enigma of the coincidences between +Dante’s poem and the Islamic legends, were it not that +there did indeed exist a link between the two and evidence +of that contact that is indispensable to all imitation.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_I_section_3">3. This evidence may be furnished under three headings. +It may be shown, firstly, that the Christian peoples of +mediæval Europe, by their contact with Moslems, acquired +a knowledge of their beliefs and conceptions of the after-life; +secondly, that Dante may well have drawn, directly +or indirectly, upon Moslem sources for the material of his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>poem; and, lastly, that there are indications of his having +been influenced by those sources.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_II">II<br> +<span class="smcap">Communication Between Islam and Christian +Europe During the Middle Ages</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_1">1. Islam, after the conquest of the countries bordering +on Arabia, spread rapidly throughout the north of Africa, +Spain, the south of France and southern Italy, and extended +its dominion over the Balearic Isles and Sicily. The effect of +war in imparting to the belligerents an intimate knowledge +of each other is notorious; but in times of peace, too, +contact between the two civilisations of Christianity and +Islam was established across their eastern and western +frontiers through the medium of commerce.</p> + +<p>From the eighth to the eleventh century an active trade +was carried on between Moslem countries of the East and +Russia and other countries of northern Europe. Expeditions +left the Caspian regularly and, ascending the Volga, reached +the Gulf of Finland and so through the Baltic to Denmark, +Britain, and even as far as Iceland. The quantities of Arabic +coins found at various places in this extensive commercial +zone bear witness to its importance.⁠<a id="FNanchor_587" href="#Footnote_587" class="fnanchor">[587]</a> In the eleventh +century trade was conducted by the easier sea route across +the Mediterranean, chiefly by means of Genoese, Venetian +or Moslem vessels. Large colonies of Italian traders +settled in all the Moslem ports of the Mediterranean, and +merchants, explorers, and adventurers sailed at will across +its waters. Benjamin of Tudela has left us trustworthy +evidence, in his “Itinerary” of the twelfth century, of the +busy intercourse between Christians and Moslems at that +time.</p> + +<p>To the stimulus of trade must be added the impulse of +the religious ideal. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, which +had been suspended owing to the early conquests of Islam, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>were renewed and, with the establishment under Charlemagne +of the Frank Protectorate over the Christian churches +of the East, were assured by conventions and assisted by +the foundation of hostels and monasteries in Moslem lands. +During the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries the number +of pilgrims grew, until some of the expeditions comprised +as many as twelve thousand; these expeditions were the +forerunners of the Crusades.⁠<a id="FNanchor_588" href="#Footnote_588" class="fnanchor">[588]</a></p> + +<p>The influence of the Crusades in bringing Islam and +Christian Europe together need hardly be insisted upon. +The Christian States founded after the first Crusade may be +likened to a European colony implanted in the heart of +Islam, between the Euphrates and Egypt. The civil administration +and the army of these States were formed on the +Moslem model, and even the habits, food, and dress of the +Orientals were adopted by the Frankish knights, who poured +into Syria in Crusades from all parts of Europe even as far +distant as Scandinavia.⁠<a id="FNanchor_589" href="#Footnote_589" class="fnanchor">[589]</a></p> + +<p>The failure to destroy Islam by the sword begot in its +turn the idea of the pacific conquest of souls, and led in the +thirteenth century to the establishment of the Missions to +Islam. The Franciscan and Dominican Friars who formed +this new tie of spiritual communication were obliged to +make a thorough study of the language and religious literature +of Islam, and to reside for many years amongst Moslems.⁠<a id="FNanchor_590" href="#Footnote_590" class="fnanchor">[590]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_2">2. More important and more interesting, however, from our +point of view than any of these general channels of communication, +is the contact of the two civilisations in Sicily +and Spain. Beginning in the ninth century with piratical +raids upon the coasts of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, +the Normans gradually formed settlements in Moslem towns +of the Peninsula (such as Lisbon, Seville, Orihuela and +Barbastro) and in Sicily.⁠<a id="FNanchor_591" href="#Footnote_591" class="fnanchor">[591]</a> The latter island, indeed, which +had become permeated with Islam, was conquered in the +eleventh century and ruled by a dynasty of Norman Kings +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span>until the thirteenth century. Throughout that period the +Sicilian population was composed of a medley of races professing +different religions and speaking several languages. +The court of the Norman King, Roger II, at Palermo, was +formed of both Christians and Moslems, who were equally +versed in Arabic literature and Greek science. Norman +knights and soldiers, Italian and French noblemen and +clergy, Moslem men of learning and literature from Spain, +Africa, and the East lived together in the service of the +King, forming a palatine organisation that in all respects +was a copy of the Moslem courts. The King himself spoke +and read Arabic, kept a harem in the Moslem manner, and +attired himself after the Oriental fashion. Even the Christian +women of Palermo adopted the dress, veil, and speech of +their Moslem sisters.</p> + +<p>But the time when Palermo most resembled a Moslem +court was the first half of the thirteenth century, during the +long reign of Frederick, King of Sicily and Emperor of +Germany. A philosopher, free-thinker and polyglot, the +Emperor, even as his predecessors had done in war and +peace, surrounded himself with Moslems. They were his +masters and fellow-students, his courtiers, officers and +ministers; and he was accompanied by them on his travels +to the Holy Land and throughout Italy. His harems, one +in Sicily and the other in Italy, were under the charge of +eunuchs; and even the tunic in which he was buried bore +an Arabic inscription. The Popes and other Kings of +Christendom raised public outcry against the scandal of the +court of such an Emperor, who, though representing the +highest civil authority of the Middle Ages, was Christian +only in name.</p> + +<p>This patron of literature and learning formed a unique +collection of Arabic MSS. at the University of Naples, which +he founded in 1224; and he had the works of Aristotle and +Averrhoes translated, and copies sent to Paris and Bologna. +Not only did he gather to his court Hebrew and Moslem +philosophers, astrologers and mathematicians, but he corresponded +with men of learning throughout Islam.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span></p> + +<p>It was at the court of Frederick that the Sicilian school of +poetry, which first used the vulgar tongue and thus laid +the foundations of Italian literature, arose. The Arab +troubadours assembled at his court were emulated by the +Christians; and the fact is significant inasmuch as it affords +an instance of contact between the two literatures, Christian +and Moslem.⁠<a id="FNanchor_592" href="#Footnote_592" class="fnanchor">[592]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_3">3. Important as Norman Sicily was as a centre of Islamic +culture, it is nevertheless eclipsed in this respect by mediæval +Spain. Here were to be found the same phenomena as in +Sicily, but on a much larger scale and with the precedence +of centuries. For Spain was the first country in Christian +Europe to enter into intimate contact with Islam. For 500 +years, from the eighth to the thirteenth century, when the +Florentine poet came into the world, the two populations, +Christian and Mahometan, lived side by side in war and +peace.</p> + +<p>The Mozarabs formed the first link between the two +peoples. As early as the ninth century the Christians of +Cordova had adopted the Moslem style of living, some even +to the extent of keeping harems and being circumcised. +Their delight in Arabic poetry and fiction, and their enthusiasm +for the study of the philosophical and theological +doctrines of Islam, are characteristically lamented by Alvaro +of Cordova in his <i>Indiculus luminosus</i>.</p> + +<p>The contact thus established in the early centuries of the +Islamic conquest became, as may be imagined, more pronounced +in the course of time. With intervals of intermittent +strife, the intermingling of the two elements of the +population steadily continued. And thus we find the +Mozarabs of Toledo, the ancient capital of the Visigoths, +using the Arabic language and characters in their public +documents as late as the twelfth century, after the reconquest +of the city. The suggestion that these Christians, who +had become half Arabs, communicated to their brethren +in the north of Spain, and even in other parts of Europe a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>knowledge of Islamic culture, may, therefore, be readily +accepted. The hypothesis is strengthened by the fact of +the constant emigration of Mozarabs northwards from +Andalusia.⁠<a id="FNanchor_593" href="#Footnote_593" class="fnanchor">[593]</a></p> + +<p>To the Mozarab influence must be added another factor +in the communication of Moslem culture—that of the slaves +of Christian origin. Drawn from northern Spain and all +parts of Europe, even as far as Russia, large numbers of +slaves served in the court and in the army of the Emirs of +Cordova. Many, no doubt, remained in their adoptive +country where they had acquired both rank and fortune; +but some, it may well be believed, would return to their +native country in their old age.⁠<a id="FNanchor_594" href="#Footnote_594" class="fnanchor">[594]</a></p> + +<p>To attempt to enumerate the many other channels of +communication between Christian Europe and Moslem +Spain, we should require to re-create in our imagination the +wonderful picture of Moslem society in Spain. As the centre +of Western culture, Moslem Spain irresistibly attracted the +semi-barbarous peoples of Christian Europe. From all parts +came travellers, bent on study as well as trade, and eager +to behold the wonders of this new classic civilisation of the +Orient.</p> + +<p>To paint the picture in detail it would be necessary to +include the Jewish traders as other instruments of communication. +With their flourishing international trade and +their aptitude for languages and the sciences, they knit +ties both material and spiritual between Moslem Spain and +the chief cities of Christian Europe. Nor should we omit the +part played by prisoners of war returning often after many +years’ absence to their native country; nor the effects of +the frequent visits of Christian Ambassadors to the Moslem +courts of the Peninsula.⁠<a id="FNanchor_595" href="#Footnote_595" class="fnanchor">[595]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_4">4. With the gradual reconquest of Spain by the armies +of the Christian kings, the Mudejars, their subdued Moslem +subjects, took the place of the Mozarabs in transmitting +Islamic culture. The undeniable superiority of this culture +commanded the respect of the Christians, and the kings +were prompt to adopt the policy of attracting the Mudejar +element, thereby contributing to the more rapid and easy +assimilation of Moslem civilisation. Further political alliances +through marriage between the royal houses of Castile +or Aragon and the reigning Moslem families were +frequent.</p> + +<p>Thus Alphonso VI, the conqueror of Toledo, married +Zaida, the daughter of the Moorish King of Seville, and his +capital resembled the seat of a Moslem court. The fashion +quickly spread to private life; the Christians dressed in +Moorish style, and the rising Romance language of Castile +was enriched by a large number of Arabic words. In commerce, +in the arts and trades, in municipal organisation, as +well as in agricultural pursuits, the influence of the Mudejars +was predominant, and thus the way was prepared for literary +invasion, that was to reach its climax at the court of Alphonso +X or the Wise.⁠<a id="FNanchor_596" href="#Footnote_596" class="fnanchor">[596]</a></p> + +<p>Toledo had throughout the twelfth century been an +important centre for the dissemination of Arabic science and +<i>belles-lettres</i> in Christian Europe. In the first half of that +century, shortly after the city had been captured from the +Moors, Archbishop Raymond began the translation of some +of the more celebrated works of Arabic learning. Thus, the +whole encyclopædia of Aristoteles was translated from the +Arabic, with the commentaries of Alkindius, Alfarabius, +Avicenna, Algazel and Averrhoes; as also the master works +of Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen, and Hippocrates, with the +comments upon them of learned Moslems, such as Albatenius, +Avicenna, Averrhoes, Rhazes, and Alpetragius. Translated +into the Romance language of Castile with the help of +learned Mudejars and Hebrews, these works were in turn +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span>rendered into Latin by Christian doctors drawn from all parts +of Christendom.⁠<a id="FNanchor_597" href="#Footnote_597" class="fnanchor">[597]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_II_section_5">5. Alphonso the Wise, who had been educated in this +environment of Semitic culture, on ascending the throne +personally directed the work of translation, and gathered to +his court as collaborators wise men of the three religions, +an instance demonstrative of the tolerance of his time. +Besides contributing new works on physics and astronomy, +he also devoted considerable attention to subjects that would +appeal more to the popular mind. His father, Ferdinand the +Saint, had encouraged the compilation of the <i>Libro de los +doce sabios</i> and <i>Flores de filosofia</i>, in which Oriental influence +is first seen; and Alphonso caused similar books, such as +<i>Calila y Dimna</i>, <i>Bocados de Oro</i>, and <i>Poridad de poridades</i> +to be translated and works on Oriental pastimes compiled. +From Arabic sources he wrote his <i>Grand e General Estoria</i>, +and he ordered the translation of Talmudic and cabbalistic +works, and, lastly, of the Koran.⁠<a id="FNanchor_598" href="#Footnote_598" class="fnanchor">[598]</a></p> + +<p>The advance of the Reconquest opened up a new field of +action, and Murcia and Seville, after their recapture, became +centres of philosophy and literature that rivalled Toledo. +During the lifetime of his father, Alphonso had been +Governor of Murcia, where he had a school built specially +for Muhammad ar-Riquti, in which the Moslem sage lectured +to Moors, Jews, and Christians alike.⁠<a id="FNanchor_599" href="#Footnote_599" class="fnanchor">[599]</a> Before 1158, another +learned Moslem, Abd Allah ibn Sahloh, had taught mathematics +and philosophy to Moors and Christians at Baeza, +and in his school discussed theological questions with the +Christian clergy.⁠<a id="FNanchor_600" href="#Footnote_600" class="fnanchor">[600]</a> Encouraged, no doubt, by these precedents, +the king decided to give official sanction to the +fusion of the two civilisations, of Christendom and Islam. +He founded at Seville a general Latin and Arabic college, +at which Moslems taught medicine and science side by side +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>with Christian professors.⁠<a id="FNanchor_601" href="#Footnote_601" class="fnanchor">[601]</a> This in itself is eloquent of the +close relationship between the two elements of the population +in the first half of the thirteenth century.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III">III<br> +<span class="smcap">Transmission of the Moslem Legends on +the After-Life to Christian Europe and Dante</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_1">1. Any one of the channels mentioned may have served +as the means of communication, even to the farthest ends +of Europe, for the news of the legends on the after-life that +were popular throughout Islam.⁠<a id="FNanchor_602" href="#Footnote_602" class="fnanchor">[602]</a> It has been shown that +the legends that sprang up in Ireland, Scandinavia, France, +Germany and Italy—the so-called precursors of the Divine +Comedy—were most probably based on Islamic models. +These may have been introduced into Christian Europe by +pilgrims, Crusaders, merchants or missionaries; or, again, +by Norman adventurers, slaves, men of learning or simple +travellers. Once the possibility of a connecting link has +been established, the hypothesis of imitation tends to become +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>that moral certainty that historical demonstration requires +and is content to accept.</p> + +<p>It must be borne in mind that the majority of the Christian +legends prior to the Divine Comedy originated later than +the tenth century, whereas the <i>hadiths</i> on the after-life date +much further back. That these <i>hadiths</i> were of popular +origin is, moreover, evident. Until the ninth century they +were transmitted solely by word of mouth, a fact that helped +to spread them and rendered the creation of new legends +easier.⁠<a id="FNanchor_603" href="#Footnote_603" class="fnanchor">[603]</a> Not until the formation by the two great critics, +Bukhari and Muslim, of the collections of authentic <i>hadiths</i> +can the era of invention be considered closed. Their popularity +did not, however, diminish on that account. Moslems +everywhere, of all ages and every social rank, acted as transmitters, +often undertaking long journeys to hear new tales +and so increase their stock of religious lore; for, apart from +the attraction that the fantastic nature of the theme held +for the masses, it was considered an act of faith to learn +these tales and share in their dissemination. No wonder, +therefore, that the teachers of <i>hadiths</i> prior to the ninth +century were reckoned by thousands.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_2">2. It may be said that from the earliest times Spain was the +country most addicted to the study of these legends; for +the intolerance of the Faqihs alone produced a superabundance +of traditional lore. Indeed, in the ninth century, it +was regarded as the home of the traditions of the Prophet +and of all these it was but natural that the story of the <i>Miraj</i>, +or ascension of Mahomet, should have the widest diffusion, +as narrating an important part of the biography of the +Prophet—the story of the performance of his supreme +miracle, which has been accepted as a dogma, and is solemnly +commemorated to this day throughout Islam.</p> + +<p>Knowledge of these Moslem tales would, sooner or later, +inevitably filter through the slender barrier separating the +two peoples in their conception of the hereafter.⁠<a id="FNanchor_604" href="#Footnote_604" class="fnanchor">[604]</a> Indeed, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span>poor as are the records of the beliefs of Islam left us by +mediæval Christian writers, there is evidence that the +Christians in Spain were, from the first centuries of the +conquest, aware of these legends, and especially of the legend +of the <i>Miraj</i>.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_3">3. At the very outset of the ninth century, in the apologetic +writings of the Mozarabs of Cordova, mention is made +of Moslem <i>hadiths</i>. Alvaro of Cordova, in his <i>Indiculus +luminosus</i>; St. Eulogius, in his <i>Memoriale Sanctum</i>; and +the Abbot Esperaindeo, in his <i>Apologetico contra Mahoma</i>, +repeatedly allude to tales “leves et risu dignas” describing +the life and miracles of the pretended prophet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_605" href="#Footnote_605" class="fnanchor">[605]</a> In his +<i>Apologeticus Martyrum</i> St. Eulogius interpolates a brief +biography of Mahomet. Founded largely upon spurious +data, it is in the main a baseless fabrication that, nevertheless, +shows a considerable knowledge of the Koran and the +<i>hadiths</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_606" href="#Footnote_606" class="fnanchor">[606]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_4">4. This biography of Mahomet, St. Eulogius found at the +Monastery of Leire in Navarre, which proves that as early +as the ninth century the legend had penetrated to the north +of Spain. This explains why Spain should have been the +country from which it first passed into Western literature. +Indeed, in 1143 a Latin version of the Koran was written +by the Archdeacon of Pamplona, Robert of Reading, an +English ecclesiastic who had formerly worked at the college +of translators founded at Toledo by Archbishop Raymond. +Together with this version, the archdeacon wrote a treatise +entitled “Summa brevis contra haereses et sectam Sarracenorum” +and derived from Arabic sources.⁠<a id="FNanchor_607" href="#Footnote_607" class="fnanchor">[607]</a> It is unlikely +that a polemical work of this kind would omit to mention +the <i>Miraj</i>, which by its very extravagance would readily +lend itself to refutation; but it is impossible to make any +definite assertion on the point, as the treatise in question +has not been preserved complete.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_5">5. Another document of the same century still exists +however—the “Historia Arabum,” written in Latin by +Archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada of Toledo.⁠<a id="FNanchor_608" href="#Footnote_608" class="fnanchor">[608]</a> In the +prologue the author states that his compendium will start +from the time of Mahomet, and that his data upon the +origin, teaching and government of the Prophet will be taken +“ex relatione fideli et eorum scripturis.” Nor should this +have been difficult, seeing that he wrote in Toledo, where at +the time many Arabic books on religion, science, and lighter +literature were then being translated.⁠<a id="FNanchor_609" href="#Footnote_609" class="fnanchor">[609]</a> In Chapter V of +this “Historia Arabum,” which is entitled “De sublimatione +Mahometi in regem et de jussionibus mendaciter excogitatis,” +the author relates the raising of Mahomet to the dignity of +king, after the taking of Damascus; and he adds that +Mahomet then began to impose upon the Arabs with stories +in which he professed to be a prophet, with the object of +obtaining a firmer hold upon his subjects. He then inserts +a literal version of the legend of the <i>Miraj</i>, culled from what +he terms the “second book” of Mahomet. This can be no +other than the canonical collection of <i>hadiths</i> on the Prophet, +second from an authoritative point of view only to the +Koran, which latter the Archbishop would consider to be +the first book of Islam. Indeed this version is almost identical +with Versions A and B of the second cycle given in the first +part of the present work, as recorded in the collection of +authentic <i>hadiths</i> compiled by Bukhari and Muslim.</p> + +<p>From the “Historia Arabum” it passed to the “Crónica +General” or “Estoria d’Espanna,” which King Alphonso +the Wise himself compiled or had compiled in the Romance +language of Castile between 1260 and 1268, and where it +appears with some slight additions,⁠<a id="FNanchor_610" href="#Footnote_610" class="fnanchor">[610]</a> no doubt made from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>other Arabic sources current at the time. The greater interest +attaching to the “Crónica,” and the fact that it was written +in Romance would ensure the wider diffusion of the legend.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_6">6. Indeed not long afterwards, towards the end of the +thirteenth century, another document appeared showing +how widespread the legend was among Christian Spaniards. +This was the “Impunaçion de la seta de Mahomah,” written +during his captivity at Granada by St. Peter Paschal, Bishop +of Jaen and Friar of the Order of Mercy.⁠<a id="FNanchor_611" href="#Footnote_611" class="fnanchor">[611]</a> Born at Valencia +in 1227, of captive or Mozarab parents, he not unnaturally +was a master of Arabic, a fact that would stand him in great +stead in his mission of redeeming prisoners. Appointed tutor +to the son of the King of Aragon, he accompanied his charge +to Toledo when the latter was raised to the dignity of Archbishop, +and there he devoted himself to fostering and extending +throughout Castile the Order of Mercy, which was then +in its infancy. His work in this connection led him to +undertake a journey to Rome, where his learning and +religious zeal excited the admiration of Pope Nicholas IV. +On his return, he stayed a while at Paris, and at the university +there gained fame as a theologian. Appointed Bishop of +Jaen in 1296, he was taken prisoner by the Moors of Granada +in the following year and was martyred in 1300. During +the four years of his captivity he wrote, among other books, +the apologetic work against Islam mentioned above.⁠<a id="FNanchor_612" href="#Footnote_612" class="fnanchor">[612]</a></p> + +<p>The knowledge of Islam he displays is considerable. At +every step he quotes the Koran and authentic versions of +the <i>hadiths</i>; the latter he calls “Alhadiz,” and occasionally +“Muslimi,” in reference to the canonical collections made +by the critic Muslim. He also mentions a book on paradise +and hell, which is, no doubt, one of the compendiums of +<i>hadiths</i> common among the Moslems of Spain; and refers +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span>to other “Libros escriptos de los Moros,” which must also +have been collections of legends on the after-life.⁠<a id="FNanchor_613" href="#Footnote_613" class="fnanchor">[613]</a> More +interesting, however, are his quotations from a book the +title of which he variously transcribes as “Elmiregi,” +“Miragi,” “Miráj” or “Elmerigi.” This is evidently the +<i>Miraj</i> or ascension of Mahomet, or, as the Saint has it, +“the book in which he told how he rose to the heavens”; +“the book which tells how Mahomet rose as he says to +heaven, where is God, and how he spoke with God and saw +paradise and hell and the angels and devils and the tortures +of hell and the delights of paradise.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_614" href="#Footnote_614" class="fnanchor">[614]</a> But he does more +than merely quote from this book. In Chapter 8 of the +first part of the “Impunaçion” he inserts the entire legend +of the <i>Miraj</i>, adding a burlesque commentary in refutation +of its fabulous episodes and miraculous visions; these the +Saint airily disposes of as “mere fancy, vanities, lies, humbug +and idle talk.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_615" href="#Footnote_615" class="fnanchor">[615]</a> The version of which he availed himself +belongs to the third cycle, in which the Nocturnal Journey +and the ascension of Mahomet are fused into one story. The +ascension proper, however, is related according to Version C +of the second cycle, where in spirituality the visions of +paradise approach nearer to Dante’s conception. Finally, +there are introduced into the general scheme of the legend +many <i>hadiths</i> dealing with the day of judgment, the “Sirat” +or purgatory, the topography of hell, and life in paradise, +the resemblance of which to the descriptions of Dante has +been duly demonstrated.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_7">7. If, therefore, the legend of the <i>Miraj</i> was well known in +Spain, at any rate as early as the thirteenth century, is it +unlikely that it should also reach Italy, bound as that country +was by ties of close and constant communication with Spain?⁠<a id="FNanchor_616" href="#Footnote_616" class="fnanchor">[616]</a> +St. Peter Paschal, who knew the legend well, resided for a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>time in Rome during the Pontificate of Nicholas IV, <i>i.e.</i>, +between 1288 and 1292, and, though it would be idle to base +an argument on this mere fact, it may at least serve as a +typical example of the hidden channels through which the +legend might have reached the Florentine poet. At that +time the plan of his divine poem, the first part of which, the +Inferno, was finished in 1306, was maturing in Dante’s +mind. Moreover, in 1301, Dante himself visited the Papal +Court as the Ambassador of Florence to Pope Boniface VIII.⁠<a id="FNanchor_617" href="#Footnote_617" class="fnanchor">[617]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_8">8. But there are other surer channels by which the legend +could have been transmitted. Dante received his literary +training from Brunetto Latini, a scholar of encyclopædic +knowledge and a notary of Florence, who rose to fill the +highest offices of state.⁠<a id="FNanchor_618" href="#Footnote_618" class="fnanchor">[618]</a> More than a master, Brunetto was +a literary adviser and friend for whom the young poet felt +the greatest respect and admiration, and whose counsel +and guidance were a source of constant inspiration to him. +The affectionate discourse Dante feigns to hold with his +master on meeting him in hell is eloquent testimony of the +spiritual tie that Dante himself admits bound him to Brunetto +Latini and his work.⁠<a id="FNanchor_619" href="#Footnote_619" class="fnanchor">[619]</a> This connection has long been apparent +to the commentators on the Divine Comedy⁠<a id="FNanchor_620" href="#Footnote_620" class="fnanchor">[620]</a>; and some +Dante students have even sought in the writings of Brunetto, +particularly in the allegorical and didactic poem of the +“Tesoretto,” the model and idea that inspired the Divine +Comedy. Although the hypothesis has been rejected by +the Dante students themselves,⁠<a id="FNanchor_621" href="#Footnote_621" class="fnanchor">[621]</a> there yet remains the +important fact of the link between the studies of the pupil +and the oral and written doctrine of the master.</p> + +<p>The written doctrine is contained in the “Tesoretto” +and the “Tesoro,” which respectively are a small and large +encyclopædia of mediæval learning. To obtain the mass of +data required for the latter work Brunetto, without ignoring +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>classical and Christian sources, drew, as did all his contemporaries, +upon the Arabic works on science then available. +Sundby, the learned Dane who half a century ago investigated +the sources of the “Tesoro,” restricted his research to the works +that were then more easy of access, that is to say, the Christian +and classical writers. But many of the passages, the origin of +which he admits he does not know, may easily be traced to +Arabic models.⁠<a id="FNanchor_622" href="#Footnote_622" class="fnanchor">[622]</a> Thus the classification of philosophy given at +the beginning of the work is copied from Avicenna⁠<a id="FNanchor_623" href="#Footnote_623" class="fnanchor">[623]</a>; the version +of the <i>Nichomachean Ethics</i> of Aristotle that Brunetto used, +appears to have been a translation of an Arabic text from +Spain; and the Bestiaries or collections of animal legends, of +which he availed himself, were mostly of Arabic origin. Lastly, +Brunetto’s own references to Oriental authors form a strong +argument in favour of a like origin being attributed to other +passages which it has been impossible to connect with any +previous Christian or classical works.⁠<a id="FNanchor_624" href="#Footnote_624" class="fnanchor">[624]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_III_section_9">9. In addition, the Tesoro contains a biography of +Mahomet, in which, coupled with a puerile belief in certain +legends deriding the Prophet, Brunetto shows considerable +knowledge of the doctrine and customs of Islam.⁠<a id="FNanchor_625" href="#Footnote_625" class="fnanchor">[625]</a> As the +Italian Codices of the Tesoro have not yet been edited, it +is difficult to say whether the legend of the <i>Miraj</i> is contained +in this biography, among the fables attributed by +Brunetto to Mahomet. But, even if it were not included, +the hypothesis that Brunetto may have known of the legend +and communicated it by word of mouth to his disciple +cannot be rejected as improbable.</p> + +<p>For Brunetto Latini was in a position to acquire his knowledge +of Arabic culture at first hand, when in 1260 he was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>sent as Ambassador of Florence to the court of Alphonso +the Wise, the patron and director of the famous Toledan +school of translators.⁠<a id="FNanchor_626" href="#Footnote_626" class="fnanchor">[626]</a></p> + +<p>The details of this mission are not known, but the mere +facts of Brunette’s having stayed at Toledo and Seville, +where the court resided at the time, is significant. It is +easy to imagine how deep would be the impression produced +on so cultured a mind, ever eager to acquire more knowledge, +by these two brilliant centres of learning. Living at +the court of a king, whose learning was unique in mediæval +Europe, and in the midst of a hybrid society that was +influenced by classical, Christian and Oriental traditions +alike, he cannot fail to have been impressed; and it is +unlikely that his ambassadorial duties should not have left +him leisure to satisfy his curiosity as a scholar. At the +Toledan School of Translators, and the inter-denominational +University of Seville, Christians and Moslems were continually +engaged on the production of literary and scientific +works, and only four years before had rendered into Romance +Castilian the “Historia Arabum,” which contained the very +legend of the <i>Miraj</i>. As a matter of fact, on his return to +France, Brunetto almost immediately wrote his two main +works, the “Tesoretto” and the “Tesoro.” The latter, as +has been seen, contains traces of the influence of Arabic +works, and nowhere could these have been more readily +available than in Toledo and Seville; the former is even +supposed to have been dedicated to Alphonso the Wise.</p> + +<p>Everything thus would seem to bear out the suggestion +that the master of Dante Alighieri received more than a +merely superficial impression from his visit to Spain,⁠<a id="FNanchor_627" href="#Footnote_627" class="fnanchor">[627]</a> and +may well have been the medium through which some at +least of the Islamic features apparent in the Divine Comedy +were transmitted to the disciple.⁠<a id="FNanchor_628" href="#Footnote_628" class="fnanchor">[628]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span></p> + +<p>The documentary evidence, however, consisting in the +likeness shown between the divine poem and the Islamic +sources, is in itself sufficient, even though it may not be +possible to demonstrate through what hidden channels communication +actually took place.⁠<a id="FNanchor_629" href="#Footnote_629" class="fnanchor">[629]</a> For do not the characteristics +of each style of architecture found on a monument +of varied design betray the influence of its respective school, +even though history may have left no actual record of the +association between these schools? Documentary evidence, +should it exist, would not strengthen the expert’s conviction; +it would but confirm the inferences he had already drawn.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span></p> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV">IV<br> +<span class="smcap">The Attraction Felt by Dante towards +Arabic Cultures Confirms the Hypothesis of Imitation</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_1">1. The possibility that the Moslem models of the Divine +Comedy may easily have reached Italy and the Florentine +poet from Moslem sources having been sufficiently proved, +one question alone remains to be answered. Was the +mentality of Dante, as revealed in his works, antagonistic +to the ready assimilation of these models? For, obviously, +no contact, however close, could beget imitation if diversity +in language, religion, race, philosophy and art had inspired +the Florentine poet with an aversion to the culture of the +Arabs. In answer to this question, it may at once be said +that all the evidence points to the contrary.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_2">2. In the first place, Dante Alighieri was in matters of +learning and literature open to influence from all quarters. +Dante students have one and all laid stress upon this mental +receptivity. Ozanam repeatedly dwells upon the passionate +desire for knowledge that urged on the poet in his search for +truth and beauty.⁠<a id="FNanchor_630" href="#Footnote_630" class="fnanchor">[630]</a> D’Ancona has explained how Dante +studied and mastered a vast range of subjects; how in his +mind inspiration was reconciled with a respect for tradition, +and inventive faculty with erudition.⁠<a id="FNanchor_631" href="#Footnote_631" class="fnanchor">[631]</a> Umberto Cosmo, +more recently, asserts that in its receptiveness the mind of +Dante might be likened to a sea that receives its waters +from all parts. Dante, he says, gathered intellectual +nourishment from the whole culture of his time, and in his +mind were reflected and recast in a new, personal form the +sentiments and ideas of the past and the present.⁠<a id="FNanchor_632" href="#Footnote_632" class="fnanchor">[632]</a></p> + +<p>Opinions of such weight would seem to establish <i>a priori</i> +that the culture of Islam, dominant in thirteenth-century +Europe, must have been known to Dante. It is inconceivable +that he, leading a life of such mental activity, +should have ignored Moslem culture, which at the time was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>all-pervading; that he should not have felt the attraction +of a science that drew men of learning from all parts of +Christian Europe to the court of Toledo, and of a literature +the influence of which was paramount in Christian Europe, +which it initiated in the novels, the fables and the proverbs, +as well as the works on moral science and apologetics, of the +East.⁠<a id="FNanchor_633" href="#Footnote_633" class="fnanchor">[633]</a></p> + +<p>The prestige enjoyed by Islam was largely due to the +Moslem victories over the Crusaders.⁠<a id="FNanchor_634" href="#Footnote_634" class="fnanchor">[634]</a> Roger Bacon, a contemporary +of Dante, attributed the defeats of the Christians +precisely to their ignorance of the Semitic languages and +applied science, of which the Moslems were masters.⁠<a id="FNanchor_635" href="#Footnote_635" class="fnanchor">[635]</a> In +another field of learning, Albertus Magnus, the founder of +scholasticism, agreed with Bacon on the superiority of the +Arab philosophers⁠<a id="FNanchor_636" href="#Footnote_636" class="fnanchor">[636]</a>; and Raymond Lull even recommended +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span>the imitation of Moslem methods in preaching to the +people.⁠<a id="FNanchor_637" href="#Footnote_637" class="fnanchor">[637]</a></p> + +<p>Rarely can public opinion have been so unanimous in +admitting the mental superiority of an adversary. This +view was upheld by Moslem men of learning, who adjudged +the European races to be unfit for civilisation. This curious +assertion was actually made by two Moslem thinkers of +Spain in the eleventh century, Ibn Hazm of Cordova, and +Said of Toledo. In their respective works, the Critical +History of the Religions and the History of the Sciences, +they declared that the peoples of Northern Europe were by +nature unfitted for the cultivation of the sciences and arts, +which flourished in Moslem Spain.⁠<a id="FNanchor_638" href="#Footnote_638" class="fnanchor">[638]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_3">3. In view of the universal admiration for Islamic culture, +it is not astonishing to find a certain leaning towards it on +the part of Dante.</p> + +<p>It was at one time believed that Dante had a knowledge +of Semitic languages, especially of either Arabic or Hebrew, +the inference being based on two solitary verses of the Divine +Comedy. Modern opinion, however, favours the view that +in these verses the poet merely intended to introduce meaningless +phrases, though it is admitted that the words attributed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span>to Nimrod contain Semitic elements.⁠<a id="FNanchor_639" href="#Footnote_639" class="fnanchor">[639]</a> Be this as +it may, if it cannot be proved from Dante’s writings that he +knew the Semitic languages, neither can it be proved that +he was ignorant of them. It may at least be supposed that +he knew of their qualities and aptness as a means of social +intercourse; and, indirect as his knowledge may have been, +it was sufficient to enable him to compare them with the +Romance languages, to the disadvantage of the latter. For, +treating in his work, <i>De vulgari eloquio</i>, of the multitude of +languages spoken in the world, he, although a native of +Florence and by race and language a Latin, does not allow +himself to be prejudiced in favour of his mother tongue; +rather does he show proof of his characteristic breadth of +mind when he admits “that there are many other nations +speaking tongues more pleasant to the ear and more expressive +than those of the Latin peoples.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_640" href="#Footnote_640" class="fnanchor">[640]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_4">4. It need hardly be added that such attraction as Dante +felt towards Oriental culture does not imply a liking for the +Moslem faith, for the sincerity of his Christian belief is +beyond all doubt. His sympathies were merely literary, and +scientific; and his mental attitude is revealed in two typical +passages of the Divine Comedy. Avicenna and Averrhoes he +places in the limbo,⁠<a id="FNanchor_641" href="#Footnote_641" class="fnanchor">[641]</a> + but Mahomet, in hell.⁠<a id="FNanchor_642" href="#Footnote_642" class="fnanchor">[642]</a> And even +Mahomet is not punished as the founder of Islam, but as a +sower of discord and an author of schism; he is placed +along with men the effect of whose actions cannot be compared +with the profound upheaval—religious, social and +political—that Islam caused in the history of the world and, +to her unutterable loss, in the history of the Church. The +leniency of this punishment is significant of Dante’s sympathies +for Arabic culture. In his eyes, Mahomet is not so +much a repudiator of the Trinity and Incarnation as a +conqueror whose violence cut asunder the ties uniting +mankind. Incomplete as his picture may be, it does not +display the absurdity marked in the mediæval fables of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>Prophet. The Christian historians of Dante’s age outvied +one another in weaving the most extravagant and contradictory +tales about Mahomet. According to some, he +was a pagan; to others, a Christian. He was given in turn +the names of Ocin, Pelagius, Nicholas, and Mahomet. Some +depict him, rightly, as illiterate; others, as a magician, or +even a scholar of Bologna. He is represented as having been +a Spaniard, a Roman, and even a member of the family +of Colonna. Some historians, again, confuse the Prophet +with his mentor, the Nestorian monk Bahira, and make +of him a deacon or cardinal who, aspiring to the Papacy, +set out for Arabia from Constantinople, Antioch or Smyrna.⁠<a id="FNanchor_643" href="#Footnote_643" class="fnanchor">[643]</a> +Before the gross ignorance displayed in such crude misrepresentations, +the sober picture drawn by Dante stands as +a silent rebuke to his contemporaries. One is tempted to +think that Dante was content to depict Mahomet as a mere +conqueror, not because he was unaware of the other sides +to his character, but because the portrayal of these would +have been incompatible with the absurd image stereotyped +on the minds of his readers.</p> + +<p>That the restraint shown by Dante is not due to ignorance +is abundantly borne out by one fact. The poet shows Ali +suffering the same torture as his cousin and father-in-law, +Mahomet. The role played by Ali in the history of Islam +is nowadays a matter of general historical knowledge. It +is well known that the Caliphate did not pass to his sons or +their descendants, who were hunted down by the Ommeyad +and Abbaside Caliphs; but they soon found eager partisans +who, under the name of Shiites, dominated Persia, Syria, +Egypt and Barbary down to the twelfth century. The +history of the bloody struggles provoked by this undoubted +schism down to the time of Saladin, fully justifies the placing +of Ali, the unwitting cause of the great split, among the +authors of schism. But, natural as this may now appear, +it was quite beyond the understanding of the Christian +historians of Dante’s age. To them the figure of Mahomet +himself was an enigma, let alone that of his cousin Ali. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span>Accordingly, the early commentators on the Divine Comedy +are at a loss to account for his appearance alongside of the +Prophet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_644" href="#Footnote_644" class="fnanchor">[644]</a> The contrast between the ignorance of the +Christian writers and the thorough knowledge displayed by +Dante in itself argues a considerable acquaintance on his +part with Islamic lore.</p> + +<p>But there is still further evidence. The figure of Ali is +sketched with a sober realism that is no mere creation of the +poet’s imagination, in fact it is strictly in accordance with +historical data.⁠<a id="FNanchor_645" href="#Footnote_645" class="fnanchor">[645]</a> The assassin Ibn Muljam, the Moslem +chroniclers state, with one stroke of the sword cleft open +Ali’s skull, or, according to others, struck him in the forehead +with a dagger, which split open his head and penetrated +into the brain. The tragic scene must have vividly impressed +the early Moslems, for legends soon arose according to which +Mahomet, or Ali himself, prophesied the sad fate awaiting +the latter. “Thy assassin—said Mahomet to him—will +strike thee there—and pointed to his head—and the blood +from the wound will flow down to here—and he touched his +chin.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_646" href="#Footnote_646" class="fnanchor">[646]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_5">5. In addition to a knowledge of Islamic tradition, Dante +displays a general sympathy with Moslem philosophers and +men of science. In his minor prose writings he frequently +quotes, and occasionally makes use of, the works of the +astronomers, Albumazar, Alfraganius and Alpetragius, and +the great philosophers, Alfarabius, Avicenna, Algazel and +Averrhoes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_647" href="#Footnote_647" class="fnanchor">[647]</a> Thus, Paget Toynbee has shown how some of +the passages in the <i>Convito</i> and the <i>Vita Nuova</i> are based +upon the astronomical theories of Alfraganius or the ideas of +Averrhoes on the lunar spots. In his <i>De vulgari eloquio</i> (I, 6) +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span>Dante himself admits having read books on cosmography, +and the most common of these at that time were Arabic.</p> + +<p>This accounts for the benevolent treatment accorded by +Dante to men like Saladin, Avicenna, and Averrhoes, whom +he places in the limbo—a treatment that, judged upon +theological principles, is indefensible. No one, and certainly +not Dante, could have been unaware of the hostility shown +by Saladin to everything Christian, and of how he had overrun +Palestine and wrested the Holy City from the grasp +of the Crusaders. Neither the military qualities nor the +magnanimity of Saladin can be regarded as natural virtues +sufficient in themselves to warrant the exemption from +eternal punishment of one who did such grievous harm to +the faith of Christ. The same may be said of Avicenna and +Averrhoes. However blameless their conduct may have +been, their learning excluded all possibility of their defence +on the plea of utter ignorance of Christ that, according to +the doctrine guiding Dante, could alone have justified their +deliverance from hell. Averrhoes, moreover, stood in the +eyes of the Christian Europe of the time as the embodiment +of rationalistic unbelief.⁠<a id="FNanchor_648" href="#Footnote_648" class="fnanchor">[648]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_6">6. Dante’s sympathies for Islamic science in general, and +for Averrhoes in particular, furnish the key to another +enigma, as has recently been shown in a clever study by +Bruno Nardi.⁠<a id="FNanchor_649" href="#Footnote_649" class="fnanchor">[649]</a> This was the hitherto incomprehensible +presence in Dante’s paradise, side by side with St. Thomas +Aquinas, of Sigier of Brabant, the champion of Averrhoism, +who died under the ban of the Church. How, it was asked, +could this defiance of public opinion be justified? For, it +should be noted that the poet not only exempts this heretic +from the punishment of hell, but even exalts him to the +mansion of the theologians, and, with a crowning presumption +bordering upon sarcasm, places in the mouth of his +irreconcilable adversary, St. Thomas, words of praise for the +outcast that are equivalent to a rehabilitation of his memory.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_IV_section_7">7. Nardi, to solve this problem, reopens the question of +the sources of Dante’s philosophy, hitherto regarded as +exclusively Thomist. By a close comparison of Dante’s +works with the writings of other scholastics of the neo-Platonic +school and the systems of Avicenna and Averrhoes, +he shows that Dante, far from appearing as an unconditional +Thomist, was a scholastic, but of eclectic +tendencies, who accepted theories from all thinkers ancient +and mediæval, Christian and Moslem, and embodied them +in a system of his own that was intermediate between the +philosophy of St. Thomas and that of Avicenna and Averrhoes, +although more akin to the latter. The main points in Dante’s +philosophy that Nardi has shown to be of Arabic filiation +relate to cosmology, theodicy and psychology: God is +Light, whose rays grow weaker as they travel further from +their Centre. The Intelligences of the Celestial Spheres +reflect these rays and thereby imprint the various forms +upon Matter. Creation must, therefore, be conceived as a +gradually decreasing emanation of the Divine Light, and is +brought about, not by God directly and exclusively, but +through the medium of the Celestial Spheres. The intellective +part of the human soul is distinct from the vegetative-sensitive +part; the former alone is created. Intellection +begins by Divine illumination and needs the help of Faith +before it can attain to super-sensible Truth.</p> + +<p>Nardi proceeds to show how these ideas of Dante, although +found in part in the Augustinian tradition, are rather derived +from the neo-Platonic philosophy of the Arabs and, more +particularly, from the systems of Alfarabius, Avicenna, +Algazel and Averrhoes.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V">V<br> +<span class="smcap">The Close Resemblance Between Dante and +the Mystic, Ibn Arabi of Murcia, Furnishes Further Proof of +the Thesis of Imitation</span></h3> + +</div> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_1">1. The conclusions arrived at by Nardi are more than +sufficient to indicate that, as in his artistic representation +of the after-life, so in his trend of thought Dante betrays +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span>signs of Arabic influence. Should further proof of our +thesis be required, the poet’s philosophical system might be +traced back to its actual sources in Islam, which are to be +found not so much among the philosophers as in the works +of the Illuministic Mystics, and of the Murcian Ibn Arabi in +particular. The Illuministic, or <i>Ishraqi</i> and pseudo-Empedoclean +school, was founded by Ibn Masarra of Cordova; and +from Spain its ideas were transmitted to the so-called +Augustinian scholastics, among others to Alexander Hales, +Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon, and Raymond Lull. As has +been shown in the discussion of the Paradiso, an essential +part of <i>Ishraqi</i> teaching—the metaphysical doctrine of light—reappears +in the Divine Comedy, where it is illustrated, +moreover, by the same symbols as are used by the Moslem +mystics. Creation, too, is conceived as an emanation of +Divine light, the teleological cause of which is love, and its +primary effects, universal and formless matter.⁠<a id="FNanchor_650" href="#Footnote_650" class="fnanchor">[650]</a> Thus a +new vista is opened up. Seen in this wise, Dante would +appear to have been but one more follower of the Illuministic +school, and pre-eminent by his art alone. It has been +demonstrated above that almost all of the artistic forms +used in Ibn Arabi’s picture of the realms beyond the grave +were reproduced a century later in the Divine Comedy. +The suggestion now presents itself that many of the Illuministic +theories of Dante were derived from the same +Ibn Arabi, the leading exponent of <i>Ishraqi</i> ideas, rather +than from the other Arabic philosophers with whose systems +Nardi compares them.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_2">2. The solution of this problem is beyond the limits of +the task at present before us, which is restricted to the +search for evidence of a leaning on Dante’s part towards +Islamic culture. Nevertheless, it may be of interest to +establish a general parallel between the two thinkers, Dante +and Ibn Arabi. This should bear, not so much upon the ideas +common to both, as upon the images and symbols by which +they gave expression to these ideas and the literary devices +to which both writers resort to expound their views. As +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>already stated, coincidence in imaginative detail more readily +suggests imitation than sympathy in doctrine, although, +naturally, conviction is strengthened when both ideas and +images agree.</p> + +<p>As regards the images, Ibn Arabi uses the same symbols +as Dante to express the metaphysics of light, an essential +part of the thought of both. God is pure light, and his +manifestation <i>ad extra</i> is described by similes of light—diffusion, +illumination, reflexion and irradiance—which are +all typical of Dante’s imaginings. The metaphor of the +mirror, used by Dante to exemplify the influence of superior +upon inferior beings, appears, like that of the flame of the +candle, frequently in the works of Ibn Arabi. The geometrical +symbol of the circle and its centre, representing the cosmos +and its Divine principle, recurs even more often in Ibn +Arabi than in Dante, and gives rise to similar paradoxes in +the works of both writers. As light is the symbol of God +and His manifestations, so is darkness of matter. Opacity +and transparency respectively characterise the body and +the mind in both Dante’s and Ibn Arabi’s conception.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_3">3. A comparison of the expository methods of the two +authors will prove still more interesting. The cabbala of +letters and numbers is seen from all his works to be an +obsession of Dante. Secret virtues are attributed to special +numbers, or the numerical values of certain letters are +associated with their ideological values. The flavour of +occultism thus imparted to Dante’s style is exactly like +that found in all the works of Ibn Arabi, whose worship at +the cabbalistic shrine argues the sincerity of his conviction. +Entire chapters of his <i>Futuhat</i> and whole books are devoted +to this superstition; and he even goes so far as to base +many of his philosophical demonstrations on the numerical +relations thus established.</p> + +<p>Another superstition common to the two writers is their +belief in astrology. It is needless to dwell upon the many +passages in the Divine Comedy and the <i>Convito</i> that testify +to the blind faith shown by Dante in the absurd subtleties +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>of astrology. Ibn Arabi, in his whimsical conceits, indulges +in still wilder flights of fancy.⁠<a id="FNanchor_651" href="#Footnote_651" class="fnanchor">[651]</a></p> + +<p>The literary artifice of personifying abstract entities is +seen in Dante’s <i>Vita Nuova</i>, where the vital, the animal, the +visual and natural spirits reason and discourse with one +another. Ibn Arabi has no equal in the use, or rather abuse, +of prosopopoeia. God and His names, the spirits of Being +and of Nothingness, Matter and Shape, engage at each +step in the <i>Futuhat</i> in lengthy discussions, like persons of +flesh and blood.</p> + +<p>Finally, whole passages in the <i>Vita Nuova</i> and the Divine +Comedy, which purport to be autobiographical, are devoted +to the description and mystical interpretation of dream +visions. Ibn Arabi also narrates a multitude of dreams, +hidden in which he discovers the loftiest metaphysical +thought.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_4">4. Of all the visions thus described by Dante, one is of +particular interest.⁠<a id="FNanchor_652" href="#Footnote_652" class="fnanchor">[652]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Dante in a dream sees a youth robed in white, seated near +him in a pensive attitude. The youth sighs, as he raises +his eyes to him, and to Dante’s question why he is so sad, +replies: “Ego tamquam centrum circuli, cui simili modo se +habent circumferentiae partes; tu autem non sic.” The +poet calls upon him to explain the meaning of this symbol, +but the youth replies: “Non dimandar più che utile ti sìa.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Common in the extreme among Moslem mystics is the +dream vision of God appearing to them in the image of a +youth. A <i>hadith</i> attributed to the ninth-century traditionist, +Tabrani, tells how Mahomet first saw the vision.</p> + +<p>I saw the Lord my God in a dream—begins the <i>hadith</i>—seated +on a stool, a beardless youth of great beauty....⁠<a id="FNanchor_653" href="#Footnote_653" class="fnanchor">[653]</a></p> + +<p>Ibn Arabi himself claims to have seen similar visions, in +which his Divine beloved, God, appeared to him in human +form.⁠<a id="FNanchor_654" href="#Footnote_654" class="fnanchor">[654]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“These apparitions,” he says, “left me in such a state +that for days I could take no food. Each time that I sat +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>down to eat He appeared standing at the end of the table, +gazing upon me and saying in words that I actually heard, +‘and wilt thou eat in My presence?’ and eat I could not. +In truth I felt no hunger, for His presence filled and well-nigh +intoxicated me ... for throughout those days His +vision haunted me wheresoe’er I went.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>True, none of these visions contains the same cryptic +words that Dante places in the mouth of the youth. But +these words undeniably have their interpretation in the +metaphysics of Ibn Arabi. In his geometrical symbolism, +God is the independent centre of a circle and His creatures +the points on the circumference, that are dependent for +their existence on the centre. God, then, is the centre of +gravity towards which all creatures are drawn by the love +inspired in them by the infinite beauty of the Divine +essence.⁠<a id="FNanchor_655" href="#Footnote_655" class="fnanchor">[655]</a></p> + +<p>It may be argued that this interpretation does not necessarily +furnish the key to the enigma of Dante’s vision, but +it does offer an explanation. In the obscure words attributed +to the youth Dante would indeed seem to express the love +he felt in his heart towards God, the centre of creation. This +is the very doctrine he unfolded later in the Divine Comedy, +where he asserts that the entire universe is swayed by the +love of God, which is the principal and the final goal of all +movement.⁠<a id="FNanchor_656" href="#Footnote_656" class="fnanchor">[656]</a></p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_5">5. Coincidences of literary artifice even more striking will +be found by comparing the <i>Cancionero</i> and the <i>Convito</i> with +two books of Ibn Arabi, “The Interpreter of Love” and its +commentary, “The Treasures of Lovers.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_657" href="#Footnote_657" class="fnanchor">[657]</a> Indeed, it will +be seen that the literary principles underlying the works +of both authors are the same. The intermingling of verse +with prose, which is characteristic of the <i>Convito</i>, is to be +found in almost all the works of Ibn Arabi, but no two works +of the poets coincide so remarkably as “The Interpreter +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span>of Love” and the <i>Convito</i>. Both poets represent their work +to be autobiographical, and the theme and mode of expression +in each are almost identical.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Convito</i> Dante declares his intention to interpret +the esoteric meaning of fourteen love songs which he had +composed at an earlier date and the subject of which had +led to the erroneous belief that they dealt with sensual +rather than intellectual love. The poet desires to clear +himself of the accusation of sensuality, and thus has written +the <i>Convito</i> as a commentary on those songs and in explanation +of the allegory underlying the literal meaning.</p> + +<p>The literal sense is the love of the poet for a fair and +virtuous maiden, learned yet modest and devout, of a winning +grace and courteous manner, whose bodily and moral perfections +the poet extols in an outburst of impassioned verse. +Beneath this cloak of voluptuousness Dante avers there is +hidden the love for the Divine science of philosophy, personified +by the maiden. Her eyes represent the demonstrations +of wisdom; her smiles, its persuasions; the rays of +love that descend from the heaven of Venus upon the lover +are the philosophical books; and the love-sick sighs he +heaves are symbolic of the anguish of the mind tortured by +doubt and the longing for truth.⁠<a id="FNanchor_658" href="#Footnote_658" class="fnanchor">[658]</a></p> + +<p>Finally, Dante explains how he came to write the original +songs. One day after the death of his beloved Beatrice, +Dante is walking alone, when of a sudden he meets a gentle +maiden of great beauty and learning, with whom he falls in +love; not daring to declare his passion, he seeks solace in +the ecstatic contemplation of his idol and sings his emotions +in melancholy rhymes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_659" href="#Footnote_659" class="fnanchor">[659]</a></p> + +<p>An identical occurrence and motive inspired Ibn Arabi +to compose the love poems contained in his “Interpreter +of Love” and write the commentary upon it known as +the “Treasures of Lovers.” In the prologue to the commentary +the author furnishes an explanation, of which the +following is a summary:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>When I resided at Mecca in the year 598 (1201 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>) I +made the acquaintance of a number of worthy people, pre-eminent +among whom was the learned doctor Zahir ibn +Rustam, a native of Ispahan, who had taken up his abode +at Mecca. This master had a daughter, a tall and slender +maiden. Virtuous, learned, devout and modest, she was a +feast for the eyes and bound in chains of love all who beheld +her. Were it not that pusillanimous minds are ever prone +to think evil, I would dwell at greater length upon the qualities +with which God had endowed both her body and her +soul, which was a garden of generous feeling.</p> + +<p>It was from her that I drew the inspiration for the poems, +telling of the sweet fancies of a lover. In them I sought to +convey some of the passionate feelings treasured in my heart +and to express the tender longings of my soul in words that +should suggest how dearly I loved her and how the thought +of her filled my mind in those bygone days as it haunts me +even now. Thus every name mentioned in this work refers +to her, and hers is the dwelling of which I sing. But also, +in these verses I make constant allusion to spiritual revelations +and to relations with the Intelligences of the Divine +spheres. This is customary in our allegorical style, for to +our mind the things of the future life are preferable to those +of this world; moreover, she herself knew full well the hidden +meaning underlying my verse. God forbid that the reader +should attribute unworthy thoughts to the writers of poetry +such as this—men whose aims are loftier and who aspire +but to the things of heaven.</p> + +<p>My reason for composing this allegorical commentary upon +my songs was that my pupils had consulted me about them. +They had heard learned moralists of Aleppo deny that holy +mysteries lay hidden in my poems and allege that, in trying +to affirm this, I merely sought to conceal the sensual love +which I had felt. I therefore set to work to write this commentary +upon all the amorous poems I had composed during +my stay at Mecca in the months of Recheb, Shaban, and +Ramadan. In all these poems I constantly allude to +spiritual mysteries and to the teachings of philosophy and +ethics. If, to express these lofty thoughts, I used the +language of love, it was because the minds of men are prone +to dally with such amorous fancies and would thus be more +readily attracted to the subject of my songs.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span></p> + +<p>Ibn Arabi then introduces a fragment from his book of +songs, in which he enumerates the more usual among his +poetic metaphors and interprets their general allegorical +meaning. He adds:</p> + +<p>“All these figures of speech should be regarded as symbolic +of sublime mysteries and Divine illuminations vouchsafed +to me by the Lord God. Turn thy thoughts, oh! reader, +from the mere words and seek the hidden meaning that +thou mayest understand.”</p> + +<p>Having thus duly warned the reader, Ibn Arabi begins his +commentary with the fictitious story of the vision of a +beautiful maiden.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“One night,” he says, “I was in the temple of the Caaba, +walking, as required by rite, round and round the holy +dwelling. My mind felt at ease and a strange peace overcame +my soul. To be alone, I went out of the temple and +started to walk along the roadway. As I walked, I recited +aloud some verses, when, of a sudden, I felt a hand softer +than velvet touch me on the shoulder. I turned and lo! +a Greek maiden stood before me. Never had I beheld so +beautiful a countenance, nor heard so soft a voice; never +had I met a woman more endearing or with speech so refined, +who expressed such lofty thoughts in more subtle language. +Verily she surpassed all the women of her day in delicacy +of mind, in literary culture, in beauty and in learning....”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Prefacing his work with the narration of this fictitious +episode in his life, which he alleges led to the composition of +his songs, the author proceeds to give the allegorical meaning +of each verse. His beloved, he explains, is the symbol of +Divine wisdom⁠<a id="FNanchor_660" href="#Footnote_660" class="fnanchor">[660]</a>; her virgin breasts, the nectar of its teachings; +the smile on her lips, its illuminations.⁠<a id="FNanchor_661" href="#Footnote_661" class="fnanchor">[661]</a> Her eyes are +the emblems of light and revelation.⁠<a id="FNanchor_662" href="#Footnote_662" class="fnanchor">[662]</a> The mournful sighs +of the lover represent the spiritual longings of the soul.⁠<a id="FNanchor_663" href="#Footnote_663" class="fnanchor">[663]</a> +Among a host of other subjects, the author deals with the +origin and destiny of the human soul, the nature and phenomena +of love, and the essence of spiritual beauty. In +matters of faith, he discusses the relations between reason +and belief, the hidden trinal sense of the conception of God, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span>the transcendental value of universal religion in comparison +with other religions, and Islam as a religion of love.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_6">6. The coincidence here shown between the <i>Convito</i> of +Dante and the <i>Treasures</i> of Ibn Arabi may prove of further +interest, as furnishing an answer to the vexed question of +the origin of that form of lyrical poetry known in Italy +as <i>dolce stil nuovo</i>. In this new school of poetry, of which +Guido Guinicelli, Guido Cavalcanti and Dante were the +contemporary creators, the theme of each song is love. The +emotion of the poet at the sight or remembrance of his +beloved is described in two forms—either it is a mystical +adoration, a sweet beatitude of the soul that in ecstasy longs +for spiritual union with its beloved and thus strives heavenward; +or else it is an affliction of the heart torn by anguish, +a morbid fever that consumes the life blood of the lover, a +dread disorder of the mind that pervades his whole being +and makes him long for the approach of death as a relief +from the torture he is suffering. In subtle inquiry into the +emotional processes of love, Cavalcanti stands supreme, +more especially when dealing with love as an affliction. +His songs are tragic outbursts of this mode of feeling which +is found to a less degree in Guinicelli and Dante, who treat +love rather as a gentle melancholy, or as an ecstatic contemplation +or mystical and semi-religious aspiration.</p> + +<p>Another characteristic of the <i>stil nuovo</i> poetry is the +analysis and philosophic interpretation of the emotions. +The psycho-physiological faculties and spirits controlling +the heart are distinguished and even personified. This +scholastic manner, which robs the poetry of much of its +charm, is used to excess in Cavalcanti’s “Donna mi prega.”</p> + +<p>The mere possession of the woman they love is far from +being the sole desire of these poets. On the contrary, their +elect appears to them rather as an ethereal image, a being +who is worthy of Platonic love. Indeed to them real love +lies, not in marriage, but rather in a perpetual state of +chastity; and the figure of their beloved they idealise either +as an angel of heaven or the symbol of Divine wisdom or +philosophy. In either conception, she is the instrument +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span>by which God inspires the lover with noble feelings and +sublime ideas. And so, earthly and heavenly love are +merged in one.</p> + +<p>Vossler has pointed out the absence in either classical or +Christian literature of anything that might serve to account +for this hybrid theory of a love that is at once earthly and +spiritual; this curious and new form—to quote his own +words—of Platonism, which yet is not directly derived from +Plato.⁠<a id="FNanchor_664" href="#Footnote_664" class="fnanchor">[664]</a> There is nothing in the doctrine of the Church, in +Ovid, or in Aristotle, to explain such an idealistic and +romantic conception of woman, so spiritual a love, which, +as Vossler says, must have appeared grotesque to the +philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages. Vossler’s +efforts to find an explanation are more remarkable as +examples of ingenuity and erudition than they are convincing. +The ideas expressed by the Italian poets of the +<i>dolce stil nuovo</i> he traces back through the songs of Provençal +troubadours to the chivalry and psychology of the Germanic +race.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_7">7. But Vossler’s argument, based on complicated transformations +of social psychology, is brought to nought by +one outstanding fact: far earlier than the first of those +many stages, Islam in the East and in Spain had furnished +works, both of prose and poetry, treating of love in the same +romantic spirit.</p> + +<p>The common prejudice—common both by its wide diffusion +and the absence of all logical foundation—denying all +idealism to the conception of love of the Arabs, and Moslems +in general, is quite contrary to fact. The Yemen tribe of +the Banu Odhra, or “Children of Chastity,” were famous +for the manner in which they upheld the tradition of their +name. “I am of a race that, when it loves, dies,” said one +of them. Jamil, one of their most celebrated poets, died +mad with love for his lady, Butayna, upon whom he had +never dared lay hands. Two other poets of the same tribe, +the lovers Orwa and Afra, died together consumed by the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span>flame of a lifelong passion, which left them in a state of +chastity to the end. The romanticism that prefers death +to the defilement of the chaste union of the souls is a feature +of all the melancholy and beautiful songs of these poets.⁠<a id="FNanchor_665" href="#Footnote_665" class="fnanchor">[665]</a> +The example of abstinence and perpetual chastity set by +the Christian monks of Arabia may well have influenced the +Banu Odhra. The mysticism of the Sufis, directly inherited +from the Christian hermits, also drew its inspiration from +the lives and writings of the romantic poets of Arabia.⁠<a id="FNanchor_666" href="#Footnote_666" class="fnanchor">[666]</a> +Regardless of the fact that neither the Koran nor the life +of Mahomet himself furnishes the slightest ground for so +idealistic an interpretation of love, they do not hesitate to +attribute to the Prophet the saying: “He who loves and +remains chaste unto death, dies a martyr.” Ibn Arabi +adopts this motto⁠<a id="FNanchor_667" href="#Footnote_667" class="fnanchor">[667]</a>; and the doctrine is followed by many +Sufis who, although married, stand as heroic examples of +perpetual chastity. Thus idealised, the wife is no longer the +sexual mate of the Sufi, but rather his companion or sister +in asceticism; and his love for her is part of his love for +God.</p> + +<p>This new trend of thought is promptly reflected in the +literature both of the East and the West. Ibn Daud of +Ispahan, in his <i>Book of Venus</i> of the ninth century, analyses +and defends romantic love. Ibn Hazm of Cordova, who +lived in the eleventh century, has left us in his book called +the “Necklace of the Dove,” but better known as the “Book +of Love,” and in a smaller work, “Characters and Conduct,” +a whole treatise dealing with the passion of love and breathing +the purest romanticism.⁠<a id="FNanchor_668" href="#Footnote_668" class="fnanchor">[668]</a> He regards the essence of +love as consisting not in the commerce of the bodies but in +the union of the souls. Moreover, his “Necklace” abounds +in authentic stories of Spanish Moslems, drawn from all +ranks of society, whose love is Platonic and who render +silent homage to their beloved and worship her with an +almost mystical adoration. At times, in his anguish, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span>lover writes letters bathed in tears or even written in his +blood. Many, in a paroxysm of despair, meet with a tragic +end in madness or death.</p> + +<p>But this romantic form of love, as sung by the poets of +the Banu Odhra and described and classified in the books +of Ibn Daud and Ibn Hazm is perhaps rather than ascetic +continence an ultra-refinement of an erotic sensibility that +has been worn out by excess. Accordingly, it appears at +three epochs and in three centres that in this respect had +reached the zenith of hyperæsthesia—in the Yemen, where +the pre-Islamic poets had exhausted the theme of sensual +love, and at the highly civilised courts of Baghdad and +Cordova, where decadence had begun to set in.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_8">8. We are thus still far from the Platonic conception of +woman, idealised as an angel and a symbol of philosophy. +The origin of this strange conception would seem to be due +to an attempt to idealise the sensual coarseness of the +Koranic paradise. The houris of the Koran, although +celestial, are intended solely to be instruments of carnal +delight. This idea was incompatible with the spiritual +longings of the later Moslem mystics, who had been profoundly +influenced by the asceticism preached and practised +by the Christian monks. But it was impossible to eliminate +from the Koran the verses proclaiming those sensual joys. +The mystics, therefore, in their legends of the after-life +replaced the houris by one celestial bride, a spiritual being +whose love is chaste and whom God has appointed to each +of the blessed.⁠<a id="FNanchor_669" href="#Footnote_669" class="fnanchor">[669]</a> In all those legends, this heavenly spouse is +depicted as a guardian angel, who serves to inspire her lover +with a desire for spiritual perfection and a greater love for +God during his life on earth.</p> + +<p>Later, when to the asceticism inherited from the Christian +monks the Sufis applied a pantheistic and neo-Platonic form +of metaphysics, the idealisation of sexual love reached the +acme of subtlety and abstruseness. This has been shown +by the erotic poems of Ibn Arabi, in which the beloved is +a mere symbol of Divine wisdom and the passion felt for her +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span>allegorical of the union of the mystic soul with God Himself. +The psychological phenomena attendant upon love he +analyses with a surprising delicacy and penetration, and +shows himself far superior, especially in the <i>Futuhat</i>, to any +of the Italian poets of the <i>dolce stil nuovo</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_670" href="#Footnote_670" class="fnanchor">[670]</a> Not content +with distinguishing between the different degrees of feeling +that separate love from sympathy, from affection, from +passion and from desire, he probes into the subconscious +states of the heart and mind, and interprets them in a +mystical sense. The sighs, the tears and mental anguish +of the lover; his languor and melancholy; his bewilderment +and his secret grief mingled with jealous anger; his fits of +brooding and dejection, of ecstasy and rapture—the whole +gamut of the psychology of love is closely analysed in the +pages of the <i>Futuhat</i>, which is at the same time a metaphysical +exegesis of the passion. For, after admitting a +threefold aim in love, viz., the union of the sexes, the union +of the souls, and the spiritual union with God, he has the +sublime audacity to assert that it is God who appears to +every lover in the image of his beloved.⁠<a id="FNanchor_671" href="#Footnote_671" class="fnanchor">[671]</a> In order that we +may learn to love Him, He assumes the form of the fair +Zaynab, of Suad, of Hind, of Layla—of all those beauties +of whose charms the poets sing, little suspecting that in their +songs of love they are praising the only Beauty of the World, +God, incorporate in those sensual forms.</p> + +<p class="mt2" id="PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_9">9. Let us at this juncture glance backwards and collect +the threads of the argument presented in this last part of +our work.</p> + +<p>The numerous symptoms of a leaning towards Islamic +culture that have been discovered in the writings of Dante +are proof that his mind, far from being averse from the +influence of Moslem models, was rather inclined towards +their assimilation. In a previous chapter it was shown +how likely the transmission of these models from Moslem +Spain to Italy and the Florentine poet was. In the first +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>two parts of this work the great wealth of Moslem feature +in the Divine Comedy was demonstrated after minute +examination. In the third part it was seen how the majority +of pre-Dante Christian legends are also derived from the +literature of Islam. It would seem, therefore, that the +chain of reasoning is complete, and that no serious objection +can be raised to the assertion that imitation did indeed exist, +once we have established as facts the <i>resemblance</i> between the +model and the copy, the <i>priority</i> of the former to the latter, +and <i>communication</i> between the two.</p> + +<p>Nor is it possible any longer to deny to Islamic literature +the place of honour to which it is entitled in the stately +train of the forerunners of Dante’s poem. For this literature, +in itself, furnishes more solutions to the many riddles that +surround the genesis of the poem than all the other precursory +works combined.</p> + +<p>But at every step of the long journey we have travelled +in the research into the Islamic models of the Divine Comedy, +the figure of one writer has stood out as the most typical +and the most likely to furnish in his works the key to what is +still obscure in Dante. We refer to the figure of the Spanish +mystic and poet Ibn Arabi of Murcia. His works in general, +and particularly his <i>Futuhat</i>, may indeed have been the +source whence the Florentine poet drew the general idea +of his poem. There also Dante could have found the +geometrical plans of the architecture of hell and paradise, +the general features of the scenery in which the sublime +drama is laid, the vivid picture of the life of glory led by the +chosen, the Beatific Vision of the Divine Light, and the +ecstasy of him who beholds it. Moreover, it would be difficult +to find two thinkers whose poetical and religious temperaments +are so alike as those of Dante and Ibn Arabi; for the +resemblance extends not only to their philosophical thought, +derived from the illuministic school of Ibn Masarra, but also +to the images by which their ideas are symbolised and the +literary means by which they are expressed. Nowhere +is this seen more clearly than in the <i>Convito</i> and the <i>Treasures</i>. +Conceived and composed in the self-same manner, these +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span>works were written with the same personal object; and both +authors follow the same method in the allegorical interpretation +of the amorous theme of their songs. The share due +to Ibn Arabi—a Spaniard, although a Moslem—in the +literary glory achieved by Dante Alighieri in his immortal +poem can no longer be ignored.</p> + +<p>The gigantic figure of the great Florentine need not thereby +lose one inch of the sublime height it has reached in the eyes +of his compatriots and of all mankind. Blind admiration +of genius is not the most appropriate form of homage. Nor +could the worship of his memory, inspired by a mere spirit +of patriotism, satisfy a man who placed above his love for +Italy and the Latin race, the lofty ideals of humanity and +religion; who laid proud claim to the title of a citizen of +the world; and who breathed into the exquisite form of +his divine poem an universal and eternal spirit of morality +and mysticism that was the natural expression of the deepest +Christian feelings.</p> + +<p>In the end we find that it is that perennial source of poetry +and spirituality, the Divine religion of Christ, that furnishes +the real key to the genesis of Dante’s poem and its precursors, +both Christian and Moslem. For Islam, be it once more +said, is but the bastard offspring of the Gospel and the +Mosaic Law, part of whose doctrines on the after-life it +adopted. Lacking the restraining influence of an infallible +authority whereby the fancy of its believers might have been +checked, it assimilated elements from other Eastern sources +and thus came to deck and overlay with all the trappings +of Oriental fancy the sober picture of the life beyond the grave +that is outlined in the Gospel. Dante could, without altering +the essence of Christian teaching on that life, draw for the +purposes of his poem on the artistic features furnished by +the Moslem legends. In so doing he was but reclaiming for +Christianity property that was by rights its own, heirlooms +that had lain hidden in the religious lore of the East until +restored to the stock of Western culture greatly enhanced +by the imaginative genius of Islam.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> <span class="smcap">Asín Palacios</span> has published this summary, under the title of <i>Historia +crítica de una polémica</i>, simultaneously in four reviews: <i>Boletín de la Real +Academia Española</i> (Madrid, 1924); <i>Il Giornale Dantesco</i> (Florence, 1924); +<i>Revue de littérature comparée</i> (Paris, 1924); <i>Litteris</i> (Lund, Sweden, 1924).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, p. 120. The complete bibliography of all books +consulted will be found in the <a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHICAL_INDEX">Appendix</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> When making this assertion I was unaware of the works published +two years before in Italian reviews by the erudite Dante critic, Bruno +Nardi, the first and only writer to attribute a neo-Platonic affiliation to +the philosophy of the Florentine poet. We shall refer to the works of +Nardi in Part IV, chap. IV, § 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, p. 163.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> When writing the third part of my book, dealing with the Moslem +elements in the pre-Dante Christian legends, I discovered from <span class="smcap">Torraca</span> +(<i>Precursori</i>, 331) that the influence of the Mahometan ascension over +Dante had previously been suspected by Blochet. But, Blochet, in his +essay, <i>Les sources orientales de la Divine Comédie</i>, failed to state the +problem in its real terms and his hypothesis, being unsupported by documentary +evidence, remained a mere surmise. Accordingly, Torraca +easily disposes of it, saying:—</p> + +<p>“Egli ragiona così; Dante conobbe le narrazioni occidentali di altri +viaggi al mondo di là; ma queste narrazioni derivano dalla leggenda +orientale (i.e. the <i>Miraj</i>); dunque essa è la fonte prima della Divina +Commedia.”</p> + +<p>The difference between this argument and the one on which the present +work is based will be readily apparent to the reader.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, p. 373.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, p. 498 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, <i>Precursori</i>, pp. 108 and 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Reference to the Divine Comedy will be omitted when the resemblance +is one that affects the whole of a scene spread over several pages. For such +the reader may consult any of the summaries of Dante’s poem.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> <i>Inf.</i> I; <i>Purg.</i> IV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> <i>Inf.</i> III, 26, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Of Version B there are four varieties which, to avoid repetition, are +here reduced to one by the elimination of details common to A and B.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> <i>Inf.</i> V, 4 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXXIV, 114; <i>Purg.</i> II, 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> See Rossi, I, 146, who summarises the <i>contrapasso</i> in the Divine +Comedy, and compare with the tortures described in Versions A and B.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> <i>Inf.</i> V, 31 <i>et seq.</i> It should be added that, at the approach to this +region, Dante, like Mahomet in Version B, hears the cries of the damned +(Ibid. 25 <i>et seq.</i>).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XII, 46 <i>et seq.</i> The coincidence may extend to the crime, for the +Arabic text of Version B reads: “those who ate of usury,” while Dante +says literally (<i>Inf.</i> XII, 104) that “Ei son tiranni, che dier nel sangue e +<i>nell’aver di piglio</i>.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XIV and XV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XXXI, 102. Cf. <i>Purg.</i> XXXIII, 138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> Cf. <i>Koran</i>, LII, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> <i>Koran</i>, LIII, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 140, 142, 143; <span class="smcap">Fraticelli</span>, + 47, n. 8 and <span class="smcap">Porena</span>, p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> <i>Inf.</i> III, 82-100; V, 4-24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> <i>Inf.</i> VII, 1-15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> <i>Inf.</i> VIII, 13-24; 82 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> <i>Inf.</i> IX, 79-106.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XII, 11-27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXI, 58 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> <i>Inf.</i> III, 133-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> <i>Inf.</i> VIII, 67-75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> <i>Inf.</i> IX, 109 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> <i>Inf.</i> VI, 13-33; XXIV, 82 <i>et seq.</i>; XXV, <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXX, 49-57; 81-84; 102; 106-7; 119; 123.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXIX, 79-87.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXI, <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXVIII, 22-42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> The cock was to some extent revered by the primitive Moslems. Its +crowing at dawn announced the time for prayer, and the more pious +among the masses were wont to set to its notes words exhorting the faithful +to pray. This might have given rise to the belief that the crowing of all +the cocks on earth could only be simultaneous by being the echo of the +crowing of a celestial cock. Some <i>hadiths</i> indeed attribute an angelic +nature to this heavenly cock. Cf. <span class="smcap">Damiri</span>, I, 388-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> <i>Koran</i>, CVIII, 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> <i>Koran</i>, XIII, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> See my work, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, ch. IV, V and VIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 165, 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> To quote all these passages would be tantamount to writing out the +entire <i>Paradiso</i>. See mainly Cantos V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII, +XIV, XV, XVIII, XXII, XXIII, and XXVII-XXXIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> Compare chiefly the following passages of the <i>Paradiso</i>: VII, 1-6; +X, 139-144; VIII, 28-31; XII, 7-9, 22-30; XIV, 118-126; XX, +73-75, 142-144; XXI, 139-142; XXIV, 112-114; XXV, 97-99, +130-135; XXVI, 67-69; XXVIII, 94-96; XXXII, 94-99, 133-135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> <i>Par.</i> II, 23-24; V, 91-92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> <i>Par.</i> VIII, 22-24; XXII, 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> <i>Par.</i> I, 4-9; X, 43-47; XXIII, 55-59; XXX, 19-22; XXXI, 136-138; +XXXIII, 55-56, 106.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXIII, 90, 121-3, 139, 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> <i>Par.</i> III, 128-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> <i>Par.</i> XIV, 77-8; 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXV, 118-121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> The quotations on this and the following pages are from the English +version by the Rev. <span class="smcap">P. H. Wicksteed</span>, M.A., “The Temple Classics.” +Edit. J. M. Dent, London.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXIII, 28-33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXIII, 76-84; 118-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXVIII, 16-18; XXIX, 8-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXX, 46-51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXX, 55-60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXIII, 52-54; 76-84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> <i>Par.</i> X, 52-54. Cf. <i>Par.</i> II, 29-30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXI, XXXIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXI, 58-60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXIII, 94 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXVIII, 94, 98-101, 118-120.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> <i>Par.</i> XVIII-XX.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> <i>Par.</i> XVIII, 100-101; 103-108. XIX, 1-6; 34-35; 37-39; 95-97. +XX, 73-74. XVIII, 76-77; 85-86; 91, 93. XIX, 10-12; 20-21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXI, 13-15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXII, 133-135; 148-153.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXVIII, 16-18; 25-34; 89-93. XXX, 100-105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXIII, 57-63; 93-94; 97-99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> <span class="smcap">Vossler</span>, II, 216.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XIX, 7-36; 55-60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> The fable of Ulysses and the syrens.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Fraticelli</span>, 310, n. 7. <span class="smcap">Landino</span>, + fol. 269. <span class="smcap">Scartazzini</span>, 536 and 539.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> In Moslem oneirology the vision, seen in a dream, of a woman, a +prostitute with naked arms, is interpreted as a symbol of the world.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> <i>Purg.</i> I, 94-99; 124-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XXXI, 100-103. XXXIII, 127-129; 142-145.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> <span class="smcap">Victor Chauvin</span> has compiled a complete list of the biographies of +Mahomet in his <i>Bibliographie des ouvrages arabes ou relatifs aux Arabes</i>, +IX, <i>passim</i>. For the special literature of the <i>Miraj</i> v. ibidem, X, 206-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Brockelmann</span>, I, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> Reference to the works quoted by <span class="smcap">Chauvin</span> shows that of the better-known +treatises on the <i>Miraj</i> one is of the 10th century, another of the +13th, two of the 14th, one of the 15th, four of the 16th, two of the 17th, +four of the 18th, and one of the 19th. As in all literatures, the more modern +drive the older treatises out of circulation. Thus the treatise on the +<i>Miraj</i>, now printed in Cairo in preference to all others, is that of Ghiti +(16th century), which is sometimes published with the glosses of Dardir +(18th century). For the purposes of the present work, in addition to the +two printed treatises, others as yet unedited and contained in the Gayangos +Collection have been consulted, viz. MS 105, fol. 70-93 (16th century), +cf. <span class="smcap">Brock</span>, II, 304; fol. 94-166 (17th century), cf. <span class="smcap">Brock</span>, II, 317; fol. +211-250, dated 1089 Heg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> Indeed, the authors of these works invariably, by the testimony of +the oldest traditionists and companions of the Prophet, seek to establish +the authenticity of these episodes. The author of the first treatise in MS 105, +quoted above (see <a href="#Footnote_79">p. 39, footnote 3</a>), gives in the form of an appendix +(fol. 92, recto) a complete list of the thirty-eight companions of the Prophet +who are supposed to have narrated the <i>Miraj</i> in whole or in part.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> The episodes are taken from the printed and unedited treatises mentioned +above. Reference to the actual passages will be made in each case.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Ghiti</span>, 41, and <span class="smcap">Dardir</span>, + 7. Also MS 105, Gayangos Collection, +fol. 120.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXI, 22-33; 58-105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> <span class="smcap">Ghiti</span>, 44, and <span class="smcap">Dardir</span>, + 14. Likewise MS 105 of the Gayangos Collection, +fol. 123 and 232 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXI, 28-33; 136-7; XXII, 68-9; 100-111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> <span class="smcap">Ghiti</span>, 44 <i>et seq.</i>; <span class="smcap">Dardir</span>, + 14 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> MS 105 Gayangos Coll. fol. 124 vᵒ, line 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, fol. 126 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, fol. 127 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, fol. 232 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VI, 293, No. 5,079.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> MS 64 Gayangos Coll. fol. 115 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> <span class="smcap">Tabari</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, XV, 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> One detail in the description calls for mention. Over the gate of +paradise Mahomet sees an inscription extolling the virtues of almsgiving +and lending free of interest (<span class="smcap">Ghiti</span>, 86, and <span class="smcap">Dardir</span>, 20). It will be remembered +that in the version of Cycle 3 Mahomet hears a voice from hell +describing the torments prepared and calling upon God to deliver up the +sinners. In addition, there is the inscription branded on the forehead of +the sodomite and the murderer in the Moslem hell, saying that they have +“despaired of God’s mercy” (<i>Corra</i>, 31, and <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 2,086, No. 3,173), +which is similar to the “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate.” If +Dante was indeed acquainted with these features, it would be easy for +him to combine and embody them in his inscription over the gate of +hell; for the spiritual conception of his paradise precluded all idea of +material gates and inscriptions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> Cf. MS 105 of the Gayangos Coll., fols. 216, 218, 223 vᵒ, 225, 245 and +246, in which fragments in rhymed prose and verse are inserted dealing +with the <i>Miraj</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 18, and <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, I, 51-52. The examination to which +the soul is subjected in each heaven in this legend may be compared with +Dante’s catechism on the three theological virtues in the eighth heaven +(<i>Par.</i> XXIV-XXVI). Noteworthy also is the close relation between +each heaven and a corresponding virtue peculiar to the souls that succeed +in ascending to it; this is what characterises the moral structure of +Dante’s paradise. Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a> <i>Minhaj</i> of Algazel, p. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a> This presumption on the part of the Sufis was regarded as a sin against +the faith. Proof of this is furnished (in <i>Al-Yawaqit</i>, II, 174) by Ash-Sharani’s +denunciation of the Murcian Ibn Arabi who claimed to have visited +heaven and hell. Such arrogance may be explained by the Sufi doctrine +which admits of the possibility of the saint’s acquiring the dignity of a +prophet. Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> Cf. <i>Tafsir</i> of <span class="smcap">Qummi</span>, XV, 6. Other Sufi interpreters account for the +inclusion of the <i>Miraj</i> in the Divine Scheme by the necessity of Mahomet’s +being able to explain the mysteries of the after-life with the authority of +one who had been an eye-witness. Cf. MS 105 Gayangos Coll., fol. 213; +also <span class="smcap">Al-Horayfish</span>, 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> Cf. MS 105, fol. 214, line 2 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> Avicenna, in his <i>Risala at-tayr</i>, pp. 26-32, adapts the <i>Miraj</i> to the +flight of birds, symbolising the exaltation of the souls of sinners which, +having cast off all worldly ties, fly towards God over eight mountains +towering one above the other.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, 110-115, where other works by the author +and his master Ribera on the life and system of Ibn Arabi are quoted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> Extant at the Kgl. Bibliothek, Berlin (Nos. 2,901/2) and at Vienna +(No. 1,908), according to <span class="smcap">Brockelmann</span>, I, 443, No. 16. Another copy +is in the possession of the author, to whom it was presented by his learned +friend Hassen Husny Abdul-Wahab, Professor of History at the Khalduniya +of Tunis. The <i>Book of the Nocturnal Journey</i> comprises 108 folios, of +which the greater part is commentary. In the prologue, Ibn Arabi states +that the theme is a <i>Miraj</i> of the soul written both in verse and prose and +in a style combining allegory with literal fact. He begins by saying: +“I set out from the land of Alandalus (Spain) in the direction of Jerusalem +my steed the faith of Islam, with asceticism as my bed and abnegation as +provision for the journey.” He meets a youth of spiritual nature, sent +from on high to act as his guide; but in the Ascension from Jerusalem is +guided by another, “the envoy of Divine Grace,” with whom he ascends +through the celestial spheres into the presence of God.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> Similar allegorical and mystical adaptations of the <i>Miraj</i> recur in +several of the lesser works of Ibn Arabi. In the <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 447-465, +he devotes a whole chapter, No. 367, to this subject of the <i>Miraj</i>. It +contains a brief mystical commentary on the legend of the Prophet; an +adaptation of the legend to the Ascensions or spiritual raptures of the Sufis +and saints; and a long <i>Miraj</i>, in which the author, following the same +route as Mahomet, is supposed to have risen to the heavens and to have +conversed at length on theological and mystical subjects with all the +prophets.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> In his <i>Epistola a Can Grande della Scala</i> (<i>Opere minori</i>, III, epist. XI, +No. 7, p. 514).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> Cf. <i>Monarchia</i> (<i>Opere Minori</i>, II, 404). Likewise <span class="smcap">Fraticelli</span>, + pp. 28-31 +of Preface to his edition of the Divine Comedy. Also <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 152-157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, Chap. 167, pp. 356-375. The allegory of the Ascension +proper begins on p. 360.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">[108]</a> Note the interest this prologue offers for the allegorical interpretation +of the prologue to the Divine Comedy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">[109]</a> For the value of these symbols in Ibn Arabi’s system, cf. the author’s +<i>Abenmasarra</i>, p. 111, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">[110]</a> The close relation existing between this allegory and that of Ibn Tufayl +in his <i>Self-taught Philosopher</i> or <i>Epistle of Hayy ibn Yaqzan</i> is noteworthy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">[111]</a> <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 151.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">[112]</a> <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="label">[113]</a> Ibn Arabi adheres to the astrological principle much more closely +than Dante, with whom he disagrees on the relationship between each +sphere and its inhabitants.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="label">[114]</a> It is precisely on account of the abstruseness of these discourses that +the analysis of the allegory, which is of extraordinary length, has been +curtailed above. Ideas from all branches of philosophical and theological +lore are developed in them, and allusions are made to the cabbala of +numbers and letters, to magic, astrology, alchemy and other occult sciences. +In short, Ibn Arabi endeavoured to introduce into his allegory, as Dante +did later into his poem, the whole encyclopædia of his age. A precedent +for the literary device of the discourses is provided by versions of the <i>Miraj</i>, +in which, as has been seen, theological discussions are attributed to the +prophets and Gabriel.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="label">[115]</a> Abu-l-Ala Ahmed, the son of Abd Allah al-Maarri, was born at Maarrat +Alnoman, a village in Syria lying between Hama and Aleppo, in 973 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> +At the age of four he lost his eyesight as the result of an attack of smallpox; +nevertheless his powers were so brilliant that under the sole direction +of his father he soon acquired vast learning in the domain of Arabic +philology and literature. By intercourse with philosophers he added to +his culture and sharpened his critical faculties. After residing only one year +at Baghdad, the centre of learning and literature of his time, he returned +at the age of thirty-five to his native village, where he died in 1057 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> +Apart from poetry, he wrote mainly critical works on the Arabic classics. +Influenced by Indian philosophical thought, he certainly appears to have +been a free-thinker. Cfr. <span class="smcap">Brockelmann</span>, I, 254. Also <span class="smcap">Yaqut’s</span> Dictionary, +pp. 162 <i>et seq.</i> <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Algazel, Dogmática</i>, pp. 110 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="label">[116]</a> Nicholson described and translated fragments in the JRAS of 1900 +to 1902. Cfr. also <span class="smcap">Nicholson</span>, <i>Hist.</i> pp. 313-324. The <i>Risala</i> really +consists of two parts; the first, to p. 118, contains the miraculous journey +to the realms beyond the grave; the second is a piece of literary criticism +on the verses and ideas of certain poets who were reputed to be free-thinkers +or atheists.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="label">[117]</a> Abu-l-Hasan Ali, the son of Mansur, known as Ibn al-Qarih, was born +at Aleppo in 962 and died at Mosul sometime after 1030. A professor of +literature in Syria and Egypt, he was also a mediocre poet, cf. <span class="smcap">Yaqut’s</span> +Dictionary, VI, 5, p. 424. Ibn al-Qarih’s epistle, to which the <i>Risala</i> is +a reply, has not been preserved.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="label">[118]</a> For particulars about the writers named in the <i>Risala</i> the general +reader should consult the histories of Arabic literature by <span class="smcap">Nicholson</span>, +<span class="smcap">Brockelmann</span>, or <span class="smcap">Huart</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="label">[119]</a> One of the poets he consults begs to be excused on the plea that he +lost all memory of his poetry in the fright he received at the time of +Judgment, when he was in imminent danger of falling into hell. The +traveller takes this opportunity to relate his adventures prior to entering +paradise. The story is told with so fine an irony, that the reader is +continually in doubt as to whether it is to be taken seriously or not. For, +after depicting in vivid colours the severity of the Judge and the terror +of the souls condemned to fire, the traveller proceeds to relate the artful +dodges by which he managed to escape his due reward and enter heaven. +After a vain endeavour to suborn the angels at the gates, he appealed to +Hamza, an uncle of Mahomet, who referred him to Ali; the latter demands +the certificate proving his repentance and this the traveller remembers +he must have dropped in the confusion of the judgment scenes when +called upon to intercede in favour of a literary master. In vain he offers +to provide witnesses in place of the missing document, and he is on the +point of being dragged off to hell, when he espies Fatima, the daughter of +Mahomet, approaching in a brilliant procession accompanied by Khadija, +the Prophet’s spouse and his sons, mounted on steeds of light. Fatima +allows him to seize her stirrup and he is carried to the bridge leading to +the celestial mansions; this he crosses riding on the back of one of her +maidens. A final obstacle remains to be overcome on the other side; +the angel janitor refuses to admit him without a ticket, but one of Mahomet’s +sons intervenes and drags him inside paradise.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="label">[120]</a> Some of the many miracles attributed to Mahomet consist in his +making animals, such as the ass, goat, gazelle and particularly the wolf, +preach his Divine mission to the Arabs.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="label">[121]</a> The main differences may here be briefly stated. Naturalism is so +pronounced a feature of this journey that at times the imitation sinks to +the level of a mere parody of the Mahometan ascension; and, in this +respect it clearly bears no resemblance to the Divine Comedy, the solemn +earnestness of which is only very rarely interrupted by an introduction +of the burlesque element. Nor is there any resemblance in the architecture +of the realms, for Abu-l-Ala’s journey is practically effected on one plane +and, though hell is laid at the bottom of a volcano, the traveller does not +visit its mansions. Other fundamental differences are that the protagonist +is not the author of the story; the order of the realms is inversed, heaven +being described before hell; and, finally, the story begins <i>in medias res</i>, +for the incidents of his entrance into heaven are told by the traveller in +the course of conversation with the poets he meets in paradise.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="label">[122]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 163, 164, 166, 167.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="label">[123]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="label">[124]</a> <i>Purg.</i> II.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="label">[125]</a> <i>Purg.</i> VI-VIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="label">[126]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="label">[127]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XXI-XXIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="label">[128]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XXIV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="label">[129]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XXVI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="label">[130]</a> <i>Inf.</i> IV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="label">[131]</a> <i>Purg.</i> I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="label">[132]</a> <i>Par.</i> X.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="label">[133]</a> <i>Par.</i> XX. Cf. <i>Par.</i> IX, 31-6, where Cunizza, famous rather for her +amorous adventures than her penitence, is placed in heaven.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="label">[134]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 163.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="label">[135]</a> <i>Purg.</i> V, 133; <i>Par.</i> III, 49; IX, 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="label">[136]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Fraticelli</span>, + <i>Della prima e principale allegoria del poema di Dante</i> +(in <i>La Divina Commedia</i>), pp. 18-27. For the bibliography on this point +see <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="label">[137]</a> <span class="smcap">Vossler</span>, II, 169, quotes Jeremiah V, 5, in which the lion, wolf, and +leopard are mentioned; but in the story of the Moslem journey the analogy +is more complete, for a wolf and a lion are mentioned as <i>barring the pilgrim’s +path to hell</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="label">[138]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">François Martin</span>, <i>Le Livre d’Henoch</i>; + <span class="smcap">Eugène Tisserant</span>, +<i>Ascension d’Isaie</i>; <span class="smcap">R. Charles</span>, <i>The Assumption of Moses</i>; <span class="smcap">R. Charles</span>, +<i>The Apocalypse of Baruch</i>. For the Judæo-Christian origin of these legends +Cf. <span class="smcap">Batiffol</span>, <i>Anciennes Littératures chrétiennes; La Littérature grecque</i>, +p. 56. <span class="smcap">Hirschfeld</span>, in his <i>Researches into ... the Qurân</i>, p. 67, note 64, +quotes a rabbinical legend of a journey through hell and paradise and +points out certain analogies to a <i>hadith</i> of Bukhari. For the influence of +the Persian ascension of Ardâ Virâf, see <span class="smcap">Blochet</span>, <i>L’Ascension au ciel du +prophète Mohammed</i>, and prior to <span class="smcap">Blochet</span>, <span class="smcap">Clair-Tisdall</span> in <i>The sources +of Islam</i>, 76-81. Cf. <span class="smcap">Modi</span>, <i>Dante papers; Virâf, Adaaman and Dante</i>, +a work I have not been able to consult.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="label">[139]</a> The festivity of the <i>Miraj</i> is celebrated on the 27th day of the month +of <i>Recheb</i>, the seventh of the Moslem calendar. At Constantinople the +Sultan attended with his court at the services held at night in the mosque +of the Seraglio. <span class="smcap">Lane</span>, on p. 430 of his book, <i>An account of the manners +and customs of the modern Egyptians</i>, describes the processions and festivals +held in honour of the <i>Miraj</i> at Cairo. Throughout Morocco, the <i>Miraj</i> is +celebrated in the same manner; it is a day of fast and almsgiving for the +stricter Moslems, and the Government offices are closed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="label">[140]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 17-23. Cf. <i>Ithaf</i>, VIII, 548 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="label">[141]</a> Cf. <i>De Haeresibus</i> (<i>Opera Omnia</i>), Paris, vol. I, 110-115, No. 100.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="label">[142]</a> Cf. <i>Qistas</i>, p. 60: “Should someone say to thee, ‘Say that there is +but one God and that Jesus is His Prophet,’ thy mind would instinctively +reject the statement as being proper to a Christian only. But that would +but be because thou hast not sufficient understanding to grasp that the +statement in itself is true and that <i>no reproach can be made to the Christian, +for this article of his faith, nor for any of the other articles</i>, save only those +two—that God is the third of three, and that Mahomet is not a prophet +of God. <i>Apart from these two all the other articles (of the Christian faith) +are true.</i>” For the influence of Christianity on Islam, and particularly on +Algazel, cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>La mystique d’Al-Gazzali</i>, pp. 67-104, and <i>Abenmasarra</i>, +pp. 12-16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="label">[143]</a> <i>Inf.</i> IV, 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="label">[144]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Petavius</span>, <i>Dogm. Theolog.</i> + IV (Pars sec.) lib. 3, cap. 18, § 5. The +texts <span class="smcap">Ducange</span> refers to in his <i>Glossarium</i> (s.v.) are later than the twelfth +century. St. Thomas in the <i>Summa theologica</i> (pars 3, q. 52) calls the +limbo of the Patriarchs <i>infernus</i> and <i>sinus Abrahae</i>, but in the <i>Supplementum +tertiae partis</i> (q. 69) he already adopts the name <i>limbus</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="label">[145]</a> <i>Inf.</i> III, 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="label">[146]</a> <i>Inf.</i> III, 38.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="label">[147]</a> <i>Inf.</i> IV, 106, 110, 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="label">[148]</a> <i>Inf.</i> IV, 28, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="label">[149]</a> <i>Inf.</i> IV, 28, 42, 45. Cf. <i>Inf.</i> II, 52.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="label">[150]</a> <i>Inf.</i> II, 53, 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="label">[151]</a> Cf. St. Thomas, <i>Summa Theol.</i> pars 3, q. 52, and <i>Supplementum</i>, q. 69. +<span class="smcap">Perrone</span>, in his <i>Praelectiones theol.</i>, II, 157, says of the limbo: “Reliqua +autem, quae spectant sive ad hunc inferni locum, sive ad poenarum +disparitatem ... fidem nullo modo attingunt, cum nullum de his Ecclesiae +decretum existat.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="label">[152]</a> <i>Tacholarus</i>, VI, 194, s.v. <i>Ithaf</i>, VIII, 564. <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, + <i>Tafsir</i>, II, 90. +Cf. <span class="smcap">Freytag</span>, <i>Lexicon</i>, and <span class="smcap">Lane</span>, <i>Lexicon</i>, s.v.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="label">[153]</a> The theological meaning of the word Al Aaraf may be derived from +the eschatology of St. Ephrem (<i>id.</i> 373), who divided the celestial paradise +into the summit, slopes and <i>border</i>; in the latter penitent sinners who +have been pardoned dwell until the Day of Judgment, when they will +ascend to the summit. Cf. <span class="smcap">Tixeront</span>, <i>Hist. des dogmes</i>, II, 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="label">[154]</a> Cf. <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 416; III, 567, 577. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 88.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="label">[155]</a> <i>Koran</i>, VII, 44. Cf. <i>Ithaf</i>, VIII, 565; <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 213, No. 2,312. +The Koran here refers to the dwellers in the limbo and not, as Kasimirski +has it on p. 122 of his French translation, to <i>les réprouvés.</i> Cf. <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, +<i>Tafsir</i>, II, 91; also <i>Tafsir</i> of <span class="smcap">Al-Nasafi</span> and <span class="smcap">Firuzabadi</span> in <i>Tafsir</i> of +Ibn Abbas, I, 102.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="label">[156]</a> Compare the passages quoted above of the <i>Ithaf</i> and the <i>Tafsir</i> of +<span class="smcap">Khazin</span> with <i>Inf.</i> II, 52, and IV, 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="label">[157]</a> Other less striking features of resemblance might be quoted. Thus the +crowd running behind the flag in the Ante-inferno (<i>Inf.</i> III, 52) is reminiscent +of many Moslem tales of the Day of Judgment, which depict groups led +by standard-bearers.</p> + +<p>Thus, Moslems will be led by Mahomet bearing the banner of the Glory +of God. The prophet Xoaib with a white banner will lead the blessed that +are blind; Job, with a green banner, the patient lepers; Joseph, likewise +with a green banner, the chaste youths; Aaron, with a yellow banner, +the true friends who loved each other in God; Noah, with a many-coloured +banner, the god-fearing; John, with a yellow banner, the martyrs; Jesus +will be the standard-bearer of the poor in spirit; Solomon, of the rich; +the pre-Islamic poet Imru-l-Qays will be the ensign of the poets in hell; +and the traitor will bear a banner of shame. Cf. <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, I, 154, +and II, 8 and 14.</p> + +<p>As to the swarms of wasps and flies that plague the inhabitants of the +Ante-inferno, the Moslem hell is depicted as “swarming with insects of +all kinds, except bees.” Cf. <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 245.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="label">[158]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Landino</span>, on the 14th page of the preliminary study.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="label">[159]</a> <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 139-140. Cf. <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, <i>Precursori</i>, + 28-31, 36, <i>and passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160" class="label">[160]</a> <span class="smcap">Vossler</span>, I, 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161" class="label">[161]</a> It is difficult to account for his silence on this point, for evidently +any influence the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Phœnicians +may have exercised over the Divine Comedy must have been more remote; +yet he devotes a separate paragraph to each of these peoples and not a +single line to Islam.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162" class="label">[162]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Chantepie</span>, <i>Hist. des rel.</i> + Reference to the quotations in the index, +s.v. <i>Enfer</i>, will show that the Moslem hell is superior to all others in wealth +of descriptive detail.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163" class="label">[163]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Kasimirski’s</span> translation of the Koran, p. 122, footnote and refer +to the index, s.v. <i>Enfer</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164" class="label">[164]</a> Cf. <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 244, Nos. 2,756 to 2,791.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165" class="label">[165]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, + I, 140, and see the general plan <i>Figura universale della D.C.</i> +in <span class="smcap">Fraticelli</span>, p. 402. For the Moslem traditions cf. <i>Kanz</i>, VI, 102, +Nos. 1, 538; 1,546 and 1,601; and VII, 277, Nos. 3,076/7. The belief +that the mouth of hell is situated beneath Jerusalem is still held in Islam, +for the Moslems believe that below the subterranean chamber underneath +the present Mosque or dome of the rock (<i>Qubbat al-sakhra</i>) standing in the +precincts of the Temple, lies the pit of the souls (<i>Bir al-arwah</i>).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166" class="label">[166]</a> This metaphorical interpretation is not justified on philological grounds, +for the Arabic lexicons only give the following indirect meanings:—chapter; +sum of a calculation; mode, category or condition, etc. <span class="smcap">Lane</span> +in his <i>Lexicon</i> (I, 272), however, suggests that in Egypt the word was applied +to a sepulchral chamber, or cave in a mountain, and was derived from the +Coptic “bib.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167" class="label">[167]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VIII, 278, No. 3,079.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168" class="label">[168]</a> Cf. <i>Kanz</i>, <i>ibid.</i> No. 3,078. Also <span class="smcap">Tabari</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, + XIV, 25, and <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, +<i>Tafsir</i>, III, 96. Cf. also MS 234, Gayangos Coll., fol. 100 vᵒ.</p> + +<p>“Ibn Abbas says that hell is formed of seven floors, separated one from +another by a distance of five hundred years.”</p> + +<p>In other <i>hadiths</i> the words <i>gate</i>, <i>floor</i>, and <i>step</i> are replaced by the word +<i>pit</i>. Cf. <i>Kanz</i>, III, 263, No. 4,235.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169" class="label">[169]</a> A collection of <i>hadiths</i> dealing with this division into seven may be +found in <i>Qisas</i>, 4-11; on p. 7 is a <i>hadith</i> by Wahb ibn Munabbih, which +says:—</p> + +<p>“Of almost all things there are seven—seven are the heavens, the +earths, the mountains, the seas ... the days of the week, the planets ... +the gates and floors of hell....”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170" class="label">[170]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 141.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171" class="label">[171]</a> <i>Hadith</i> of Ibn Jurayj in <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, III, +96-97. Cf. MS 64 Gayangos Coll., fol. 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172" class="label">[172]</a> <span class="smcap">Thaalabi</span>, <i>Qisas</i>, 4. Cf. +<i>Kanz</i>, III, 218, No. 3,407. Also <i>Badai az-Zohur</i>, 8-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173" class="label">[173]</a> How popular these descriptions of hell were is shown by the fact that +they passed into the Arabian Nights Tales. Thus, Tamim Dari and +Boluqiya each visit hell, where the latter finds seven floors of fire, +containing: (1) impenitent Moslems; (2) polytheists; (3) Gog and +Magog; (4) demons; (5) Moslems forgetful of prayer; (6) Jews and +Christians; and (7) hypocrites. The severity of torture increases with the +depth; the floors are separated by a distance of a thousand years, and +in the first there are hills, valleys, houses, castles and cities to the number +of seventy thousand. Cf. <span class="smcap">Chauvin</span>, <i>Bibliographie</i>, VII, 48 and 56.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174" class="label">[174]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXXI, 86.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175" class="label">[175]</a> The <i>Tadhkira</i> of the Cordovan, or Memorial of the Future Life, is one +of the richest of such collections and was popular in the East and West. +It is the one mainly drawn upon for the present purpose.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176" class="label">[176]</a> See the list of such names quoted in the index to Fraticelli’s edition of +the Divine Comedy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177" class="label">[177]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 19, 39, 74. Cf. <i>Kanz</i>, III, 76, No. 1,436; V, 217, Nos. 4,479 +and 4,484; VII, 245, Nos. 2,777 and 2,784. <i>Corra</i>, 12. <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, +245. <span class="smcap">Tabari</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, XXIII, 114. Many of the proper names of the +mansions of hell are appellative names taken from the Koran.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178" class="label">[178]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 12 and 31. <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179" class="label">[179]</a> St. Thomas finds no precise topography of hell in Christian tradition +and can only record the probable opinion of the theologians that “ignis +inferni est sub terra,” though formerly he had accepted the statement of +St. Augustine: “In qua parte mundi infernus sit, scire neminem arbitror” +and of St. Gregory, “Hac de re temere definire nihil audeo” (cf. <i>Summa +Theol.</i> Supplementum tertiae partis, q. 97, art. 7). St. Isidore of Seville +supposed hell to be “in superficie terrae, ex parte opposita terrae nostrae +habitabili,” but in the thirteenth century this opinion was no longer +common. Thus in a Mapa mundi extant in MS in the Biblioteca Nacional +of Madrid and the Biblioteca Escurialense (cf. Boletín de la Real Sociedad +Geográfica, vol. L, p. 207) and attributed to St. Isidore though it really +belongs to the thirteenth century, hell is described as lying in the middle of +the earth “at the lowest and bottommost spot.” Curiously enough, +unlike Dante’s and the Islamic picture, hell is here conceived as being +narrow at the top and wide at the bottom; this probably is due to the +faulty interpretation of Moslem documents.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180" class="label">[180]</a> Not in the Vedas. Cf. <span class="smcap">Chantepie</span>, <i>Hist. des rel.</i> 346 and 382. Also +<span class="smcap">Roeské</span>, <i>L’enfer cambodgien</i> (in <i>Journal Asiatique</i>, Nov.-Dec. 1914, +587-606). For the rabbinical hell cf. <span class="smcap">Buxtorf</span>, <i>Lexicon chaldaicum</i> +(Basle, 1639), p. 231 a.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181" class="label">[181]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_45">pp. 45-51</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182" class="label">[182]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 387-396; II, 809; III, 8, 557, 575-577. Other picturesque +features might be added to those mentioned above; thus, in hell there is +both heat and cold; the heads of sects suffer special torture, and Iblis, +the Lucifer of Islam, undergoes the severest torture of all; suffering in +hell is of two kinds, physical and moral. As in Dante (cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 151), +the sufferers may not leave the pit to which they are condemned, but +move freely within its limits (<i>Futuhat</i>, III, 227). Finally, Ibn Arabi +imparts a strong flavour of realism to his pictures by painting them as +if he had actually seen the originals in visions. Thus, on p. 389 of vol. I, +he says:—</p> + +<p>“In this vision I saw of the circles of the damned ... such as God was +pleased to show me. And I saw an abode, called the Abode of Darkness, +and descended some five of its several steps and I beheld the tortures in +each one....”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183" class="label">[183]</a> The theme of the symmetry between the hell and heaven of Islam +will be developed further in the discussion of the latter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184" class="label">[184]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, pp. 111 and 161.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185" class="label">[185]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 388. Cf. <i>Abenmasarra</i>, 109. The figure of the serpent he +no doubt derived from Ibn Qasi, a disciple of the Masarri school and head +of the Muridin, who ruled as sovereign in Southern Portugal until 1151 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186" class="label">[186]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 557.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187" class="label">[187]</a> It is here reproduced from the Turkish author’s two general plans of +the Cosmos given by <span class="smcap">Carra de Vaux</span> in <i>Fragments d’Eschatologie musulmane</i>, +pp. 27 and 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188" class="label">[188]</a> Infernal tortures based on this principle were found in several versions +of the <i>Miraj</i>, but they recur in far greater number in other traditions +depicting the torments of the sinners or the scenes on the Day of Judgment.</p> + +<p>In them, thieves suffer amputation of both hands; the liar has his lips +torn asunder; the nagging wife and the false witness are shown hanging +by their tongues; unjust judges appear blind; the vain, deaf and dumb; +hired mourners go about barking like dogs; suicides suffer throughout +eternity the torture of their death; the proud are converted into ants and +trampled upon by all the other sinners. Some categories of sinners are +obliged to bear the <i>corpus delicti</i> as a stigma; thus, the drunkard carries +a bottle slung round his neck and a glass or a guitar in his hand; the +tradesman who gave short weight carries scales of fire hanging from his +neck; and the reader of the Koran who was puffed up with pride at his +accomplishment appears with a copy of the holy book nailed to his neck; +and so forth.</p> + +<p>Cf. <i>Corra</i>, 12-25, 31, 37, 43. <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 195. <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 2,086, +No. 3,173. Gayangos Coll. MS 64, fol. 15 vᵒ; MS 172, fol. 33 v°.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189" class="label">[189]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XVIII, 21; XXIX, 53; XXXI, 82. The Koranic texts are +LVII, 12, and LXVI, 8, glossed by Ibn Arabi in <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 412, line 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190" class="label">[190]</a> Cf. <i>Kharida</i>, 182.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191" class="label">[191]</a> See index of <span class="smcap">Kasimirski’s</span> translation, s.v. <i>Ad.</i> + Cf. <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, +II, 104, and <i>Qisas</i>, 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192" class="label">[192]</a> <i>Inf.</i> V, 89: “l’aer perso.” In <i>Convivio</i>, IV, 20, Dante himself gives a +definition: “Perso è un colore misto di purpureo e di nero, ma vince il +nero e da lui si denomina.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193" class="label">[193]</a> Compare <i>Qisas</i>, 40, lines 18 and 21; 24; 22; 27 and 33; 32, 34 and +37 with <i>Inf.</i> V, 31, 49 and 51; 89; 51; 86; 32, 33, 43 and 49 respectively.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194" class="label">[194]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_16">p. 16</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195" class="label">[195]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 3 and 20. <i>Kanz</i>, VIII, 188, No. 3,288.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196" class="label">[196]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XIV, XV and XVI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197" class="label">[197]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 246, No. 2,800. <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, + II, 41. Cf. <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, +<i>Tafsir</i>, IV, 348-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198" class="label">[198]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, V, 213, No. 4,383; 214, No. 4,415; 217, Nos. 4,479 and 4,484. +<span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 37. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199" class="label">[199]</a> Before leaving the circle in which Dante finds Brunetto, Virgil explains +to him the hydrography of hell, the four rivers of which have their common +source in the island of Crete. On Mt. Ida stands a monument, in the form +of a statue of a Great Old Man, composed of gold, silver, brass, iron and +clay; in every part, except the gold, there is a fissure from which drop +tears, which flowing downhill form the rivers (<i>Inf.</i> XIV, 94 <i>et seq.</i>). Whatever +be the esoteric meaning of Dante’s allegory and however evident the +analogy with the statue of Daniel is, it is of interest to note that tales +dealing with the common source of the four rivers of paradise were very +popular in Islam. According to these tales, the Nile, Euphrates, Jihun +and Sihun spring from a monument in the form of a dome, made of gold +or emerald, standing on a mountain and having four mouths or fissures. +The obscure origin of the sources of the Nile gave rise to similar legends, +which describe its waters as flowing from the mouths of eighty-five statues +of bronze, or else from a mountain on which stands the figure of an old +man, the mythical Khidr. Cf. <i>Badai az-Zohur</i>, 21-23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200" class="label">[200]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 8; <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 195. Cf. <i>Inf.</i> XVIII, 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201" class="label">[201]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XVIII, 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202" class="label">[202]</a> <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 195. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 77. <i>Corra</i>, 17. <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, + II, 83. +Cf. <i>Koran</i>, XXXVIII, 57; LXXVIII, 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203" class="label">[203]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XIX. <i>Corra</i>, 72. Their peculiar posture is also mentioned in +some descriptions of hell attributed to Ibn Abbas. Cf. MS 234, Gayangos +Coll., fol. 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204" class="label">[204]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XX, 11, 23, 37, 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205" class="label">[205]</a> <i>Koran</i>, IV, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206" class="label">[206]</a> <i>Tafsir</i>, V, 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207" class="label">[207]</a> Cf. <i>Qazwini</i>, I, 373.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208" class="label">[208]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 47, line 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209" class="label">[209]</a> <i>Colección de textos aljamiados</i> by Gil, Ribera and Sánchez (Saragossa, +1888), pp. 69 and 71. <span class="smcap">Algazel</span>, <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 21-22; <i>Ithaf</i>, VIII, 561.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210" class="label">[210]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXIII, 58-72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211" class="label">[211]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, III, 251, No. 4, 013.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212" class="label">[212]</a> <i>Koran</i>, XIV, 51. Cf. <span class="smcap">Tabari</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, XIII, 167-8; <i>Corra</i>, + 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213" class="label">[213]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXIII, 110-126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_214" href="#FNanchor_214" class="label">[214]</a> MS 234 Gayangos Coll., fol. 100.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_215" href="#FNanchor_215" class="label">[215]</a> <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 195.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_216" href="#FNanchor_216" class="label">[216]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXIV-XXV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_217" href="#FNanchor_217" class="label">[217]</a> <i>Corra</i>, II, 25, 37, 65. <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 280, No. 3,087.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_218" href="#FNanchor_218" class="label">[218]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXVIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_219" href="#FNanchor_219" class="label">[219]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_220" href="#FNanchor_220" class="label">[220]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VIII, 188, No. 3,288; V, 214, No. 4,415; <span class="smcap">Suyuti</span>, <i>Sudur</i>, + 30 +and 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_221" href="#FNanchor_221" class="label">[221]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, V, 327, No. 5,717. <i>Corra</i>, 65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_222" href="#FNanchor_222" class="label">[222]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 287, No. 3,201. +Cf. also Nos. 3,218, 3,220, 3,221, 3,223, 3,224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_223" href="#FNanchor_223" class="label">[223]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXIX-XXX.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_224" href="#FNanchor_224" class="label">[224]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 247, No. 2,826. MS 172 Gayangos Coll., fol. 34. <i>Corra</i>, 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_225" href="#FNanchor_225" class="label">[225]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXXI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_226" href="#FNanchor_226" class="label">[226]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 75. Cf. <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 212, No. 2,301; 237, Nos. 2,668, 2,671 +and 2,801-2,808. Moreover, the existence of giants in hell was traditional +in Islam, for the dwellers in Ad, who were condemned to hell by the +Koran, were of gigantic stature. In <i>Qisas</i>, 39, the head of one of these +giants is compared to the dome of a great building. The coincidence in +stature of the giants of Dante and those of Islam is also curious. According +to the <i>Tadhkira</i> (p. 75, line 4 inf.) the latter measure 42 fathoms; and +Landino, basing his calculations on Dante’s text, says of Nimrod: +“Adunque questo gigante sarebbe braccia quarantatre o più” (p. 30 of +his prologue to the Divine Comedy).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_227" href="#FNanchor_227" class="label">[227]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_89">pp. 89-90</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_228" href="#FNanchor_228" class="label">[228]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, III, 240, and <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 393. Cf. +<i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_229" href="#FNanchor_229" class="label">[229]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXXII—XXXIV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_230" href="#FNanchor_230" class="label">[230]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 387.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_231" href="#FNanchor_231" class="label">[231]</a> <i>Koran</i>, LXXVI, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_232" href="#FNanchor_232" class="label">[232]</a> Cf. Gayangos Coll. MS 172, fol. 34, and MS 234, fol. 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_233" href="#FNanchor_233" class="label">[233]</a> Jahiz, <i>Hayawan</i> (<i>Book of Animals</i>), V, 24. A summary of the life +and writings of Jahiz is given in the author’s <i>Abenmasarra</i>, Appendix I, +133-137. According to <span class="smcap">Oscar Comettant</span>, <i>Civilisations inconnues</i> (quoted +in <span class="smcap">Larousse</span>, <i>Dict. Univ.</i> s.v. <i>Purgatoire</i>), torture by cold also occurs in +the Buddhist hell.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_234" href="#FNanchor_234" class="label">[234]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_235" href="#FNanchor_235" class="label">[235]</a> Cf. <i>Qazwini</i>, I, 93.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_236" href="#FNanchor_236" class="label">[236]</a> MS 234 Gayangos Coll., fol. 105. Cf. <i>Inf.</i> XXXII, 37; XXXIII, 92; +XXXIV, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_237" href="#FNanchor_237" class="label">[237]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 82; and <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 246, No. 2,810. Cf. <i>Inf.</i> XXXII, 34; +XXXIV, 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_238" href="#FNanchor_238" class="label">[238]</a> MS 172 Gayangos Coll., fol. 34. Cf. <i>Inf.</i> XXXIV 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_239" href="#FNanchor_239" class="label">[239]</a> <i>Inf.</i> XXXIV, 28-139.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_240" href="#FNanchor_240" class="label">[240]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, <i>Demonologia di Dante</i>, in <i>Miti</i>, II, 79-112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_241" href="#FNanchor_241" class="label">[241]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 391.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_242" href="#FNanchor_242" class="label">[242]</a> MS 64 Gayangos Coll., fols. 1-27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_243" href="#FNanchor_243" class="label">[243]</a> <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_244" href="#FNanchor_244" class="label">[244]</a> <i>Qazwini</i>, I, 373, gives a <i>hadith</i>, telling of the dealings of Solomon with +genii and demons, that is of interest for the study of the demonology of +Islam, which shows marked resemblance to that of Dante, particularly +in the matter of the names. On this point cf. <span class="smcap">Damiri</span>, I, 237; <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, +<i>Tafsir</i>, III, 201; and <span class="smcap">Dharir</span>, 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_245" href="#FNanchor_245" class="label">[245]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, II, 109, No. 2,652; <i>Tadhkira</i>, 70; Gayangos Coll., MS 64, +fol. 24, and MS 234, fol. 94.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_246" href="#FNanchor_246" class="label">[246]</a> <i>Kharida</i>, 87 and 95.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_247" href="#FNanchor_247" class="label">[247]</a> Cf. Kasimirski’s translation, <i>Table des matières</i>, s.v. <i>Eblis</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_248" href="#FNanchor_248" class="label">[248]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 26, ch. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_249" href="#FNanchor_249" class="label">[249]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_88">p. 88</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_250" href="#FNanchor_250" class="label">[250]</a> <i>Koran</i>, XXI, 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_251" href="#FNanchor_251" class="label">[251]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 3, line 10 inf. The immediate purpose of this legend was +indeed to explain the stability of the earth in the midst of space, but the +adaptation to other purposes of a picturesque description is a common +feature in literary imitation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_252" href="#FNanchor_252" class="label">[252]</a> So great is the wealth of picturesque detail in the descriptions of the +Moslem hell that minor features of resemblance to Dante have been +omitted as being open to doubt. Thus the Koran repeatedly mentions a +tree in hell, called <i>Az-Zaqum</i> (cf. <span class="smcap">Kasimirski</span>, s.v.), the fruit of which is +bitter and repugnant like the heads of demons (cf. <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, IV, +18 and 116; <i>Tacholarus</i>, VIII, 326; <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 381; <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 515). In +itself this tree bears little resemblance to the human trees into which +Dante converts the suicides (<i>Inf.</i> XIII), which cry out when their branches +are torn and which Dante admits he copied from Virgil’s episode of +Polydorus (Aeneid, III). In Arabian tales of miraculous journeys to hell, +however, there are frequent descriptions of trees the branches of which +resemble human heads and cry out on being torn (cf. <span class="smcap">Chauvin</span>, <i>Bibliographie</i>, +VII, 33 and 56; <i>Qisas</i>, 222; also René Basset’s “Histoire du +Roi Sabour et de son fils Abou’n Nazhar” in <i>Rev. des trad. popul.</i>, XI, +273, 278, and 280).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_253" href="#FNanchor_253" class="label">[253]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Tixeront</span>, II, 200, 220, 350, 433 and III, 270, 428.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_254" href="#FNanchor_254" class="label">[254]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Perrone</span>, II, 122: “Omnia igitur quae spectant ad locum, +durationem, poenarum qualitatem, ad catholicam fidem minime pertinent, +seu definita ab Ecclesia non sunt.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_255" href="#FNanchor_255" class="label">[255]</a> <span class="smcap">Landino</span>, prologue to <i>Purg.</i>, fol. 194 vᵒ; also to <i>Inf.</i> + III, fols. 25 vᵒ +and 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_256" href="#FNanchor_256" class="label">[256]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_80">p. 80</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_257" href="#FNanchor_257" class="label">[257]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 242, Nos. 2,725 and 2,730; VII, 218, No. 2,376.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_258" href="#FNanchor_258" class="label">[258]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_9">p. 9</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_259" href="#FNanchor_259" class="label">[259]</a> <i>Ithaf</i>, VIII, 566. The <i>hadith</i>, attributed to Ibn Abbas, cannot date +later than the tenth century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_260" href="#FNanchor_260" class="label">[260]</a> For a collection of these legends cf. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 58 <i>et seq.</i>; + <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, +II, 25; <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 481 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_261" href="#FNanchor_261" class="label">[261]</a> It should be borne in mind that Dante’s mount of purgatory rises +above the southern hemisphere, which is entirely covered with water, +and reaches to the ether, the last sphere of the sublunar world, bordering +on heaven; its base stands on the back of hell, the entrance to which is +in the northern hemisphere, near Jerusalem.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_262" href="#FNanchor_262" class="label">[262]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 411. Cf. <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 482.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_263" href="#FNanchor_263" class="label">[263]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 573.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_264" href="#FNanchor_264" class="label">[264]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 33. Cf. <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 237, No. 2,677.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_265" href="#FNanchor_265" class="label">[265]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 403-406.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_266" href="#FNanchor_266" class="label">[266]</a> Thus, the ten purgatorial mansions serve for the expiation successively +of: (1) acts forbidden by canonical law; (2) the holding of advanced +opinions on questions of faith; (3) disobedience to parents; (4) failure +to comply with one’s duties towards children and subordinates in the +matter of religious education; (5) harsh treatment of servants and +slaves; (6) and (7) non-compliance with duties towards kinsfolk and +blood relations, respectively; (8) the vice of envy; (9) deceitfulness; +and (10) treachery.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_267" href="#FNanchor_267" class="label">[267]</a> <i>Purg.</i> IV, 100-135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_268" href="#FNanchor_268" class="label">[268]</a> Special books were written on this theme, such as the oft-quoted <i>Sudur</i> +by <span class="smcap">Suyuti</span>, the <i>Tadhkira</i> of the Cordovan, and the work by <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_269" href="#FNanchor_269" class="label">[269]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_270" href="#FNanchor_270" class="label">[270]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, III, 252, No. 4,013; VIII, 175, Nos. 3,054, 3,017, 5,736.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_271" href="#FNanchor_271" class="label">[271]</a> <i>Al-Laali</i>, II, 196. Blindness, both physical and moral, is a common +punishment of infidels. Cf. <i>Koran</i>, LXXXII, 6, and <i>Tadhkira</i>, 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_272" href="#FNanchor_272" class="label">[272]</a> <i>Koran</i>, XLIV, 9-10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_273" href="#FNanchor_273" class="label">[273]</a> <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, IV, 112-113, and <i>Tadhkira</i>, +131. Cf. <i>Purg.</i> XV, 142-145; XVI, 5-7, 35-36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_274" href="#FNanchor_274" class="label">[274]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 404-406.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_275" href="#FNanchor_275" class="label">[275]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 246, No. 2,809.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_276" href="#FNanchor_276" class="label">[276]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 19. Cf. <i>Purg.</i> XIX, 71-72, 94, 97, 120, 123.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_277" href="#FNanchor_277" class="label">[277]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 376.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_278" href="#FNanchor_278" class="label">[278]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_279" href="#FNanchor_279" class="label">[279]</a> The natural consequences of this torture, viz. the violent thirst and +bitter weeping of the tortured, are described with true Oriental hyperbole. +Cf. <i>Corra</i>, 15. “God will give them such thirst as will burn their entrails.” +Cf. also <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 246, No. 2,811: “The wicked will weep, as they are +burnt, until their tears are spent; they will then weep tears of blood, +which will wear furrows in their cheeks.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_280" href="#FNanchor_280" class="label">[280]</a> Cf. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 81, for a description of the purgatorial fire: The souls +raise their voices to Mahomet in lament and pray for his intercession. +God orders his angelic ministers to apportion the torture to the measure of +the sin by preserving from the fire such members of the sinner’s body +as he had used in His service. “And the fire, which is cognisant of the +degree of their guilt, reaches in some to the ankles, in others to the knees, +and in others again, to the breast.” When God has wreaked his vengeance, +He lends ear to the intercession of Mahomet and the prayers addressed to +Him directly by the sinners. Finally Gabriel is ordered to withdraw the +sinners from the fire, and, as he does so, he immerses their blackened +bodies in the River of Life, which flows by the gate of paradise, and thus +completes their purification.</p> + +<p>In other tales the intercessor is an ordinary human being.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_281" href="#FNanchor_281" class="label">[281]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XXVIII-XXXIII. Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 150.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_282" href="#FNanchor_282" class="label">[282]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, <i>Miti</i>, I, 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_283" href="#FNanchor_283" class="label">[283]</a> Ibn Qaim al-Jawziya, of the fourteenth century, in his <i>Miftah</i> (I, +11-34), has left us a record of the various opinions and their chief exponents +both in Eastern and Western Islam.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_284" href="#FNanchor_284" class="label">[284]</a> <i>Koran</i>, II, 33, 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_285" href="#FNanchor_285" class="label">[285]</a> <i>Rasail</i>, II, 151. Cf. <span class="smcap">Brockelmann</span>, I, 213.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_286" href="#FNanchor_286" class="label">[286]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">D’Herbelot</span>, <i>Bibliothèque Orientale</i>, s.v. <i>gennat</i>, + pp. 378, 773, 816.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_287" href="#FNanchor_287" class="label">[287]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Diyarbakri</span>, <i>Tarikh al-Khamis</i>, I, 61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_288" href="#FNanchor_288" class="label">[288]</a> The Moslem belief was in its turn based upon a Buddhist myth. Cf. +<span class="smcap">Reclus</span>, <i>Géogr. Univ.</i> VIII, 581; and especially <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, <i>Miti</i>, I, 59-61. +<span class="smcap">Gubernatis</span>, in his work <i>Dante e l’India</i>, which I have not been able to +obtain, identifies Dante’s Mount of Purgatory with the island of Ceylon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_289" href="#FNanchor_289" class="label">[289]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Batutah</span>, IV, 170 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_290" href="#FNanchor_290" class="label">[290]</a> The belief that the earthly paradise was situated on Adam’s Peak +endured in Islam until the sixteenth century. It was in that century +that the Oriental mystic Ash-Sharani wrote in his <i>Mizan</i> (II, 193):—</p> + +<p>“The paradise in which Adam dwelt is not the supreme paradise ..., +but merely the <i>intermediate</i> paradise, which lies on the summit of the +Mount of the Hyacinth. This is the garden in which Adam ate of the +fruit of the tree. From this paradise he was driven to the earth.... All +children of Adam that die at peace with God return in spirit to that +paradise. But the sinners first pass through the intermediate fire.”</p> + +<p>In his <i>Al-Yawaqit</i>, II, 172, Ash-Sharani repeats this passage almost +literally and attributes it to a writer, who I infer is the tenth century +mathematician Moslema, of Madrid.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_291" href="#FNanchor_291" class="label">[291]</a> The ancients, however, held that Ceylon lay in the antipodes of the +northern hemisphere. Cf. <span class="smcap">Reclus</span>, <i>Géogr. Univ.</i>, loc. cit.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_292" href="#FNanchor_292" class="label">[292]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, <i>Miti</i>, + I, 5: “Che Dante, ponendo il Paradiso terrestre sulla +cima del monte del Purgatorio, fece cosa non caduta in mente a nessuno +dei Padri e Dottori della Chiesa, fu notato già da parecchi.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_293" href="#FNanchor_293" class="label">[293]</a> <i>Koran</i>, VII, 41 and XV, 47: “We shall efface all rancour from their +breasts.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_294" href="#FNanchor_294" class="label">[294]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 99. Cf. <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, + II, 60, for different versions of this +legend.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_295" href="#FNanchor_295" class="label">[295]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 61. A biography of Shakir ibn Muslim, who lived +about 1136 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, is given in <i>Tecmila</i> (Appendix to Codera’s edition, biogr., +No. 2,686).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_296" href="#FNanchor_296" class="label">[296]</a> Thus, as in Dante, the earthly paradise is the final stage of purgatory. +The same position is assigned to it by Ibn Arabi in his <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 573. +Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_115">p. 115</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_297" href="#FNanchor_297" class="label">[297]</a> Observe that angels also guide Dante and Virgil, as they leave purgatory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_298" href="#FNanchor_298" class="label">[298]</a> The resemblance between the garden described here and that of Dante +is noteworthy. Cf. the following passages:—</p> + +<table> + <tr> + <th><span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II.</th> + <th><i>Purg.</i> XXVIII.</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>P. 61, line 8 inf.</td> + <td>Line 7.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>P. 62, lines 1, 2, and 12.</td> + <td>Lines 120, 14.</td> + </tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_299" href="#FNanchor_299" class="label">[299]</a> Compare the descriptions of the two rivers in <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 62, +line 8, and <i>Purg.</i> XXVIII, 28, 133, and 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_300" href="#FNanchor_300" class="label">[300]</a> It should be noted that, as in Dante’s poem, there are two ablutions in +two rivers, whereas in the Biblical story the earthly paradise is watered +by four rivers. The effects of the double ablution in the Islamic legend +are also similar to those experienced by Dante. Cp. the following +descriptions: <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 62, line 13, and <i>Purg.</i> I, 95, 128; +XXVIII, 128; XXXIII, 129, 138, and 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_301" href="#FNanchor_301" class="label">[301]</a> Cp. this detail of the Arabic text (p. 62, line 20) with the words of +Dante (<i>Purg.</i> XXXIII, 72) “... ed un chiamar: Sorgi; che fai?” and +(<i>Purg.</i> XXXIII, 19). “... Ven più tosto.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_302" href="#FNanchor_302" class="label">[302]</a> Cp. the descriptions of Beatrice and the bride of the Moslem tale in +<span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 63, line 8, and <i>Purg.</i> XXX, 31; XXXI, 83, 110 and +136; and XXXII, 1, 3 and 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_303" href="#FNanchor_303" class="label">[303]</a> Neither Labitte nor D’Ancona found any trace of such a scene in +Christian or classical legend. Ozanam (p. 457) merely quotes the <i>Vision +of the Shepherd of Hermes</i>, which tells how a maiden, whom the shepherd +had once wished to marry, appears to him in a dream as descending from +heaven and calling upon him to serve God. According to Batiffol (p. 62), +however, this tale was unknown in Europe before the sixteenth century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_304" href="#FNanchor_304" class="label">[304]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Vossler</span>, I, 199, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_305" href="#FNanchor_305" class="label">[305]</a> <i>La Vita Nuova</i>, XLIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_306" href="#FNanchor_306" class="label">[306]</a> Cf. <i>infra</i>, <a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V">Part IV, ch. V</a>, §§ <a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_6">6</a>, <a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_7">7</a>, and <a href="#PART_IV_CHAPTER_V_section_8">8</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_307" href="#FNanchor_307" class="label">[307]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 121. Some phrases are also taken from <i>Dorar</i>, 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_308" href="#FNanchor_308" class="label">[308]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_309" href="#FNanchor_309" class="label">[309]</a> From the Arabic text it is not clear whether the heavenly bride is +reproving her lover or his wife on earth. At all events, the analogy in +subject remains very striking. Cf. the words in <i>Purg.</i> XXXI, 59: +“... o pargoletta, od altra vanità con sì breve uso.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_310" href="#FNanchor_310" class="label">[310]</a> <i>Inf.</i> II, 52 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_311" href="#FNanchor_311" class="label">[311]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XXX, 73-145; XXXI, 1-63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_312" href="#FNanchor_312" class="label">[312]</a> For this and the two following tales cf. <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 364; also <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 434.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_313" href="#FNanchor_313" class="label">[313]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, I, 120.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_314" href="#FNanchor_314" class="label">[314]</a> Cf. <i>Purg.</i> XXX, 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_315" href="#FNanchor_315" class="label">[315]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, I, 113 and 121-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_316" href="#FNanchor_316" class="label">[316]</a> Beatrice’s maidens also tell Dante how God has destined them to +serve her. Cf. <i>Purg.</i> XXXI, 106.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_317" href="#FNanchor_317" class="label">[317]</a> Just as Dante asks of Matilda (<i>Purg.</i> XXXII, 85) “Ov’è Beatrice?”, +so the Moslem bridegroom asks of the handmaidens, “Where is the large-eyed +maiden?” Compare also the promise by the bride, that they will +shortly meet in heaven, with the words of Beatrice to Dante (<i>Purg.</i>, +XXXII, 100).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_318" href="#FNanchor_318" class="label">[318]</a> For this and the following legend see <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, I, 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_319" href="#FNanchor_319" class="label">[319]</a> Beyond the general fact that both Beatrice and the Moslem bride are +ushered in by processions, there is no great resemblance. To describe +the procession, Dante availed himself of features in Ezekiel and Revelations, +to which he gave an allegorical meaning that is not always clear. +<span class="smcap">Vossler</span> (II, 171), however, remarks upon the Oriental colour of the +description. Indeed, the maidens and elders that lead in Beatrice are +conspicuous rather by their colouring than by their outline, which is +barely traced (<i>Purg.</i> XXIX, 121-154).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_320" href="#FNanchor_320" class="label">[320]</a> <i>Hadith</i> by Muslim in <i>Tadhkira</i>, 85. Cf. <i>Isaiah</i>, LXIV, 4, and <i>First +Epistle to Corinthians</i>, II, 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_321" href="#FNanchor_321" class="label">[321]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 97. These <i>hadiths</i> were based on two passages in the Koran +(II, 274 and XIII, 22), in which the vision of the face of God by the blessed +is vaguely referred to.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_322" href="#FNanchor_322" class="label">[322]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Khazin</span>, <i>Tafsir</i>, IV, 335, for a summary of this polemic; also +<i>Fasl</i>, III, 2-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_323" href="#FNanchor_323" class="label">[323]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Algazel, Dogmática</i>, 680, and <i>Averroismo</i>, + 287.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_324" href="#FNanchor_324" class="label">[324]</a> In <i>Mizan +al-Amal</i>, p. 5 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_325" href="#FNanchor_325" class="label">[325]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 219.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_326" href="#FNanchor_326" class="label">[326]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 809.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_327" href="#FNanchor_327" class="label">[327]</a> <i>Futuhat</i> in <span class="smcap">Ash-Sharani</span>, <i>Al-Yawaqit</i>, + II, 195, and <i>Al-Kibrit</i>, II, 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_328" href="#FNanchor_328" class="label">[328]</a> This apocryphal passage from the Gospel can only refer to St. Luke, +XXIII, 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_329" href="#FNanchor_329" class="label">[329]</a> Lull, in <i>Liber de Gentili</i> (<i>Op. Omn.</i>, Mayence Edit., vol. II, 89) is clear +on this point:—</p> + +<p>“Dixit Sarracenus: Verum est quod inter nos diversi diversimode +credant gloriam Paradisi; nam quidam credunt habere gloriam (secundum +quod ego tibi retuli) et hoc intelligunt secundum litteralem expositionem, +quam ab Alcora accipiunt, in qua nostra lex continetur, et a proverbiis +Mahometi, et etiam a proverbiis et a glosis et expositionibus Sapientum +exponentium nostram legem. Aliae tamen gentes sunt inter nos quae +intelligunt gloriam moraliter, et spiritualiter exponunt eam, dicentes +quod Mahometus metaphorice gentibus absque rationali intellectu et +insipientibus loquebatur; et ut eos ad divinum amorem posset trahere, +refferebat eis supradictam gloriam; et id circo hi tales, qui credunt hujusmodi +gloriam, dicunt quod homo in Paradiso non habebit gloriam comedendi +et jacendi cum mulieribus et habendi alias supradictas res; et hujusmodi +sunt naturales philosophi et magni clerici....”</p> + +<p>The following are passages from Martin’s <i>Explanatio Simboli</i> (Edit. of +March, in <i>Anuari del Institut d’estudis Catalans</i>, Barcelona, 1910, p. 52):—</p> + +<p>“Quoniam vero aliqui sapientes sarracenorum ... ponentes beatitudinem +hominis tantum in anima....” <i>Ibid.</i> 53: “Quod autem in errorem +induxit sapientes sarracenorum ... videtur processisse ex Alcorano; +quum ibi contineatur quod post resurrectionem habebunt delectationes +corporales, ut delectatio cibi, potus et coitus; que, in veritate, si in alia +vita essent, intellectum a cogitatione et dilectione summi boni impedirent. +Unde, quia visum est eis hoc esse inconveniens, sicut est in veritate, +negaverunt ..., ponentes tamen beatitudinem hominis in anima.” <i>Ibid.</i> +53 (in his explanation of the last article of the symbol, “vitam eternam”): +“Preeminentiam autem delectationum spiritualium et divinarum, ad +corporales delectationes, necnon et earum comparationem ad invicem, +ponit Avicenna in libro <i>de scientia divina</i>, tractatu IX, capite VII de +promissione divina, loquens de felicitate animae....” <i>Ibid.</i> 54: “Item, +Algazel firmat idem in libro <i>Intentionum physicarum</i> (this should be +<i>philosophicarum</i>)....” <i>Ibid.</i> 54: “Eandem etiam sententiam confirmat +in libro qui dicitur <i>Vivificatio scientiarum</i>, in demonstratione quod gloriosior +et excellentior delectationum, cognitio Dei excelsi, et contemplatio vultus +ejus (referring to <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 219). Et in libro qui dicitur <i>Trutina operum</i>, +in capitulo probationis, quid sit beatitudo ultima. Hoc idem etiam +confirmat Alpharabius in libro <i>de auditu naturali</i>, tractatu II circa finem, +et in libro <i>de intellectu</i>. Ex his patet, quod etiam apud philosophos +sarracenorum, beatitudo eterna consistit in cognitione et amore Dei, non +in delectatione.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_330" href="#FNanchor_330" class="label">[330]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, <i>Precursori</i>, 29: “Hanno ... tutte queste leggende +carattere ingenuo, anzi fanciullesco, che di necessità ce le fa porre fuori +della cerchia della vera poesia.” <i>Ibid.</i> 31: “Nè più alto e condegno è il +comune concetto della sede celeste....” <i>Ibid.</i> 32: “e per rappresentar +le gioie del paradiso abbiano avuto ricorso a raddoppiare di più che mille +milia il coro od il refettorio.” <i>Ibid.</i> 88: “Ma questa corte celeste ... +diventa la corte plenaria di un signore feudale.” Cf. <i>Ibid.</i> 104-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_331" href="#FNanchor_331" class="label">[331]</a> In Part III, Ch. VI, Moslem precedents will be shown for many of these +materialistic Christian legends.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_332" href="#FNanchor_332" class="label">[332]</a> <i>Purg.</i> XVI, 40. The hypothesis is D’Ancona’s, who in note 2 to +page 108 of his <i>Precursori</i> says: “Si potrebbe in Dante vedere giusto +disdegno, anzichè ignoranza dei suoi predecessori.” Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 140: +“Con codesta povera concezione ... non è neppure paragonabile la +concezione dantesca,” and I, 147: “Mentre i precedenti descrittori non +avevano saputo se non trasferire nel soggiorno dei beati i più soavi diletti +della vita terrena, per Dante il premio dei buoni è tutto nel intimo godimento +che loro procurano la visione e la cognizione di Dio.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_333" href="#FNanchor_333" class="label">[333]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 141-2 and 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_334" href="#FNanchor_334" class="label">[334]</a> It was also believed in Islam that the blessed meet in the heavenly +mansions to converse together and welcome the newly-arrived souls, whom +they ask for news of their friends and relations on earth. The <i>hadiths</i> on +this subject may be found in <i>Tadhkira</i>, 17; <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 231, Nos. 2,568 +and 2,571; and <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 143. Dante describes many similar +conversations of his with the blessed on the events and persons of his +time, notably with Piccarda, Cunizza, Costanza, Folcheto, and Cacciaguida.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_335" href="#FNanchor_335" class="label">[335]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Vigouroux</span>, <i>Dict. de la Bible</i>, s.v. <i>ciel</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_336" href="#FNanchor_336" class="label">[336]</a> <span class="smcap">Tixeront</span>, s.v. <i>eschatologie</i>. Origenes (<i>Ibid.</i> + I, 303) and St. Ephrem +(II, 221) alone appear to mention the astronomical heavens. Accordingly +<span class="smcap">Perrone</span> says (II, 110, n. 2):—</p> + +<p>“Non levis inter aliquot ex antiquis Patribus dissensio occurrit, ubi +agitur de statuendo <i>loco</i>, in quem justorum animae abscedentes a corpore +deferantur. Alii <i>coelum</i>, alii <i>sinum Abrahae</i>, isti <i>locum quietis</i>, illi <i>paradisum</i> +censent sive appellant. <i>Paradisus</i> ipse apud aliquos aut ipsum coelorum +regnum significat, aut saltem in coelorum regione situs creditur; apud +alios in ignota hujus terrae plaga. Sunt et paucissimi qui sub terra sive +in inferis....”</p> + +<p>St. Thomas, in explaining the passage in the Gospel according to St. +Matthew, V, 12, agrees with St. Augustine that “Merces sanctorum non +dicitur esse in corporeis coelis” (<i>Summa theol.</i> 1-2ae, q. 4, a. 7, ad 3). +Nor is mediæval art any more precise, for in the French cathedrals +Paradise is shown as the bosom of Abraham. Cf. <span class="smcap">Mâle</span>, 427.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_337" href="#FNanchor_337" class="label">[337]</a> <span class="smcap">Fraticelli</span>, commenting on the passage of <i>Inf.</i> + XXXIV, 112-115, says, +“Imagina Dante che Gerusalemme sia posta nel mezzo dell’emisfero +boreale”; and to <i>Par.</i> XXX, 124-8, he remarks, “E qui vuolsi notare +che, come Gerusalemme (secondo il creder d’allora) è nel mezzo della +terra abitata; così Dante imagina il seggio de’beati, la Gerusalemme +celeste, soprastare a perpendicolo alla terrena.” Cf. Rossi, I, 141: “una +stessa retta ... da Gerusalemme ... prolungata ... sale al centro della +mistica rosa”; and I, 142: “così la Gerusalemme terrestre per una +linea diritta ... si congiunge colla Gerusalemme celeste.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_338" href="#FNanchor_338" class="label">[338]</a> MS 105 Gayangos Collection, fol. 117 rᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_339" href="#FNanchor_339" class="label">[339]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Hamadhani</span>, 94-8. Also <span class="smcap">Yaqut</span>, + VIII, 111, s.v. Bayt al-Muqaddas.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_340" href="#FNanchor_340" class="label">[340]</a> MS 105 Gayangos Collection, fol. 101 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_341" href="#FNanchor_341" class="label">[341]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 582.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_342" href="#FNanchor_342" class="label">[342]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 898. On the following page he inserts a geometrical +design, in which, taking the five fundamental precepts of Islam by way of +example, he shows how the grades of hell correspond symmetrically to +the grades of paradise. This design, with a few unimportant omissions, +is reproduced below. The dotted lines indicate the vertical projection +of the grades of heaven above those of hell.</p> + +<table> + <tr> + <th colspan="5"><span class="smcap">Grades of Heaven.</span></th> + </tr> + <tr class="borders"> + <td>Reward of faith.</td> + <td>Reward of prayer.</td> + <td>Reward of almsgiving.</td> + <td>Reward of fasting.</td> + <td>Reward of pilgrimage.</td> + </tr> + <tr class="borders"> + <td>Punishment of faith.</td> + <td>Punishment of prayer.</td> + <td>Punishment of almsgiving.</td> + <td>Punishment of fasting.</td> + <td>Punishment of pilgrimage.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <th colspan="5"><span class="smcap">Grades of Hell.</span></th> + </tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_343" href="#FNanchor_343" class="label">[343]</a> The actual verses are <i>Par.</i> XXX, 100-132; XXXI, 1-54, 112-117; +XXXII, 1-84, and 115-138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_344" href="#FNanchor_344" class="label">[344]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 99. Gayangos Coll., MS 159, fol. 2 vᵒ; MS 64, fol. 25 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_345" href="#FNanchor_345" class="label">[345]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 132.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_346" href="#FNanchor_346" class="label">[346]</a> Gayangos Coll., MS 64, fol. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_347" href="#FNanchor_347" class="label">[347]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 147. Abu Abd Allah Mohamed ibn Ayshun +was a theologian and lawyer who also wrote poetry and compiled several +books of <i>hadiths</i>. After being taken captive by the Christians, he was +ransomed and died in his native town, Toledo, in 952 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_348" href="#FNanchor_348" class="label">[348]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 151-154.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_349" href="#FNanchor_349" class="label">[349]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_350" href="#FNanchor_350" class="label">[350]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_351" href="#FNanchor_351" class="label">[351]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 58. The elaboration of this fantastic picture of +glory was continued, more notably by the Spanish and African sufis +between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, until about the time the +Divine Comedy was produced. Although Ibn Arabi’s is undoubtedly the +one that most nearly approaches the Dantean version, the following by +Izzu’d-Din ibn Abd as-Salam of the fourteenth century, is also of interest:—</p> + +<p>In heaven there are as many grades as there are virtues, and each of +these is again subdivided into the lowest, the intermediate, and the highest +grades. Thus, for example, the martyrs of Islam occupy the hundred +highest grades as a reward for faith; another hundred correspond to each +of the other virtues; then come a hundred grades for just rulers; then a +hundred for sincere witnesses, and so forth. If two of the elect are equally +deserving by reason of faith (whether mystic or theological), both occupy +the same grade; but, if there is any difference in either the quantity or +the quality of their faith, then they are placed apart. And so it is with +the other virtues.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_352" href="#FNanchor_352" class="label">[352]</a> A translation of the principal passages of the <i>Futuhat</i> relating hereto +is given in the author’s <i>Mohidín</i>, pp. 7-23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_353" href="#FNanchor_353" class="label">[353]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 579, and <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_354" href="#FNanchor_354" class="label">[354]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 416; III, 552 and 567. Cf. <i>Al-Yawaqit</i>, II, 197. Cf. +<i>Par.</i> XXX, 103, 125, and 130; XXXI, 67 and 115; XXXII, 26 and 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_355" href="#FNanchor_355" class="label">[355]</a> There are really only seven, as the first, being dedicated to Mahomet, +must be associated with all the others.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_356" href="#FNanchor_356" class="label">[356]</a> <span class="smcap">Landino</span>, in discussing <i>Par.</i> XXXII on fol. 433 of his Commentary, +arrives at the same number of <i>twelve</i> as that of the main degrees in Dante’s +realm of glory: “Onde sono sei differentie e ciascuna ha provetti e parvuli, +che fanno dodeci.” For the number of gradins, cf. <i>Par.</i> XXX, 113: “più +di mille soglie.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_357" href="#FNanchor_357" class="label">[357]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 118: “And the Prophet said: In heaven is the tree of happiness +whose root is in my dwelling-place and whose branches shelter all the +mansions of heaven; nor is there mansion or dwelling-place which holds +not one of its branches....” (<i>Ibid.</i> 119). “Each of the blessed has his +own branch, with his name inscribed upon it.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_358" href="#FNanchor_358" class="label">[358]</a> A rough sketch of this Islamic tree is to be found in the illustration +from the <i>Maʿrifet Nameh</i>, included by Carra de Vaux in <i>Fragments +d’Eschatologie musulmane</i>, pp. 27 and 33. An amplified reproduction is +here given (see <a href="#paradise-figure3">Fig. 3</a>).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_359" href="#FNanchor_359" class="label">[359]</a> <i>Par.</i> XVIII, 28-33, on which Fraticelli comments:—</p> + +<p>“Paragona il sistema de’ cieli ad un albero che si fa più spazioso di grado +in grado; e fa che abbia vita dalla cima, in contrario de’ nostri alberi, +che l’anno dalle radici, perchè ei la toglie dall’empireo.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_360" href="#FNanchor_360" class="label">[360]</a> In <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, <i>Miti</i>, + I, 140, note 35. For particulars about Federigo Frezzi, +who composed his poem in 1394, cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 264.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_361" href="#FNanchor_361" class="label">[361]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 416 and III, 567. Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 20 and 39; XXXI, 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_362" href="#FNanchor_362" class="label">[362]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 416 and III, 577. Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXXI, 25, 115, and XXXII, 61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_363" href="#FNanchor_363" class="label">[363]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 416 and 417. Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXX, 109, and XXXI, 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_364" href="#FNanchor_364" class="label">[364]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 415. Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 52-60, and Fraticelli’s comment +thereon:—</p> + +<p>“In questo così ampio Paradiso non può aver luogo un <i>punto</i>, un seggio, +dato a caso.... Poichè <i>quantunque vidi</i>, tutto quello che qui vedi, +<i>è stabilito per eterna legge</i> in modo, che ad ogni grado di merito corrisponde +un ugual grado di gloria, a quel modo che <i>dall’anello al dito</i>, al dito +corrisponde proporzionato anello.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_365" href="#FNanchor_365" class="label">[365]</a> Cp. <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 414, with <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 42-47 and 73-74. Also <i>Futuhat</i>, +I, 415, with <i>Par.</i> XXX, 131-132.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_366" href="#FNanchor_366" class="label">[366]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 8: “Divine mercy is greater than Divine anger. The +damned, then, are punished for the sins they have committed only, but +the elect enter heaven through grace and experience such bliss as by their +good works alone they would not deserve.” Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 58-66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_367" href="#FNanchor_367" class="label">[367]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 417; II, 111; and III, 577.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_368" href="#FNanchor_368" class="label">[368]</a> <span class="smcap">Landino</span>, on fol. 432 vᵒ of his Commentary, explains this point very +clearly.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_369" href="#FNanchor_369" class="label">[369]</a> Cp. <i>Par.</i> XXXI, 69; XXX, 133 and XXXII, 7; XXXI, 16; XXX, +115 and 132, with the passages of the <i>Futuhat</i> quoted under <a href="#Footnote_367">[367]</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_370" href="#FNanchor_370" class="label">[370]</a> In Ibn Arabi, as will shortly be shown, the difference in the intensity +of the Beatific Vision depends, as in Dante, on the nature of the faith the +elect professed on earth.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_371" href="#FNanchor_371" class="label">[371]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 59-60. In Islam Mahomet is regarded as the Prophet +who renewed the teaching of the one true religion as revealed by God to +Abraham; and, just as Abraham is the patriarch of the Old Testament, +so Mahomet may be said to be the patriarch of the new Testament of the +Moslems.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_372" href="#FNanchor_372" class="label">[372]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 19-27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_373" href="#FNanchor_373" class="label">[373]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 113, and <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_374" href="#FNanchor_374" class="label">[374]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 417-420.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_375" href="#FNanchor_375" class="label">[375]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_376" href="#FNanchor_376" class="label">[376]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 112-113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_377" href="#FNanchor_377" class="label">[377]</a> This latter thesis was propounded by Averrhoes and adopted by St. +Thomas. Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Averroismo</i>, 291 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_378" href="#FNanchor_378" class="label">[378]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 578.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_379" href="#FNanchor_379" class="label">[379]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 577.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_380" href="#FNanchor_380" class="label">[380]</a> Before entering on this comparison we may be allowed to point out a +curious coincidence in the chronology of Dante’s ascension and that +assigned in the <i>hadiths</i> to the ascension of the blessed souls to enjoy the +Beatific Vision. Dante undertook his ascension “nel mezzo del camin +di nostra vita” (<i>Inf.</i> I, 1) or, according to the commentators, “a trenta-cinque +anni,” or “dell’età di 32 o 33 anni” (Cf. Scartazzini). A <i>hadith</i> +in the Gayangos Coll., MS 105, fol. 140 rᵒ, attributes to Mahomet the statement +that the blessed will enter paradise “at Jesus’ age, or the age of +thirty-three.” Further, Dante ascends to heaven on Good Friday (cf. +Fraticelli, pp. 622-3) and the <i>hadiths</i> state that the Beatific Vision takes +place on Friday, the holy day of Islam (cf. <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 232, Nos. 2,572 +and 2,641).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_381" href="#FNanchor_381" class="label">[381]</a> Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXX, 10, 106, 112, and 115; XXXIII, 76 and 82 with +<i>Futuhat</i>, I, 417, last line; 418, line 8.</p> + +<p>Further, just as St. Bernard bids Dante be prepared for the Divine light +(<i>Par.</i> XXXII, 142, and XXXIII, 31), so does the Prophet, in Ibn Arabi’s +description, warn the elect (<i>Futuhat</i>, I, 418, line 12).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_382" href="#FNanchor_382" class="label">[382]</a> <i>Summa contra Gentes</i>, lib. III, ch. 53 and 54. Cf. <i>Summa theol.</i> part 1, +q. 12, a. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_383" href="#FNanchor_383" class="label">[383]</a> <i>Summa theol.</i>, suppl. part 3, q. 92, a. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_384" href="#FNanchor_384" class="label">[384]</a> <i>Loc cit.</i>, at the end of the body of the article:—</p> + +<p>“Et ideo accipiendus est alius modus, quem etiam quidam philosophi +posuerunt, scilicet Alexander et Averroes (3. <i>de Anim. comm. 5 et 36</i>)” +... “Quidquid autem sit de aliis substantiis separatis, tamen istum +modum oportet nos accipere in visione Dei per essentiam.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_385" href="#FNanchor_385" class="label">[385]</a> <span class="smcap">Tixeront</span>, II, 201, 349, 435; III, 431.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_386" href="#FNanchor_386" class="label">[386]</a> <i>Haeres.</i>, 70, in <span class="smcap">Petavius</span>, <i>De Deo</i>, + lib. VII, ch. 8, § 1: “Vi sua imbecillitatem +corroborare dignatus est.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_387" href="#FNanchor_387" class="label">[387]</a> <span class="smcap">Petavius</span>, <i>loc. cit.</i>, + § 4: “Quocirca de illo lucis officio et usu, qui in +scholis percrebuit, nihil apud antiquos expressum habetur, nisi quod vis +quaedam naturali superior et auxilium requiri dicitur quo mens ad tantam +contemplationem possit assurgere. Quale autem sit necessarium illud +auxilium, sive lumen gloriae, quo ad Deum videndum natura fulcitur, +nemo liquido demonstravit, minime omnium efficientis quoddam genus +esse causae, ac velut habitum.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_388" href="#FNanchor_388" class="label">[388]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 222. Cf. <i>Ithaf</i>, IX, 581.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_389" href="#FNanchor_389" class="label">[389]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 223, line 14 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_390" href="#FNanchor_390" class="label">[390]</a> <i>Fasl</i>, III, 2-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_391" href="#FNanchor_391" class="label">[391]</a> <i>Kitab falsafat</i>, 53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_392" href="#FNanchor_392" class="label">[392]</a> Cp. the passages from the <i>Futuhat</i> translated above, on pp. 157-159, +with <i>Par.</i> XXXI, 27, and XXXIII, 43, 50, 52, 79, and 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_393" href="#FNanchor_393" class="label">[393]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 147. “Per Dante, il premio dei buoni è ... vario di +grado, secondo la purezza e l’intensità dell’amore divino.” Cf. <i>Futuhat</i>, +I, 418, line 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_394" href="#FNanchor_394" class="label">[394]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 19, 38, 74. Cf. <i>Futuhat</i>, <i>loc. cit.</i>; also I, 419, line 9 inf.; +II, 111, line 8 inf.; II, 113, line 10 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_395" href="#FNanchor_395" class="label">[395]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 111, line 9 inf. and 1 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_396" href="#FNanchor_396" class="label">[396]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 224, line 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_397" href="#FNanchor_397" class="label">[397]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 578, line 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_398" href="#FNanchor_398" class="label">[398]</a> <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 147: “Il vario grado di lor beatitudine è appunto rappresentato +dalla varia luminosità e dalla loro distribuzioni pei sette primi +cieli.” Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXX, 12, and XXXI, 59; also <i>Par.</i> XIV, 43-60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_399" href="#FNanchor_399" class="label">[399]</a> <i>Summa theol.</i>, suppl. 3ae part., q. 85, a. 1:</p> + +<p>“Ideo melius est ut dicatur quod claritas illa causabitur ex redundantia +gloriae animae in corpus ...; et ideo claritas quae est in anima spiritualis, +recipitur in corpore ut corporalis; et ideo secundum quod anima erit +majoris claritatis secundum majus meritum, ita etiam erit differentia +claritatis in corpore.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_400" href="#FNanchor_400" class="label">[400]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 102, 104, 106, 114, and 117. Cf. <i>Kanz</i>, VII, 232, Nos. 2,575, +2,588, 2,608, 2,616, 2,629, and 2,658. In Nos. 2,616 and 2,658, moreover, +the bodies of the women of heaven are said to be “translucent like crystal +or precious stones,” an idea that reappears in <i>Par.</i> XXXI, 19, and XXIX, +124. The sufis, and particularly Ibn Arabi, held that the souls, until the +resurrection of their bodies, lived in bodies of the world beyond the grave, +similar in nature to the forms we see in dreams (cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>La Psicología</i>, +45). This theory may have given rise to Dante’s conception of the spirit-bodies, +which cast no shadow. Cf. <i>Purg.</i> III, 16-30. The same property +was attributed to the body of Mahomet in this world. Cf. MS 64 Gayangos +Coll., fol. 114.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_401" href="#FNanchor_401" class="label">[401]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXX, 40. Cf. <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 112, line 11 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_402" href="#FNanchor_402" class="label">[402]</a> <i>Summa theol.</i>, suppl. 3ae part., q. 95, a. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_403" href="#FNanchor_403" class="label">[403]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXIII, 57 and 94. Cf. <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 419, line 7 inf.; III, 578, +line 11. See also the comparison <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_31">pp. 31</a> and <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_404" href="#FNanchor_404" class="label">[404]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 577, line 10 inf. This point is frequently brought out +by Moslem theologians and is based on two passages in the Koran (VII, +41, and XV, 47), in which it is said that God will remove all envy and +resentment from the hearts of the blessed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_405" href="#FNanchor_405" class="label">[405]</a> <i>Par.</i> III, 52, 64, 70, and 88. Cf. <i>Par.</i> XXXII, 52 and 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_406" href="#FNanchor_406" class="label">[406]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_31">pp. 31</a> and <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_407" href="#FNanchor_407" class="label">[407]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 574, and I, 402. In III, 556, the apotheosis is shown +graphically, though on account of the difficulty of design the rows of +angels are not represented by circles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_408" href="#FNanchor_408" class="label">[408]</a> <i>Par.</i> XXXIII, 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_409" href="#FNanchor_409" class="label">[409]</a> Cf. E. Pistelli, <i>L’ultimo canto della D.C.</i> (in Scartazzini, <i>Par.</i> XXXIII, +120):—</p> + +<p>“Noi non tenteremo di seguirlo (i.e. Dante) e di rappresentarci sensibilmente +i tre archi di due dei quali, tra le altre cose, neppure ci ha detto +il colore. Che Dio sia fuori delle leggi dello spazio e del tempo, sta bene; +ma noi le leggi dello spazio non consentono di veder distinti tre cerchi +chè in realtà sono uno solo e anche per questa via ricadiamo nel mistero.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_410" href="#FNanchor_410" class="label">[410]</a> <i>Enneades</i>, VI, 8, 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_411" href="#FNanchor_411" class="label">[411]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_412" href="#FNanchor_412" class="label">[412]</a> His book, <i>Formation of tables and circles</i>, is specially devoted to this +subject. Cf. <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 523.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_413" href="#FNanchor_413" class="label">[413]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 591. Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>La Psicología</i>, 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_414" href="#FNanchor_414" class="label">[414]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 158, 363, and 589. For a translation of the passage on +363, see <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Mohidín</i>, 7-13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_415" href="#FNanchor_415" class="label">[415]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 332, translated in <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Mohidín</i>, + 13-17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_416" href="#FNanchor_416" class="label">[416]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 560.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_417" href="#FNanchor_417" class="label">[417]</a> For a fuller exposition, see <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>La Psicología</i>, + 25-39, and <i>Abenmasarra</i>, +<i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_418" href="#FNanchor_418" class="label">[418]</a> The figure is given on p. 553, and explained on pp. 560-2, of vol. III +of the <i>Futuhat.</i> It is essentially as represented hereunder, A being the +Spiritual Substance, B the Universal Intellect, and C the Universal Soul.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_419" href="#FNanchor_419" class="label">[419]</a> Ibn Arabi admits, however, a certain trinity of relations as essential +to Divine unity. The metaphysical reason of his opinion is to be found +in the Pythagorean conception of the number three as being the origin +of odd numbers (cf. <i>Futuhat</i>, III, 166, 228, 603). In <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 90, he +applies the doctrine to theology and, in order to explain the origin and +existence of the Cosmos, he establishes three Divine elements: the Essence, +the Will, and the Word. In <i>Dakhair</i>, 42, he attempts to establish analogies +between the Christian doctrine of the Trinity of Divine Persons and the +trinity of Divine names as taught in the Koran—God, the Lord, and the +Merciful.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_420" href="#FNanchor_420" class="label">[420]</a> Ibn Arabi’s symbol is as difficult to interpret; for besides the three +circles representing God in His three manifestations of spiritual matter, +intellect, and soul, he speaks of the manifestation of God through three +veils, or under three names (<i>Futuhat</i>, I, 418). Again, the manifestations +of the Divine names he symbolises by eccentric circles of diverse radius +(<i>Futuhat</i>, III, 558). Ibn Arabi does not mention the colours of these +Divine epiphanies, but in the <i>Corra</i>, 125, the Divinity is said to appear to +the elect wrapt in a white light with shades of green, red, and yellow.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_421" href="#FNanchor_421" class="label">[421]</a> Had Vossler known of Ibn Arabi’s plans, he would certainly not have +sought in the symmetry of Dante’s three realms a symbolical application +of the Ptolemaic system to purgatory and hell. Vossler, after lengthy +explanations and subtle interpretations of this theory, exclaims (I, 252):—</p> + +<p>“Chi può decidere ove graviti il centro di tali simboli, se nella poesia +o nella scienza?” ... “Noi non conosciamo nella letteratura mondiale +alcun altro laboro artistico, che sia così profondamente penetrato di +filosofia.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_422" href="#FNanchor_422" class="label">[422]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 13, 107. Cf. also <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, + <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, and <span class="smcap">Graf</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_423" href="#FNanchor_423" class="label">[423]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 9, 25, 26, 27, 38, 70, 84, and <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_424" href="#FNanchor_424" class="label">[424]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_425" href="#FNanchor_425" class="label">[425]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, <i>Miti</i>, I, Introduction, XXII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_426" href="#FNanchor_426" class="label">[426]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, <i>Miti</i>, I, 66-67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_427" href="#FNanchor_427" class="label">[427]</a> Cf. <i>Sudur</i>, 96-109 and <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, + I, 57, and <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_428" href="#FNanchor_428" class="label">[428]</a> <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, 458; <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_429" href="#FNanchor_429" class="label">[429]</a> <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, 103; <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, + 434; <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 38; <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_430" href="#FNanchor_430" class="label">[430]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_88">p. 88</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_431" href="#FNanchor_431" class="label">[431]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 225-232.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_432" href="#FNanchor_432" class="label">[432]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_89">pp. 89</a> and <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_433" href="#FNanchor_433" class="label">[433]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_103">p. 103</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_434" href="#FNanchor_434" class="label">[434]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 96 and 98. It should be noted that the garden in which the +birds live, lies at the gate of heaven; this explains their request to God +that, in accordance with His promise, He should allow them to enter the +realm of Glory and taste the reward, of which as yet they only catch +glimpses. The same request appears to be made by the human birds +of the Christian legend in their prayer: “Ostende nobis ista quae vidimus, +miracula tua, quoniam ignoramus quid sint.” Cf. <i>Acta Sanctorum</i>, X, 563.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_435" href="#FNanchor_435" class="label">[435]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 102, 107, 108, 121, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_436" href="#FNanchor_436" class="label">[436]</a> <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, 399; <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, + 45; <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, +I, 245.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_437" href="#FNanchor_437" class="label">[437]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Batiouchkof</span>, <i>Le débat de l’âme et du corps</i>, + 41-42, 514, 517, 518, +558, 559.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_438" href="#FNanchor_438" class="label">[438]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_115">p. 115 <i>et seq.</i></a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_439" href="#FNanchor_439" class="label">[439]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 58, line 3 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_440" href="#FNanchor_440" class="label">[440]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_99">p. 99</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_441" href="#FNanchor_441" class="label">[441]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 74, line 1 inf., and <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, + II, 37, line 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_442" href="#FNanchor_442" class="label">[442]</a> For instance, the graduation of the torture of fire according to the +degree of sin, the sinners appearing immersed in fire up to their knees, +their belly, navel, eyes, etc. Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_107">p. 107</a>, for the Islamic parallel +to this scene.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_443" href="#FNanchor_443" class="label">[443]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 18-19. Cf. <i>Sudur</i>, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_444" href="#FNanchor_444" class="label">[444]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 47; <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 245.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_445" href="#FNanchor_445" class="label">[445]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 247.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_446" href="#FNanchor_446" class="label">[446]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 92-99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_447" href="#FNanchor_447" class="label">[447]</a> P. 82. Another similar tale is given in the Gayangos Collection, MS 234, +fol. 101:</p> + +<p>Gabriel descends to hell and, moved by the prayers of the damned +that he should obtain the intercession of Mahomet on their behalf, returns +to heaven and appeals to the Prophet. The latter intercedes with God +and the sinners are pardoned.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_448" href="#FNanchor_448" class="label">[448]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 53-59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_449" href="#FNanchor_449" class="label">[449]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Blochet</span>, <i>Sources</i>, 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_450" href="#FNanchor_450" class="label">[450]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_109">p. 109</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_451" href="#FNanchor_451" class="label">[451]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_83">p. 83</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_452" href="#FNanchor_452" class="label">[452]</a> Cf. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 31-33, which gives <i>hadiths</i> on this subject that, being +vouchsafed for by Bukhari, are at least earlier than the ninth century of +our era.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_453" href="#FNanchor_453" class="label">[453]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 78, and <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_454" href="#FNanchor_454" class="label">[454]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 56.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_455" href="#FNanchor_455" class="label">[455]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_89">p. 89</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_456" href="#FNanchor_456" class="label">[456]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 73, line 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_457" href="#FNanchor_457" class="label">[457]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_458" href="#FNanchor_458" class="label">[458]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 383. Cf. <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 520.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_459" href="#FNanchor_459" class="label">[459]</a> <i>Ihia</i> and <i>Ithaf</i>, loc. cit. Cf. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_460" href="#FNanchor_460" class="label">[460]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_461" href="#FNanchor_461" class="label">[461]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 66. Cf. also <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 13, and <i>Kanz</i>, + III, 250-252, +Nos. 3,984-4,020.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_462" href="#FNanchor_462" class="label">[462]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 59-63; <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_463" href="#FNanchor_463" class="label">[463]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_101">p. 101</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_464" href="#FNanchor_464" class="label">[464]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_106">pp. 106-107</a>. Cf. <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, + 394: “un soufle d’un vent d’hiver.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_465" href="#FNanchor_465" class="label">[465]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_13">pp. 13</a> and <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_466" href="#FNanchor_466" class="label">[466]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 63-69; <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, 125.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_467" href="#FNanchor_467" class="label">[467]</a> <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, 403. Regarding the antiquity and religious character of +the Edda, cf. <span class="smcap">Chantepie</span>, <i>Hist. des relig.</i>, pp. 675 <i>et seq.</i>, particularly +p. 685.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_468" href="#FNanchor_468" class="label">[468]</a> <i>Kanz</i>, VIII, 224, No. 3,552.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_469" href="#FNanchor_469" class="label">[469]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 68, footnote.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_470" href="#FNanchor_470" class="label">[470]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 58, footnote; <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, + 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_471" href="#FNanchor_471" class="label">[471]</a> <i>Tafsir</i>, XV, 11. Cf. MS 64 Gayangos Coll., fol. 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_472" href="#FNanchor_472" class="label">[472]</a> <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, 445-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_473" href="#FNanchor_473" class="label">[473]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 58, line 7 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_474" href="#FNanchor_474" class="label">[474]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_83">p. 83</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_475" href="#FNanchor_475" class="label">[475]</a> <span class="smcap">Vossler</span>, II, 201.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_476" href="#FNanchor_476" class="label">[476]</a> See <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_85">pp. 85-95</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_477" href="#FNanchor_477" class="label">[477]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_478" href="#FNanchor_478" class="label">[478]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_479" href="#FNanchor_479" class="label">[479]</a> See <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_88">p. 88</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_480" href="#FNanchor_480" class="label">[480]</a> Taking the Arabic name in the form used in vulgar speech, and changing +the feminine into the masculine, e.g. Haguia = Hagu = Ago.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_481" href="#FNanchor_481" class="label">[481]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 77; <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, + 110. The myth of the scales occurs in other, +non-political, visions, such as the Vision of Turcill (<span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 69, +footnote). Cf. <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, II, 106, note 207.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_482" href="#FNanchor_482" class="label">[482]</a> <span class="smcap">Chantepie</span>, <i>Hist. des relig.</i>, 107. Cf. <span class="smcap">Virey</span>, + <i>Relig. anc. Égypte</i>, 157-162.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_483" href="#FNanchor_483" class="label">[483]</a> <span class="smcap">Chantepie</span>, 473.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_484" href="#FNanchor_484" class="label">[484]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 55, and <span class="smcap">Ibn Makhluf</span>, II, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_485" href="#FNanchor_485" class="label">[485]</a> <span class="smcap">Mâle</span>, p. 420.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_486" href="#FNanchor_486" class="label">[486]</a> Cp. the offertory of the requiem masses: “Sed signifer Sanctus +Michael representet eas in lucem sanctam....”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_487" href="#FNanchor_487" class="label">[487]</a> <span class="smcap">Interián</span>, I, 135. <span class="smcap">Interián</span>, + one of the founders of the Spanish Academy, +died in 1730.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_488" href="#FNanchor_488" class="label">[488]</a> <span class="smcap">Mâle</span>, 416. <span class="smcap">Interián</span>, I, 66; II, 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_489" href="#FNanchor_489" class="label">[489]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 377; <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 485. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_490" href="#FNanchor_490" class="label">[490]</a> Cf. <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 491.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_491" href="#FNanchor_491" class="label">[491]</a> <span class="smcap">Interián</span>, II, 168-173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_492" href="#FNanchor_492" class="label">[492]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 41. Cf. <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 368, and <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 454.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_493" href="#FNanchor_493" class="label">[493]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_494" href="#FNanchor_494" class="label">[494]</a> Other picturesque scenes, which Mâle attributes to the working of the +popular mind, may also have had a Moslem origin. Thus, the wicked +are shown being dragged off in chains to hell by demons (Mâle, 422), just +as described in the Koran and the <i>hadiths</i> (<i>Tadhkira</i>, 73). The personification +of hell as a monster with open fangs, which Mâle believes to be an +imitation of the Leviathan of the Book of Job, is surely modelled upon +the monster often quoted in the preceding pages. The avaricious shown +in the porches of the cathedrals with their money-bag hanging from their +neck are reminiscent of the sinners described in the <i>hadiths</i> on the Day +of Judgment as likewise burdened with the <i>corpus delicti</i>, for instance, the +drunkards, who carry a flagon slung from their neck, or the fraudulent +merchants, who carry a balance (<i>Corra</i>, 12 and 41).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_495" href="#FNanchor_495" class="label">[495]</a> See <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_140">pp. 140-141</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_496" href="#FNanchor_496" class="label">[496]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 69: “Il paradiso terrestre alle volte diventa tutt’uno col +celeste.” See <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_134">pp. 134-135</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_497" href="#FNanchor_497" class="label">[497]</a> Cf. Versions A and B of Cycle 1 of the <i>Miraj</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_498" href="#FNanchor_498" class="label">[498]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_499" href="#FNanchor_499" class="label">[499]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_500" href="#FNanchor_500" class="label">[500]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 67. It should be remembered that the legend dates from +the thirteenth century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_501" href="#FNanchor_501" class="label">[501]</a> See <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_10">p. 10</a>, Version A of Cycle 2. The scene, as told in the <i>hadiths</i>, +agrees literally with that in the Christian legend. Cf. also <i>Kanz</i>, VI, 96, +No. 1,466.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_502" href="#FNanchor_502" class="label">[502]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 88.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_503" href="#FNanchor_503" class="label">[503]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_504" href="#FNanchor_504" class="label">[504]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_505" href="#FNanchor_505" class="label">[505]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 90, footnote 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_506" href="#FNanchor_506" class="label">[506]</a> The versions here summarised are to be found in the <i>Corra</i>, 102, 107, +and 132; in <span class="smcap">Suyuti</span>, <i>Al-Laali</i>, I, 28-29, and <i>Dorar</i>, 30. Cf. also MS 159, +Gayangos Coll., fol. 2-6, and MS “Junta de Ampliación de Estudios,” +fols. 148-156.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_507" href="#FNanchor_507" class="label">[507]</a> Cp. the text of <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 105, footnote 4, with <i>Corra</i>, + 115, line 8 inf.; +128, line 5 inf.; 126, line 7 inf.; and <i>Al-Laali</i>, 28, line 1 inf.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_508" href="#FNanchor_508" class="label">[508]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 93-126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_509" href="#FNanchor_509" class="label">[509]</a> <span class="smcap">Chauvin</span>, <i>Bibliographie</i>, VII, 1-93.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_510" href="#FNanchor_510" class="label">[510]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_511" href="#FNanchor_511" class="label">[511]</a> <span class="smcap">De Goeje</span>, <i>Légende de St. Brandan</i>. Cf. +<span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 102: “Non si può escludere +la possibilità che alcune di esse (immaginazioni) sieno orientali di origine.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_512" href="#FNanchor_512" class="label">[512]</a> The present study of the legend of St. Brandan is based on the works +of <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 97-110; <span class="smcap">De Goeje</span>, <i>loc. cit.</i>; <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, 119-123; and +<span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 48-53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_513" href="#FNanchor_513" class="label">[513]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 225. The episode recurs in the voyages of Abd al-Mutallib the +Wise. Cf. <span class="smcap">Chauvin</span>, VII, 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_514" href="#FNanchor_514" class="label">[514]</a> <span class="smcap">Schroeder</span>, <i>Sanct Brandan</i> (Erlangen, 1871), Introduction, XI-XIV. +<span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_515" href="#FNanchor_515" class="label">[515]</a> <span class="smcap">De Goeje</span>, 47, and <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_516" href="#FNanchor_516" class="label">[516]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, Appendix I, 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_517" href="#FNanchor_517" class="label">[517]</a> According to Schirmer the Latin version is based on tenth or ninth +century texts, and Zimmer even connects the legend with the Celtic story, +<i>Imram Maelduin</i>, which on the strength of its archaic language he assigns +to the ninth or eighth century. These hypotheses, which are not even +shared by all Romance scholars, are far from having the positive value of +a dated document such as the book of Al Jahiz.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_518" href="#FNanchor_518" class="label">[518]</a> <i>Hayawan</i>, VII, 33-34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_519" href="#FNanchor_519" class="label">[519]</a> <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 318. Cf. <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 205.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_520" href="#FNanchor_520" class="label">[520]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_521" href="#FNanchor_521" class="label">[521]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_522" href="#FNanchor_522" class="label">[522]</a> <span class="smcap">Damiri</span>, II, 110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_523" href="#FNanchor_523" class="label">[523]</a> <i>Kharida</i>, 93-94.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_524" href="#FNanchor_524" class="label">[524]</a> <i>Tadhkira</i>, 87.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_525" href="#FNanchor_525" class="label">[525]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 190.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_526" href="#FNanchor_526" class="label">[526]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 73 and 74. For the nakedness of Judas, whose face alone is +covered with a piece of cloth, cf. <i>Sudur</i>, 117, which depicts some of the +damned in hell in the self-same fashion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_527" href="#FNanchor_527" class="label">[527]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 135-143, contains several legends on Khidr. A richer collection +is that included by Ibn Hijr in his <i>Isaba</i>, II, 114-137. Cf. also <i>Sudur</i>, +109, and <i>Kharida</i>, 92. Other Arabic legends represent Elijah and Enoch +as praying on a rock or island. Cf. <span class="smcap">Chauvin</span>, <i>Bibliographie</i>, 48, 52, 54, +59, and 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_528" href="#FNanchor_528" class="label">[528]</a> See <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_529" href="#FNanchor_529" class="label">[529]</a> <span class="smcap">Labitte</span>, 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_530" href="#FNanchor_530" class="label">[530]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_531" href="#FNanchor_531" class="label">[531]</a> The miraculous lighting of the altar lamps, witnessed by St. Brandan +on the isle of the monks, is, as De Goeje has pointed out (<i>loc. cit.</i> 55), +modelled upon the similar miracle performed each Easter Eve in the Church +of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. But the author of the tale need not +necessarily have seen the miracle himself, nor heard of it from an eye-witness, +in 1,000 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, as De Goeje suggests. The news may have been +transmitted to him through an Arabic medium, for as early as the eighth +century Al Jahiz relates the miracle in his <i>Hayawan</i>, IV, 154.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_532" href="#FNanchor_532" class="label">[532]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 95.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_533" href="#FNanchor_533" class="label">[533]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_534" href="#FNanchor_534" class="label">[534]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 116-118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_535" href="#FNanchor_535" class="label">[535]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 231.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_536" href="#FNanchor_536" class="label">[536]</a> MS 61 Gayangos Coll., fols. 72-80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_537" href="#FNanchor_537" class="label">[537]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 87-92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_538" href="#FNanchor_538" class="label">[538]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 113 and 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_539" href="#FNanchor_539" class="label">[539]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 215-216.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_540" href="#FNanchor_540" class="label">[540]</a> <i>Qisas</i>, 217.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_541" href="#FNanchor_541" class="label">[541]</a> Guidi, <i>Sette Dormienti</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_542" href="#FNanchor_542" class="label">[542]</a> He merely mentions the legend of the Rabbi Joni as somewhat similar +to the story of the monk Felix. <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 180, note 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_543" href="#FNanchor_543" class="label">[543]</a> <i>Loc. cit.</i> 444.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_544" href="#FNanchor_544" class="label">[544]</a> <i>De gloria martyrum</i>, ch. 95.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_545" href="#FNanchor_545" class="label">[545]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Tixeront</span>, II, 199.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_546" href="#FNanchor_546" class="label">[546]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 241-260, <i>Il riposo dei dannati</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_547" href="#FNanchor_547" class="label">[547]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_185">p. 185</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_548" href="#FNanchor_548" class="label">[548]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 250-251.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_549" href="#FNanchor_549" class="label">[549]</a> See <i>Sudur</i>, 76 and 128.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_550" href="#FNanchor_550" class="label">[550]</a> Cf. <i>Ihia</i>, IV, 352, and <i>Ithaf</i>, X, 366.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_551" href="#FNanchor_551" class="label">[551]</a> Cf. <i>Tadhkira</i>, 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_552" href="#FNanchor_552" class="label">[552]</a> <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_181">pp. 181</a> and <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_553" href="#FNanchor_553" class="label">[553]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_554" href="#FNanchor_554" class="label">[554]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_555" href="#FNanchor_555" class="label">[555]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 251.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_556" href="#FNanchor_556" class="label">[556]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 111 and 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_557" href="#FNanchor_557" class="label">[557]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 111 and 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_558" href="#FNanchor_558" class="label">[558]</a> <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, I, 255-257.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_559" href="#FNanchor_559" class="label">[559]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 126-131.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_560" href="#FNanchor_560" class="label">[560]</a> In <i>Miti</i>, II, 103-108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_561" href="#FNanchor_561" class="label">[561]</a> In <i>Romania</i>, year 1891, p. 41 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_562" href="#FNanchor_562" class="label">[562]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, II, 104-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_563" href="#FNanchor_563" class="label">[563]</a> The Zoroastrian origin of all the legends of this group is evident. +Cf. <span class="smcap">Chantepie</span>, <i>Hist. des religions</i>, 473.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_564" href="#FNanchor_564" class="label">[564]</a> See <i>supra</i>, <a href="#PART_III_CHAPTER_V">Ch. V</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_565" href="#FNanchor_565" class="label">[565]</a> <i>Minhaj</i>, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_566" href="#FNanchor_566" class="label">[566]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_567" href="#FNanchor_567" class="label">[567]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_568" href="#FNanchor_568" class="label">[568]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_569" href="#FNanchor_569" class="label">[569]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_570" href="#FNanchor_570" class="label">[570]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 31-32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_571" href="#FNanchor_571" class="label">[571]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_572" href="#FNanchor_572" class="label">[572]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_573" href="#FNanchor_573" class="label">[573]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_574" href="#FNanchor_574" class="label">[574]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_575" href="#FNanchor_575" class="label">[575]</a> Koran, XVII, 73; LXXXIII, 8-9; 19-20; LXXXIV, 7-10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_576" href="#FNanchor_576" class="label">[576]</a> <i>Kharida</i>, 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_577" href="#FNanchor_577" class="label">[577]</a> It is noteworthy that the feature of the two books of record does not +appear in the legendary lore of the West until the time of Bede, or eighth +century of our era. <span class="smcap">Graf</span>, unmindful of the Koranic precedents, considers +that the myth was evolved from the Gospel metaphor of the “liber +vitae,” to which, by way of contrast, was added a book of sins.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_578" href="#FNanchor_578" class="label">[578]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_579" href="#FNanchor_579" class="label">[579]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_580" href="#FNanchor_580" class="label">[580]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_581" href="#FNanchor_581" class="label">[581]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 23-24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_582" href="#FNanchor_582" class="label">[582]</a> <i>Corra</i>, 29-30. The influence on the Christian legends of this <i>hadith</i>, +which must have been widely known in the first two centuries of the +Hegira, can hardly be denied; for, although unauthorised by either Christian +or Zoroastrian doctrine, the scene reappears in <i>Muspilli</i> described in the +same terms.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_583" href="#FNanchor_583" class="label">[583]</a> <i>Sudur</i>, 22 and 23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_584" href="#FNanchor_584" class="label">[584]</a> Islamic precedents exist also for other subjects dealt with in the Christian +legendary cycle and discussed by Batiouchkof (<i>op. cit.</i>). Cf. <i>Sudur</i>, 24, +25, and 136.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_585" href="#FNanchor_585" class="label">[585]</a> Needless to say, the themes of the Christian legendary lore have not +been exhausted in the above survey. <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span> (83-95) and <span class="smcap">Graf</span> (I, +256-7) quote legends belonging to the political and comic or burlesque +cycles. The Moslem counterparts of the former may be found in <i>Sudur</i>, +30, 31, and 121; and of the latter, in <i>Tadhkira</i>, 80, and <i>Sudur</i>, 118, 120, +and 123.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_586" href="#FNanchor_586" class="label">[586]</a> The author has dealt with the problem here presented on the lines +laid down by his master <span class="smcap">Ribera</span>, who in his book, <i>Orígenes del Justicia de +Aragón</i> (lectures 5 and 6) has systematised the laws governing imitation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_587" href="#FNanchor_587" class="label">[587]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Babelon</span>, <i>Du Commerce des Arabes dans le nord de l’Europe avant +les croisades</i>, pp. 33-47, and <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_588" href="#FNanchor_588" class="label">[588]</a> <span class="smcap">Brehier</span>, <i>L’église et l’orient au moyen âge</i>, pp. 20-50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_589" href="#FNanchor_589" class="label">[589]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> pp. 89-100; 354.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_590" href="#FNanchor_590" class="label">[590]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_591" href="#FNanchor_591" class="label">[591]</a> <span class="smcap">Dozy</span>, <i>Recherches</i>, II, 271. Cf. <span class="smcap">Amari</span>, + <i>Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia</i>, +III, part 2, 365, 445 <i>et seq.</i> <span class="smcap">Schiaparelli</span>, <i>Ibn Giobeir</i>, 322 and 332.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_592" href="#FNanchor_592" class="label">[592]</a> <span class="smcap">Amari</span>, III, 2, pp. 589-711; 888-890.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_593" href="#FNanchor_593" class="label">[593]</a> <span class="smcap">Simonet</span>, <i>Hist. mozárabes</i>, + pp. 216-219, 252, 273, 292, 346, 368, 384, +690. Throughout the tenth century Arabicised monks and soldiers flocked +to Leon, where their superior culture secured them high office at the court +and in the ecclesiastical and civil administration of the kingdom. Cf. +<span class="smcap">Gomez Moreno</span>, <i>Iglesias mozárabes</i> (Madrid, 1917, Centro de Estudios +Históricos), pp. 105-140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_594" href="#FNanchor_594" class="label">[594]</a> <span class="smcap">Ribera</span>, <i>Discurso Acad. Hist.</i>, pp. 40-45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_595" href="#FNanchor_595" class="label">[595]</a> <span class="smcap">Ribera</span>, <i>Disc.</i>, 46, Note 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_596" href="#FNanchor_596" class="label">[596]</a> <span class="smcap">Ribera</span>, <i>Orígenes Justicia</i>, + 19-84. <span class="smcap">Fernández y González</span>, <i>Mudéjares</i>, +224, <i>et passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_597" href="#FNanchor_597" class="label">[597]</a> <span class="smcap">Jourdain</span>, + <i>Recherches sur les anciennes traductions latines d’Aristote</i>, +pp. 95-149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_598" href="#FNanchor_598" class="label">[598]</a> <span class="smcap">Jourdain</span>, pp. 149-151. <span class="smcap">Fernández y González</span>, + 154-159. <span class="smcap">Amador +de los Ríos</span>, <i>Hist. crít. de la liter. esp.</i>, III, ch. 9-12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_599" href="#FNanchor_599" class="label">[599]</a> <span class="smcap">Al-Makkari</span>, <i>Analectes</i>, II, 510. Cf. <i>Ihata</i>, + II, fol. 153 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_600" href="#FNanchor_600" class="label">[600]</a> <i>Ihata</i>, III, fol. 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_601" href="#FNanchor_601" class="label">[601]</a> <span class="smcap">Amador de los Ríos</span>, III, 496. <span class="smcap">Ballesteros</span>, + <i>Sevilla en el siglo</i> XIII, +docs. Nos. 67 and 109. <span class="smcap">La Fuente</span>, <i>Hist. de las Universidades</i>, I, 127-130.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_602" href="#FNanchor_602" class="label">[602]</a> <span class="smcap">Blochet</span> in his <i>Sources orientales de la Divine Comédie</i>, omits or +disregards the nearest and most constant channels of communication +between Eastern and Western culture. To him the main channels are the +trade routes from Persia to the North-East of Europe via Byzance; the +intellectual relations between Ireland and Italy, and Italy and Byzance; +and, finally, the Crusades. Moslem Spain is hardly once mentioned as a +means of communication. This appears to be due to the fact that, in +Blochet’s opinion, the pre-Dante legends (such as the Voyage of St. Brandan, +the Visions of St. Paul, St. Patrick, Hincmar, Charles the Bald, and Tundal, +and the Tale of the Three Monks of the East) are derived rather from the +Persian ascension of Ardâ Virâf than from Arabic and Islamic sources. +He admits, indeed, that the <i>Miraj</i> may also have influenced these legends, +but only as transmitted by the Crusaders from the East. The vast majority, +however, of Islamic elements in the precursory legends have been shown +to be derived from <i>hadiths</i> of the future life and only very few from the +<i>Miraj</i>. Still less can there be any question of direct relation between the +precursors and the Persian legend. Blochet, moreover, contents himself +with pointing out analogies between the precursory legends and the +Eastern sources, but hardly ever furnishes documentary evidence; though, +even if he did so, it would still be more natural to account for the resemblance +as due to the effect of Islamic religious literature, rather than any direct +contact with Persia. <span class="smcap">Jourdain</span> (<i>Recherches</i>, 208 <i>et seq.</i>) long ago pointed +out how insignificant was the influence of Byzance and the Crusades on +the transmission of science and philosophy to Western Christendom, +compared with that of the Hispano-Arabic centre.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_603" href="#FNanchor_603" class="label">[603]</a> The early Moslems, who were Arabs by race and, like the Prophet, +illiterate, felt the same aversion for writing as did Mahomet; and at +first it was thought unlawful to record the <i>hadiths</i> in writing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_604" href="#FNanchor_604" class="label">[604]</a> Cf. <i>Supra</i>, <a href="#Page_79">pp. 79-81</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_605" href="#FNanchor_605" class="label">[605]</a> <span class="smcap">Simonet</span>, 377, notes 2 and 3. Cf. <i>Indic. lum. in España Sagrada</i>, + XI, +249.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_606" href="#FNanchor_606" class="label">[606]</a> <span class="smcap">Eulogius</span>, <i>Apologeticus</i>, fol. 80 vᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_607" href="#FNanchor_607" class="label">[607]</a> <span class="smcap">Jourdain</span>, <i>Recherches</i>, 100-103. Cf. <span class="smcap">Wüstenfeld</span>, + <i>Die Übersetzungen +arabischer Werke</i>, 44-50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_608" href="#FNanchor_608" class="label">[608]</a> <span class="smcap">Amador de los Ríos</span>, <i>Hist. crít. de la liter. esp.</i>, + III, 415 <i>et seq.</i>, mentions +a Castilian version of 1256. The text here used is the Latin text from +<span class="smcap">Erpenius</span>, <i>Historia saracenica</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_609" href="#FNanchor_609" class="label">[609]</a> It should be remembered that Alphonso the Wise had ordered the +Koran to be translated. Another translation was made in the 13th century +by a canon of Toledo, named Marco. Cf. <span class="smcap">Jourdain</span>, <i>Recherches</i>, 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_610" href="#FNanchor_610" class="label">[610]</a> See the <i>Primera Crónica General</i> of Alphonso the Wise, pp. 270-272, +chapters 488 and 489, entitled “De como Mahomat dixo que fallara a +Abrahan et a Moysen et a Ihesu en Iherusalem” and “De como Mahomat +dixo que subira fasta los syete cielos.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_611" href="#FNanchor_611" class="label">[611]</a> Recently published under the title “El Obispo de Jaén sobre la seta +Mahometana,” by Fr. <span class="smcap">Pedro Armengol</span> in vol. IV of the <i>Obras de San +Pedro Pasqual</i> (Rome, 1908). The Catalan Dominican <span class="smcap">Raymond Martin</span> +also mentions the <i>Miraj</i> in his <i>Explanatio simboli apostolorum</i>, written in +1256-1257. Cf. Edit. <span class="smcap">March</span>, p. 41: “... non sicut Machometus qui +jactavit se ad celos ascendisse, sed de nocte et nullo vidente.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_612" href="#FNanchor_612" class="label">[612]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Amador de los Ríos</span>, <i>Hist. crít. de la liter. esp.</i>, + IV, 75-85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_613" href="#FNanchor_613" class="label">[613]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Armengol</span>, IV, 3, 4, 28, 29, 37, 41, 49, 143, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_614" href="#FNanchor_614" class="label">[614]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Armengol</span>, IV, 28, 53, 55, 66, 143. Incidentally it is also mentioned +in the <i>Tratado contra el fatalismo musulman</i> (III, 54-91) on pp. 55, 72, +and 83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_615" href="#FNanchor_615" class="label">[615]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Armengol</span>, IV, 90-138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_616" href="#FNanchor_616" class="label">[616]</a> How close these ties were is shown by the mere fact that shortly after +the reconquest of Seville Italian nobles and merchants occupied whole +streets and quarters of their own. Cf. <span class="smcap">Ballesteros</span>, <i>Sevilla</i>, ch. III, +<i>Los extranjeros</i>, 42-46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_617" href="#FNanchor_617" class="label">[617]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, I, 118 and 138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_618" href="#FNanchor_618" class="label">[618]</a> <span class="smcap">Scartazzini</span> in his comment on <i>Inf.</i>, + XV, 23-54, gives a bibliography +of the person and works of Brunetto Latini. The work here consulted is +<span class="smcap">Sundby</span>, <i>Della vita e delle opere di Brunetto Latini</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_619" href="#FNanchor_619" class="label">[619]</a> <i>Inf.</i>, XV, 58 and 60; 79-87; 119-120.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_620" href="#FNanchor_620" class="label">[620]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Scartazzini</span>, <i>loc. cit.</i>, <i>Inf.</i>, XV, 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_621" href="#FNanchor_621" class="label">[621]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Vossler</span>, II, 118-120; <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, + 101, note 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_622" href="#FNanchor_622" class="label">[622]</a> <span class="smcap">Sundby</span>, 29-41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_623" href="#FNanchor_623" class="label">[623]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Sundby</span>, 86-88, and <span class="smcap">Carra de Vaux</span>, + <i>Avicenne</i>, 177-180, and +note the classifications given by Avicenna in his <i>Rasail</i>, 2-3 and 71-80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_624" href="#FNanchor_624" class="label">[624]</a> <span class="smcap">Sundby</span>, 136, and <i>passim</i>, acknowledges that he does not know the +origin of some passages; on p. 111 he admits that Brunetto availed himself +of Arabic texts of the physician Ishaq ibn Hunayn. <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span> (<i>Il Tesoro +di B.L. versificato</i>) points out the Arabic origin of some episodes of the +story of Alexander the Great as told in the <i>Tesoro</i> (cf., p. 141). The very +title of <i>Tesoro</i> is reminiscent of Arabic literature. <span class="smcap">Brockelmann</span> quotes +over sixty works bearing that title, some far earlier than the thirteenth +century, when the fashion spread to Christian Europe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_625" href="#FNanchor_625" class="label">[625]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span> (<i>Tesoro</i>, 176-227).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_626" href="#FNanchor_626" class="label">[626]</a> <span class="smcap">Sundby</span>, 6-10. Brunetto mentions the date of his mission in the first +verses of his <i>Tesoretto</i> (1-25).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_627" href="#FNanchor_627" class="label">[627]</a> <span class="smcap">Amador de los Ríos</span>, IV, 17-23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_628" href="#FNanchor_628" class="label">[628]</a> Apart from the legend of the <i>Miraj</i>, Brunetto may have obtained +philosophical and theological information in Spain about the eschatology +of Ibn Arabi, whose <i>Ishraqi</i> and mystical school of thought lived on in the +works and teaching of other Murcian Sufis.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_629" href="#FNanchor_629" class="label">[629]</a> A knowledge of Islamic lore may have been transmitted to Dante by +a learned Rabbi, such as Emmanuel Ben Salomo, of the Zifroni family, +a poet and philosopher of Rome and a friend of Dante; or Hillel of +Verona. [The importance in this connection of the Italian Rabbis, who +were perhaps better informed of the Moslem sources than the Christians +of Dante’s time, has lately been pointed out by <span class="smcap">Beck</span>, in <i>Zeitschrift für +Romanische Philologie</i> (Berlin, 1921, vol. XLI, p. 472) and <span class="smcap">Van Tieghem</span>, +in <i>Revue de Littérature Comparée</i> (Paris, April/June, 1922, p. 324). Other +critics of the thesis have suggested further likely channels of communication. +Thus, <span class="smcap">Cabaton</span>, in <i>Revue de l’Histoire des Religions</i> (Paris, 1920, +p. 19) recalls the fact that Dante’s friend, the poet Guido Cavalcanti, had +visited Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. <span class="smcap">Nallino</span>, +in <i>Rivista degli Studi Orientali</i> (Rome, 1921, vol. VIII, 4, p. 808), mentions +the following as likely means of contact between Dante and Islam: The +captive Moslems of all ranks of society living in Tuscany, and particularly +at Pisa; or, the Italian troubadours who flocked to the Court of Alphonso +the Wise; or, again, the innumerable Italian traders who came and went +between Italy and Spain and the Moslem ports of Africa and the East. +He adds: “If the Pisan merchant Leonardo Fibonacci could acquire in +the Aduanas of the Moslem ports the knowledge of Algebra that he introduced +into Europe early in the 13th century; and if other, nameless, +travellers could be the bearers of the popular Oriental tales that later +passed into Italian literature; is it unlikely that among other fantastic +tales the legendary story of Mahomet should be thus transmitted, a story +that was in perfect keeping with the mentality of the people in mediæval +Europe?” Finally, the critic <span class="smcap">Gabrieli</span>, on pp. 55-61 of his pamphlet, +“Intorno alle fonti orientali della Divina Commedia,” in <i>Arcadia</i>, III +(Rome, 1919), though generally adverse to the theory, makes two interesting +suggestions. As possible means of transmission he names the +Spanish Franciscan Lull and the Florentine Dominican Ricoldo de Monte +Croce. Lull, who had a vast knowledge of Islamic culture and knew and +imitated the doctrines of Ibn Arabi, repeatedly visited Italy between +1287 and 1296, residing two whole years in Rome as well as in Genoa, +Pisa, and Naples. Even more likely appears the intervention of Ricoldo, +who lived in the East from 1288 to 1301, preaching the Gospel in Syria, +Persia and Turkestan, whence he returned to the Monastery of Santa +Maria Novella at Florence and there died in 1320, at the age of 74. In +Chapter XIV of his famous work <i>Contra legem sarracenorum</i>, or <i>Improbatio +Alchorani</i>, he treats of the legend of the <i>Miraj</i>. Dante is known to have +had dealings with the Dominican friars of Santa Maria Novella; indeed, +it appears that during his youth he attended their cloister schools, where +letters and sciences were also taught to laymen.—<i>Note added since the +publication of the Spanish original.</i>]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_630" href="#FNanchor_630" class="label">[630]</a> <span class="smcap">Ozanam</span>, 437, 467.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_631" href="#FNanchor_631" class="label">[631]</a> <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, 108, 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_632" href="#FNanchor_632" class="label">[632]</a> Cf. <i>Rassegna dantesca</i>, in “Giorn. stor. della letter. italiana” (1914, +Nos. 2-3), pp. 385, 390.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_633" href="#FNanchor_633" class="label">[633]</a> That the lyrical and epic poetry of the then rising Christian literatures +were also influenced by Hispano-Moslem models has been shown by my +master <span class="smcap">Ribera</span> in his <i>Discursos de ingreso en las Academias Española y de +la Historia</i> (Madrid, 1912 and 1915). He has also traced the connection +between Hispano-Moslem music and that of the French troubadours, in +<i>La música de las Cantigas</i> (Madrid, 1922) and <i>La música andaluza medieval +en las canciones de trovadores y troveros</i> (Madrid, 1923). How profound +and extensive the influence of Arabic poetry was has also been shown by +<span class="smcap">S. Singer</span>, in <i>Arabische und Europäische Poesie im Mittelalter</i> (Berlin, +1918), and by <span class="smcap">Burdach</span>, in <i>Ueber den Ursprung des Mittelalterlichen +Minnesangs</i> (Berlin, 1918); these authors give the Arabic sources of +poems such as <i>Floire et Blanchefleur</i>, <i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i>, and legends +such as that of the Grail, Parsifal, and Tristan.—<i>Note added.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_634" href="#FNanchor_634" class="label">[634]</a> Typical of the vogue for Arabic is the following text, taken from the +<i>Liber Adelardi Batensis de quibusdam naturalibus questionibus</i> (MS. Bibl. +Escur., III, o, 2, fol. 74). Adelard of Bath was one of the learned Englishmen +who worked at the Toledan School of Translators. The text is from +the prologue and is addressed to a nephew.</p> + +<p>“Meministi, nepos, quod, septennio iam transacto, cum te in gallicis +studiis pene puerum iuxta Laudisdunum una cum ceteris auditoribus in +eis dimiserim, id iter nos convenisse <i>ut arabum studia ego pro posse meo +scrutarer</i>.... Quod utrum recte expleverim re ipsa probari potest. Hac +precipue oportunitate quod <i>cum sarracenorum sentencias te sepe exponentem +auditor tantum noverim earumque non pauce satis utiles mihi videantur</i>, +pacienciam meam paulisper abrumpam, teque edisserente, ego siccubi mihi +videbitur obviabo. <i>Quippe et illos impudice extollis et nostros detractionis +modo inscitia invidiose arguis....</i>”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_635" href="#FNanchor_635" class="label">[635]</a> <i>Opus majus</i> (Edit. Jebe, 1733), p. 246:</p> + +<p>“Latini nihil quod valet habent nisi ab aliis linguis....” <i>Ibid.</i> p. 476. +“Et iam ex istis scientiis tribus patet mirabilis utilitas ... contra inimicos +fidei destruendos.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_636" href="#FNanchor_636" class="label">[636]</a> In so delicate a matter as the question of the union of the active intellect +with man, he declares (<i>Opera omnia</i>, III, 3, <i>De Anima</i>, 166):</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“Nos autem dissentimus in paucis ab Averroe....” “His duobus +suppositis, accipimus alia duo ab Alfarabio....” “In causa autem quam +inducemus et modo, <i>convenimus</i> in toto cum Averroe et Avempace, in +parte cum Alfarabio.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="noindent">and he rejects the opinion of the Latin scholars (<i>Ibid.</i> p. 143), “Sed isti, +absque dubio, numquam bene intentionem Aristotelis intellexerunt.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_637" href="#FNanchor_637" class="label">[637]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Blanquerna</span>, II, 105, 134, 158-160 in <span class="smcap">Ribera</span>, + <i>Lulio</i>, II, 193-197.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_638" href="#FNanchor_638" class="label">[638]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Hazm</span>, <i>Fasl</i>, I, 72:</p> + +<p>“... the countries in which there are none of the arts and sciences +mentioned (i.e., medicine, astronomy and the mechanical arts), such as +the countries of the Sudan and of the Slavs and among the majority of +peoples, both nomad and settled....”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Said</span>, <i>Tabaqat</i>, 8:</p> + +<p>“The other peoples (apart from the Chinese and Turks) that do not +cultivate the sciences, resemble rather beasts than men; as regards those +that live in the lands of the far North, bordering on the uninhabited part +of the globe, the prolonged absence of the sun renders the air cold and the +atmosphere in which they live less clear; accordingly they are men of a +cold temperament and never reach maturity; they are of great stature +and of a white colour, with long and lank hair. But they lack all sharpness +of wit and penetration of intellect, and among them predominate ignorance +and stupidity, mental blindness, and barbarism. Such are the Slavs, +Bulgars and neighbouring peoples. (<i>Ibid.</i> 9) As to the Galicians and Berbers, +they are ignorant, rebellious and hostile people.”</p> + +<p>It should be borne in mind that by “Galicians” are meant the Christian +inhabitants of the North-East of Spain and Portugal, and by “Slavs” and +“Bulgars” all the peoples of the North and East of Europe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_639" href="#FNanchor_639" class="label">[639]</a> The different opinions and bibliography on this point may be found in +<span class="smcap">Scartazzini</span> (<i>Inf.</i> VII, 1; XXXI, 67).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_640" href="#FNanchor_640" class="label">[640]</a> <i>De vulgari eloquio</i>, I, ch. VI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_641" href="#FNanchor_641" class="label">[641]</a> <i>Inf.</i>, IV, 143, 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_642" href="#FNanchor_642" class="label">[642]</a> <i>Inf.</i>, XXVIII, 22-63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_643" href="#FNanchor_643" class="label">[643]</a> See <span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span> (<i>Tesoro</i>, 186-277).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_644" href="#FNanchor_644" class="label">[644]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Franceso de Buti’s</span> commentary of the fourteenth century (in +<span class="smcap">D’Ancona</span>, <i>Tesoro</i>, 268):</p> + +<p>“Ali, secondo ch’io truovo, fu discepolo di Maometto: ma per quel +ch’io credo, elli fu quel cherico che l’ammaestrò, lo quale elli chiama Ali +forse perchè in quella lingua così si chiama il maestro: ... Di queste +istorie m’abbi scusato tu, lettore, chè non se ne può trovare verità certa.”</p> + +<p>St. Peter Paschal, on the other hand, to whom Arabic sources were +available, knew about Ali and his death (Cf. <span class="smcap">Armengol</span>, IV, 10 and 61).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_645" href="#FNanchor_645" class="label">[645]</a> <i>Inf.</i>, XXVIII, 32-33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_646" href="#FNanchor_646" class="label">[646]</a> <i>Tarikh al-Khamis</i>, II, 312-314. <i>Isaba</i>, IV, 270. <i>Al-Fakhri</i>, 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_647" href="#FNanchor_647" class="label">[647]</a> <i>Convito</i>, II, 14, 15; III, 2, 14; IV, 13, 21. <i>De Monarchia</i>, I, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_648" href="#FNanchor_648" class="label">[648]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>El Averroismo teológico de Santo Tomás de Aquino</i>, + 299-306.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_649" href="#FNanchor_649" class="label">[649]</a> <i>Sigieri di Brabante nella Div. Com. e le fonte della fil. di Dante</i> (<i>Rivista +di fil. neoscolastica</i>, 1911-12). Cf. <span class="smcap">Bruno Nardi</span>, <i>Intorno al tomismo di +Dante e alla questione di Sigieri</i> (<i>Giornale Dantesco</i>, XXII, 5).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_650" href="#FNanchor_650" class="label">[650]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, 120, 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_651" href="#FNanchor_651" class="label">[651]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, I, 64-117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_652" href="#FNanchor_652" class="label">[652]</a> <i>Vita Nuova</i>, § XII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_653" href="#FNanchor_653" class="label">[653]</a> <span class="smcap">Suyuti</span>, <i>Al-Laali</i>, I, 15-17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_654" href="#FNanchor_654" class="label">[654]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 429.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_655" href="#FNanchor_655" class="label">[655]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_656" href="#FNanchor_656" class="label">[656]</a> <i>Par.</i> I, 1; XXXIII, 145. See <span class="smcap">Nardi</span>, <i>Sigieri</i>, + 39-41, and compare +with <i>Futuhat</i>, <i>loc. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_657" href="#FNanchor_657" class="label">[657]</a> Nicholson has translated the former into English under the title of +<i>Tarjuman al’Ashwâq</i> (London, 1911). An edition of the latter, referred to +hereunder as <i>Dakhair</i>, appeared at Beyrout in 1894.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_658" href="#FNanchor_658" class="label">[658]</a> <i>Convito</i>, II, 13, 16; III, 8, 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_659" href="#FNanchor_659" class="label">[659]</a> <i>Convito</i>, II, 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_660" href="#FNanchor_660" class="label">[660]</a> <i>Dakhair</i>, 78, 84, 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_661" href="#FNanchor_661" class="label">[661]</a> <i>Dakhair</i>, 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_662" href="#FNanchor_662" class="label">[662]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_663" href="#FNanchor_663" class="label">[663]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> 44, 45, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_664" href="#FNanchor_664" class="label">[664]</a> <span class="smcap">Vossler</span>, I, 199-236. Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, + <i>Il dolce stil novo</i>, 35-97, and <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, +<i>Storia</i>, I, 85-89 and 112-115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_665" href="#FNanchor_665" class="label">[665]</a> <span class="smcap">Ibn Qotaiba</span>, <i>Liber poësis et poëtarum</i>, 260-4, 394-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_666" href="#FNanchor_666" class="label">[666]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, <i>Abenmasarra</i>, 13-16, and <i>Logia et agrapha D. Jesu</i>, + 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_667" href="#FNanchor_667" class="label">[667]</a> <i>Muhadara</i>, II, 205.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_668" href="#FNanchor_668" class="label">[668]</a> Cf. <span class="smcap">Ibn Hazm</span>, <i>Tawq al-Hamama</i>; and <span class="smcap">Asín</span>, + <i>Caracteres</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_669" href="#FNanchor_669" class="label">[669]</a> Cf. <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Page_131">pp. 131-134</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_670" href="#FNanchor_670" class="label">[670]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 426-481. The Arabic, and more particularly Averrhoist, +origin of the psychology of Cavalcanti had suggested itself to Salvadori +and Vossler. Cf. <span class="smcap">Rossi</span>, <i>Il dolce stil novo</i>, 94, note 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_671" href="#FNanchor_671" class="label">[671]</a> <i>Futuhat</i>, II, 431.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="BIBLIOGRAPHICAL_INDEX">BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX</h2> + +</div> + +<div class="hanging"> + +<p id="Abu-l-Ala_al_Maarri">Abu-l-Ala al Maarri, <i>Risalat al-ghufran</i> = رسالة الغفران التى كتبها ابو العلاء المعرى الى الشيخ المحدث على بن منصور .... ابن القارح. +Cairo, Emin Hindie, 1907.</p> + +<p>Albertus Magnus = <i>Opera omnia quae hactenus haberi potuerunt</i>. +Lugduni, 1651.</p> + +<p><i>Al-Fakhri</i> = كتاب الفخرى فى الاداب السلطانية والدول الاسلامية لابن الطقطقى. +Cairo, 1317 Heg.</p> + +<p id="Algazel">Algazel, <i>Ihia</i> = كتاب احياء علوم الدين للغزالى. +Cairo, 1312 Heg.</p> + +<p>Algazel, <i>Ithaf</i> = كتاب اتحاف السادة المتقين بشرح اسرار احياء علوم الدين للسيد مرتضى. +Cairo, 1311 Heg.</p> + +<p>Algazel, <i>Minhaj</i> = منهاج العابدين للغزالى. +Cairo, 1313 Heg.</p> + +<p>Algazel, <i>Mizan al-Amal</i> = كتاب ميزان العمل للغزالى. +Cairo, 1328 Heg.</p> + +<p>Algazel, <i>Qistas</i> = القسطاس المستقيم للغزالى. +Cairo, 1900.</p> + +<p>Al-Horayfish = كتاب الروض الفائق فى المواعظ والرقائق للخريفيش. +Cairo, 1328 Heg.</p> + +<p>Al Jahiz, <i>see</i> <a href="#Jahiz">Jahiz</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Al-Kibrit</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ash-Sharani">Ash-Sharani</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Al-Laali</i> = كتاب اللالى المصنوعة فى الاحاديث الموضوعة للسيوطى. +Cairo, 1317 Heg.</p> + +<p>Al-Makkari = <i>Analectes sur l’histoire et la littérature des Arabes +d’Espagne par Al-Makkari</i>, publiés par Dozy. Leyden, +Brill, 1856-60.</p> + +<p>Al-Nasafi, <i>Tafsir</i> = تفسير القران المسمى مدارك التنزيل وحقائق التاويل. +Edited marginally apud Khazin, <i>Tafsir</i>.</p> + +<p>Alphonso the Wise = <i>Primera Crónica general, o sea Estoria de +España que mandó componer Alfonso el Sabio</i> ...; publicada +por Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Madrid, Bailly-Baillière, 1906.</p> + +<p><i>Al-Yawaqit</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ash-Sharani">Ash-Sharani</a>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span></p> + +<p>Amador de los Ríos, José = <i>Historia crítica de la literatura +española</i>. Madrid, Rodriguez, 1881-3.</p> + +<p>Amari, Michele = <i>Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia</i>. Florence, +Le Monnier, 1854-68.</p> + +<p>Armengol = <i>Obras de S. Pedro Pascual, en su lengua original, +con la traducción latina y algunas anotaciones</i>, por el P. Fr. +Pedro Armengol. Roma, Imprenta Salustiana, 1906-8.</p> + +<p id="Ash-Sharani">Ash-Sharani, <i>Al-Kibrit</i> = كتاب الكبريت الاحمر فى بيان علوم الشيخ الاكبر للشعرانى. +Edited marginally apud <i>Al-Yawaqit</i>.</p> + +<p>Ash-Sharani, <i>Al-Yawaqit</i> = كتاب اليواقيت والجواهر فى بيان عقائد الاكابر للشعرانى. +Cairo, 1321 Heg.</p> + +<p>Ash-Sharani, <i>Mizan</i> = كتاب الميزان للشعرانى. +Cairo, 1321 Heg.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>Abenmasarra y su escuela. Orígenes +de la filosofia hispano-musulmana.</i> Madrid, Imprenta Ibérica, +1914.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>Algazel: Dogmática, moral, ascética</i>. +“Colección de estudios árabes,” vol. <span class="allsmcap">VI</span>. Saragossa, Comas, +1901.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>Los caracteres y la conducta. Tratado +de moral práctica por Abenházam de Córdoba.</i> Traducción +española. Madrid, Imprenta Ibérica, 1916.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>El Averroismo teológico de Sto. Tomás +de Aquino</i>. In “Homenaje a D. Francisco Codera,” pp. 271-331. +Saragossa, Escar, 1904.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>La mystique d’Al-Gazzali</i>. Extr. +from “Mélanges de la faculté orientale de Beyrouth,” <span class="allsmcap">VII</span>, +1914.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>La psicología, según Mohidín Aben-arabi</i>. +Extr. from vol. <span class="allsmcap">III</span> of “Actes du XIVᵉ Congrès +international des Orientalistes.” Paris, Leroux, 1906.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>Logia et agrapha D. Jesu apud mos +lemicos scriptores, asceticos praesertim, usitata</i> collegit, vertit, +notis instruxit. In “Patrologia orientalis,” vol. <span class="allsmcap">XIII</span>, 3. +Paris, Didot, 1915.</p> + +<p>Asín Palacios, Miguel = <i>Mohidín</i>. In “Homenaje a Menéndez +y Pelayo,” vol. <span class="allsmcap">II</span>, pp. 217-256. Madrid, Suárez, 1899.</p> + +<p id="Averrhoes">Averrhoes, <i>Kitab falsafat</i> = كتاب فلسفة ابن رشد. +Cairo, 1313 Heg.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span></p> + +<p id="Avicenna">Avicenna, <i>Rasail</i> = تسع رسائل فى الحكمة والطبيعيات لابن سينا. +Constantinople, 1298 Heg.</p> + +<p>Avicenna, <i>Risala at-tayr</i> = <i>Traités mystiques ... d’Avicenne</i>. +Texte arabe avec la trad. en français par M. A. F. Mehren. +IIᵉ Fascicule. Leyde, Brill, 1891.</p> + +<p>Babelon, Ernest = <i>Du commerce des Arabes dans le nord de +l’Europe avant les Croisades</i>. Paris, 1882. Tirage à part de +“l’Athénée Oriental,” année 1882, No. Iᵉʳ.</p> + +<p>Bacon, Roger = <i>Opus majus</i>. Edit. Jebe, 1733.</p> + +<p><i>Badai az-Zohur</i> = كتاب بدائع الزهور فى وقائع الدمور لابن اياس. +Cairo, 1309 Heg.</p> + +<p>Ballesteros, Antonio = <i>Sevilla en el siglo XIII</i>. Madrid, Pérez +Torres, 1913.</p> + +<p>Batiffol, Pierre = <i>La littérature grecque</i>. In “Anciennes littératures +chrétiennes,” vol. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>. Paris, Lecoffre, 1898.</p> + +<p>Batiouchkof = <i>Le débat de l’âme et du corps</i>. In <i>Romania</i>, +Paris, 1891.</p> + +<p>Blochet, E. = <i>Les sources orientales de la Divine Comédie</i>. In +“Les littératures populaires de toutes les nations,” vol. <span class="allsmcap">XLI</span>. +Paris, Maisonneuve, 1901.</p> + +<p>Blochet, E. = <i>L’ascension au ciel du prophète Mohammed</i>. Extr. +from “Revue de l’histoire des religions.” Paris, Leroux, 1899.</p> + +<p>Brehier, Louis = <i>L’église et l’orient au moyen âge: Les Croisades</i>. +Paris, Lecoffre, 1907.</p> + +<p>Brockelmann, Carl = <i>Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur</i>. +Weimar, Felber, 1898-1902.</p> + +<p>Bukhari = <i>Le Recueil des traditions mahométanes</i>. Edit. L. +Krehl and T. Juynboll. Leyden, Brill, 1908.</p> + +<p>Buxtorf = <i>Lexicon chaldaicum</i>. Basle, 1639.</p> + +<p>Carra de Vaux = <i>Avicenne</i>. In “Les grands philosophes.” +Paris, Alcan, 1900.</p> + +<p>Carra de Vaux = <i>Fragments d’eschatologie musulmane</i>. In +“Compte rendu du troisième Congrès scient. intern. des +catholiques.” (Scienc. relig.) Brussels, Schepens, 1895.</p> + +<p>Chantepie de la Saussaye = <i>Manuel d’histoire des religions</i>. +French translation by Hubert et Lévy. Paris, Colin, 1904.</p> + +<p>Charles, R. = <i>The apocalypse of Baruch</i>. London, 1896.</p> + +<p>Charles, R. = <i>The assumption of Moses</i>. London, 1897.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span></p> + +<p>Chauvin, Victor = <i>Bibliographie des ouvrages arabes ou relatifs +aux Arabes, publiés dans l’Europe chrétienne de 1810 à 1885</i>. +Liège, Vaillant-Carmanne, 1892-1913.</p> + +<p>Clair-Tisdall = <i>The sources of Islam</i>. Translated by W. Muir. +Edinburgh, 1901.</p> + +<p><i>Colección de textos aljamiados</i> by Gil, Ribera and Sánchez. +Saragossa, Guerra y Bacque, 1888.</p> + +<p><i>Corra (Corrat Aloyun)</i> = قرة العيون ومفرح القلب المحزون لابن الليث السمرقندى. +Edit. marginally in <i>Tadhkira</i>.</p> + +<p>Cosmo, Umberto = <i>Rassegna dantesca</i> in “Giornale storico della +letteratura italiana,” Turin, 1914.</p> + +<p id="Dakhair"><i>Dakhair</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ibn_Arabi">Ibn Arabi</a>.</p> + +<p>Damiri = كتاب حياة الحيوان الكبرى لكمال الدين الدميرى. +Cairo, 1292 Heg.</p> + +<p>D’Ancona, Alessandro = <i>I precursori di Dante</i>. Florence, +Sansoni, 1874.</p> + +<p>D’Ancona, Alessandro = <i>Il Tesoro di Brunetto Latini versificato</i>. +In “Atti della R. Accad. dei Lincei,” 1888 (clas. di +scienc. mor.), <span class="allsmcap">IV</span>.</p> + +<p>Dante = <i>Opere minori di Dante Alighieri</i>. Edited in 3 vols. +by Pietro Fraticelli. Florence, Barberà, 1908-12.</p> + +<p>Dardir = حاشية الدردير على قصة المعراج للغيطى. +Cairo, 1332 Heg.</p> + +<p><i>De gloria martyrum</i>, by St. Gregory of Tours. Paris, 1563.</p> + +<p>De Goeje, M. J. = <i>La légende de St. Brandan</i>. In “Actes du +VIIIᵉ. Congrès intern. des Orient.” Sect. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, pp. 43-76. +Leyden, Brill, 1891.</p> + +<p><i>De Haeresibus</i> = <i>Joannis Damasceni opera omnia</i> (<span class="allsmcap">I</span>, 110-15). +Paris, 1712.</p> + +<p>Dharir = كتاب نزهة الناظرين فى تفسير ايات من كتاب رب العالمين لعبيد الضرير. +Cairo, 1317 Heg.</p> + +<p>D’Herbelot = <i>Bibliothèque Orientale</i>, Maestricht, 1776.</p> + +<p id="Diyarbakri">Diyarbakri = <i>Tarikh al-Khamis</i>. تاريخ الخميس فى احوال انفس نفيس للدياربكرى. +Cairo, 1302 Heg.</p> + +<p>Dozy, R. = <i>Recherches sur l’histoire et la littérature de l’Espagne +pendant le moyen âge</i>. 2nd edition. Leyden, Brill, 1860.</p> + +<p>Ducange = <i>Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis</i>. Paris, +Didot, 1840-50.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span></p> + +<p>Erpenius = <i>Historia saracenica ... latinè reddita opera ac studio +Thomae Erpenii</i>. Lugduni Batavorum, Typographia Erpeniana, +1625.</p> + +<p>Eulogius = <i>Apologeticus sanctorum martyrum Eulogii presbyteri</i>. +Edited by Ambrosio de Morales. Compluti, Iñiguez de +Lequerica, 1574.</p> + +<p><i>Fasl</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ibn_Hazm">Ibn Hazm</a>.</p> + +<p>Fernández y González, Francisco = <i>Estado social y político de +los mudéjares de Castilla</i>. Madrid, Muñoz, 1868.</p> + +<p>Firuzabadi, <i>Tafsir</i> = تنوير المقباس من تفسير ابن عباس للفيروزابادى. +Cairo, 1316 Heg.</p> + +<p>Fraticelli = <i>La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri, col commento +di Pietro Fraticelli</i>. Florence, Barberà, 1914.</p> + +<p>Freytag = <i>G. W. Freytagii Lexicon arabico-latinum</i>. Halis +Saxonum, Schwetschke, 1830.</p> + +<p><i>Futuhat</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ibn_Arabi">Ibn Arabi</a>.</p> + +<p>Ghiti = المعراج الكبير للغيطى. +Cairo, 1324 Heg.</p> + +<p>Gomez Moreno = <i>Iglesias mozárabes</i>. Madrid, Centro de +Estudios Históricos, 1917.</p> + +<p>Graf, Arturo = <i>Miti, leggende e superstizioni del medio evo</i>. +Turin, Loescher, 1892-3.</p> + +<p>Gubernatis = <i>Matériaux pour servir à l’histoire des études +orientales en Italie</i>. Paris, Leroux, 1876.</p> + +<p>Guidi = <i>Testi orientali inediti sopra i Sette Dormienti di Efeso</i>. +In “Atti della R. Accad. dei Lincei,” 1884, pp. 343-445.</p> + +<p>Hamadhani = <i>Kitâb al-Boldân</i>. Edit. De Goeje in <i>Bibliotheca +Geographorum</i>, <span class="allsmcap">V.</span> Lugduni Batavorum, Brill, 1885.</p> + +<p>Hirschfeld = <i>Researches into ... the Qurân</i>. London, 1902.</p> + +<p><i>Historia Arabum</i> = <i>Roderici Ximenez, archiepiscopi toletani, +Historia Arabum</i>. Edit. in <i>Erpenius</i>.</p> + +<p>Huart, C. = <i>Littérature arabe</i>. Paris, Colin, 1902.</p> + +<p id="Ibn_Arabi">Ibn Arabi, <i>The Book of the Nocturnal Journey towards the +Majesty of the Most Magnanimous</i> = كتاب الاسراء الى مقام الاسرى. +See <i>supra</i>, <a href="#Footnote_103">pag. 45, n. 5</a>.</p> + +<p>Ibn Arabi, <i>Dakhair</i> or “The Treasures of Lovers” = كتاب ذخائر الاعلاق شرح ترجمان الاشواق لابن عربى. +Beyrouth, +1312 Heg.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span></p> + +<p>Ibn Arabi, <i>Futuhat</i> = كتاب الفتوحات المكية لابن اربى. +Bulaq, 1293 Heg.</p> + +<p>Ibn Arabi, <i>Muhadara</i> = كتاب محاضرة الابرار ومسامرة الاخيار. +Cairo, 1305 Heg.</p> + +<p>Ibn Arabi = <i>Tarjuman al’Ashwâq</i> or “The Interpreter of +Love.” <i>See</i> <a href="#Dakhair"><i>Dakhair</i></a>.</p> + +<p>Ibn Batutah = <i>Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah</i>. Texte arabe, accompagné +d’une traduction par Defrémery et Sanguinetti. +Paris, Imprim. impériale, 1853-9.</p> + +<p>Ibn Daud, <i>Book of Venus</i> = كتاب الزهرى لابن داوود الظاهرى. +Ms. Bibl. Khed. Cairo, <span class="allsmcap">IV</span>, 260.</p> + +<p id="Ibn_Hazm">Ibn Hazm, <i>Fasl</i> = كتاب الفصل فى الملل والاهواء والنحل لابن حزم الظاهرى. +Cairo, 1317-21 Heg.</p> + +<p>Ibn Hazm = <i>Tawq al-Hamama</i>. Edit. Dimitri Pétrof. Leyde, +Brill, 1914.</p> + +<p id="Ibn_Hijr">Ibn Hijr, <i>Isaba</i> = كتاب الاصابة فىى تمييز الصحابة لابن حجر. +Cairo, 1323-7 Heg.</p> + +<p>Ibn Makhluf = كتاب العلوم الفاخرة فى النظر فى امور الاخرة لابن مخلوف. +Cairo, 1317 Heg.</p> + +<p id="Ibn_Qaim_al-Jawziya">Ibn Qaim al-Jawziya, <i>Miftah</i> = كتاب مفتاح دار السعادة ومنشور ولاية العلم والارادة لابن قيم الجوزية. +Cairo, 1323 Heg.</p> + +<p>Ibn Qotaiba = <i>Liber poësis et poëtarum</i>. Edited by De Goeje, +Leyden, Brill, 1904.</p> + +<p>Ihata = الاحاطة فى اخبار غرناطة لابن الخطيب. +Ms. 34 Bibl. of the Royal Academy of History of Madrid.</p> + +<p><i>Ihia</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Algazel">Algazel</a>.</p> + +<p>Interián = <i>El pintor cristiano y erudito</i>, por Fr. Interián de +Ayala. Barcelona, 1883.</p> + +<p><i>Isaba</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ibn_Hijr">Ibn Hijr</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Ithaf</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Algazel">Algazel</a>.</p> + +<p id="Jahiz">Jahiz, <i>Hayawan</i> or “Book of Animals” = كتاب الحيوان للجاحظ. +Cairo, 1323-5 Heg.</p> + +<p>Jourdain, Amable = <i>Recherches critiques sur l’origine des traductions +latines d’Aristote</i>. Paris, Joubert, 1843.</p> + +<p><i>Kanz</i> = كتاب كنز العمال فى ثبوت سنن الاقوال والافعال للهندى. +Haidarabad, 1894.</p> + +<p>Kasimirski = <i>Le Koran. Traduction nouvelle faite sur le texte +arabe.</i> Paris, Charpentier, 1862.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span></p> + +<p><i>Kharida</i> = خريدة العجائب وفريدة الغرائب لعمر بن الوردى. +Cairo, 1314 Heg.</p> + +<p>Khazin, <i>Tafsir</i> = تفسير القران الجليل المسمى لباب التاويل فى معانى التنزيل للخازن. +Cairo, 1318 Heg.</p> + +<p><i>Kitab falsafat</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Averrhoes">Averrhoes</a>.</p> + +<p>Labitte = <i>La Divine Comédie avant Dante</i>. In <i>Œuvres de +Dante Alighieri</i>. Paris, Charpentier, 1858.</p> + +<p>La Fuente, Vicente de = <i>Historia de las universidades, colegios +y demás establecimientos de enseñanza en España</i>. Madrid, +Fuentenebro, 1884-9.</p> + +<p>Landino = <i>Comedia del divino poeta Danthe Alighieri, con +la dotta et leggiadra spositione di Christophoro Landino</i>. +Venezia, 1536.</p> + +<p>Lane, E. W. = <i>An account of the manners and customs of the +modern Egyptians</i>. London, 1890.</p> + +<p>Lane, E. W. <i>An Arabic-English Lexicon.</i> London, Williams +and Norgate, 1863-74.</p> + +<p>Mâle = <i>L’art religieux du XIIIᵉ siècle en France</i>. Paris, Colin, +1902.</p> + +<p>Martin, François = <i>Le livre d’Henoch, traduit sur le texte éthiopien</i>. +Paris, Letouzey, 1904.</p> + +<p><i>Miftah</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ibn_Qaim_al-Jawziya">Ibn Qaim al-Jawziya</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Minhaj</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Algazel">Algazel</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Mizan</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Ash-Sharani">Ash-Sharani</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Mizan al-Amal</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Algazel">Algazel</a>.</p> + +<p>Modi = <i>Dante papers; Virâf, Adaaman and Dante</i>. Bombay, +1914.</p> + +<p>Nardi, Bruno = <i>Intorno al tomismo di Dante e alla quistione di +Sigieri</i>. Extr. from “Giornale Dantesco,” <span class="allsmcap">XXII</span>, 5. Florence, +Olschki, 1914.</p> + +<p>Nardi, Bruno = <i>Sigieri di Brabante nella Divina Commedia e +le fonti della filosofia di Dante</i>. Extr. from “Rivista di filosofia +neoscolastica,” 1911-12. Florence, San Giuseppe, 1912.</p> + +<p>Nicholson = <i>A Literary History of the Arabs</i>. London, +T. Fisher Unwin, 2nd Ed. 1914.</p> + +<p>Nicholson = <i>Tarjuman al ’Ashwâq</i>. London, 1911.</p> + +<p>Ozanam = <i>Des sources poétiques de la Divine Comédie</i>. In +<i>Œuvres complètes d’Ozanam</i>, vol. 5. Paris, Lecoffre, 1859.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span></p> + +<p>Perrone = <i>Praelectiones theologicae quas in Collegio Romano S. J. +habebat</i> Joannes Perrone. Parisiis, Roger et Chernoviz, 1887.</p> + +<p>Petavius = <i>De theologicis dogmatibus</i>. Paris, 1643-50.</p> + +<p>Porena, Manfredi = <i>Commento grafico alla Divina Commedia +per uso delle scuole</i>. Milan, Sandron, 1902.</p> + +<p>Qazwini, <i>El Cazwini’s Kosmographie</i> = كتاب عجائب المخلوقات. +<i>herausgegeben von</i> Ferdinand Wüstenfeld. Göttingen, Dieterich, +1849.</p> + +<p><i>Qisas</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Thaalabi">Thaalabi</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Qistas</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Algazel">Algazel</a>.</p> + +<p>Qummi, <i>Tafsir</i> = تفسير غرائب القران ورغائب الفرقان للعلامة نظام الدين الحسن .... القمى النيسابورى. +Edit. marginally in Tabari, <i>Tafsir</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Rasail</i> = كتاب اخوان الصفا وخلان الوفا. +Bombay, Najbatolajbar Press, 1305-6 Heg.</p> + +<p><i>Rasail</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Avicenna">Avicenna</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Risala</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Abu-l-Ala_al_Maarri">Abu-l-Ala al Maarri</a>.</p> + +<p><i>Revue des traditions populaires.</i> Paris, E. Lechevalier et +E. Leroux, 1886.</p> + +<p>Ribera, Julián = <i>Discurso de receptión en la R. Academia de la +Historia</i>. Madrid, Imprenta Ibérica, 1915.</p> + +<p>Ribera, Julián = <i>Orígenes del Justicia de Aragón</i>. “Colección +de estudios árabes,” vol. <span class="allsmcap">II</span>. Saragossa, Comas, 1897.</p> + +<p>Ribera, Julián = <i>Orígenes de la filosofia de Raimundo Lulio</i>. +In “Homenaje a Menéndez y Pelayo,” vol. <span class="allsmcap">II</span>, 191. Madrid, +Suárez, 1899.</p> + +<p>Roeské = <i>L’enfer cambodgien</i>. In “Journal Asiatique.” Paris, +Leroux, 1914.</p> + +<p>Rossi, Vittorio = <i>Storia della letteratura italiana per uso dei +licei</i>, vol. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, <i>Il medio evo</i>. 5th ed. Milan, Vallardi, 1911.</p> + +<p>Rossi, Vittorio = <i>Il dolce stil novo</i>. In “Lectura Dantis.” +Florence, Sansoni, 1906.</p> + +<p>Said = <i>Kitab Tabaqât al-Umam, ou Les Catégories des Nations, +par Aboû Qâsim ibn Sâid l’Andaloûs</i>, publié avec notes et +tables par le P. Louis Cheikho, S. J. Beyrout, Imprimerie +Catholique, 1912.</p> + +<p>Scartazzini = <i>La Divina Commedia commentata da G. A. Scartazzini</i>. +7th ed. Milan, Hoepli, 1914.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span></p> + +<p>Schiaparelli = <i>Ibn Giobeir: Viaggio in Ispagna, Sicilia, Siria +e Palestina, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egitto, compiuto nel secolo +XII</i>. Prima traduzione da C. Schiaparelli. Rome, 1906.</p> + +<p>Simonet, F. J. = <i>Historia de los mozárabes de España....</i> +Madrid, Tello, 1897-1903.</p> + +<p>Sundby = <i>Della vita e delle opere di Brunetto Latini</i>. Transl. +by Renier. Florence, Successori Le Monnier, 1884.</p> + +<p>Suyuti, <i>Dorar</i> = كتاب الدرر الحسان فى البعث ونعيم الجنان للسيوطى. +On margin of كتاب دقائق الاخبار فى ذكر الجنة والنار لابن القاضى. +Cairo, 1326 Heg.</p> + +<p>Suyuti, <i>Sudur</i> = كتاب شرح الصدور بشرح حال الموتى والقبور للسيوطى. +Cairo, 1329 Heg.</p> + +<p>Tabari, <i>Tafsir</i> = كتاب جامع البيان فى تفسير القران تاليف الامام .... ابى جعفر محمد ... الطبرى. +Bulaq, 1323 Heg.</p> + +<p><i>Tacholarus</i> = كتاب تاج العروس فى شرح القاموس للسيد مرتضى. +Cairo, 1307 Heg.</p> + +<p><i>Tadhkira</i> = مختصر تذكرة القرطبى للشعرانى. +Cairo, 1308 Heg.</p> + +<p><i>Tarikh al-Khamis</i>, <i>see</i> <a href="#Diyarbakri">Diyarbakri</a>.</p> + +<p>Tecmila = <i>Apéndice á la edición Codera de la “Tecmila de Aben +Al-Abbar.”</i> Edited in “Miscelanea de estudios y textos +árabes.” Madrid, Imprenta Ibérica, 1915.</p> + +<p id="Thaalabi">Thaalabi, <i>Qisas</i> = كتاب قصص الانبياء المسمى بالعرائس للثعلبى. +Cairo, 1324 Heg.</p> + +<p>Thomae Aquinatis = <i>Summa contra gentes</i>. Romae, Forzani, +1888.</p> + +<p>Thomae Aquinatis = <i>Summa theologica</i>. Romae, Forzani, 1894.</p> + +<p>Tisserant, Eugène = <i>Ascension d’Isaie</i>. Paris, Letouzey, 1909.</p> + +<p>Tixeront, J. = <i>Histoire des dogmes</i>. 3rd ed. Paris, Lecoffre, +1906-12.</p> + +<p>Torraca, Francesco = <i>I precursori della “Divina Commedia.”</i> +In “Lectura Dantis,” Florence, Sansoni, 1906.</p> + +<p>Vigouroux = <i>Dictionnaire de la Bible</i>. Paris, Letouzey et Ané, +1912.</p> + +<p>Virey, Philippe = <i>La religion de l’ancienne Égypte</i>. Paris, +Beauchesne, 1910.</p> + +<p>Vossler, Karl = <i>Die Göttliche Komödie. Entwickelungsgeschichte +und Erklärung.</i> Heidelberg, 1907-9. Quoted from the +Italian translation by Stefano Jacini, <i>La Divina Commedia +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span>studiata nella sua genesi e interpretata</i>. Bari, Laterza, 1909-14.</p> + +<p>Wicksteed, the Rev. P. H., M.A. = <i>The Paradiso of Dante +Alighieri</i>, “The Temple Classics,” Edit. J. M. Dent, London, +1912.</p> + +<p>Wüstenfeld, F. = <i>Die Übersetzungen arabischer Werke in das +lateinische seit dem XI Jahrhundert</i>. Göttingen, Dieterich, +1877.</p> + +<p>Yaqut = <i>Dictionary of Learned Men</i>. Edited by Margoliouth +in “Gibb Memorial” <span class="allsmcap">VI</span>, 1 and 5. Leyden, Brill, 1907 and +1911.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX</h2> + +</div> + +<ul> + +<li class="ifrst">Aaraf, El, derivation of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abbas, Ibn, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd Allah, son of Rawaha, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd Allah, voyage of, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd Allah ibn Sahloh, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwan, Caliph, torture of, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd ar-Rabihi, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, legend of, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abd ar-Rahman ibn Zayd, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abraham, Garden of, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Aldunya, Ibn, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Bakr, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Dolaf al-Ijli, in purgatory, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Hurayra, <i>hadith</i> of, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Jahl, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Kabir al-Hudali, the poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Lahab, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Laith, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu-l-Ala al-Maarri, the blind poet, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">history, <a href="#Footnote_115">55 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Risala al-ghufran</i>, <a href="#Page_55">55-67</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu-l-Hasan al-Ashari, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu-l-Hasan, Ali, <a href="#Footnote_117">55 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Said al-Khadari, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Talib, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Ubayda, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Abu Yazid al-Bistami, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Accorso, Francisco de, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Acheronte, the monster, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ad, wind of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Adam’s Peak, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Adelard of Bath, <a href="#Footnote_634">257 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Adim</i>, or surface, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ahmed ibn Abu-l-Hawari, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Akhtal, the poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Asmai, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Awzai, legend of, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Albaida, Mount, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alberic, Vision of, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Albumazar, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Aleppo, <a href="#Footnote_117">55 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alexander the Great, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">voyage of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alfarabius, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alfraganius, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Futuhat al-makkiya</i>, or <i>the Revelations of Mecca</i>, <a href="#Page_47">47-51</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Gassaq, or infection, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Algazel, the great moralist, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Minhaj</i>, <a href="#Footnote_97">44 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">views on paradise, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Ihia</i>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">theory of the Beatific Vision, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Hajjaj, torture of, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Hasan, <i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Hatma</i>, or greedy fire, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Hawiya</i>, or abysm, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Hazan</i>, or sorrow, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Horayfish, <a href="#Footnote_99">45 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Hutaiya, the poet, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ali, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">torture of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ali al-Talhi, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Idrisi, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Jahim</i>, or intense fire, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al Jahiz, <i>Book of Animals</i> or <i>Hayawan</i>, <a href="#Footnote_233">107 n</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Footnote_531">214 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Khabal</i>, or ruin, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Khansa, the poetess, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alpetragius, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alphonso VI, Conqueror of Toledo, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">marriage, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alphonso X, or the Wise, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Governor of Murcia, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Grand e General Estoria d’Espanna</i>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Primera Crónica General</i>, <a href="#Footnote_610">249 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Al-Qama, the poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alvaro of Cordova, <i>Indiculus luminosus</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Wayl</i>, or misery, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Al-Yawaqit</i>, <a href="#Footnote_98">44 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Amador de los Ríos, <a href="#Footnote_601">246 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_612">250 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Amari, <i>Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia</i>, <a href="#Footnote_591">240 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Analecta Bollandiana</i>, <a href="#Page_x">x</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Angels and Devils, debate between, for possession of the Soul, legends of the, <a href="#Page_226">226-232</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Anselmo, Fr., de Turmeda, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Antaeus, the giant, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Antara, the epic poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Aquinas, St. Thomas, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>see</i> <a href="#Thomas">St. Thomas</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Arabi, Ibn, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Footnote_98">44 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Al-Futuhat al-Makkiya</i>, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47-51</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157-160</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, + <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span><i>The Book of the Nocturnal Journey</i>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">compared with the Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_51">51-54</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154-160</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264-271</a>, + <a href="#Page_275">275-277</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">ascension, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">description of Hell, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the souls detained in the <i>sirat</i>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the two heavens, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">conception of paradise, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150-152</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the grades of Heaven and Hell, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">division of heaven into mansions, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">simile of the tree of happiness, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">distribution of the elect, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">description of the Beatific Vision, <a href="#Page_157">157-160</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">symbol of the three circles, <a href="#Page_168">168-171</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">“The Interpreter of Love,” <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">“The Treasures of Lovers,” <a href="#Page_267">267-271</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the psychology of love, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Arabian Nights Tales, <a href="#Footnote_173">89 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Arezzo, Guittone da, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Aristotle, <i>Apocryphal Theology</i>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Armengol, Fr. Pedro, “El Obispo de Jaén sobre la seta Mahometana,” <a href="#Footnote_611">250 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Armorican monks, legend of, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ash-Sharani, <i>Mizan</i>, <a href="#Footnote_290">124 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Asín y Palacios, Prof. Miguel, <i>La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia</i>, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Abenmasarra</i>, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Footnote_40">24 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_98">44 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_102">45 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_109">51 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_142">81 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_184">93 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_233">107 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_411">168 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_516">208 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_666">273 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>La mystique d’Al-Gazzali</i>, <a href="#Footnote_142">81 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>La Psicología</i>, <a href="#Footnote_400">165 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>El Averroismo teológico de Santo Tomás de Aquino</i>, <a href="#Footnote_648">262 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>As-Sair</i>, or flaming fire, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>As-Saqar</i>, or place of burning, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ash-Shanfara, the poet, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ash-Sharani, denounces Ibn Arabi, <a href="#Footnote_98">44 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Atham</i>, or place of crimes, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Athara</i>, or place of damp, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Avempace, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Averrhoes, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">views on paradise, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">theory of the Beatific Vision, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in limbo, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Avicenna, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Risala at-tayr</i>, <a href="#Footnote_101">45 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in limbo, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Aws ibn Hajar, the poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ayshun, Ibn, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Az-Zaqum</i>, a tree in hell, <a href="#Footnote_252">111 n</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Babelon, <i>Du Commerce des Arabes dans le nord de l’Europe avant les croisades</i>, <a href="#Footnote_587">239 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bacon, Roger, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Balfour, Earl of, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ballesteros, <i>Sevilla</i>, <a href="#Footnote_601">246 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_616">251 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Banu Odhra, the Yemen tribe of, or “Children of Chastity,” <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Basit</i>, or plain, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Basset, René, “Histoire du Roi Sabour,” <a href="#Footnote_252">111 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Batiffol, <i>Anciennes Littératures chrétiennes: La Littérature grecque</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Batih</i>, or place of torrents, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Batiouchkof, <i>Le débat de l’âme et du corps</i>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Batutah, Ibn, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Baxxar ibn Burd, the poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Beatific Vision, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157-167</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">grades in, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Beatrice leads Dante to heaven, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">meeting with him, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">rebukes him, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Beck, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie</i>, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Belacqua, in the antechamber of purgatory, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Benjamin of Tudela, “Itinerary,” <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bertrand de Born, torture of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bilal, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Blochet, M., <i>Les sources orientales de la Divine Comédie</i>, <a href="#Footnote_5">xv n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_602">246 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>L’Ascension au ciel du prophète Mohammed</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Boniface VIII, Pope, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bonucci, Prof., <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Boraq, the beast of heaven, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Brehier, <i>L’Église et l’orient au moyen âge</i>, <a href="#Footnote_588">240 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Briareus, the giant, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Brockelmann, <a href="#Footnote_78">39 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_103">45 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_115">55 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bukhari, the critic, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique</i>, <a href="#Page_x">x</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Bulletino della società dantesca italiana</i>, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Buonagiunta, the poet, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Burdach, <i>Ueber den Ursprung des Mittelalterlichen Minnesangs</i>, <a href="#Footnote_633">257 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Buxtorf, <i>Lexicon chaldaicum</i>, <a href="#Footnote_180">91 n</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Caaba, temple, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Caballera, Prof., <a href="#Page_x">x</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cabaton, <i>Revue de l’Histoire des Religions</i>, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cæsar of Heidenbach, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Caiaphas, tortures of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cairo, celebration of the <i>Miraj</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cancellieri, Abbé, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span>Cantara, or place of expiation, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Capocchio of Sienna, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Caronte, the boatman, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Carra de Vaux, <i>Fragment d’eschatologie musulmane</i>, <a href="#Footnote_187">93 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_358">152 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Casella, the musician, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cavalcanti, Guido, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ceylon, island of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chantepie, <i>Hist. des Rel.</i>, <a href="#Footnote_162">86 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_180">91 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_482">195 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_563">228 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charlemagne, Emperor, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charles, R., <i>The Apocalypse of Baruch</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>The Assumption of Moses</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chauvin, Victor, <i>Bibliographic des ouvrages arabes ou relatifs aux Arabes</i>, <a href="#Footnote_79">39 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_173">89 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_252">111 n</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Footnote_527">213 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chinvat, or luminous bridge, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Christian legends, origin, <a href="#Page_177">177-179</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">of paradise, <a href="#Page_199">199-204</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">sea voyages, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">sleepers, <a href="#Page_216">216-218</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Christianity, contact with Islam, <a href="#Page_239">239-246</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Circle, symbol of the, <a href="#Page_168">168-171</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Clair-Tisdall, <i>The Sources of Islam</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cock, Moslem legend of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cocytus lake, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cold, torture of, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Comettant, Oscar, <i>Civilisations inconnues</i>, <a href="#Footnote_233">107 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Constantinople, celebration of the <i>Miraj</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Council of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Convito</i>, the, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Corra</i>, the, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Footnote_494">199 n</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Corrat, Aloyun</i>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cosmo, Umberto, on the learning of Dante, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Cour du paradis</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Court of Holiness,” <i>hadiths</i> of the, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Crete, island of, <a href="#Footnote_199">99 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Crusades, influence of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cunizza, <a href="#Footnote_133">65 n</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Dahlan, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Damiri, <a href="#Footnote_37">18 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">D’Ancona, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Precursori</i>, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>, <a href="#Footnote_159">85 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_330">141 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the learning of Dante, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Daniel, Arnauld, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id="Dante">Dante, Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Moslem influences, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii-xviii</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">compared with the Nocturnal Journey of Mahomet, <a href="#Page_3">3-9</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">with his Ascension, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14-17</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25-32</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">conception of Hell, <a href="#Page_14">14-17</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88-111</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">threefold purification, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Epistola a Can Grande della Scala</i>, <a href="#Footnote_105">46 n</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Monarchia</i>, <a href="#Footnote_106">47 n</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">compared with <i>Al-Futuhat</i>, <a href="#Page_51">51-54</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264-271</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275-277</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">visit to hell or purgatory, <a href="#Page_63">63-67</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">summary of comparisons, <a href="#Page_67">67-76</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">compared with other Moslem legends on the after-life, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the limbo, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">description of a hellish storm, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">tortures of sinners in Hell, <a href="#Page_98">98-110</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117-121</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the fall of Lucifer, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">conception of Purgatory, <a href="#Page_111">111-116</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the earthly paradise, or Garden of Eden, <a href="#Page_121">121-135</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the site, <a href="#Page_122">122-125</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">meeting with Beatrice, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">temperament, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the Celestial Paradise, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140-142</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the <i>Paradiso</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">site of glory or celestial Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">simile of the rose, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">distribution of the blessed, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">compared with Ibn Arabi’s paradise, <a href="#Page_154">154-160</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the Beatific Vision, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">geometrical symbol of the three circles, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">analogies with Islamic literature, <a href="#Page_171">171-174</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in Rome, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">attraction for Islamic culture, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">knowledge of Semitic languages, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>De vulgari eloquio</i>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">portrayal of Mahomet, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">sketch of Ali, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">sympathy with Moslem philosophers and men of science, <a href="#Page_261">261-263</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Vita Nuova</i>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the <i>Convito</i>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dardir, <a href="#Footnote_82">40 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_84">41 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Daud, Ibn, legend of, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Book of Venus</i>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li class="indx">De Goeje, <i>Légende St. Brandan</i>, <a href="#Page_206">206-208</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>De Haeresibus</i>, <a href="#Footnote_141">81 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Devils and Angels, Debate between, for possession of the Soul, legends of the, <a href="#Page_226">226-232</a></li> + +<li class="indx">D’Herbelot, <i>Bibliothèque Orientale</i>, <a href="#Footnote_286">123 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dis, city of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Divine Comedy, Moslem influences, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">character, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">personages, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>see</i> <a href="#Dante">Dante</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span>Diyarbakri, <i>Tarikh al-Khamis</i>, <a href="#Footnote_287">124 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Donati, Piccarda, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dozy, <i>Recherches</i>, <a href="#Footnote_591">240 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ducange, <i>Glossarium</i>, <a href="#Footnote_144">81 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dulcarnain, legend of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Eagle, vision of the, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Earth, division of the, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Earths, the seven, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Edda, The Song of the Sun in the, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Eden, Garden of, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">site, <a href="#Page_122">122-125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ephesus, Seven Sleepers of, <a href="#Page_220">220-222</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ephialtes, the giant, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia, La</i>, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Esperaindeo, Abbot, <i>Apologetico contra Mahoma</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Eunoe, river of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Euphrates, the, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">source of, <a href="#Footnote_199">99 n</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi, scheme of paradise, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fatima, <a href="#Footnote_119">57 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Felicity, Tree of, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Felix, the Cistercian monk, legend of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ferdinand the Saint, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fibonacci, Leonardo, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fire, torment of, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Footnote_442">184 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Florence, Council of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fraticelli, <i>Figura universale della D.C.</i>, <a href="#Footnote_22">14 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_73">37 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_106">47 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_165">86 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_337">143 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Frederick, King of Sicily, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Frezzi, Federigo, <i>Quadriregio</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Frisian sailors, legend of, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Gabriel, accompanies Mahomet to Heaven, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18-24</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33-35</a>, + <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gabrieli, “Intorno alle fonti orientali della Divina Commedia,” <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gayangos Collection, <a href="#Footnote_79">39 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_82">40 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_84">41 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_95">43 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_99">45 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_168">87 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_171">88 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_188">96 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_203">100 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gehenna or <i>Jahannam</i>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ghiti, <a href="#Footnote_82">40 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_84">41 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Giacomino of Verona, the minstrel, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> + +<li class="indx">González, Fernández y, <i>Mudéjares</i>, <a href="#Footnote_596">244 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Graf, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Demonologia di Dante</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the site of the earthly paradise, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the Christian legends, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">origin of the <i>Three Monks of the East</i>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Griffolino of Arezzo, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gubernatis, <i>Dante e l’India</i>, <a href="#Footnote_288">124 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Guidi, <i>Sette Dormiente</i>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Guinicelli, Guido, the poet, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst"><i>Hadiths</i>, or traditions on the After-life, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hakki, Ibrahim, <i>Maʿrifet Nameh</i>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hales, Alexander, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hamduna, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hamza, <a href="#Footnote_119">57 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Haritha, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hassen Husny Abdul-Wahab, <a href="#Footnote_103">45 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Hayn</i>, or region of adversity, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hazm, Ibn, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">theory of the Beatific Vision, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">“Necklace of the Dove,” <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">“Characters and Conduct,” <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Heat, torture of, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Heaven, grades of, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Footnote_351">149 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">division into seven mansions, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Heavens, the seven, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the nine astronomical, <a href="#Page_48">48-50</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the two, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hell, the four rivers, <a href="#Footnote_199">99 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">torments of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">division, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">gates, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legends of visions of, <a href="#Page_180">180-195</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">respite of sinners from tortures, <a href="#Page_222">222-226</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hell, the Moslem, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85-111</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">torments, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96-110</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">depth, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">mouth, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">structure, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">seven gates, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">divisions, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">storm, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">giants, <a href="#Page_105">105-110</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hells, the two, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Henry III, Emperor, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hijr, Ibn, <i>Isaba</i>, <a href="#Footnote_527">213 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hirschfeld, <i>Researches into ... the Qurân</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Historia Arabum,” <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Holy Land, pilgrimages to the, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>House of Habitation</i>, temple, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hugh of St. Victor, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hyacinth, Mount of the, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hypocrites, torture of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Iblis, king of the infernal regions, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">torture of, <a href="#Footnote_182">92 n</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legend of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ida, Mount, <a href="#Footnote_199">99 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Ikhwan Assafa</i>, or Brethren of Purity, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Illuministic mystics, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Imram Maelduin</i>, <a href="#Footnote_517">208 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span>Imru-l-Qays, the poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Interián de Ayala, “El pintor Cristiano y erudito,” <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ischia, island of, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ishac, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ishaq ibn Hunayn, <a href="#Footnote_624">253 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Ishraqi</i> mystics, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">doctrine, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">symbol of the circle, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Islam, doctrine on the future life, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the earthly paradise, or Garden of Eden, <a href="#Page_121">121-135</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the Celestial Paradise, <a href="#Page_135">135-171</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">analogies with the Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_171">171-174</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">influence on Christian legends, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legends of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on sea voyages, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">sleepers, <a href="#Page_218">218-222</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">belief in the respite from torture, <a href="#Page_223">223-226</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>hadiths</i> on Angels and Demons, <a href="#Page_228">228-232</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">contact with Christianity, <a href="#Page_239">239-246</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ismail ibn Hayyan, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Isra</i>, or Nocturnal Journey of Mahomet, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3-9</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">First Cycle, Version A, <a href="#Page_4">4-6</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Version B, <a href="#Page_6">6-9</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">fusion with the <i>Miraj</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33-38</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Version of Cycle III, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Italy, the <i>dolce stil nuovo</i> poetry, origin, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Izzu’d-Din ibn Abd as-Salam, on the grades of heaven, <a href="#Footnote_351">149 n</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Jabir ibn Abd Allah, <i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jafar, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Jahannam</i>, or Gehenna, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jahiz, <i>Hayawan</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jerusalem, celestial, site of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Church of the Holy Sepulchre, <a href="#Footnote_531">214 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jihun, the, source of, <a href="#Footnote_199">99 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">monks of, legend, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Joachim, Abbot, vision of the, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jourdain, <i>Recherches sur les anciennes traductions latines d’Aristote</i>, <a href="#Footnote_597">245 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_607">248 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jubinal, “Le vergier du paradis,” <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jurayj, Ibn, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Kaab al-Akhbar, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Kanz</i>, <a href="#Footnote_164">86 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_167">87 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_177">91 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Karizme, Prince of, voyage, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Kasimirski, <a href="#Footnote_155">84 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_163">86 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_191">97 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Kauthar, the river of paradise, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Khadija, <a href="#Footnote_119">57 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Khandaq as-Sokran</i>, or pit, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Kharida</i>, <a href="#Footnote_190">97 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Khaytaur, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Khazin, <i>Tafsir</i>, <a href="#Footnote_168">87 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_191">97 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_197">98 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Khidr, legends on, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Koran, the, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">paradise of, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">translations of the, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">houris, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Labitte, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">opinion of the Voyage of St. Brandan, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx">La Fuente, <i>Hist. de las Universidades</i>, <a href="#Footnote_601">246 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Lamlam</i>, or round valley, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Landino, Christoforo, <a href="#Footnote_73">37 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on Dante’s conception of Hell, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on purgatory, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lane, <i>An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians</i>, <a href="#Footnote_139">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">La Pia of Sienna, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Latini, Brunetto, tutor to Dante, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">tortures in Hell, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">“Tesoretto,” <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">“Tesoro,” <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Ambassador to Toledo, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Lazi</i>, or glowing fire, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Leire, monastery of, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lentino, Jacopo da, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lethe, river of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Limbo, the, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the Moslem, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Limbus, the, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lotus-tree of the Boundary, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lucifer, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">position in Hell, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">appearance, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">fall, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">tortures, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lull, Raymond, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Liber de Gentili</i>, <a href="#Footnote_329">140 n</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Maarrat Alnoman, <a href="#Footnote_115">55 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Magnus, Albertus, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mahomet, <i>Isra</i>, or Nocturnal Journey, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3-9</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32-38</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Miraj</i>, or Ascension, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9-38</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">theological commentaries on the legend, <a href="#Page_38">38-42</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Adaptations from the Legend, mainly mystical Allegories, <a href="#Page_42">42-54</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">literary imitations, <a href="#Page_54">54-67</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">summary of comparisons, <a href="#Page_67">67-76</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">intercedes for sinners, legend of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in Hell, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">misrepresentations of, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Makhluf, Ibn, <a href="#Footnote_96">44 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_157">85 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_197">98 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_198">99 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_351">149 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mâle, “L’art religieux du XIIIme siècle en France,” <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Malebolge, valley of, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Malikan, the beast, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>Manfred of Sicily, in the antechamber of purgatory, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Margrave, Hugh, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Martin, François, <i>Le Livre d’Henoch</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Martin, Raymond, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Explanatio Simboli</i>, <a href="#Footnote_329">140 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_611">250 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Masarra, Ibn, <a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Masika</i>, or store, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Matilda, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Maubiq</i>, or perdition, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Maymun al-Asha, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Maysara, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mecca, Mosque of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Minos, the Keeper of Hell, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Miraj</i>, or Ascension of Mahomet, <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9-24</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Second Cycle, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Version A, <a href="#Page_10">10-12</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Version B, <a href="#Page_12">12-18</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Version C, <a href="#Page_18">18-32</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">fusion with the <i>Isra</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33-38</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Version of Cycle III, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Modi, <i>Dante papers</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mondir ibn Said al-Belloti, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Monks of the East, Three</i>, <a href="#Page_180">180-182</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Montecasino, Monastery of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Moreno, Gomez, <i>Iglesias mozárabes</i>, <a href="#Footnote_593">243 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morocco, celebration of the <i>Miraj</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mosca degli Uberti, torture of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Moslem legend of Mahomet’s Nocturnal Journey, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the after-life, compared with the Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">purgatory, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111-121</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">limbo, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">hell, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">conception of paradise, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legends of sea voyages, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">influences on the Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275-277</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legends on the after-life, transmission to Christian Europe and Dante, <a href="#Page_246">246-255</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">aversion to writing, <a href="#Footnote_603">247 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mozarabs, the, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Muawya, Caliph, <i>hadith</i> of, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mudejars, the, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Muhalhil, the poet, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Muhammad ar-Riquti, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Muljam, Ibn, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Murcia, recapture of, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Muslim, the critic, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Muspilli</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Footnote_582">231 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Muta, battle of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Nallino, Prof., <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Rivista degli Studi Orientali</i>, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nardi, Bruno, <a href="#Footnote_3">xiii n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Sigieri di Brabante</i>, <a href="#Footnote_649">262 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_656">267 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Neuphilologische Mitteilungen</i>, <a href="#Page_x">x</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nicholas IV, Pope, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nicholson, <a href="#Footnote_116">55 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">translation of “The Interpreter of Love,” <a href="#Footnote_657">267 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nile, the, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">source of, <a href="#Footnote_199">99 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nimrod, in Hell, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Normans, the, administration of Sicily, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Nuova Antologia</i>, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Oderisi, the painter, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Omar, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ozanam, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>, <a href="#Footnote_6">xvii n</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the learning of Dante, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Palermo, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Paradise, entry of the blessed soul into, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legends of, <a href="#Page_199">199-204</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the Celestial, <a href="#Page_135">135-171</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">site of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">spheres, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">grades, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">distribution of the elect, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Earthly, <a href="#Page_121">121-135</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">site, <a href="#Page_122">122-125</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">description, <a href="#Page_126">126-128</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legends of, <a href="#Page_130">130-134</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Paradiso</i>, the, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">compared with the legend of the Ascension of Mahomet, <a href="#Page_25">25-32</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">scheme of the, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the nine astronomical heavens, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Parodi, Prof., <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Perrone, <i>Praelectiones theol.</i>, <a href="#Footnote_151">82 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_336">143 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Petavius, <i>Dogm. Theolog.</i>, <a href="#Footnote_144">81 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the <i>lumen gloriae</i>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pistelli, E., <i>L’ultimo canto della D.C.</i>, <a href="#Footnote_409">168 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Plotinus, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Porena, Manfredi, <a href="#Footnote_22">14 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">“Commento grafico alla Divina Commedia per use delle scuole,” <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pozzuoli, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Priscian, the grammarian, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Purgatory, the Christian, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the Moslem, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111-121</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">site of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">punishments, <a href="#Page_117">117-121</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Qaim al-Jawziya, <i>Miftah</i>, <a href="#Footnote_283">123 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Qarih, Ibn al-, travels in the celestial regions, <a href="#Page_55">55-58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in hell, <a href="#Page_58">58-61</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Qasi, Ibn, <a href="#Footnote_185">93 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Qisas</i>, <a href="#Footnote_142">81 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_169">88 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_191">97 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_226">105 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_251">111 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_527">213 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span>Qotaiba, Ibn, <i>Liber poësis et poëtarum</i>, <a href="#Footnote_665">273 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Qummi, <i>Tafsir</i>, <a href="#Footnote_99">45 n</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Rada, Archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez de, “Historia Arabum,” <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rafraf, or shining wreath, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rajna, Pio, <a href="#Page_viii">viii</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Rasail</i>, or encyclopædia, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rawaha, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Raymond, Archbishop, translation of Arabic books, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Reclus, <i>Géogr. Univ.</i>, <a href="#Footnote_288">124 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Regio Emilia, vision of the Bard of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Renan, opinion of the voyage of St. Brandan, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Revue de littérature comparée</i>, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ribera, Julián, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Orígenes del Justicia de Aragón</i>, <a href="#Footnote_586">237 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_596">244 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Discursos de ingreso en las Academias Española y de la Historia</i>, <a href="#Footnote_633">257 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ricardo de Media Villa, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ricoldo de Monte Croce, the Dominican, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ridwan, the angel, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Risala al-ghufran</i>, or Treatise on Pardon, <a href="#Page_55">55-67</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Rivista degli studi orientali</i>, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Rivista di Studi filosofici e religiosi</i>, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Robert of Reading, Archdeacon of Pamplona, Latin version of the Koran, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Roger II, King, at Palermo, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rossi, <a href="#Footnote_15">8 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_22">14 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_41">25 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_96">44 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_106">47 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_112">53 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_122">63 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_134">65 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_136">66 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_165">86 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_170">88 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on Dante’s conception of Hell, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rudolph, King, of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Sad Valley, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Said of Toledo, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Ambrose, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Augustine, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Brandan, voyage of, <a href="#Page_206">206-214</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Epiphanes, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Eulogius, <i>Memoriale Sanctum</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Isidore, conception of Hell, <a href="#Footnote_179">91 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. John Chrysostom, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Macarius, legend of, <a href="#Page_180">180-182</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Michael, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Patrick, Legend of Purgatory of, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Paul, Vision of, <a href="#Page_182">182-185</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Paul, the hermit, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Peter Damian, legend by, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Peter Paschal, Bishop of Jaen, “Impunaçion de la seta de Mahomah,” <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">history of, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">in Rome, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id="Thomas">St. Thomas Aquinas, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Summa Theologica</i>, <a href="#Footnote_144">81 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_179">91 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_336">143 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the Beatific Vision, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Saladin, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Salman, <i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Salomo, Emmanuel Ben, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">San Amaro, legend of, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Saqar</i>, or burning fire, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scartazzini, <a href="#Footnote_73">37 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Schiaparelli, <i>Ibn Giobeir</i>, <a href="#Footnote_591">240 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Schroeder, <i>Sanct Brandan</i>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scotus, Duns, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sea Voyages, legends of, <a href="#Page_204">204-216</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Seville, recapture of, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">Latin and Arabic College founded at, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Shahr ibn Hawshab, legend of, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Shakir ibn Muslim, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">legend of the earthly paradise, <a href="#Page_126">126-128</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Shiites, the, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sicily, conquered by the Normans, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">population, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sigier of Brabant, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sihun, the, source of, <a href="#Footnote_199">99 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Sijin</i>, or dungeon, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Simonet, <i>Hist. mozárabes</i>, <a href="#Footnote_593">243 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sindbad the Sailor, voyage of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Singer, S., <i>Arabische und Europäische Poesie im Mittelalter</i>, <a href="#Footnote_633">257 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Sirat</i>, the, or path of purgatory, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">souls detained in, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sleepers, legends of, <a href="#Page_216">216-222</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Söderhjelm, Prof., <a href="#Page_x">x</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sodomites, the, torture of, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sordello, the poet, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Soul, debate between Angels and Devils for possession of the, legends of, <a href="#Page_226">226-232</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Souls, weighing of, legends on the, <a href="#Page_195">195-199</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Spain, contact with Islam, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">the centre of Western culture, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">study of Moslem legends on the after-life, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Statius, Papinius, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Stygian Lake, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sufis, or mystics, doctrine, <a href="#Page_44">44-46</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sulayman, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sulayman ad-Darani, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sundby, <i>Della vita e delle opere di Brunetto Latini</i>, <a href="#Footnote_618">252 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_624">253 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span>Sunderland, Harold L., <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Suyuti, <i>Al-Laali</i>, <a href="#Footnote_653">266 n</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Sudur</i>, <a href="#Footnote_220">104 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_268">117 n</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Tabari, <i>Tafsir</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Footnote_93">41 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_168">87 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_177">91 n</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tabatasharran, the poet, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tabrani, <i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Tadhkira</i>, the, or Memorial of the Future Life, <a href="#Footnote_96">44 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_175">90 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_226">105 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_280">121 n</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Tafsir</i>, or commentary on the Koran, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tarafa, the poet, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tawfiq, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Thaalabi, <i>Qisas</i>, <a href="#Footnote_169">88 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Thaqil</i>, or region of distress, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Thomist doctrine, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tisserant, Eugène, <i>Ascension d’Isaie</i>, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tixeront, <i>Hist. des dogmes</i>, <a href="#Footnote_153">83 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Toledo, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Torraca, <a href="#Footnote_5">xv n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_8">xvi n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Torture, respite from, legends of the, <a href="#Page_222">222-226</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Toynbee, Paget, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Trent, Council of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Trismegistus, Hermes, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tufayl, Ibn, <i>Self-taught Philosopher, or Epistle of Hayy ibn Yaqzan</i>, <a href="#Footnote_110">51 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tundal, legend of, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Turcill, vision of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Ulysses and the syrens, fable of, <a href="#Footnote_72">37 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Utba, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Utba al-Ghulam, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Van Tieghem, Prof., <a href="#Page_x">x</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1"><i>Revue de littérature comparée</i>, <a href="#Footnote_629">255 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Virâf, Ardâ, <a href="#Footnote_138">76 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_602">246 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Virey, <i>Relig. anc. Égypte</i>, <a href="#Footnote_482">195 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Virgil, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">guides Dante through Hell, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Visione dei gaudii de’ santi</i>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vossler, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Footnote_137">66 n</a>, <a href="#Footnote_421">172 n</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;</li> + <li class="isub1">on the prehistory of the Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Wahab, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wahab, Ibn, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wahb ibn Al-Ward, <i>hadith</i> by, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wahb ibn Munabbih, <a href="#Footnote_169">88 n</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wicksteed, Rev. P. H., <i>The Temple Classics</i>, <a href="#Footnote_51">27 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wüstenfeld, <i>Die Übersetzungen arabischer Werke</i>, <a href="#Footnote_607">248 n</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Yaqut’s Dictionary, <a href="#Footnote_115">55 n</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Yazid, Caliph, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="ifrst">Zahir ibn Rustam, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Zal Yahmum</i>, mountain, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Zamharir</i>, or frozen lake, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Zayd, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Zeitschrift fuer romanische Philologie</i>, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Zemzem, well of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Zodiac, the, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Zoroastrian religion, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +</ul> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77789 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77789-h/images/cover.jpg b/77789-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8de467c --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/hell-figure1.jpg b/77789-h/images/hell-figure1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..88a0adc --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/hell-figure1.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/hell-figure2.jpg b/77789-h/images/hell-figure2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13d6728 --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/hell-figure2.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/hell-figure3.jpg b/77789-h/images/hell-figure3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..339880a --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/hell-figure3.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/paradise-figure1.jpg b/77789-h/images/paradise-figure1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ea717a --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/paradise-figure1.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/paradise-figure2.jpg b/77789-h/images/paradise-figure2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a54b72 --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/paradise-figure2.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/paradise-figure3.jpg b/77789-h/images/paradise-figure3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..149ddb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/paradise-figure3.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/signature.jpg b/77789-h/images/signature.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..37bfa2a --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/signature.jpg diff --git a/77789-h/images/three-circles.jpg b/77789-h/images/three-circles.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c569ab6 --- /dev/null +++ b/77789-h/images/three-circles.jpg |
