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INFLUENCE OF ISLAM ON DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY

Article · June 2013

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International Journal of English and
Literature (IJEL)
ISSN 2249-6912
Vol. 3, Issue 2, Jun 2013, 165-168
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

INFLUENCE OF ISLAM ON DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY

BILQUEES DAR
Research Scholar, Iqbal Institute of Culture and Philosophy, Kashmir University, Jammu & Kashmir, India

ABSTRACT

The paper presents the fact that Dante wrote the great poem Divine Comedy to write something great at par with
the fabled Isra and Mairaj as he wrote Divine Comedy after having read the translations of the Arabic accounts of Mairaj
Nama by Bonaventura da Siena, an Italian notary at the Castilian court of Alfonso el Sabio, a fact acknowledged by
Professor Miguel Asin Palacois, a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest whose work La Eschatologia Musulmana en La
Divina Comedia in 1919 proved to some extent that Dante borrowed the central idea of his Commedia from Islamic
tradition of Al- Isra and Al-Miraj shocking Dante scholars. Palacois based his argument mainly on 13th century Sufi
philosopher Ibn Arabi whose Futuhat i Makkiyah bears resemblance to ideas and themes expressed in Divine Comedy.
Palacois draws parallel between early Islamic philosophy and the Divine Comedy and argues that Dante derived many
features and episodes about the hereafter directly or indirectly from the spiritual writings of Ibn-Arabi, Al-Ma’arri and of
course from the Isra and Mairaj. Palacois noticed relevant similarities at a symbolic and formal level as Divine Comedy
describes Dante’s journey in the realms of afterlife and represents allegorically the soul’s journey towards God and Isra or
Mairaj describe the night journey of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) both physically and spiritually during a single night
around the year 621.

KEYWORDS: Commedia, Al-Miraj, Liber Scalae Mahomet, Averroes, Al Ma’arri, Ibn Arabi

INTRODUCTION

Dante’s crowning achievement and one of the most important works in western literature and undisputedly the
most important poetic text of the European middle ages is the great poem, the poet called Commedia. Commentators in the
14th century including Dante’s disciple Giovanni Boccaccio, began calling the poem Divine Comedy both because of its
sacred subject and because of its literary significance. There are two reasons why Dante calls the poem a comedy. The first
as explained by Benevento da Imola, one of the early Italian commentators on the poem is that the Comedy is written in
vernacular language-an assertion that gains support from Dante’s own Comments in Book 2 of De Vulgari Eloquentia,
where he defines Comedy in terms of style and diction. The other reason for the title has more to do with the poet’s
narrative pattern. Since the poem begins in sorrow, the dark wood of sin and ends in joy, the vision of God, one can easily

argue that the poem’s movement parallels the plot of a comedy. Dante himself explains in his XII epistle (addressed to

Congrade Della Scala, duke of Verona) that Comedy is a work representing a story with a happy ending.

Dante reveals a lot about the influence of Islamic thought and model on Christian Europe in the Divine Comedy.
Critics are of the view that Dante wrote this poem because he held a negative and contemptuous view of Muslims and
Islam and was not happy with the fact that Islam was becoming popular in the middle ages as its influence was felt on the
culture of the time. He wanted to write something that would negate its effects. His antipathy for Islamic culture is based
not simply on a prejudiced view that he held, but rather on his disgust towards its effect on the Christian Church as well as
on medieval intellectual life, which was based on his inclusion of Muslim leaders in hell. One can see from the poem that
166 Bilquees Dar

Dante was perturbed by the impact of Islam on medieval Christian life and he would have preferred to have his culture
devoid of any Islamic Influence. The basis for this fear evolved from the belief that the Muslim religion posed a serious
threat to the existence of Christianity for it gave Christianity some unwelcome competition. Since the western canon of
knowledge about Islam was formed during the 14th century, the age Divine Comedy was being written so it was incumbent
for any medieval scholar including Dante to study the various ways in which Europe got exposed to Islamic thought and
culture. Dante is even critical of Christian Clergy who uses their power with the church to make money by either selling
Pardons for ones sins or entries into Purgatory. Simony is one of the many faults of Christianity that Dante tries to redress
as he felt that it was one of the faults of Christianity that helped to bring about the establishment of the Islam. While the
effect of Arabic Culture on Christianity formed the basis for Dante’s hatred of Islam, its effects on medieval society were
also responsible for fuelling his anger.

The controversy regarding the Islamic sources of the most cherished Christian poem lessened when experts found

out that in the second half of the 13th century, a document narrating Prophet Mohammad’s ascension to heaven had been

translated as Liber Scalae Machometi, making almost certain Dante, s knowledge about the manuscript. Besides, Arabic

culture was well known and widespread in Tuscany in the 14th century and Brunetto Latini, the Florentine ambassador to

Toledo in 1260, could be theoretically considered as the intermediary between Dante and Liber Scalae Machometi. In

Liber Scalae Machometi, the most similar manuscript to the Divine Comedy studied by Maria Corti, the Prophet (pbuh)

performs similar journey under the guidance of Archangel Gabriel, following an itinerary from the eight circles of Paradise

to the seven earths of hell where he receives the mandate to tell people what he had seen in order to save them from

external damnation. The same mandate is given to Dante in the Divine Comedy where, just like in Muslim Hell, the

damned souls are ordered in different circles and inflicted with abominable pains according to the law of retaliation. Both

stories are narrated in first person and provide detailed descriptions of the lower world characterized by seas, liquid, pool,

smells, ice and animals. Both works have thus a moral structure assigning virtues to each sphere in heaven. The eyes of

both Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) and Dante get dazzled by getting near God; however when their respective guides

Archangel Gabriel and Beatrice informs them of God’s grace, their eyes open. Similarly Gabriel leaves the Prophet of

Islam when he advances to the presence of God guided by a ray of light so does Beatrice leave her place to St. Bernard,

when Dante enters Heaven. Both stories are narrated in the first person and provide detailed descriptions of the lower

world characterized by seas, liquids, pools, smells, flames, ice and animals. Mairaj Nama thus gives the same amount of

details and demonstrates the same kind of skill in the description of the heavenly world as is found in Divine Comedy.

The author who wrote these translation in 1264 was Bonaventura da Siena, an Italian notary at the Castilian court of

Alfonso el Sabio and he did not translate them directly from Arabic, but had at his disposal an earlier Castilian version

supposed to be supplied by a Jewish physician namely Abraham. These translations from Alfonso el Sabio’s court,

although they never gained much diffusion, provided at least a possible link of textual transmission and could have served

as a source for the parallel which Palacois had observed by comparing Dante’s Commedia directly with Arabic sources.
Influence of Islam on Dante’s Divine Comedy 167

Gregory B. Stone, Professor of Comparative Literature at Louisiana State University, takes a different view. Beneath the

surface of the Commedia’s rhetorical meaning, Stone perceives an inner meaning. For Stone, the Commedia is concerned

with a philosophical worldview as the Convivo (an unfinished philosophical work by Dante) only it couches its essentially

secular and pluralistic philosophical concerns in religious imagery. This is where Islam comes in or more specifically

Islamic philosophy. Dante’s rhetorical strategy puts into practice a theory of religious imagination traceable to the Muslim

philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Ibn-Rushd held that while reason and revelation deal with the same basic truths,

philosophy is comprehensible only to the elite, whereas religion has the advantage of inspiring human communities,

putting the prosaic Convivo behind him, Dante wanted to create what Stone calls a ‘Prophetic Text.’

Thus it can be concluded that Dante used the Isra and Mairaj Nama for outlining his journey through hell and
eventually upto heaven. While this assumption may be true, one can argue that Dante used these Arabic works as
references in order to write a better and more complete Christian story. He possibly wanted there to exist a similar story to
the Muslim legend but written by a Christian and superior to the Muslim story. If this intention was Dante’s plan, than his
attitude towards Islam is only corroborated, for he attempted to prove how any piece of Christian literature could emulate
and surpass any Arabic literature, even if the works involved were coveted Muslim legends

REFERENCES

1. Burman, Thomas E. How an Italian Friar Read His Arabic Quran. Dante Studies 2007

2. Frank, Maria Esposito. Dante’s Muhammad, Parallel between Islam and Arianism. Dante Studies 2004

3. Hitti, Philip K. Islam and the West. Princeton: D.Van Nostrand Company, Inc.

4. Ziol Kowski, Jan M. Introduction to Dante and Islam. Dante Studies 2007

5. Palacios, Miguel Asin.” Islam and Divine Comedy”. London K Frank Cass and Company Limited 1968.

6. Hitti, Philip K. Islam and the west. Princeton D.Van Nostrand Company, Inc.

7. Tolan John; Medicants and Muslims in Dante, s Florence.

8. David Abulafia; The Last Muslims in Italy.

9. Maria Corti; Dante and Islamic Culture (1999).

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