Dante and Islam

Introduction
Author(s): Jan M. Ziolkowski

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, No. 125, Dante and Islam
(2007), pp. 1-34
Published by: Dante Society of America
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Introduction
JAN M. ZIOLKOWSKI
titleofthiscollectionisnota wildnovelty, becausesince1921

thewording"Dante and Islam"has been pressedintoservice
repeatedly in variouslanguagesas a headingforbooks,articles,
andbookreviews.1 Nonetheless, thephrasemaysoundjarringly paradoxi-
cal, in pairingthepoet mostemblematic of medievalChristianity with
thenameof a rivalreligion.The Commedia possesses a stature beyond
beingmerely the foundational and preeminent masterpiece in the canon
ofItalianliterature.It alsostandsmore as a
generally centerpiece in West-
ern culture.Amongotherthings,it constitutes a summaof medieval
Christiancultureand an archetypeof Catholicliterature.2 Although
Dantecouldnothaveforeseen and
everywinding turning in the subse-
quentreception ofhispoem,in Paradiso he referspresciently to hiswork
as the"sacratopoema" (23.62) and "poema sacro" (25.1). Yet theCom-
media achievesitssumma-like (orencyclopedic)qualities inpartbyincor-
poratingheterogeneous components, some of which render it highly
uncanonical fora canonicalwork.3We shouldnotbe startled to learnthat
Dantewasalready accusedofbeingheterodox andevenheretical bysome
of his nearcontemporaries.4
By exemplifying whatis Western, Christian, and Catholic,theCom-
mediaexertsin the earlytwenty-first century forcefarbeyondwhat
a
one mightexpectan earlyfourteenth-century literarycomposition still
to radiatein a worldthatis caughtup morein thepresentthan the in
distant past.Fornearlya century controversieshaveboiledoverrepeat-
edlyas to whatthepoem signifies abouttheperspectives of medieval
Christians on Muslims. Nor have the disputes been restricted to what
the Commedia meantin its own day.Dante's chefd'oeuvreand the
CXXV, 2007
DanteStudies,
iconographic tradition baseduponithavealsoincitedpowerful reactions

fromMuslimsevenin thelastfewyears.
An extreme instanceofhostility towardDante'spoemis thearrest in
2002 ofallegedIslamicterrorists who werecharged withplotting toblow
up theBasilica of San Petronio in Bologna so as to destroy a frescoofthe
LastJudgment (1409) by Giovannida Modena (flourished 1409-1456),
whichcontainsan illustration of Muhammadbeingconsignedto the
flamesofHell thatwas inspired byDante'sInferno.5 On an extreme level
thisconspiracy givestestimony of the outcry that the Italianpoet'spor-
trayalof the Muslim can Less
Prophet engender. explosively, theUnion
ofItalianMuslimspetitioned to
thepope request that the offending art-
workbe concealedbecauseofitsinsultto Islam.Forsimilar reasons,the
groupadvocatedthatDante'spoem not be included in the curriculum
taught in immigrant areas.6
As suchepisodesdemonstrate, the Commedia prompts responses that
covera broadswath.On theone hand,it enjoysapprobation nowadays
as a preeminent worknotjust of Europeanliterature in generalbut of
Christian literature inparticular.In thiscapacity itcouldbe situated atone
end of thespectrum by thosewho view medieval encounters between
Christianity and Islam as beingthestarting pointsin an ongoing"clashof
civilizations."7 Withina construct thatassumes mutualresistance between
thecultures associatedwiththetworeligions, muchcouldfavortheinfer-
ence thattheLatinChristendom exemplified byDantewouldnothave
sought much, at leastnot knowingly, from Muslims. The Westwould
haveincurred debtsto theEastmainlyin specifictechnicalareasrather
thanin thosemoregeneralcultural spheresthatwouldhavebeenlikely
to manifest themselves in literature.8
On the otherhand,alternative interpretations of Dante'spoem not
-
merelyacknowledgebut even emphasize perhapsoveremphasize -
evidencethatspeakson behalfof Islamicinfluences and thatallowsfor
thefeasibility of peacefulcoexistence betweenMuslimsand Christians.
Among such readings, one takes the seemingly contradictory tackofsi-
multaneously admitting thatDantedoomsMuhammad to theInferno but
also of avowingthatthe Commedia formulates "religiouspluralism that
mayrightly be calledIslamic" - that"the'philosophy ofreligion'thatis
one ofthefundamental components of the Commedia - a discourseaiming
to foster tolerance forreligiousand cultural -
diversitywas in largepart
a legacyoftheArabo-Islamic philosophical tradition."9 Otherappraisals
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
present Danteas havingbeennotmerelyresistant to conventional Chris-

but
tianity receptive and even welcoming to the countervailingentice-
mentsofIslam.In effect, theymaintain thattheItalianpoetparticipated,
insofar as hisdifferentgeographicaland cultural
positionpermitted him,
in a spiritofpluralismthatin studiesofmedievalIberiais indicated
bythe
Spanishtermconvivencia.10
Convivencia (whichcouldbe translated roughly as "coexistence") sums
up the peaceful cohabitation that in therightplaces and times prevailed
intheMiddleAgesamongChristianity, Judaism, andIslam.The wordhas
enteredevermorecommonusagesinceitsintroduction by theSpanish
philologistandhistorian AmericoCastro(1885-1972)inthe1940s.11 The
coexistence it describes is allegedto have predominated in portionsof
Muslim-held Spain(knownas al-Andalus) and Arabized,Arabicized(if
theprocesswaslinguistic andcultural rather thanethnic),or Arabicizing
(ifit was stillunderway)Spainfromaboutthe invasionin 711 to the
expulsionof thelastMuslimsin 1492 (and even beyondif one makes
allowancefortheMuslimconverts to Christianitywho werespecified by
theSpanishadjectivemorisco, meaning "Moor-like, Moorish").12
Withintheseeighthundred years,threeparticularlynoteworthy centu-
riesrunfrom 711 to 1031, while the Umayyadcaliphate was at
installed
Cordoba.The Mozarabs,as arestyledtheChristians who dwelledunder
in
Islamicrule al-Andalus, adoptedways of lifepracticedbytheMuslims,
and theseChristians helpedto bridgethe chasmbetweenthe religions
and cultures. Taken to an extreme, the conceptof convivencia couldbe
enlistedto upholda contrast betweena hideboundand almostbelliger-
entlybackward Latin Christendom and a benignand tolerant Muslim
worldin whicha pax Islamica heldsway.
Nothingshouldprevent fromapplying
us themodernItaliancognate
convivenzato similar effect,to denotecomparable conditions ofpeaceable
cohabitation on the southern Italianpeninsula and on Sicily, infactthey
if
obtainedthere.MuslimsnotonlyruledSicilyforsometwohundred years
but abidedas a cultural force long afterward under the Normans who
supplanted them.13
Suchevidencecan cut- or can be cut- in entirely oppositeways.As
the concludingessayin thisvolume(byDavid Abulafia)demonstrates,
surviving MuslimsfromSicilywereeventually transportedto themain-
land and collectedin a settlement thatenduredfordecades.Thus the
persistence of the Muslimcommunity knownas LuceraSaracenorum
CXXV, 2007
DanteStudies,
(LuceraoftheSaracens)on theItalianmainlandthrough theend ofthe

thirteenth century couldbe construed as important confirmation thatnot
but
onlySpain Italy too had a continuing Muslim presence. Yet the town
couldbe regarded lessoptimistically as a sortofconcentration campavant
la lettre,
and thedispersal of itsinhabitants in 1300 (a datenotwithout
significance in theappreciation ofDante'sCommedia, sinceit is theyear
in whichtheactionis supposedto havetakenplace)bespeaksat leastto
somedegreean antagonism towardIslamon thepeninsula.
LuceraSaracenorum constitutes a microcosm oftheMuslimfoothold
in Italy."Saracens"occupiedSicilyandpartsofthemainland formostof
threecenturies, the
namely, ninth, tenth, and eleventh. Montecassino, the
renowned monastery whereBenedictsetdownhisstillmorefamousrule
formonasticcommunalliving,had to be abandonedafterbeingsacked
and burnedby Muslimraidersin 883. In the twelfth, thirteenth, and
fourteenth centuries thedisruptions of the earliercenturies found com-
pensation, as innovations were enabled thanksto contactwithIslamic
civilization through the Crusades and Norman Sicily.The Normansin-
habitedsouthern Italycheekbyjowl withtheMuslims, andtheycreated
a dominionovera nearlycompletely Muslimpopulation.In Sicilythe
juxtaposition and fusionof cultures led to spectacular outcomesin art,
architecture, literature, and otherfields.The Palermitan courtof King
RogerII (1095-1154)intensified a cultural symbiosis betweenIslamand
that
Christianity reacheditsapogeeunderFrederick II (d. 1250).
Wherearewe left?Ideologicalreasonsareimaginable thatcouldmoti-
vatethosewhoenvisage a goldenageofyoreinwhichMuslimandIslam-
ophile or at leastMuslimophile rulersavoidedthe hostilities thatoften
aroseamongMuslims, Jews,and Christians in Europe,theMiddleEast,
andelsewhere. By the same token, it is easyto picturewhyotherscould
be stimulated to magnify thefrictions betweenChristians andMuslimsin
theMiddleAgesas a meansto model- andjustify - theconflicts in our
own day.
In cultural criticismandliterary scholarship Dante'spoemholdsspecial
relevance, sinceOrientalism (1978),a highlyinfluential book byEdward
W. Said(1935-2003),features a briefbutpivotalanalysis oftheCommedia
as illustrating a midpointin theprogression towardwhathe calls"the
Orientalist vision,"a Western stancetowardtheEastin whichempirical
dataabouttheOrientare disregarded so as to turn"Islamintothevery
epitome of an outsider againstwhich the wholeofEuropeancivilization
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
fromtheMiddleAgeswas founded."14 Said'spolemicsuggests thateven

longafter theformal demiseofEuropeanempires theacademicdisciplines
once described conventionally"Orientalstudies"havepurveyed
as pre-
conceptions of "the Orient" and "Orientals" and that these academic
representations haveservedtheinterests ofcolonialandneocolonialdom-
inationin politics, economics, andculture.
In thepeculiarphysics ofthehumanities, someactionsdo haveequal
and oppositereactions.In thisinstanceOrientalism is reciprocated by
Occidentalism, in whichWesterncultures are distorted and reducedto
prejudicedplatitudes thatare espousedboth withinand withoutthe
West.15 To date,suchstereotyping hasgarnered farlessattention thanhave
the twistedrepresentations to whichtheycorrespond, but we need to
takecarein sidestepping the pitfallsof "the Orientalist vision"not to
overcompensate byslipping, consciously or unconsciously, intoan Occi-
dentalistvision.
It bearsrecalling thatneitherconvivenda nor Orientalism (or forthat
matter Occidentalism) is a medievalword:theyaremodernconceptsthat
havebeenbrought to bearon theMiddleAges,partly (aswouldbe natu-
ral)or evenwhollyin answerto present-day perceptions andpreoccupa-
tions.16To statematters morebluntly, bothcarrywiththemthedangers
ofanachronism and anatopism, fromthestandpoint ofcultural chronol-
ogyandgeography, respectively.17
The imperative to rebutIslamand itsinfluence maybe seento have
contributed to Dante'sdecisionto frame theCommedia as a visionofHell
andHeaven.18 Butsucha vagueformulation begsa hostofquestions that
spring up in response to theimplications oftheseemingly straightforward
phrase "Dante and Islam." With reference to thefirstelement, doesbeing
enshrined as canonically medieval Christiannecessarily entail beinganti-
to Islam,or evenuntouched -
bycultures aboveall,
Islamic,unindebted
Arabicand Persian - that since the Middle Ages have been affiliated
strongly withIslam?Or,tolookfroma different vantage point,doesbeing
an embodiment ofWesternculture,as Dante hasbecome,excludeipso
factoresponsiveness to non-Western influences?
To turnto the final element in the phrase"Dante and Islam,"what
exactlydid Islamcomprehend? In otherwords,to whatextentdid the
categories oftheArab Arabic,theone ethnicandtheotherlinguistic,
and
overlapwitheach other?AndwhatwouldDante'sconceptions ofIslam
havebeen,irrespective or
ofethnicity language? He used the word Arab
Dante Studies,CXXV, 2007
onlyonce (Par.6.49),as an ethnictermnotforanypeoplecontemporary

withhimbut insteadfortheancientCarthaginians - the "Arabs"who
followedHannibalacrossthe Alps to invadeRoman Italy.And what
equivalencewas fixedbetweentheArab/Arabic on the one handand
Islam/Muslim on theother?One certainty is thatas we gazebackat the
MiddleAgesfromour own today,we shouldmakeno instant equation
betweenIslamicandArabicor betweenChristian and Latin,norshould
we establish an automatic dichotomy betweenIslamo-Arabic and Chris-
tian-Latin.
As if matters were not alreadysufficiently embroiled, how did the
medievalequivalents ofdesignations suchasBerber,Hagarite, Ishmaelite,
Moor,andSaracenenterintothepicture? Dante'sdefault forreferringto
Arabs,whether oftheLevant,Spain,or Sicily,is the last-mentionedepi-
thet,Saracen(Saracino), whichservesevenmoregenerally to markMus-
lims.19Whereasin the chansons de gestethe substantive functionsas a
synonym forpagan,Danteappliesitto different effectbycouplingitthree
timeswiththe stockwordforJew or Jewish(Giudeo).20 Dante'sown
antagonism cannot be questioned when Guido da Montefeltro chides
Pope BonifaceVIII (1294-1303)forwarring on Christians (theColonna
family),describing him as "Lo principe d'i novi Farisei,/ avendo guerra
pressoa Laterano, / e noncon Saracinne con Giudei"(Inf.27.85-87).21
Evenostensibly positiveapplications oftheterm,undercloserscrutiny,
revealsymptoms ofbeingbackhanded compliments. Berberwomen(de-
spitethefact thatthe unfavorable undertone of "barbarian" probablyrang
through) arelauded,as areSaracenones(Par.23.103-5),butlessto extol
themin theirown rightthanto chastise Florentine ladiesbycontrast for
theirshamelessness. ForeseDonati (ca. 1260-1296),a friendof Dante,
creditsMuslimwomenwithbeingmoremodestthantheirFlorentine
counterparts. Yet thecontextoffers at bestmixedflattery, sincethedrift
ofthepassageis thatevenbarbarians and Saracens(to use Dante'sword)
surpassin modesty thewomanhoodofFlorence.Likewise,whenDante
out as
singles Italy beingpitiableevenamongtheSaracens(Epist.5.5 "iam
nuncmiseranda YtaliaetiamSaracenis"),he impliesnot so muchthat
Muslimsare extraordinarily compassionate as thattheconditions on the
are
peninsula so wretched as to induceevensuchaliensto commiserate.
Does Dante offer adequateevidenceforus to drawanyfinedistinc-
tions,or are thesequestionsones thatwouldengagea philologist today
butthatwouldhavebeenirrelevant, inconceivable, or bothin theyears
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
around1300?Wouldwe be betteroffgrouping together notonlyArab/

Arabicand Islam/Muslim but also Arabicizing and Islamicizing? In the
lastcase,we couldmulloverusinga catch-all term,suchas "Islamicate."22
This collectionaffords opportunities to achieve manygoals,one of
whichis to facilitateinnovative outlooksand to allowforfreshnuances
whilenotoverlooking old viewsor denying obviousrealities oftherela-
tionsbetweenDanteandIslam.The unsettled issuessubsumed underthis
headinghave been ramifying in fitsand starts fornearlyone hundred
years,but the precedingcentury did not come closeto exhausting the
topicsorto guaranteeing anyconsensus aboutthem.To secureanymean-
ingfulnew insights intothe cause celebreof Dante and Islamrequires
investigating generally whateffects Islamhad on LatinChristendom in
thelatethirteenth and earlyfourteenth centuries; whatthegreatItalian
poet could have gleaned from other people or texts aboutMuhammad
and Islam,sincemuchmoreinformation was forthcoming thanis some-
the
timesrealized(as can be gaugedfrom essay in this collection byJose
Martinez Gazquez on 'Translations of theQur'an and Other Islamictexts
beforeDante(Twelfth andThirteenth Centuries"); whatofhisformation
or
he owed directly indirectly to Islamic and Islamicate culture(and
whether he knewor evencouldhaveknownthatithadcometo himvia
Islamiccultureor Muslimlearning); whichactualMuslimswouldhave
residedin Italyduringhislifetime; whatdirectandindirect acquaintance
withIslamotherItalianscontemporary withhimmayhavehad,through
travelsto the IslamicEast (or West,sinceregionsof Spainlingeredin
Muslimhandsuntil1492),or throughcontactwithMuslimswho ven-
turedwestwardor livedthere;and,lastbut not least,to whatdegree
Dantecouldhavebeenacquainted specificallywithIslamiceschatology.
Althoughpreliminary probingsof Dante'sperspectives on Muslims,
Islamicculture, andrelated issuesantedated the early twentieth century,23
study of such matters was propelled as never before by a book published
in 1919.The volumeunderscrutiny, La escatologia musulmana enla Divina
Comedia(MuslimEschatology in theDivineComedy), was firstdelivered
as an inaugurallectureby the SpanishArabist,Miguel Asin Palacios
(1871-1944),onJanuary 26, 1919,uponhiselectionto theReal Acade-
mia Espafiola(SpanishRoyalAcademy).His centralcontentions would
havestirred uneasein somemilieusand excitement in otherswhenever
his disquisitioncame into print, but the subsequentdebatereacheda
CXXV, 2007
DanteStudies,
singularlycontentiouspitchbecausepublicationtookplaceon theeve of
thesix-hundredth anniversaryofDante'sdeath(1921).24
the
Among manyconsequences of thebrouhaha,thephrasing of the
titlehashad a protractedafterlife.
Whenreprinted nottenyearsafterits
initialprintrun,thebookwasentitled morepithilyDanteyelIslam(Dante
and Islam).25The equivalentItalianphraseDantee VIslamwas cooptedas
thetitlewhenAsinPalacios'smagnumopuswasfinally publishedin Italy
in 1994.26The Englishtranslationandabridgement wasentitledIslamand
theDivineComedy, whichheightened thepolemicforcebyforegrounding
andprivileging Islam27"Dante and Islam/'whetherhallowedor unhal-
lowedbyitsmultiple uses,hasbeenadoptedforthiscollection.
AsinPalacios'sargument thatDantewas beholdento Muslimsources
elicitedstarkly
different
reactions,dependinguponthefieldofscholarship
to whichthegivenreaderor revieweradhered.Afterfirst appearing in
1919, La escatologia en la Divina Comediawas receivedon the
musulmana
wholefavorably byOrientalists andespecially byArabists, butmostly un-
enthusiasticallyor even negatively by Romanists(withthe exception
of
mainly Hispanists). Nowhere was the negativism morewidespread and
emphatic thanamongItalianDantists.28
The reception ofAsinPalacios'swritings hasbeenstyled"a scandalous
chapterin thehistory ofDante scholarship."29 Althoughtheconcession
thatthe Commedia or any otherof Dante's writings mayhave "Ara-
besque"properties shouldnotundermine theauthenticity ofthearche-
typal and foundationalpoet in Italian literature,it is how
understandable
in differenttimesor circumstances themereacceptanceof a possibility
thatDantemayhavebeenconditioned byIslamiceschatological traditions
in hisconception ofa voyagethrough an otherworld ofHell andHeaven
couldhavebeen feltto diminish him.Thus Dantistsmayhaverejected
theSpaniard's bookwithparticular vehemence becauseadmission ofsuch
indebtedness couldhavebeenfeltto lessenin one fellswooptheindivid-
ual genius,Christianity,
andItalianness ofa poetaboutwhomtheyhada
sense.
proprietary Indeed, ithas been speculated thatthespurning ofAsin
Palacios'stheoryhasreflected bothcultural nationalism and theidoliza-
tionofDante thathasbeen styledDantolatry30 - thatDantistshavedis-
dainedthe veryexistenceof the theory"as an assaulton the sublime
author'sveryChristianity,as wellas on hisidentity as a Europeanandnot
leastas an Italian."31
On the otherside,it has been asserted thatAsin
Palaciosandhissupporters wereled astray by their own national
interests
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
in puffing up the contributions of Spainand Arabic-speaking Islamto

Dante'sepicproject.32 In thiswaytheuproaris attributed to theopposed
of and
patriotismsphilologists literary scholars,with Italians
pittedagainst
Spaniards andMuslims.
The daymaycomewhenliterary anthologies ofmedievalItalianlitera-
turewillembracerather thaneschewthefullheterogeneity oflanguages
andcultures thatwererootedatone timeoranother on theItalianpenin-
sula.Alongside selections insundry dialects ofItalianwouldburgeontexts
in MedievalLatin,Byzantine Greek,Old Germaniclanguages, Occitan,
Hebrew,and Arabic.A shiftto such accommodation would match what
hashappenedin thestudyofregionssuchas medievalEnglandandSpain,
wherein recentyearsparadigms thathad been determined in thenine-
teenthcentury by nationalist philologieshavebeen allowedto breathe
andto welcomethemultiplicities thathavebeenthenormin manystret-
chesofEuropeatmanytimes.
Allthesame,Dantists werebyno meansaltogether unjustifiedin their
reactionstoAsin Palacios's foray intoDante The
studies. book stood open
to criticism,sinceitshypothesis, forall itsbrilliance,was overstated. For
one, it reliedexcessively on the notion that Dante drew especially upon
theAndalusimysticIbn al-'Arabl(1165-1240) and the Syrianpoet al-
Ma'arri(973-1057),whose oeuvreseven a skilledArabophonewould
have had difficulty securing, interpreting, and appreciating in latethir-
teenth-century -
Europe andnothing warrants thesupposition in thefirst
place that Dante knew Arabic.33 Whyhypothesize indebtedness on the
partoftheItalianpoetto Arabicsourcesto whichhe could not have had
access,whenWestern literature, aboveallin Latin,aboundedin visionary
literatureofitsown?34
Consequently, thewhole case advancedin AsinPalacios'sbook was
undercut by the nonexistence ofa Latintranslation thatcouldhavemedi-
atedapparently recherche Islamiceschatology toWestern Christendom in
generaland to Dante in particular. Yet withina yearof AsinPalacios's
deathin 1944,andjusta couple yearsafter
of hisbookhadbeenreprinted
in Madridand Granadawitha surveyof the discussions thatthe first
a
editionhadprovoked, veryplausiblemissing linkin thetransmission of
Arabiceschatological literature was broughtto light.Shortly thereafter,
AsinPalacios'shypothesis was possiblyconfirmed by the publication of
medievaltextsin Latinand Romance languages(though not Ibn al-
'Arabl'smagnumopus, Futuhatal-makkiyya [The Meccan Openings]),
whichrecountthe"nightjourney" of Muhammad.
CXXV, 2007
DanteStudies,
Whatis thenight journey?Islamictradition holdsthatone nightMu-

hammadmadea two-stage journey,eithera physical voyageor a dream.
Although the suraof theQur'an known as al-isra'
referstwicesuccinctly
to thetradition(sura17.1 and 60) and anothersuramayalludeto it as
well(sura53.1-18),mostofthestoryis conveyedin thetraditional writ-
ingscalledthehadith.The firstpartofthejourneyis thenight journeyor
ism'proper.In it Muhammadis provided,by the archangel Gabriel,a
wingedsteednamedBuraq thathe ridesfromthe Kaaba in Mecca to
the "farthest
mosque,"usuallyunderstood to be theTempleMountin
Jerusalem.Afteralightingthereandconducting prayer in thepresenceof
otherprophets,Muhammadremounts Buraq and commences thesecond
leg ofthenightjourney,styledtheascensionor mi'raj.In thisascenthe is
takenon a tourof the heavens,wherehe communeswiththe earlier
prophetsandwithAllah,andhe is givena detailedviewofHell.35
Between1260and1264,thepresumptive Arabicoriginal (nowlost)of
a textaboutthenightjourneywas translated intoCastilianby a Jewish
physiciannamed Abraham "Alfaquim"(whichcorresponds to theArabic
"thedoctor").Thisversionoftheaccountincorporates
al-hakfm, a golden
ladderof lightthatenablesMuhammadto commencehis ascentto
Heaven.Thisvividimagehasgiventhesurviving textstheirnames.Abra-
ham'sCastiliantranslation,
itself
no longerextant, servedas thebasisfor
and Old FrenchLivrede Veschiele
the Latin LiberscaleMachometi Mahomet
(Book of theLadderofMuhammad)thatwereproducedby theItalian
Bonaventure ofSiena,a TuscanGhibelline in exile.36
The Latinversion,
datedbetween1260and1264,precededtheOld French, whichwasitself
composedin 1264.
Allthreetranslations intoLatinandRomancelanguages weremadeat
thebehestofKingAlfonsoX theWise of Castile(1262-1284),who in
Toledopatronized learningwiththehelpoflearnedtranslators fromall
threereligions.37In thisinstance Alfonsowouldappear(tojudge by the
prologue to the Old Frenchversion)tohavebeenspurred on bya twofold
desire,tomakeaccessible thelifeandteaching ofMuhammad andthereby
to ease comparison ofwhathe regarded as theextravagant and fabulous
legendoftheProphetwiththedoctrines of Christ.ThusAlfonsohad a
polemicmotivation thatcallsto mindtheanti-Islamic impulsesofPeter
theVenerable (ca. 1092-1156),abbotoftheBenedictine abbeyofCluny,
who roughlya centuryearlierhad orchestrated the translation
of the
Qur'an and otheressential documents of Islamicfaith.38The collection
10
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
assembled at Peter'sinstance is knownas theCorpusToletanum or Cor-

pus Islamolatinum.39 (The essayin thiscollectionbyJoseMartinezGaz-
quez on translations theQur'anand otherIslamictextsis once again
of
relevant.)Consistentwith this interpretation, all the testimonies to
knowledge of the LiberscaleMachometi surface in anti-Islamic polemics.40
The provenanceof the manuscripts points to a wide dissemination
outsideSpain,sincethe Latinones were producedin Brittany (Paris,
Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS Lat. 6064, thirteenth century) and
southern France/Provence (Vatican, BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana,MS
Vat. Lat. 4072, earlyfourteenth century:incomplete), while the Old
Frenchtextwaswritten in England(Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud
Misc.537,thirteenth century). Beyondtheenlightenment thatthemanu-
scripttransmission brings, bothsurviving forms of the Liber scaleMachometi
havebeenshowntohavebeenknownin Italyin thefourteenth century.41
The vectorsof the textor of the accountit narrated could have been
Dominicanor Franciscan friars, Jewishmerchants, Florentine diplomats
(suchas Brunetto Latini,who servedas ambassador Spain), travelers
in or
ofsomeotherbent.
Whydoesthepotential availabilityoftheLiberscaleMachometi toDante
matter so greatly? The Commedia revealssimilaritiesto Islamiceschatolog-
ical traditions in bothcontentand structure to suchan extentthatit is
veryappealingto see indebtedness on Dante'spart.Nowheredoes the
temptation runstronger thanwhencontemplating Muhammad's"night
In the
voyage." weighing implications of theparallels betweenthe"night
voyage"andtheCommedia, itmakessensebothtobe opentothepossibil-
itythattheformer influenced thelatterand to bearin minda principle
thathashadto be rediscovered againandagainin Quellenforschung, to use
theGermantechnical wordfortheassaying ofsourcesandparallels: not
allsimilaritiesproveborrowing.
Muhammad'snightvoyagetakesplace- no surprise here- at night.
Somefeatures ofthevoyagebetray noteworthy parallelsto Dante'spoem.
A guide(Gabriel/Vergil) takes thevoyager(Muhammad/Dante) by the
hand,accompanies himto thefootofa hill,andinviteshimto ascend to
thepeak,butthevoyageris hindered whenbeastsappear.The Hell the
voyager visits liesbeneaththecityofJerusalem, andisfilledwithweeping,
wailing,andsounds of woe. Before passing Paradise,thevoyagerun-
to
dergoesthreefold ablution.The passageinvolvesa ladderor a flightof
stairs.Once in Paradise, thevoyagerwitnesses thesprings andrivers, tree
11
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
of happiness, fire,and overpowering

purifying of heavenly
brightness
luminosity.
Arethelikenesses betweentheLiberscaleMachometi andtheCommedia
sheerlycoincidental,or do theyfurnish proofthatDante had been ex-
posedsomehowto a narration ofMuhammad's nightvoyageto Paradise
and Hell or to Muslimeschatology transmitted through otherchannels?
EnricoCerulli(1898-1988),one ofthetwoscholars who firstpublished
the LiberscaleMachometi and the one who comparedit most minutely
againstthe Commedia, concluded that an affirmativeanswer to thesecond
optioncannotbe made,althoughit is conceivable,and thatwhatever
andnarrative
inspirations detailsdidentertheCommedia wouldhavebeen
integratedwithina construction thathad been composeddecisively of
elements fromclassical,
biblical,and Christian culture.Thus a battle
line
was effectivelydrawn.AsinPalacios,thoughnotyetin possession ofthe
LiberscaleMachometi,
unfolded a verypotenthypothesis aboutthepossible
indebtedness oftheCommedia toArabicsources.His theseswereseconded
withgustoby theSpanishscholar, JoseMufiozSendino,whosewholly
independent studyandeditionoftheLiber scaleMachometi appearedsimul-
taneously with Cerulli's.42
Whereas Mufioz Sendino took theLiberscale
Machometi as incontrovertibleproofpositivethatAsinPalacios'stheorem
hadbeencorrect, Cerullistakedouta farmorecautiousposition.43
The circumspection couldseemjustified, sincetheLiberscaleMacho-
meticontainsmanytraitssuggestive of the Commedia, butno particular
or
phraseology image that an
proclaims indubitably directconnection.44
Anotherview would hold thatDante would not have been likelyto
make an unmistakable allusionin Italianto a Latintextof undistin-
guishedstyle,andthathe wouldnotverywellhaveprofessed hisdebtto
itscontent,sinceit revolvedarounda personagehe scornedas a schis-
maticatbest.In Inferno2.32 Danteacknowledges thetripto theunder-
world of Aeneas (Aeneid,book 6) and the ecstaticvision of the
otherworld describedby the ApostlePaul (2 Cor. 12:1-4): "Io non
Enea, io non Paolo sono." Even ifhe had come acrossthe Liberscale
Machometi, he would not have subjoined - and his restraintwould not
have been dictatedby prosodyalone- "Anzi,sono io Maometto"or
even"io non Maomettosono."45The sourcesDante signalsbelongnot
to theIslamicbutrather to theWestern visionary therichness
tradition,
ofwhichmustnotbe underestimated.
12
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
Since manyof the polemicreactionsto AsinPalacios'sbook (itself

polemic)have had recurrent in subsequent
repercussions approaches to
thetopicsit raised,thiscompendium begins with two articles
thatoffer
on
perspectives thestatusquaestionis "Dante and Islam"in thesecond
of
halfof the twentieth century.Taken together, the pieces lend much
weightto thenotionthattherealstoryto be toldis notthepresenceor
absenceofan IslamicorArabicdepositinDante'swritings butinsteadthe
enla Divina Comediain Dante studies.
musulmana
receptionofLa escatologia
The controversy hashada lifeofitsown,almostindependent ofanything
thatcanevenbe provenaboutthemedievaltextsthemselves.
The first byVicenteCantarino
article, (1925-),hasa specialrelevance,
sinceit was publishedin 1965 in conjunction witha symposium spon-
soredbytheDanteSocietyofAmerica.46 "Dante and Islam:History and
Analysisofa Controversy" continuesto be heavilycitedas a systematic
reviewofthestudiesthatprecededAsinPalacios'sas wellas oftheschol-
arlyreception thathisbook experienced.47 The secondarticle, translated
hereas "Dante and IslamicCulture"from theItalian originalby Maria
Corti(1915-2002),was presented at a conference in 1999 and printed
in 2001.
first 48
Albeitunintentionally,Corti'spiececapsworkon thetopic,notjustas
the twentieth century reachedan end but also as a close came to the
periodpreceding thecoordinated 2001 attacks by al-Qaedaterrorists in
theUnitedStateson theWorldTradeCenterin New YorkCity and on
thePentagonin Washington, D.C., thatgo undertheshorthand of9/11
andthathavefurther polarizedscholarsandthegeneralpublic alike where
issuespertainingto therelationsbetweenIslamandChristianity as wellas
betweentheNearEastandtheWestcomeintoplay.49
In thepolitically rivenclimateof thesedays,we mustguardagainst
succumbing to eitherextremein the binarism thatpitswhatcould be
calledIslamophilia againstIslamophobia
(or philislamia) (or misislamia).
-
thesecontrariesandthewordsin thesecondpairingpointin
Although
the differentbut relateddirections of fearingand hating - build upon
Islamas theirkeyroot,neither assumes profound expertise aboutIslamin
eitheritsmodernor medievalguises.Those on bothsidesmaynotbe
ableto differentiatea minbarfroma minibar or anti-Occidentalism from
In
anti-oxidants.addition, a command of Arabic, Hebrew, and other rele-
vantlanguages, or evena meaningful exposureto suchtongues,appears
to be rareamong those who know medieval Europeanlanguages. As a
13
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
result, Westernists mighthavea practical incentiveto overstate thegap

betweenmedievalLatinsandmedievalArabs,sincedoingso wouldexon-
eratethemof the responsibility to grapplewith difficult languages.
Among theother party,Orientalists(who are likelierto havemastery or
at leastworkingknowledgeofLatinand RomancelanguagesthanRo-
manists areofArabicandHebrew)mightenhancetheimportance oftheir
if
areasofstudies theydemonstrated theobligation of theWest to medie-
val Arabs.Of course,thereis no hard-and-fast rule.Not havingmore
thana smattering ofa givenlanguagedoesnotprecludehavingromantic
feelings abouttheimportance of a cultureassociatedwithit: frommy
undergraduate I
days retain a vivid pictureofan elderly Hispanistwho as
he lecturedpassionately on thecontributions oftheArabsto theforma-
of
tion Spanishculturecarefully wrote on the blackboardkeyArabic
-
terms butfromleftto right.
In anycase,thedesireofprofessors to exaltthefieldsto whichthey
havecommitted theirlivespalesbesidethepervasive powerofpoliticsto
dictatewhatis taughtandstudied,andhow it is taughtandstudied.The
headlinesof theearlytwenty-first century shoutout newsofideologies
labeledvariously as Islamicfundamentalism andIslamicextremism, which
aresometimes equatedorevenlinkedhistorically withthenational social-
ism(Nazism,forshort)ofAdolfHitler'sGermany(1933-1945).50 Such
ideologies,which have been characterized as Islamo-Fascism, lead in turn
to attitudesand actsthatareroundlycondemnedin theWest.Examples
wouldbe (to giveonlya smallsampling) an anti-Westernism and espe-
ciallyan anti-
Americanism thatmanifests itself in violentdeathandmay-
hem,an anti-Zionism andanti-Jewishness thatinvokesthedissolution of
Israelandeventheeradication ofJewsin a newholocaust, andfatwas that
callforreprisal,evenmurder, against authors and otherartists
who create
worksregarded as insultingto Islam.By farthemajority ofterrorist acts
thatarereported in theWestern mediarelateto thehypertrophic forms
oftheseideologies.
Do thehorrors ofourcontemporary worldhavea bearingon theMid-
dle Ages,or vice versa?If theydo relateto each other,thenhow so?
One approachis to elide the differences betweenmedievalIslamand
(post)modern Islamicfundamentalism by arguingthatthegulfbetween
theChristian Westand theIslamicEastexistedalreadyin themedieval
periodor bypromoting present-day Islam- or Westernculture, as per-
-
ceivedfromoutside as beingmedieval(andnotmedievalin a favorable
14
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
sense!)in outlook.51 If we wishto sitin judgmenton the conductof

Christian andMuslimpowersin theMiddleAges,thenwe shouldomit
from our assessment neitherthe aggressive projectionof Christianity
againstIslamin theCrusadesnortheearlierwarring sweep- themother
ofmilitaryjihads- whichinthefirst century ofIslam(632-732)propelled
theearliestgenerations ofMuslimsfromtheirbirthplaces on theArabian
peninsulanorthward through the Levant into Asia Minor and through
Persiaand westward acrossnorthern AfricaintoSpain.Laterconquests
addedSicily,Crete,andotherMediterranean islandsto Cyprusas Muslim
holdings.ManyoftheselandshadbeenChristian forcenturiesbeforethe
warriorsofthenewreligion madetheirfirst incursions.
The contrapuntal moveis to sharpen thecontrasts betweenthepresent
andthepast,byhighlighting thetimesofharmony amongthethreemain
monotheisms in theMiddleAgesthattendto be overlookedor ignored
amidall theemphasison current conflicts.This accentuation of pacific
phasesleadstoa focusuponhowmuchmoreadvancedIslamiccivilization
was thanWesternChristendom in theMiddleAgesand how fruitfully
andevenpeacefully Muslims,andJewscoexistedin medieval
Christians,
Europe,especially in theMuslim-held or formerly Muslim-held regions
ofSpainandSicily.
The worldis and has been too intricate a place forthe encounters
betweendiffering religionsand linguistico-ethnic groupingstodayto be
regarded as nothingmorethantheprojections ofone strain pastrela-
of
tionsinto the present.Currenteventsare too complicated - and so is
- forsuchsimplism
history to serveus well.It is laudableto takea stand
againstpotentialevil,and it is also praiseworthy to motivatepeople to
interacton thestrength oftheirsharedhumanity. In manycasesthemani-
foldambiguities of boththenow and thethenrenderverydifficult an
exclusivechoicebetweenthetwo impulses, and it wouldbe simplerto
havea sortofpartyadherencethatwouldabsolveus ofthenecessity to
-
foranswers butno one eversaidthatbeinga responsible histo-
struggle
rian(orcitizen)wassupposedto be easy.
Withthesecaveatsin mind,letus turnto whatshouldbe ourpointof
departure, Dante,and to whatwe can stateas facts.Aftercenturies of
havingbeen on the advance,Islamhad to contendfromtheverylate
eleventh century through thethirteenth withChristian beachheads in the
Eastern Mediterranean, inpresent-day Turkey, Syria,Lebanon,andIsrael,
andovera muchlonger stretchof time with the Christian
reconquest of
15
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
al-Andalus, inwhatis modern-day Spain.In addition,fromthethirteenth

century on, Islamhad to cope withtheevengravermenaceofMongol
encroachments in theeast,whichreachedintoitsheartlands. However
mistaken it wouldbe to caricaturetheadherents ofthetwo religions as
having retreatedbehind completelyimpenetrable the
barriers, climate was
oneinwhich - outsidetheIberianpeninsula- exchanges decreased rather
thanincreased.In 1291 theLatinkingdoms of Syriaand Palestinehad
been lostto the Mamluks.In contrast, the reconquest(Reconquista) of
SpainbyLatinChristians had madedecisiveprogress and had facilitated
theextension ofshipping andtradebyEuropeansthroughout theMedi-
terranean andbeyond.52
Thoughmanyoftheseadjacencies weredrawingto a definitive close
in Dante'slifetime,we must recognize that what has been called "the
legacyof Islam"was attainednot onlythrough culturesthatrubbedup
againsteachothersimultaneously butalsothrough culturesthatsucceeded
eachotherandthatabsorbedelements ofeachotherin theprocess.
In theHolyLandandLatinKingdomsofGreece,Crusaders cameand
went,someforonlythedurationof shortcampaigns but othersto live
theirwholelives.In fact,theirpresencewas so extendedthateven to
speakoftheircomingandgoinggivesa misleading impression ofimper-
manency. The LatinKingdomshad inhabitants who spentmostoftheir
existences,fromcradleto grave,in placessuchas Tyre,andthetraffic to
and fromtheselocalescomprehended pilgrims,merchants, and others,
alongsidethe warriors.
LatinChristendom neverwalleditselfoffaltogether fromcommerce
withArabIslam,nor did Muslimsimmurethemselves fromtradeand
otherexchanges withChristians.
Italiancommunities, amongwhichVen-
ice holdsprideofplace,hadintense mercantile andcommercial ties.Mis-
sionaries,
especiallyDominicansand Franciscans, traveled to theEast.In
thiscollectiontheentireessaybyThomasE. Burmanon "How an Italian
FriarRead His ArabicQur'an" and pagesof othersbyJoseMartinez
Gazquez,BrendaDeen Schildgen, MariaEspositoFrank,KarlaMallette,
andJohnTolanaredevotedto theFriarMinorRiccoldoofMonteCroce
(1242-1320).Riccoldois a fascinatingcasein pointas a possiblechannel
fortransmissionofdetailsaboutIslamto Danteandas an exemplar ofthe
unusualbutnotuniqueexchanges thatcouldanddidtakeplace.53
In 1286-1287,approximately twenty yearsafterentering theFloren-
tineconventof SantaMariaNovellain 1267,Riccoldo setoffforAcre
16
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
witha papalcommission to preach.Eventually he traversed thelandthen

knownas Palestine to enterAsiaMinor,beforewendinghiswaytoBagh-
dad via Mosuland Tekrit.Even afterthefinalcollapseof the Crusader
kingdoms in 1291 Riccoldo remainedin Baghdadto studytheQur'an
andIslamictheology, buteventually he hadtoflee.In 1301he is recorded
as beingbackin Florence.He wroteprolifically aboutIslambothbefore
and afterhisreturn, and in 1315 he was appointedpriorof SantaMaria
Novella.
Although knowledgeofIslamand exposureto Islamiccultureflowed
intotheWestthrough all oftheseconduits, thechieflocusfortransmis-
sionofcultural awareness was occidentalIslam,especially al-Andalus. In
SpainChristians andMuslimsengagedwithone anotheron a day-to-day
basis.Dantetraveled hitherandyonin Italy,buthe neverspenttimein
Muslimlands.He couldhaveheardArabicwordsandphrases fromthose
who knewthelanguage, butnothing suggeststhathe acquiredforhimself
anyfacility in Arabicthatwouldhaveenabledhimto converseor read.
In sum,hispictureofIslamanditscultures wouldhavecomethrough his
readingsand through informants who had had exposurethrough travels
to Spain,Sicily,and othersuchplaceswithtraces(andthat last word is
oftenan understatement) ofMuslimoccupations or evento theLevant.
A further channelof contactwarrants mention.In manyregionsof
LatinChristendom thepeoplewho arenow oftendesignated toutcourt
as Europeans(a conceptthatdidnottakeshapebeforearound1600)had
no directinteraction withMuslims.54 The "internalother" - thosewho
stood out by contrast to the prevailing Christianity and ethnicities-
comprised individuals who adherednotto IslambutinsteadtoJudaism.55
Yet sincetheJewsofmedievalEuropeweresometimes connectedinti-
matelyby economic and familybonds to coreligionists Muslim-held
in
suchas al-Andalus,
territories theyoftenfunctioned as intermediaries for
Islamicinfluences. Thus Dante's perspectives on Muslims and Islam can-
not and shouldnot be boxed offentirely fromhis possibleencounters
and
withJews Jewishculture, even if nineteenth-century assumptions of
a fastfriendship betweenhim and Immanuelben Solomonof Rome
(knownalso as Immanuel Romano and Manoello Giudeo,ca. 1265-
1331)haveoftenbeendismissed as illfounded.56 The advisability ofpay-
ingheedto Immanuel and otherJews linkedto Dante's Verona isbrought
homein thiscollectionin theessayentitled "DanteandtheThreeReli-
gions:One ReligionfortheEmpire"byGiorgioBattistoni.
17
Beyondwondering how Dantecouldhavegainedan entry intoIslam,

specific Muslims,writings byMuslims,theArabiclanguage,and culture
associated withIslam,Arabs,and otherslikelyto havebeen considered
Muslims,we need to isolatewhichfeatures of "Muslimfashion"and
evenmoreencompassingly ofan "Islamicwayoflife"wouldhavebeen
apprehensible to himand otherLatinChristians. In thisambitthevarie-
gated lexicon of Italianwords thatderived from Arabic offers usefuldata
to mine.
The Arabicderivatives indicatethatinteractions withMuslimsexposed
theRomance-speaking Christians ofItalyto manynovelties in foodand
agriculture, textiles and haute couture,entertainment, oflearning,
realms
andtechnology. The newcropsintroduced includeddatepalmsandcitrus
fruits,as well as sugar cane for sugarmanufacture, andplantssuchas cot-
ton,hemp,andmulberries, whichwereusedin producing textiles,
rope,
matting, and
silk, paper.Among the foodstuffs would be numbered many
spices, in entertainment instruments such as the lute and tambourine
and gamessuchas chess,checkers, and backgammon. The learning that
streamed fromtheEastthrough Muslimsoratleastthrough Musliminter-
mediaries encompassed mathematics, science, and medicine. In thiscol-
lectionparticular attention is paid to Dante's ultimateindebtedness to
Arabicculture infowling, by Daniela Boccassini in her on
essay "Falconry
as a Transmutative Art:Dante,Frederick II, and Islam,"andotherdebts
alongtheselinesin technical domainssuchas astronomy andopticscould
be identified.
The imprint thatArabiclefton Dante'slanguage,as on Italianas a
whole,is undeniable. TheseArabisms, all butone ofthemlexicalrather
thansyntactic, give further sign of the culturalarenasin whichArabo-
phoneMuslimshad a commandof thingsand conceptsthathad been
unfamiliar in theWest.Arabicwordswerenaturally brought intoDante's
Italianto describeoffices or functions thatweredistinctive ofwaysoflife
among Arabs. In this category would fallwords ranging from "sultan"
(Inf.5.60, 27.90, Par. 11.101) and "admiral"(Purg.13.154 and 30.58)
through"assassin"(Inf.19.50) to one characteristically Italiantermfor
boy (ragazzo:Inf.29.77). (Although not from a lexical pointofview,the
essay in this volume on "Mendicants and Muslims in Dante'sFlorence"
byJohn Tolan deals in extenso with the "presenza . superba"of the
. .
Egyptian sultan to whom Francis of Assisipreachesin Canto 11 of the
Paradiso.)
18
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
In keepingwithwhathasbeenmentioned Danteresorts,
already, wit-
tinglyor not,to Arabicderivatives
to denotewholebodiesofscienceand
know-how,suchas "alchemy"(Inf.29.119 and 137),as well as specific
terms withinthem,suchastheastronomical "zenith"(Par.29.4),anatom-
ical nuca(Inf.32.129), or nauticalscirocco
(Purg.28.21). Luxuryitems,
among them gemstones and thecolors withthem(azzurro,
associated Inf.
17.59; balasso,Par. 9.69; carato,Inf.30.90; zajiro,Purg.1.13, Par. 23.101),
andforms suchas musicalinstruments
ofentertainment, (lento,
Inf.30.49)
Purg.24.30; aljino,Dettod'amore456;
Par. 28.93; rocco,
and games (scacchi,
zara,Purg.6.1). The onlyArabicloanwordthatrefers particularly to Is-
lamicreligionis mosque(meschita, Inf.8.70), which arrived via Spanish.
The sole exampleof a caique conceivably basedon theArabiccomes
whenDanteemploys theverbimprimere tobetokentheinfluence ofheav-
enly bodies upon the earth (Par.17.76-77). But the expression had al-
readyfigured in ItalianbeforeDanteresorted to it.57
Howeverpreposterous itwould be to hypothesize thatDantewascon-
versantin Arabic,morethanone passagein the Commedia has spurred
recurrent speculation thattheItalianpoethadatleastheardenoughofthe
otherlanguage to be capableofstressing one propernouncorrectly (the
nameAll in Inf.28.32)58and even of replicating in somewhatgarbled
formtwo longerutterances in thelanguage,one pronouncedby Pluto
(Inf.7.1) and theotherbyNimrod(Inf.31.67).59But thestepwouldbe
enormous fromaccepting theconjecture thatDantecouldimitate loosely
to
theflowof Semiticlanguages convincing oneself on the strength of
twolinesthathe couldactually reador speakArabic.
In anycase,Dante'soutlookon Islamas a religion is farfromidentical
withhisoutlookon Islamiccultureor on culturemediatedthrough Ara-
bic. A classicarticleof 1932 averredthat"Dante showsmuchthesame
view of the Mohammedans as his contemporaries, and it is a low and
negligent one,"60buthisknowledge ofIslamandhisperspectives on itas
a religionarenotas typical as thisunhesitating declaration presupposes.
IslamshareswithChristianity not onlythedefining feature of being
monotheistic butalsotheclaimofdescentfroman individual, Abraham,
who hasa placein theHebrew Bible. Medieval Christians saw theirfaith
asbeingevenmorecloselyrelatedto thatofMuslimsthanto thatofJews,
althoughthisrecognition heightened ratherthandiminished thedistrust
andhostility they felttoward the peoplethey called (among other things)
19
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
Saracens. The mostcommonor atleastpopularimageofIslamin medie-

valliterary andhistorical textswasas a polytheistic parodyofChristianity
thatblasphemed theTrinity in itspaganidolatry ofApollo(Apolinin the
Old French), Muhammad(Mahumet), andTermagant (Tervagan).61 Such
is thecase,mostnotably, in theChanson deRoland(SongofRoland).62 By
coincidence, Dante, at once supremely orthodox and unorthodox, lays
himself open to the accusation of such polytheism when he invokes the
god Apolloin Paradiso 1, firstas Christ(13-15), lateras theHoly Spirit
(19), and as God the Father 63
finally (22-24).
The Commedia contains unflatteringreferences to Muslims, andDante
demonstrates thereadyfamiliarity withtheprotagonists and antagonists
oftheCarolingian cyclenarratives thatwe wouldexpect.64 All thesame,
DantedoesnotretailIslamas thestarkly distorted mirroring ofChristian-
ity thatthe Chanson de Roland puts forward. Instead,he subscribes to a
morelearnedapprehension ofIslam,whichmisconstrued it notas a dis-
cretereligion butinsteadas a heresyor schismwithinChristianity itself.65
In fact,Dante'sviewoftheworldwasso solidlyChristianocentric thathe
saweachofthetwoothermonotheisms knownto him,namely, Judaism
andIslam,as beingunfulfilled or misfulfilledmanifestations ofChristian-
ity.Seenfromthisvantagepoint,themisrepresentation ofMuhammad as
a schismatic didnotrender hima hostileanddangerous "other"butrather
an insiderwhosesin(truly) was to haveruptured theharmony ofa reli-
gionandcivilization thatpreviously hadbeenunified.66
the
Eventually perspective that Muhammad wasa heresiarch developed
a legendary expression, in a tale(attested no earlierthantheend of the
thirteenth century) thatcharacterized theProphetas a cardinal who out
offrustration at notbeingelevatedto thepapacyresolvedto institute a
rivalreligionofhisown.67Although thislegendmakesno appearance, at
leastnot explicitly, in the Commedia,68 Islamdoes not elicitanygentler
handling in theCommedia as a consequence.
Islamis notmentioned outright attheendofPurgatorio 32.130-35,but
the description thereof a chariotthathas itsfloorbrokenawayby a
dragonhas been takenby mostcommentators as referringto thelosses
Christianity suffered the
through growth of Islam.69Whether or notthis
construction of thepassagein Purgatorio passesmuster, othersectionsin
theCommedia makeclearDante'sconviction thatIslamwasa corruption
of Christianity, conceiveddeliberately by Muhammad and entrenched
20
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
solelyowingto grossnegligence on thepartoftheChristian Churchand

leadership.
Thus in Paradiso15.142-44 Dante volunteers a characterization of
Islamin thevoiceofhisgreat-great-grandfather Cacciaguida, who in the
Second CrusadefoughtalongsideEmperor Conrad III (1138-1152) in
theHolyLandand whomDante setsin Heavenamongmartial leaders,
suchas Charlemagne and Roland.Cacciaguidaplaces the blame forthe
veryexistence ofIslamupona breakdown in pastoral care("percolpad'i
- in the
pastor")withinChristianityin otherwords,uponshortcomings
Christian clergy.Nonetheless, the culpability of the Christian clergyin
-
thelossofpeople former -
faithfulto Islamdoes not make theMuslims
anylessunsavory, tojudgebyCaccciaguida's pillorying ofthemas "quella
genteturpa"(15.145).
Dantepresents Islamas a sect,relatedtoJudaism, whichstandsapart
fromChristianity (Inf.27.87). In accordwith thisconception, he lodges
Muhammadin Hell andportrays hispunishment as a schismatic.Justfive
Muslimsfinda placein theCommedia, all ofthem in the (Cantos
Inferno
6 and 28), fora totalof not even twentylines:Avicenna(980-1037),
Averroes (IbnRushd,1126-1198),Saladin(ca. 1138-1193),Muhammad
(570-632),andAli (d. 661). Elsewherein hiscorpusDanterefers to the
ninth-century astronomer and astrologer Ja'faribn Muhammad Abu
Ma'sharal-Balkhl(Com. 2.13.22,Albumasar); the ninth-century Arab
astronomer al-Farghanl (Conv.2.5.16,Alfagrano); thelateeleventh- and
earlytwelfth-century philosopher, al-GhazallAbu (HamidMuhammad
ibn Muhammadal-TusI:(Conv.2.13.5 and 4.21.2, Algazali);and the
twelfth-century Andalusiastronomer Nur al-Dln ibn Ishaq al-BitrujT
(Conv.3.2.5,Alpetragio, formerly readAlfarabio); as wellas to Averroes
andAvicenna. Puttogether, thesereferences pointtofamiliarity withAra-
bic learning in thephysicalsciences,mathematics, and philosophy, but
none of themhintsat anydirectacquaintance withArabicoriginals. In
fact,all of themlook to have been mediatedthroughscholastic Latin
authorssuch as AlbertusMagnus(the Great,d. 1280) and his student
ThomasAquinas(ca. 1225-1274).
Muhammadis theonlyone discussed at anylength,in a thirty-eight-
line passage;Ali meritsonlytwo lines,althougheven thatcoverageis
noteworthy, in view of how muchlesscurrency he had in theMiddle
AgesthanMuhummad.70 As a schismatic who splitthebodyoftheChris-
tianChurch,Dante's Muhammad is planteddeep in Hell,in theninth
21
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
bolgiaoftheeighthcircle.Dantelabelsthosedwellingat thisstratum as
"seminator di scandaloe di scisma"(Inf.28.35). Bothscandalo andscismo
are Greekderivatives thatcarryassociations relatingnot to religionin
generalbutto Christianity in particular.
To be specific, theypresuppose
thatMuhammadwas a Christian, buta sectarian Christian who causeda
schismwithintheChurch.
As is analyzedin thiscollectionin essaysbyMariaEspositoFrankon
"Dante's Muhammad"and KarlaMalletteon "Muhammadin Hell,"
Muhammadis depictedas enduring a bodilymutilation thatenactsupon
hisownpersonthecorporalequivalent to hisrending ofthechurch,one
ofthemostgrotesque and ignoblepunishments in a poemthatis hardly
devoidofhorrors: he is rippedfromthechindownto theanus,withhis
torsoclovenso thathisbowelsandotherdigestive organsdanglebetween
71
hislegs(Inf.28.25-36). Thenagain,itmaybe a misstatement to charac-
terizeMuhammadas suffering, sincein a wayhe displays a certain proud
exhibitionism in splaying hisbreastwithhisown handsto showit to the
poet.72In anyevent,thecorrespondence betweenMuhammad's alleged
sinandthepunishment has
depicted particular resonance, since the term
contrapassoappears in the Commedia only at the finaleof this very canto
(Inf.28.142).
Itwouldrequirealmostunimaginable contortions toviewtheportrayal
ofMuhammadandAli as anything otherthana categorical denunciation
ofIslam,notevenas a legitimate faithinitsownright butasa degradation
of a bona fidereligion.Certainly Muslimswho have translated Dante
haveconsistently deemedtheportrayal ofMuhammadtoo offensive for
inclusion in theirversions ofthepoem.Particularly in Arabictranslations
ofthepoem,thepassageintheInferno thatdescribes thedamnable punish-
mentof theProphethasbeen expurgated.73 All thesame,Dante'scon-
demnation of Muhammadand Ali cannotbe equatedautomatically to
categoricalrejection of allMuslims. The poet's views of Islam have gained
recurrent notoriety in partprecisely becausehe evincessucha positive
disposition towardsomeMuslims:hiscontempt forthetwo representa-
tivesofIslamas a religioncouldbe feltto finditsoppositein hisesteem
forexemplars of theintellectual achievement and even of the chivalry
attainedby other Muslims.74
Although DanteplungedMuhammadandAli deepin theinferno, we
encounter thetwoonlylongafter havingmetthethreesome ofMuslims
he setinLimbo:Saladin,Averroes, andAvicenna.(Averroes andAvicenna
22
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
receivescrutiny in thisvolumein essaysby BrendaDeen Schildgenon

"Philosophers, Theologians,and the IslamicLegacyin Dante" and by
Gregory B. Stoneon "DanteandtheFalasifa: Religionas Imagination.")
Dantedoesnotallocatemuchspaceto thethreecelebrities: Averroesand
Saladinmeritno morethana fulllineeach,Avicenna justpartofone.75
Thus theyseem minimizedwhen measuredagainstthe dozen ancient
GreeksandRomanswho areconfined withthemin thecityofthesages,
whichis sequestered fromHell proper(or improper) by sevenwalls.At
thesametime,therespectthatDante accordsthemcannotbe gainsaid.
Although allthreewereMuslimandArabicspeakers, we needto ponder
whether Danteandhiscoevalsin LatinChristendom wouldhaveisolated
Muslimness as the keyor even a keyattribute in the identitiesof the
triad.Theirreligion maymatter solelyas explaining whytheylackedthe
awareness oftheChristian faiththatwouldhavesavedthemfromtheir
placement in Limbo.Dante'sdisposition towardthevirtuous pagans(or
virtuousunbelievers) is undeniably complex:76 consider his handlingof
Vergil,hisguidethrough theunderworld. Still,no wayliesopenformini-
mizing the factthatLimbo is a part of Hell, justas thecantodescribing it
fallssquarelywithintheInferno. The assertion that"threeMuslimsrestina
comfortable, almost Paradise-like Limbo alongwithothervirtuous pagans
fromtheclassicalworld"misrepresents Dante'stheology.77 Ifthethree-
somereceivesanyspecialdispensation, it is despite,notbecauseof,their
withwhatDante brandedas a schism.78
affiliation The onlySaracenin
Dante's Paradiseis Renouard(Rinoardo:Par. 18.46), who could be
awardeda nicheamongthosewho foughtforChristsolelybecausehe
wasa convert.
In the Commedia Saladin,who is also praisedin Convivio 4.11.14,is
placed in Limbo the
among righteous unbaptized, albeitsetoff"solo in
parte"fromtheheroesof ancientTroyand Rome withwhomhe so-
journs(Inf.4.129).79Dante'splacement ofSaladininLimbomakesappar-
entthatiftheMuslimgeneralhadbeena Christian, he wouldhavebeen
spared.Although Dante's disposition of Saladin has been takenasspeaking
toa pervasive sympathy forIslam,we mustexercisecautionaboutmaking
or
generalizationsdrawing broadinferences on thebasisofa singleverse.
Dante could have underlined the valorof thisMuslimwarriorwhose
forces wrested Jerusalem from the handsoftheCrusaders in 1187so as to
bringhometheignobility ofmanyofhiscontemporary notto
Christians,
disparage Christianity but
itself insteadto hint that ifeven thosewho cling
23
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
to a deformed heresyor (to be moreaccurate)schismcould conduct

themselves chivalrously, thenthetrulyfaithful had evenlessexcusefor
theirshortcomings. Dante'sHell is repletewithbackhanded compliments
ofthisbrand.
In Inferno AvicennaandAverroes arethelasttwopersonages identified
in Canto4 (143-44). Theyappearwithina cohortthatotherwise com-
prisesindividuals who livedbeforeChrist,withtheexceptionof Ovid,
Lucan,Seneca,and Saladin.The nameofAvicennais flanked by thatof
thegreatphysicians Hippocrates and Galen,whileat thefeetofAristotle
is Averroes, who elaborated thegreatcommentary on theStagirite. Al-
the be to
though messagemay foreign manytwenty-first-century eyes
andears,medievalreaders wouldhavesharedtheassumption underlying
theselinesthattheancientpastand theirpresentwereunbroken - that
theMuslimsbelongedon thesamecultural continuum as theChristians
(ortheJews).
Averroes inparticularcannotbe labeledsimply anArab.Bornin Spain,
inMuslimCordoba,he couldqualify asEuropeanatleastinhisgeograph-
ical origins.But retrojecting a modern-day category ofthought, suchas
and
European non-European, is not always the idealway to assimilatethe
thinking andwriting oftheMiddleAges.Although Dantewasaccusedof
being an Averroist six
already years after his he
death, wasnotfaulted for
beinga crypto-Muslim, forthesimplereasonthattheshortcomings of
Averroism wereseento residein philosophy ratherthanin religion.80
In thecaseofAverroes andAvicenna, theirstatusas philosophers may
havetrumped theirethnicand religious AvicennaandAver-
affiliations.
roesenteredtheLatincultural tradition as philosophers,wheretheirhe-
gemonywas suchthatit is legitimate to speakofbothLatinAvicennism
and LatinAverroism.81 Thesemovements can be seenas two wavesre-
latedto theproblematic reception of Aristotle in medievalEurope,in
whichfirstAvicennism and thenAverroism challengedthe orthodoxy.
Ecclesiastics such as AlbertusMagnusand ThomasAquinasmanaged
through theirsyntheses to keepthenewphilosophical currents,especially
ofAverroism, fromoverwhelming thechurch.In so doing,theyenabled
otherchurchmen to digestAristotle as he wasmediatedthrough theAra-
bic-writing thinkers.
Particularlyin the Convivio, Dante refers to philosophical worksthat
hadbeencomposedoriginally in Arabic,butnotstartlingly he alludesto
24
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
themexclusively as translatedintoLatinand- moreimportant - as fun-

neledthroughLatinChristian thinkers. He evidencesa veryfavorable
inclinationtowardthisphilosophy. Indeed,he situates SigerofBrabant, a
prominent thirteenth-century exponent of Averroism, in the Heaven of
theSun,alongwithThomasAquinasandotherteachers (Par.10.136-38),
eventhoughSigerhadfallen intodisrepute insomequarters forhisalleged
beliefthattheworldwaswithoutbeginning andend.
The othersideofthesamecoinmaybe thetreatise De causis, typically
designated as theLiberdecausis(Book ofCauses),whichcirculated from
the 1180sin a Latintranslation madeby Gerardof Cremona(d. 1187)
froman Arabictext(probably ninthcentury). This is the onlyArabic
book thatDantecanbe provenbeyonda doubtto haveknownfirsthand
in Latintranslation.Fromit he tappedthetheory ofearthly andmystical
lovethatwascentral in thedolce stilnovoandthemetaphysics oflightthat
pervades hisconception ofParadise.82 Butitis nota foregone conclusion
thatDante would have conceivedof thisbook as Arabic,even lessas
Muslim,sinceitwasuniversally accordedto be theworkofAristotle.83
To whatdegreetheAristotelianism thatexerteddeterminative influ-
encesuponlatemedievaland humanistic cultures shouldbe regarded as
mainly Greek or instead as at least partiallyArabicized is a puzzle still
capable of arousing furor.To be more the
precise, question is insteadto
whatextentthe ArabicizedAristotelianism was Islamicized.The latest
expression ofthetensions thatswirlaroundthisaspectofEuropeanand
even Westernidentity can be seen in a recentstormthathas earneda
reputation as theaffaire Gouguenheim. This uproarhas been stirred by a
Frenchbook,entitled Aristotean Mont- Saint-Michel,writtten a
by profes-
sor of medievalhistory namedSylvainGouguenheim and publishedin
2008. Gouguenheim arguesthatmedievalIslamwas not hospitable to
mostof ancientGreekculture,thattheArabswho translated muchof
Hellenistic thought were Christians, that Greek culture never perished
fullyin the West whereas it was never reallynativized in Islam, andthat
thelarge-scale translationof Aristotle in the Middle Ages was launched
notfromtheArabicin MuslimSpainbutrather fromtheGreekin the
Benedictine abbeyofMontSaint-Michel in Normandy.
The paperback thatunleashed thetempest haselicitedsharply conflict-
ingresponses in the For
popularpress. instance, itwas greetedwarmly in
reviewsin he Figaro andhe Monde, whereasitwascriticized searingly in a
letterpublishedby he Monde in the cultural magazine Telerama.84 More
25
CXXV, 2007
DanteStudies,
thebookinstigated
tellingly, a backlashamongacademicsthroughout the
Westwithexpertise in medievalhistory and particularlyin therole of
medievalIslamintheformation ofWestern culture. The resultantcontro-
versy was broadcast to the Anglophone U.S.
world,especially expatriates,
through a commentary printed in theInternationalHeraldTribune.85
Beyond the few explicit mentions of Muhammad and AH,Muslims
(whether identified overtly bytheirfaithornot),andArabs,theCommedia
toucheson a fewLatinChristians whohavebeentaggedas Islamophiles.86
Although "quel Spagna"who is describedunflatteringly
the di in Par.
19.124-26hassometimes been identified withAlfonsoX theWise,the
majority opinion holds that the phrase refersto Ferdinand IV, kingof
CastileandLeon from1295to 1312.Anothernotablepersonage aligned
withIslamis Frederick II (1194-1250).But thoughFrederick was ac-
claimedbysomeas stupor mundi (wonderoftheworld),in theCommedia
he is stuckamongtheheretics, wherehe undergoes punishment forhis
hedonism.87 Dante'sdamnation of theemperorcouldrestin parton an
awareness oftheharemFrederick maintained in a municipality examined
closelyin theessaybyDavidAbulafia thatcapsthiscollection, "The Last
Muslimsin Italy."Alternatively, he couldbe familiar with(anddisapprov-
ingof) thetreaty thatFrederick reachedwithMuslimsin theHolyLand
whenhe wentthere 1228.in
Beyondhisown missteps, Frederick won fame(orinfamy) forhispa-
tronageofat leasttwo individuals of questionable intellectual
and theo-
the
logicalrepute, poet and politicalfigure Pierdella Vigna(1190-1249,
mentionedbut not namedin Inf.13.58-69) and the philosopher and
scientist
MichaelScot(Inf.20.115-17).Nothingconspicuous intheCom-
mediaforcesthe conclusionthatPierwas regardedas an Arabicizer or
Islamophile: he is condemned in theInferno forbeinga suicide.Forbeing
a magicianMichaelis lodgedin thefourth bolgiaof the eighthcircle.
Michael'sengrossment in unsanctioned knowledge, includingastrology
and alchemy, was notunrelated to hisgraspofArabic,whichmayhave
coincidedwithopennessnotmerelyto Aristotelian philosophy as medi-
atedthrough Arabictranslations and commentaries butalso to Islamit-
self.88
ButhowmuchMichael'sexpertise as anArabist orwhatcouldhave
beenhisallegedIslamophilia enteredintoDante'sunfavorable estimation
ofhimis notreadily gauged.
26
jan m. ziolkowski
Introduction,
Wherearewe leftin ourappraisal ofDante'srelation to Islam?Ifany-

thinghasbecomeapparent fromtheseprolegomena, it is thattheessays
to followare desperately needed.The enigmacriesout to be setin an
amplercontextthanhasbeenattempted in thepast.In addition, thetopic
needs the illumination that can come when those who do not belongto
a well-established fieldjoin thosefromwithintheguildto takea fresh
look at an old conundrum. Finally, we mustbe preparedto testout a
variety of solutionsas greatas thediversity of viewpoints thatare now
espousedin regardto present-day relationsbetween Western Europeand
theMediterranean expressionsofIslam.Christian-Muslim andEuropean-
Arabinteractions in thehereandnowruna sweepinggamut,as heldtrue
in Dante'slifetime; butthespectrum was notat all thesamethenas it is
nowadays.We mustbe alertto bothall thatis thesameand all thatis
different in seekingto framequestionsand answers,and we mustnot
allowourhopesor disappointments aboutthepresent to misleadus into
fromthepastsomething -
thatitwasnot intomisrepresenting
fabricating
theMiddleAgesin thehopesofbettering modernity, postmodernity, or
whatever othernounwe electto describeourown epoch.
Distorting a long-gonecentury so as to correctmodernsituations that
distressus will helpno one: thechildhoodprinciplethat"two wrongs
don'tmakea right"appliesat leastas well to manyhumansituations as
does the lex talionis of "an eye foran eye,a toothfora tooth"(Exod.
21:24,Lev. 24:20,Deut. 19:21). Of course,thetrickis alwaysto decide
when one is veeringintomisinterpretation. Not all optimism is to be
eschewed,anymorethanall pessimism. And thepastdoes repeatitself,
butusuallymostreadily whenbothitandthepresent havebeenmolded
so as to permittheresemblance to be evident.Dante,Islam,Christianity,
Arab,European, and -
Italian these entitieshave been movingtargets
sincelong beforethe namesand termsforthemcame into everyday
parlance.89
Beforeallowingthereaderto confront theessaysthemselves, I would
liketo renderthanks wheretheyaredue.ThomasKozachekhascopyed-
itedand indexedwitha sureand gracioushandall theessays,and Swift
Edgarhasperusedthemwitha pairofeagleeyes.
Harvard University
Cambridge,Massachusetts
27
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
NOTES
1. Forpublications withtheSpanishtitle,see MiguelAsinPalacios,Dantey el Islam,Coleccion

de manualesHispania,serieB:l (Madrid:Editorial Voluntad, 1927);andRicardoHoracioShamsud-
di'nEli'a,Danteyelislam:El pensamiento musulman enla EuropadelsigloXIV (BuenosAires,Argentina:
EdicionesMezquitaAt-Tauhid, 1998).WiththeItaliantitle,see GiuseppeGabrieli,Dantee I'Islam:
Contro la memoria di Mig.Asininterno aliaEscatalogiamusulmana nellaDivinaCommedia (VaralloSesia:
Unionetipografica valsesiana,1921);EnricoCerulli,"Dantee l'lslam,"published in similarforms in
Convegno discienze storiche
morali, 21 maggio-10
efilologiche, giugno1956. Tema:Oriente ed Occidentenel
MedioEvo (Rome: Accademianazionaledei Lincei, 1957), 275-94, and Al-Andalus 21 (1956):
229-53; PeterRussell,Dantee l'lslam(Terranuova Bracciolini:Bibliotecacomunale,Assessorato alia
cultura, 1991);PeterRussell,"Dantee l'lslam:Una introduzione generale,""Dantee l'lslamoggi,"
and "Assunzioneceleste:Quartaconferenza su Dante e l'lslam,"in Poetic Asides,2 vols.,Salzburg
Studiesin EnglishLiterature: PoeticDrama& PoeticTheory77:3, Outsiders 5-6 (Salzburg:Institut
furAnglistik und Amerikanistik, UniversitatSalzburg,1992-1993),2:5-23, 24-33, and 34-51,
respectively.
MiguelAsinPalacios,Dantee l'lslam,trans.RobertoRossiTestae YounisTawfik, introduction
byCarloOssola,2 vols.,Nuovisaggi94 (Parma:Pratiche1994;repr.,Milan:NET, 2005); andKarla
Mallette,"Dantee l'lslam:sulcantoIII del Purgatorio," Rivistadistoriae letteratura
religiosa41 (2005):
39-62. Withthe Frenchtitle,see WernerSoderhjelm, "Dante et l'lslam,"Neuphilologische Mittei-
lungen (1921); and GiorgioLevi dellaVida, "Dante et l'lslam:d'apresde nouveauxdocuments,"
Revuede la Mediterranee no. 60 (1954). WiththeEnglishtitle,see ThomasWalkerArnold,"Dante
andIslam"(reviewofAsinPalacios),Contemporary Review(August1921);andFuatSezgin,ed. Dante
andIslam:TextsandStudies, Publications oftheInstitute fortheHistoryofArabic-Islamic Scienceat
theJohannWolfgang GoetheUniversity: Islamicphilosophy 119 (Frankfurt am Main: Institute for
theHistory ofArabic-Islamic Science,2000).
2. Ifthereis needto demonstrate thattheCommedia passesmuster as a summa,consider thetitle
of Dante,Summamedievalis: ProceedingsoftheSymposium oftheCenter forItalianStudies, SUNY Stony
Brook, ed. CharlesFrancoandLeslieMorgan,Filibrary 9 (StonyBrook,N.Y.: ForumItalicum, 1995).
On Danteas a Catholicauthor, seeJ. F. Makepeace,"The DanteSexcentenary," NewBlackfriars 2,
no. 14 (1921): 92: "For Dantewas,first and foremost, a Catholicand regarded everything froma
Catholicstandpoint."
3. Paul A. Cantor,"The UncanonicalDante: The Divine Comedyand IslamicPhilosophy,"
Philosophy andLiterature20, no. 1 (1996): 138-53.
4. TeodolindaBarolini,TheUndivine Comedy: DetheologizingDante(Princeton, N.J.:Princeton
University Press,1992),6 (on theDominicans, especially GuidoVernani)and267-68 n. 9 (citedby
Cantor).Fora fuller explorationofthetopic,seeJamesMiller,editor, DanteandtheUnorthodox: The
Aesthetics ofTransgression(Waterloo, Ont.:Wilfrid LaurierUniversity Press,2005).
5. The incident hasbeendiscussed byJeffrey Einboden,"Voicingan IslamicDante:The Problem
ofTranslating theCommedia intoArabic,"Neophilologus 92 (2008):77. Fororiginal reporting, see,for
example,PhilipWillan,"Al-Qaida Plot to Blow Up BolognaChurchFresco,"in The Guardian
(London),June24, 2002,GuardianForeignPages,13.
6. RichardOwen, "MuslimsSay FrescoMustBe Destroyed,"The Times(London),June9,
2001,OverseasNews.
7. The term"clashof civilization" owes itsvogueto an articlethatappearedfirst in 1993,the
titleofwhichhadlostitsconcluding interrogative andhadbeentransformed intoa sloganforfuture
politicalconductbythetimethebook bythesameauthorwaspublished in 1996: SamuelP. Hun-
tington, "The ClashofCivilizations?" Foreign Affairs72,no. 3 (Summer1993):22-49; andHunting-
ton,TheClashofCivilizations andtheRemaking ofWorld Order (New York:Simon& Schuster, 1996).
The "pushback"bothfromwithinNear Easternstudiesand fromthosealliedwiththetheoryof
Orientalism wasstrong. Fortwoinstances, see Roy P. Mottahedeh, "The ClashofCivilizations: An
28
jan m.ziolkowski
Introduction,
Islamicist'sCritique,"Harvard MiddleEastern andIslamic Review2, no. 2 (1996): 1-26; and Edward

W. Said,"The ClashofIgnorance,"TheNation273,no. 12 (October22, 2001): 11-13.
8. A classictallyingofdebtsto Islamis TheLegacy ofIslam,ed.JosephSchacht,2nded. (Oxford:
ClarendonPress,1974). Specifically focusedupon theMiddleAgesareNormanDaniel, TheArabs
andMediaeval Europe(London:Longman,1975); NormanDaniel,IslamandtheWest:TheMakingof
an Image(Edinburgh: University Press,1960); and W. Montgomery Watt,TheInfluence ofIslamon
Medieval Europe(Edinburgh: University Press,1972).
9. Gregory B. Stone,Dante'sPluralism andtheIslamic Philosophy ofReligion (New York:Palgrave
Macmillan, 2006),54. Stonehascontributed to thisvolumean essayentitled "DanteandtheFalasifa:
Religionas Imagination," 133-56.
10. Byreferring topluralism, I drawattention onceagainto Stone,Dante'sPluralism, butI hasten
to pointoutthathe doesnotusethetermconvivencia in hisbook.NordoesMariaRosa Menocal,the
mostprominent exponentin theAnglophone worldof theidea thatDantewas heavilyinfluenced
by Arabicculture, in herearliest majortreatment of Dante,althoughshe does emphasize medieval
connections betweenal-Andalus andItaly.See TheArabic RoleinMedieval LiteraryHistory: A Forgotten
Heritage University
(Philadelphia: ofPennsylvania Press,1987),esp. 115-35.
11. Jonathan Ray,"BeyondToleranceand Persecution: Reassessing ourApproachto Medieval
Convivencia;'Jewish SocialStudies 11,no. 2 (Winter2005): 1-18.
12. Forexamples, see DavidL. Lewis,God'sCrucible: IslamandtheMaking ofEurope, 510 to1215
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2008); Chris Lowney, A Vanished World: Medieval Spain's Golden Ageof
Enlightenment (New York:FreePress,2005); VivianB. Mann,ThomasF. Glick,andJerrilynn D.
Dodds,eds., Convivencia:
Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain(New York: G. Brazillerin
association withtheJewishMuseum,1992);MariaRosa Menocal,TheOrnament oftheWorld: How
Muslims, Jews,andChristians Created a Culture ofTolerance in Medieval Spain(Boston:Little,Brown,
2002); and Lucy K. Pick, Conflict and Coexistence: Archbishop Rodrigoand theMuslims andJewsin
Medieval Spain(AnnArbor:University ofMichigan,2004).
13. Fora broadconsideration oftheArabcontribution to Italianculturein theMiddleAges,see
FrancescoGabrieliandUmbertoScerrato, Li ArabiinItalia:Cultura, contatti (Milan:Gar-
e tradizioni
zanti/Scheiwiller,1979). With particular attention to literaryhistory,see Karla Mallette, TheKingdom
ofSicily,1100-1250:A Literary History (Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press,2005).
14. (New York:PantheonBooks,1978),70. Said'sviewson Dantehavebeencritiqued in two
essays(theinterrelationship of whichresists easydisentanglement) by KathleenBiddick,"Coming
Out ofExile:Danteon theOrient(alism) Express,"TheAmerican Historical
Review, 105 (2000): 1234-
49, and "ComingOut ofExile:Danteon theOrientExpress,"in ThePostcolonial MiddleAges,ed.
JeffreyJeromeCohen (New York:St. Martin'sPress,2000),35-52; as wellas byElizabethA. Cog-
geshall,"Dante,Islam,andEdwardSaid,"Telos139 (Summer 2007): 133-51.Theyarealsodiscussed
in thepresent volumebyMariaEspositoFrank,"Dante'sMuhammad,"185-206.
15. See (thoughwithoutanyparticular reference to medievalstudies)Occidentalism: Images ofthe
West, ed.JamesG. Carrier(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1995).
16. For convivencia,see AmericoCastro,Espanaensu historia: Cristianos,mowsyjudws(Buenos
Aires:Editorial Losada,1948),198-202.On recentturnsin theapplication oftheterm,seeJonathan
Ray,"BeyondToleranceandPersecution: Reassessing ourApproach toMedievalConvivencia," Jewish
SocialStudies 11,no. 2 (Winter2005): 1-18. For Orientalism, theearliest citationin anysensein the
Oxford EnglishDictionaryis datedto 1769.
17. On theplaceoftheOrientin Dante'sgeography, see BrendaDeen Schildgen, Danteandthe
Orient (Urbana:University ofIllinoisPress,2002), 19-44.
18. MariaRosa Menocal,TheArabic Role,127,130.
19. See Alessandro Niccoli,"Saracino,"Enciclopedia dantesca5:30-31.
20. On thechansons degeste,see C. Meredith Jones,"The Conventional SaracenoftheSongsof
17
Geste,"Speculum (1942): 204-6. In Dante, see Convivio 2.8.9, 27.87,
Inferno andEpistola 11.4.
21. On Dante'soutlookon thereality and conceptof theHoly Land Crusade,see Schildgen,
DanteandtheOrient, 66-91.
29
22. Marshall Hodgson, The Venture and Historyin a WorldCivilization,3 vols.

ofIslam: Conscience
(Chicago:University ofChicagoPress,1974),1 ("The classical age ofIslam"):59, coinedtheadjec-
tiveIslamicate (on themodelofItalianate) as referring"notdirectly to thereligion, but
Islam,itself,
to thesocialand cultural complexhistorically associated withIslamand theMuslims,bothamong
Muslimsthemselves andevenwhenfoundamongnon-Muslims."
23. A senseoftheresearches thathadbeendonecanbe gleanedfromEdgarBlochet,Lessources
orientalesde la DivineComedie, Les Litteratures
populaires de toutesles nations41 (Paris:J. Maison-
neuve,1901).
24. AsinPalacioshimself summarized thereaction to hisbookin an addendum thataccompanied
itwhenitwasreprinted in 1943 ("Historiay criticade unapolemica").On theoccasionofa much
laterreprinting ofAsinPalacios'scollectedworks,MariaRosa Menocaldiscussed theproblems and
peculiarities in thereception ofhiswork:see "An Andalusianist's LastSigh,"La coronica 24 (1996):
179-89.
25. Coleccionde manualesHispania,SerieB:l (Madrid:Editorial Voluntad, 1927).
26. Dantee I'Islam,trans.Ossola.
27. IslamandtheDivineComedy, ed. andtrans.HaroldSunderland (London:J.Murray, 1926).
28. DieterKremers,"IslamischeEinfliisse aufDantes'GottlicheKomodie,'" in Orientalisches
ed. Wolfhart
Mittelalter, Heinrichs, NeuesHandbuchderLiteraturwissenschaft 5 (Wiesbaden: AULA-
Verlag,1990),202. In theearlyyearsofthereception, theonlyextendedstudybyan ItalianDantist
thatshowssignsof havingrespondedpositively to AsinPalacios'sbook is LuigiValli,//linguaggio
segretodiDantee dei "Fedelid'amore," Bibliotecadi filosofiae scienza10 (Rome: Optima[L'univer-
sale],1928).
29. MariaRosa Menocal,reviewof //Librodellascaladi Maometto, trans.RobertoRossi Testa
(Milan:SE, 1991),in Lectura Dantis13 (1993): 106.
30. FrancescoGabrieli,"Dantee I'Islam,"Cultura e scuola13-14 (1965): 195.
31. PhilipF. Kennedy, "The MuslimSourcesofDante?"in TheArabInfluence inMedievalEurope:
FoliaScholastica ed. DionisiusA. AgiusandRichardHitchcock(Reading:IthacaPress,
Mediterranea,
1994),63.
32. LeonardoOlschki,"Mohammedan Eschatology andDante'sOtherWorld,"Comparative Lit-
erature3 (1951):2.
33. AlexanderKnysh,"Ibn 'Arabi,"in TheLiterature ofAl-Andalus, ed. MariaRosa Menocal,
RaymondP. Scheindlin, andMichaelSells(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2000),331-44;
JamesWinstonMorris,"The Spiritual Ascension:Ibn 'ArabiandtheMi'rag,"Journal oftheAmerican
OrientalSociety 107 (1987):629-52 and 108 (1988):63-78.
34. Forthelateststudiesofsuchmaterial bya scholarwho haslongbeenactivein thisdomain,
- das mittelalterliche
see Peter Dinzelbacher, Von der Weltdurchdie Holle zum Paradies Jenseits(Pader-
born:Ferdinand Schoningh, 2007). Englishtranslationsofmanykeyworkscan be foundin Eileen
Gardiner,MedievalVisions ofHeavenandHell: A Sourcebook, GarlandMedievalBibliographies 11,
GarlandReference Library oftheHumanities 1256 (New York:GarlandPublishing, 1993).German
translations,withthetextsin theoriginal languages enface,areavailablein Mittelalterliche
Visionslitera-
tur- eineAnthologie, ed. and trans.PeterDinzelbacher(Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesell-
schaft, 1989). For an overviewof suchvisionsof the otherworld up to Dante,see CesareSegre,
"Viaggie visionid'oltremondo sinoalia Commedia di Dante,"in hisFuoridelmondo: i modelli
nella
folliae nelleimmagini EinaudiPaperbacks
dell'aldila, 204 (Turin:G. Einaudi,1990), 25-48. For a
consideration ofAsinPalacios'sinvestigationsas a testcasefordetermining thelawsofliterary imita-
tion, see Louis Massignon, Opera minora:Textes classeset presentes
recueillis, avec une bibliographie,
ed.
YouakimMoubarac,3 vols.(Beirut:Dar al-Maaref,
1963),59-81.
35. RichardW. Southern,"Dante and Islam,"in Relations
Between
Eastand Westin theMiddle
Ages: PapersDeliveredat theSecondColloquiumin MedievalHistorytobe heldat theUniversity
ofEdinburgh,
March1969,ed. DerekBaker(Edinburgh: EdinburghUniversity Press,1973),140.
36. For detailsaboutBonaventure, see EnricoCerulli,"Bonaventura da Siena,"in Dizionario
degliItaliani
biograflco (Rome: Istituto
dellaEnciclopedia
italiana,I960-), 11: 640-42.
30
jan m.ziolkowski
Introduction,
37. The foundational edition,withtheLatinand Old Frenchen face,was byEnricoCerulli,//

"Librodellascala"e la questione dellefonti arabo-spagnole dellaDivinaCommedia, Studie testi150 (Vatican
City:BibliotecaApostolica Vaticana,1949).Currently thestandard editions oftheLatinareLiberscale
Machometi: Die lateinische FassungdesKitabal mi'radj, ed. EdeltraudWerner,Studiahumaniora4
(Dusseldorf: Droste,1986);and (withFrenchtranslation) Le livredeVechelle deMahomet = Liberscale
Machometi, trans. Gisele Besson and Michele Brossard-Dandre, Lettres gothiques 4529 (Paris:Librairie
generale francaise / Le Livrede poche,1991).Thesehavebeentranslated intoFrench,German, and
Italian,but not yetintoEnglish.For the Germanand Italian,see Die Jenseitsreise Mohammeds =
LiberscaleMachometi = Kitabal-mi 'raj,trans.Edeltraud Werner, Religionswissenschaftliche Texteund
Studien14 (Hildesheim: Olms,2007),and //libro dellascaladiMaometto, trans.RobertoRossiTesta,
Oscarclassici464 (Milan:A. Mondadori, 1999).FortheOld French, seeLe livre deVEschiele Mahomet:
Diefranzosische Fassung eineralfonsinischen Ubersetzung, ed. PeterWunderli,RomanicaHelvetica77
(Bern:Francke,1968). Foran Englishtranslation oftheOld French,see TheProphet ofIslamin Old
French: TheRomance ofMuhammad (1258) andtheBookofMuhammad's Ladder(1264),trans.Reginald
Hyatte, Brill'sStudiesin Intellectual History 75 (Leiden:E. J.Brill,1997),97-198.
38. Mufioz,followedbyKennedy, "The MuslimSources,"76-77.
39. The mostreadilyavailableeditionis Peterthe Venerable and Islam,ed. JamesKntzeck,
PrincetonOrientalStudies23 (Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press,1964), but the new
standard is now PetrusVenerabilis: Schriften zumIslam,ed. and trans.ReinholdGlei,CorpusIslamo-
Christianum, SeriesLatina1 (Altenberge: CIS-Verlag,1985).
40. Cerulli,followedbyKennedy, "The MuslimSources,"78.
41. The workwasfamiliar alreadyaround1350to theTuscanFaziodegliUberti(ca. 1305-after
1367),grandson oftheFarinata evokedin Inferno 10. In a poementitled //Dittamondo Faziomentions
the Muslim Paradise as described in Liberscale (and he also invokes Riccoldo of Monte Croce).The
Liberscalewasalsofamiliar laterto theFranciscan RobertoCaracciolo(1425-1495)ofLeccewho in
his Specchio dellafede(Mirrorof Faith)refers to it. See FrancescoGabrieli,"Dante und derIslam,"
trans.WernerEicke,Diogenes: Internationale furdieWissenschaften
Zeitschrift vomMenschen 9-10 (1978):
25; and FrancescoGabrieli,"New Lighton Danteand Islam,"Diogenes 6 (1954): 65. The Castilian
translation, although no longeravailable, was probably a sourceforthecloseresumegivenby Saint
PeterPascual(1227-1300)in hisSobrela setamahometana (On theMuhammadan Sect).Forthelatest
estimation oftheseandothertestimonia, see DieJenseitsreise, trans.Werner, 39-48.
42. La EscaladeMahoma:Traduccion delarabeal castellano, latinyframes, ordenada porAlfonso X el
Sabio(Madrid: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, 1949).
43. Cerullioffered a conciseformofhisconclusions in "Dantee l'lslam."A verycareful, albeit
now somewhatdated,sifting of evidenceis performed by TheodoreSilverstein, "Dante and the
LegendoftheMi'raj:The Problemof IslamicInfluence on theChristian Literature oftheOther-
vroild"Journal ofNearEastern Studies 11 (1952):89-110 and 187-97.
44. Thisobservation is madein Southern, "DanteandIslam,"141.
45. I am inspired herebyOlschki,"Mohammedan Eschatology,14.
46. VicenteCantarino, "Dante and Islam:Historyand Analysis of a Controversy, in A Dante
in Commemoration of the 700th Anniversary of the Poet'sBirth (1265-1965), ed. William De
Symposium
Sua and Gino Rizzo, sponsoredby the 1965 Dante CentenaryCommittee:Dante Societyof
America,SouthAtlantic Region,University of NorthCarolinaStudiesin theRomanceLanguages
andLiteratures 58 (ChapelHill:University ofNorthCarolinaPress,1965),175-98.
47. An exhaustive annotated bibliography thatappearedat nearlythesametimeis PeterWund-
erli,"ZurAuseinandersetzung iiberdiemuselmanischen QuellenderDivinaCommedia: Versuch einer
kritischen Bibliographic," Romanistisches 15
Jahrbuch (1964): 19-50. later
Slightly appeared Edoardo
Crema,La leyenda deunDanteislamizado, INCIBA centenario 1 (Caracas:INCIBA, 1966).
48. MariaCorti,"Dantee la cultura islamica," in "Percorrer miglior acque. . . : Bilanct eprospettwe
degli studidanteschi alle sogliedel nuovo millennio, Atti del convegno intemazionale di Verona-Ravenna,
25-29 ottobre 1999,2 vols.,Pubblicazioni del "CentroPio Rajna" Sezioneprima,Studie saggi9
(Rome: Salerno,2001), 1:183-202.An interview of MariaCortion thetopic"Dante e l'lslam,"
31
CXXV, 2007
DanteStudies,
recordedon April20, 2000, is availablein transcription at Enciclopediamultimediale dellescienze

filosofiche,
http://www.emsf.rai.it/interviste/interviste.aspPd = 490.
49. Al-Qaeda,also knownas al-Qaida,is moreproperly transcribed as al-Qa'ida and means
"base" or "foundation" in Arabic.
50. For a fewexamples, see David G. Dalin andJohnF. Rothmann, IconofEvil:Hitler's Mufti
and theRiseofRadicalIslam(New York:RandomHouse, 2008); PhilipJenkins, God's Continent:
Islam,andEurope's
Christianity, Religious Crisis(Oxford:OxfordUniversity Press,2007); and David
Selbourne,TheLosing Battle withIslam(Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books,2005).
51. Fora subtleexploration ofsuchelisionbybothsides,see BruceHolsinger, "Empire,Apoca-
lypse,andthe9/11Premodern," CriticalInquiry 34 (2008):468-90. Fora darkly humorous investiga-
tionof unfavorable assumptions aboutthe MiddleAges,see FredC. Robinson,"Medieval,the
MiddleAges,"Speculum 59 (1984):745-56.
52. Fora quickoverviewofthesedevelopments, see Archibald R. Lewis,"The IslamicWorld
andtheLatinWest,1350-1500,"Speculum 65 (1990):833-44.
53. See alsoJohnTolan,"Du sagearabeau Sarrasin irrationnel:versuneideologicde la superior-
iteoccidentale," in Culture arabeetculture europeenne:L'inconnu au turbandansValbum colloque
defamille:
de Nantes,14 et 15 decembre 2000, ed. MalikaPondevieRoumane,FrancoisClement,andJohn
Tolan(Paris:Harmattan, 2006), 189-201;andJohnV. Tolan,Saracens: IslamintheMedieval European
Imagination(New York:ColumbiaUniversity Press,2002),245-54.
54. The earliest use of European to referto "a nativeofEurope"is earlyseventeenth-century.
See theOxford EnglishDictionary, s.v.
55. To appreciate howmonstrous JewsandMuslimswereoftenmadein LatinChristendom, see
Debra HiggsStrickland, Saracens, Demons,andJews:MakingMonsters in Medieval (Princeton,N.J.:
Princeton University Press,2003).
56. A recentstudydevotedto Immanuelis FabianAlfie,"ImmanuelofRome, aliasManoello
Giudeo:The PoeticsofJewishIdentity in Fourteenth-Century Italy,"Italica75 (1998):307-29. For
earlierstudies,see UmbertoCassuto,"Dante und Manoello,"Jahrbuch furjudischeGeschichte und
Literatur24 (1921-1922):90-121; UmbertoCassuto,Dantee Manoello (Florence:Israel,1921);and
TheodorPaur,"ImmanuelandDante,"Jahrbuch derDeutschen Dantegesellschaft3 (1871):451-62. The
interrelatedness of Dante'sviewson Jewsand Muslimsis examinedmostbroadlybyJesperHede,
"JewsandMuslimsin Dante'sVision,"European Review16 (2008): 101-14.
57. PaolaManni,"II Trecentotoscano:la linguadi Dante,Petrarca e Boccaccio,"ed. Francesco
Bruni,Storiadellalingua italiana2 (Bologna: II Mulino,2003), 156.
58. J.S. P. Tatlock,"MohammedandHis Followersin Dante," TheModern LanguageReview 27
(1932): 195.
59. Einboden,"Voicingan IslamicDante,"84, and RichardLemay,"Le Nemrodde 1' 'Enfer'
de Danteetle 'LiberNemroth,' "
Quademidegli"Studidanteschi" 40 (1963):57-128.
60. Tatlock,"MohammedandHis Followers,"186.
61. Theseimageshavebeenexaminedrepeatedly, in greatest detailbyRichardSchroder, Glaube
undAberglaube indenaltfranzosischen Dichtungen: einBeitrag zurKulturgeschichte desMittelalters
(Erlangen:
A. Deichert,1886),andNormanDaniel,Heroes andSaracens: an Interpretation
oftheChansons de Geste
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,1984). Fora distillation oftheimages,see Tolan,Saracens,
105-34.
62. The threesome canbe seenmostclearlyin Chanson deRoland,laisse187,verses2580-2591,
in TheSongofRoland:anAnalytical Edition, ed. and trans.GerardJ.Brault,2 vols.(University Park:
Pennsylvania StateUniversity Press,1978),2:156-59.
63. For concisecommentary, see RobertHollanderandJeanHollander, DanteAli-
translators,
ghieri:Paradiso(New York:Doubleday,2006), 16-20.
64. Forinstance, considerCharlemagne and Roland(Orlando:Inf.31.16-18, Par. 18.43),Ga-
nelon(Inf.32.122),andWilliamofOrangeandRenouard(Rinoardo:Par.18.46-48).
65. This perception of Islamtook shapemanycenturies beforeDante. Considerforexample
Johnof Damascus,as analyzedin DanielJ. Sahas,JohnofDamascuson Islam:The "Heresyofthe
32
jan m.ziolkowski
Introduction,
Ishmaelites"(Leiden:Brill,1972). Forexamination ofthetwelfth-century rootsofthistradition, see

Tolan,Saracens, 135-69.
66. HereI amindebtedto Tolan,"Du sagearabeau Sarrasin irrationnel," at 190.
67. See EdmondDoutte,Mahomet cardinal
(Chalons-sur-Marne: Martinfreres, 1899).
68. RashaHamoodAl-Sabah,"Inferno XXVIII: The FigureofMuhammad, YaleItalianStudies
1 (1977): 158.
69. See RobertHollanderandJeanHollander, translators, DanteAlighieri: Purgatorio(New York:
Doubleday, 2003), 680.
70. The basicmonograph on Muhammad as represented in Western legendsis Alessandro d'An-
cona,La leggenda diMaometto inOccidente, ed. AndreaBorruso,Omikron51 (Rome:SalernoEditrice,
1994),whichwasprinted first
in Giomale StoricodellaLetteratura Italiana13 (1889): 199-281andlater
(in revisedform) in Alessandro d'Ancona, Studi di critica
e storialetteraria(Bologna:Zanichelli,1912),
2:167-306.Formorerecentcoverage, see StephanHotz,Mohammed undseineLehreinderDarstellung
Autoren
abendldndischer vomspa'ten 11. biszurMittedes12.Jahrhunderts: Aspekte, QuellenundTendenzen
in KontinuitdtundWandel, Studienzurklassischen Philologie137 (Frankfurt am Main: Lang,2002).
Fora rapidoverview, see Albrecht Noth,"Muhammad3. The Prophet'sImagein Europeand the
West,"in TheEncyclopedia ofIslam,11 vols.,Web-CD editions(Leiden:Brill,2003),7:377-81. The
lengthiestexamination ofMuhammad in relationspecifically to DantehasbeenGiuseppeMacaluso,
Dantee Maometto (Rome:EdizioniRuiz, 1951).
71. On theinterplay betweenMuhammad's statusas a schismatic andhisbodilymutilation, see
Al-Sabah,"Inferno XXVIII: The FigureofMuhammad," andSouthern, "DanteandIslam,"137-38.
72. Tatlock,"MohammedandHis Followers,"192.
73. Einboden,"Voicingan IslamicDante,"79-82.
74. Fora simplediagram oftheopposition inherent in Dantes viewsas emblematic ofWestern
attitudesin general,see FernandoCisneros,"Dante y el Islam.Enfoquesa partirdel textode la
Commedia," EstudiosdeAsiayAfrica 36, no. 1 (2001):79.
75. On therolesof thethreein Dante,see GiuseppeMacaluso,"Tre Mussulmani illustnnella
DivinaCommedia"in his Conferenze sull'isldm
e scritti anticoe modemo (seconda dispensazione)(Rome:
Pensieroe azione,1974),287-360. Despitethepaucityof spaceallocatedto Avicennawhenhe is
named,his influencein the Commedia maybe moreextensive.See RudolfPalgen,"Dante und
Avicenna," Anzeiger KlassederOsterreichischen
derphilosophischen-historischen Akademie derWissenschaften
1951,no. 12, 160-172,and Gotthard Strohmaier, "Ibn Sina'sPsychology andDante'sDivineCom-
edy/'JournalfortheHistory ofArabic Science 9 (1991): 107-11.
76. See MarciaColish, The VirtuousPagan:Danteand theChristianlraaition, in me un-
bounded Community: PapersinChristian Ecumenism inHonorofjaroslav Pelikan, ed. WilliamCaferro and
DuncanG. Fisher, GarlandReference Library oftheHumanities 1822 (New York:Garland,1996),
43-92; GinoRizzo, "DanteandtheVirtuous Pagans,"inA DanteSymposium, ed. De Sua andRizzo,
115-31; and CindyL. Vitto,The Virtuous Paganin MiddleEnglishLiterature, Transactions of the
AmericanPhilosophical Society79, pt. 5 (Philadelphia: AmericanPhilosophical Society,1989),
36-49.
77. JoAnnHoeppnerMoranCruz,"PopularAttitudes TowardsIslamin MedievalEurope,"in
WesternViewsofIslaminMedieval andEarlyModemEurope:Perception ofOther, ed. David R. Blanks
andMichaelFrassetto (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), 61.
78. An illuminating wasdrawnattheveryendofthetwentieth
parallel century to thereasonable
reflexto differentiatingbetweendictators and reputablemilitary leadersor scientists undertheir
regimes.See AlauddinSamarrai, "Arabsand Latinsin the MiddleAges: Enemies,Partners, and
Scholars," in Western Views ofIslam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Blanks and Frassetto,
141: "Contrast, forexample,theWestern attitudestowardAdolfHitleron theone hand,andMarshal
ErwinRommeland the Germanphysicist WernerHeisenbergon the other;or JosephStalinvs.
MarshallGeorgiZhukovandtheSovietphysicist PeterKapitza."
79. On Saladin,see GastonParis,"La Legendede Saladin, Journal dessavants(May-August
1893):284-299,354-364,428-438,486-498; AmericoCastro,"The PresenceoftheSultanSaladin
in theRomanceLiteratures," in An IdeaofHistory: Selected EssaysofAmerico Castro,ed. and trans.
33
DanteStudies,
CXXV, 2007
StephenGilmanand EdmundL. King (Columbus:Ohio StateUniversity Press,1977), 241-69;

HannesMohring, Saladin,theSultanandHis Times,1138-1193,trans.DavidS. Bachrach(Baltimore:
JohnsHopkinsUniversity Press,2008); andJohnV. Tolan,Sonsoflshmael: MuslimsthroughEuropean
Eyesin theMiddleAges(Gainesville: Pressof Florida,2008), 79-105 (withreference
University to
Tolan'searlierstudieson thetopic).
80. For theinfluence ofAverroes andAverroism on Dante,see MariaCorti,PercorsidelVinven-
zione: II linguaggio
poeticoe Dante (Turin: Einaudi, 1993).
81. On thehistory oftheterm"LatinAvicennism," see KenelmFoster, "AvicennaandWestern
ThoughtintheThirteenth Century," NewBlackfriars, 32,no. 381 (1951):591-602.On LatinAverro-
ism,see S.-T. Bonino,"Averroes chez les latins:Vues cavalieressurla reception d'Averroes dansla
scolastique latinemedievale,"Bulletin delitterature100 (1999): 133-52.
82. VincentCantarino, "Dante and Islam:Theoryof Lightin theParadiso," Kentucky Romance
15 (1968):3-35.
Quarterly
83. Rocco Murari,"II De causise la sua fortuna nel Medio Evo," Giomale storico dellaletteratura
italiana
34 (1899):93-117.
84. For a samplingof articleson the furore, see Eric Aeschiman, "Aristote, un detourarabe
conteste," Liberation,
April30, 2008,Culture,29; Aeschiman, "Du rififi
chezlesintellos: Litterature,"
July19, 2008, CahiersEte, 8; JeanBirnbaum,
Liberation, "Averroes," Le Monde, July,25, 2008,Le
Mondedeslivres, 4; Birnbaum, "Polemiquesurles'racines'de l'Europe,"Le Monde, April25, 2008,
Le Mondedeslivres, 2; Roger-PolDroit,"Et sil'Europene devaitpassessavoirs a l'islam?L'historien
SylvainGouguenheim recusel'idee que la sciencedes Grecsait ete transmise a l'Occidentparle
mondemusulman," Le Monde,April4, 2008, Le Monde des livres,6; Droit,"Jacquesde Venise,
passeuroublie,"Le Monde,April4, 2008, Le Monde des livres,6; Historiens du moyen age,"Oui,
l'Occidentchretien estredevable au mondeislamique,"Liberation, April30, 2008,Rebonds,32; Le
Monde,"Gouguenheim," Le Monde, July11,2008,Le Mondedeslivres,9; Le Monde,"'Le Monde
des livres'a Blois," October10, 2008, Le Monde des livres,8; GabrielMartinez-Gros andJulien
Loiseau,"Une demonstration suspecte," Le Monde, April25, 2008,Le Mondedeslivres,2; Nicholas
Weill,"KurtFlasch:Un regard'demembre' surle moyen age,"Le Monde, July4, 2008,Le Mondedes
livres,10; ThomasWieder,"Penser1' 'affaire Gouguenheim,'"Le Monde,October17, 2008, Le
Mondedeslivres,2.
85. JohnVinocur,"Europe'sDebt to IslamGivena Skeptical Look; Politicus,"TheInternational
HeraldTribune, April29, 2008,News,2.
86. ShawkatM. Toorawa,"Muhammad, Muslims, and Islamophiles in Dante'sCommedia," The
MuslimWorld 82 (1992): 133-44.
87. The epithet is knownbestfromMatthewParis(Chronica majora,no. 141a,5.190):seeAndrea
Sommerlechner,Stupormundi?:KaiserFriedrich
II. unddie mittelalterliche Publikati-
Geschichtsschreibung,
onendesHistorischen Instituts
beimOsterreichischen in Rom: I. Abteilung,
Kulturinstitut Abhand-
lungen11 (Vienna:VerlagderOsterreichischenAkademiederWissenschaften, 1999),9, 226, 470,
and479.
88. ThomasE. Burman,"MichaelScot and the Translators," in TheLiterature
ofAl-Andalus,
404-11.
89. A finalnote: overbarsand underdots
have been omittedin transcribing
long vowelsand
specialcharacters
infrequently Arabicwordsandnames,suchasAli,Buraq,hadith,
repeated Muham-
mad,andQur'an.
34

Dante and Islam

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Introduction

Author(s): Jan M. Ziolkowski

titleofthiscollectionisnota wildnovelty, becausesince1921

iconographic tradition baseduponithavealsoincitedpowerful reactions

present Danteas havingbeennotmerelyresistant to conventional Chris-

(LuceraoftheSaracens)on theItalianmainlandthrough theend ofthe

fromtheMiddleAgeswas founded."14 Said'spolemicsuggests thateven

onlyonce (Par.6.49),as an ethnictermnotforanypeoplecontemporary

around1300?Wouldwe be betteroffgrouping together notonlyArab/

in puffing up the contributions of Spainand Arabic-speaking Islamto

Whatis thenight journey?Islamictradition holdsthatone nightMu-

assembled at Peter'sinstance is knownas theCorpusToletanum or Cor-

of happiness, fire,and overpowering

Since manyof the polemicreactionsto AsinPalacios'sbook (itself

result, Westernists mighthavea practical incentiveto overstate thegap

sense!)in outlook.51 If we wishto sitin judgmenton the conductof

al-Andalus, inwhatis modern-day Spain.In addition,fromthethirteenth

witha papalcommission to preach.Eventually he traversed thelandthen

Beyondwondering how Dantecouldhavegainedan entry intoIslam,

Saracens. The mostcommonor atleastpopularimageofIslamin medie-

solelyowingto grossnegligence on thepartoftheChristian Churchand

receivescrutiny in thisvolumein essaysby BrendaDeen Schildgenon

to a deformed heresyor (to be moreaccurate)schismcould conduct

themexclusively as translatedintoLatinand- moreimportant - as fun-

Wherearewe leftin ourappraisal ofDante'srelation to Islam?Ifany-

1. Forpublications withtheSpanishtitle,see MiguelAsinPalacios,Dantey el Islam,Coleccion

Islamicist'sCritique,"Harvard MiddleEastern andIslamic Review2, no. 2 (1996): 1-26; and Edward

22. Marshall Hodgson, The Venture and Historyin a WorldCivilization,3 vols.

37. The foundational edition,withtheLatinand Old Frenchen face,was byEnricoCerulli,//

recordedon April20, 2000, is availablein transcription at Enciclopediamultimediale dellescienze

Ishmaelites"(Leiden:Brill,1972). Forexamination ofthetwelfth-century rootsofthistradition, see

StephenGilmanand EdmundL. King (Columbus:Ohio StateUniversity Press,1977), 241-69;

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