Islam and the Divine Comedy
Review
Miguel Asin. — Islam and the Divine Comedy. Translated and abridged by HAROLD SUNDERLAND, with an introduction by the DUKE OF BERWICK AND ALBA. XXVI + 295 pp. London, MURRAY, 1926.
In 1901, E. BLOCHET wrote a very interesting work, Les sources orientales de la Divine Comédie, wherein he tried to explain the Christian anticipations of DANTE by Persian influences. As he failed to give any docurnentary evidence, his work, however suggestive, could not be convincing. It is very strange that he had not tried to detect Muslim influences nearer home, in Spain. As early as 1843, JOURDAIN had shown in his Recherches critiques sur l’origine des traductions latines d’ARISTOTE, that the influence of Byzantium and the Crusades on the transmission of science to Western Christendom had been insignificant as compared with the Spanish influence. The proof of the Muslim origin of the Divine Comedy has been completely given by ASIN in the present book, which appeared originally eight years ago : La escatologia musulmana en la Divina Cornedia (403 p., Madrid, E. MAESTRE, 1919).
His main thesis may be summarized as follows, using his own words (p. 75):
There are three cycles of Muslim traditions (hadith) concerning the Prophet’s journey to the spheres of after-life: the first deals with the isrâ’, or nocturnal journey by night on earth; the second, with the mi’xâj or ascension to heaven; the third is a combination of the two former, constituting a complete model of DANTE’S visits to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The most important of these cycles is the second, one which no one having the slightest contact with Islam could ignore inasmuch as the Mi’râj is the occasion of a great festivity throughout the Muslim world (on the 27th day of Rajab). These traditions were amplified and given metaphysical interpretations by philosophers, especially by the pseudo-Empedoclean and neo-Platonic school founded by IBN MASARRA of Cordova (883-931). The best representative of that school was IBN ‘Ali (1165-1240) of Murcia, the greatest sûfi not only of Spain but of the whole Arabic world. ASIN has made a deep analysis of his works and established their many points of resemblance with the works of DANTE. I cannot go here into details, for which I must refer to his masterful study.
BRUNO NARDI had already shown (in 1911-12, then again in 1914) that DANTE’s philosophy was not exclusively Aristotelian and Thomist. Otherwise how could one explain the presence in his paradise of SIGER of BRABANT, the champion of Averroism? Indeed, DANTE was not a Thomist but an eclectic philosopher welcoming information from every source, Christian or Muslim, and weaving them into his own system, if it may be called so, which was a combination of Aristotelism and Muslim neo-Platonism, a sort of intermediate between the philosophy of ST. THOMAS and that of IBN SINA and IBN RUSHD, although nearer to the latter.
The comparison between DANTE’S works on the one hand and the hadith, and various writings, chiefly those of IBN ‘ARAIBI on the other hand, brings out so many points of resemblance that their relationship cannot be denied, even if the transition cannot be completely evidenced. The points of contact between Christiànity and Islam were exceedingly numerous in mediaeval Spain. We must not think of the Christian and Muslim communities as isolated each from the other. Not only were there a number of Christian scholars who had some reason or another for knowing Arabic, but there were also large groups of population, assimilated Christians or Mozarabs and assimilated Muslims or Mudejars, which were natural intermediaries through whom the infiltration of cultural elements was steadily taking place. Moreover, in many cases religious enmities were momentarily forgotten because tribal jealousies between Christians (or Muslims) became far more irritating; the linès of cleavage would then be at least for a time political instead of religious. For example, the national hero of Spain, el Cid Campeador, was almost as much a Muslim in his habits as a Christian, and fought with or against either with equal zest. At the very outset of the IXth century, the hadith were already known to the Mozarabs of Cordova. They are mentioned by the abbot ESPERAINDEO, by St. EULOGIUS (d. 859), by ALVARO OF CORDOVA (c. 86o). It is typical that the Christian prototypes of the Divine Comedy did not appear until after the tenth century, that is, until these Muslim elements had hàd plenty of time to percolate into Christendom. Leaving aside the regular translators, the early, Spanish historians made full use of Arabic sources. PETER PASCHAL had a deep knowiedge of Islam ; he visited Rome c. 1288-92 and died in 1322; DANTE visited Rome in 1301. Moreover, DANTE’S own teacher, BRUNETTO LATINI, was well acquainted with Muslim literature and customs; in 1260 he was sent as ambassador of Florence to the court of ALFONSO THE WISE in Toledo and Seville. Muslim influences may have been transmitted to DANTE also by Jews like EMMANUEL BEN SALOMO or HILLEL OF VERON
by the Catalan Franciscan RAMON LULL or the Florentine Dominic RICOLDO DE MONTE CROCE. It should be noted that even as late as t^an XIIth and XIIIth centuries the superiority of Muslim culture was acknowledged not only by Spanish scholars but by many others, the greatest of Christendom : ALBERTUS MAGNUS, BACON, LULL. Such acknowledgment helped considerably the diffusion of Muslim ideas except of course the purely religious ones. It is true, the Divine Comedy dealing with the after-life is essentially a religious poem, but Muslim eschatology, as explained for example by AL-GHAZZALI was hardly different from the Christian; thus in this particular case, religion instead of being an obstacle, favored the diffusion of those very allegories which inspired DANTE.
Outside of its religious, philosophical and historical elements, the Divine Comedy contains also an unforgettable vision of human love as symbolized by BEATRICE. The meeting of DANTE and BEATRICE, an essential episode of the poem, is foreign to the very spirit of mediaeval Christianity and unprecedented in Christian legend, but it has a striking parallel in Muslim tradition. This tradition culminates in a poem by SHAKIR IBN MUSLIM of Orihuela (c. 1136), which has many points of resemblance with DANTE’s Paradise. What we curiously call Platonic love is not Platonic, but neo-Platonic and Muslim; the troubadours of Provence and the Italian poets of the dolce stil nuovo were influenced, whether they knew it or not, by Arabic models. That is, it is only in Arabic literature (i), for example, in the writings of IBN ‘ARABI and other sûfis, that one can trace the preliminary evolution which led to that new poetry and to that new conception of love.
I have said enough to indicate the deep interest of ASIN’s memoir, It is based upon a very thorough study of Arabic and European literature, and the results are explained with admirable clearness and strength. Considerable work remains to be done to evidence the connections between the new literary creations of Europe and their Muslim prototypes, but we may consider the matter proved as far as DANTE is concerned. It would be interesting also to study eschatological writings of other peoples to see how much they may be expected to have in common, when the possibility of any sort of intellectual contagion is excluded. For example, it would be worth while to examine from that point of view the Chinese descriptions of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise composed by the Japanese bonze GENSHIN in the second half of the tenth century (see my Introduction, i, 6,6).
We must be grateful to the translator, who seems to have done his task very well, and to the DUKE OF ALBA, who patronized the undertaking. As I do not read Spanish easily, I knew this work only in an indirect way, for example, through GABRIELI’S criticism of it (1921; Isis, 6, xx),
and I must confess that I had underestimated its importance. (I understand that a French translation will be published shortly by PAUL GEUTUNER). In the meanwhile ASIN’S thesis has been considerably discussed ; it is very seldom that a literary study evokes as much criticism as a scientific one, but this has been ASIN’S good fortune, and his views have been debated with almost as much enthusiasm as psychoanalysis or relativity! I may add that MIGUEL ASIN Y PALACIOS was born in 1871, that he is a Catholic priest, a disciple of JULIAN RIBERA Y TARRAGÔ, and professor of Arabic in the University of Madrid. A long list of his writings will be found at the end of his Spanish memoir of 1919; others are quoted in Isis (6, 198 ; 7, i85); a catalogue of the sources, Arabic and otherwise, and of the main studies devoted to this controversy, is appended to the English translation.
GEORGE SARTON
Isis, Vol. 10, No. 1. (Mar., 1928), pp.65-69
An extract from the introduction :
Miguel Asin. — Islam and the Divine Comedy. Translated and abridged by HAROLD SUNDERLAND, with an introduction by the DUKE OF BERWICK AND ALBA. XXVI + 295 pp. London, MURRAY, 1926.
In 1901, E. BLOCHET wrote a very interesting work, Les sources orientales de la Divine Comédie, wherein he tried to explain the Christian anticipations of DANTE by Persian influences. As he failed to give any docurnentary evidence, his work, however suggestive, could not be convincing. It is very strange that he had not tried to detect Muslim influences nearer home, in Spain. As early as 1843, JOURDAIN had shown in his Recherches critiques sur l’origine des traductions latines d’ARISTOTE, that the influence of Byzantium and the Crusades on the transmission of science to Western Christendom had been insignificant as compared with the Spanish influence. The proof of the Muslim origin of the Divine Comedy has been completely given by ASIN in the present book, which appeared originally eight years ago : La escatologia musulmana en la Divina Cornedia (403 p., Madrid, E. MAESTRE, 1919).
His main thesis may be summarized as follows, using his own words (p. 75):
«Six hundred years at least before DANTE ALIGHIERI conceived his marvellous poem, there existed in Islam a religious legend narrating the journey of MAHOMET to the abodes of the after-life. In the course of time from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries of our era — Moslem traditionists, theologians, interpreters of the Scriptures, mystics, philosophers and poets -— all united in weaving around the original legend a fabric of religious narrative; at times their stories were amplifications, at others, allegorical adaptations or literary imitations. A comparison with the Divine Cornedy of all these versions combined bewrays many points of resemblance, and even of absolute coincidence, in the general architecture and ethical structure of hell and paradise; in the description of the tortures and rewards; in the general lines of the dramatic action in the episodes and incidents of the journey; in the allegorical signification ; in the roles assigned to the protagonist and to the minor personages; and, finally, in intrinsic literary value. »
There are three cycles of Muslim traditions (hadith) concerning the Prophet’s journey to the spheres of after-life: the first deals with the isrâ’, or nocturnal journey by night on earth; the second, with the mi’xâj or ascension to heaven; the third is a combination of the two former, constituting a complete model of DANTE’S visits to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The most important of these cycles is the second, one which no one having the slightest contact with Islam could ignore inasmuch as the Mi’râj is the occasion of a great festivity throughout the Muslim world (on the 27th day of Rajab). These traditions were amplified and given metaphysical interpretations by philosophers, especially by the pseudo-Empedoclean and neo-Platonic school founded by IBN MASARRA of Cordova (883-931). The best representative of that school was IBN ‘Ali (1165-1240) of Murcia, the greatest sûfi not only of Spain but of the whole Arabic world. ASIN has made a deep analysis of his works and established their many points of resemblance with the works of DANTE. I cannot go here into details, for which I must refer to his masterful study.
BRUNO NARDI had already shown (in 1911-12, then again in 1914) that DANTE’s philosophy was not exclusively Aristotelian and Thomist. Otherwise how could one explain the presence in his paradise of SIGER of BRABANT, the champion of Averroism? Indeed, DANTE was not a Thomist but an eclectic philosopher welcoming information from every source, Christian or Muslim, and weaving them into his own system, if it may be called so, which was a combination of Aristotelism and Muslim neo-Platonism, a sort of intermediate between the philosophy of ST. THOMAS and that of IBN SINA and IBN RUSHD, although nearer to the latter.
The comparison between DANTE’S works on the one hand and the hadith, and various writings, chiefly those of IBN ‘ARAIBI on the other hand, brings out so many points of resemblance that their relationship cannot be denied, even if the transition cannot be completely evidenced. The points of contact between Christiànity and Islam were exceedingly numerous in mediaeval Spain. We must not think of the Christian and Muslim communities as isolated each from the other. Not only were there a number of Christian scholars who had some reason or another for knowing Arabic, but there were also large groups of population, assimilated Christians or Mozarabs and assimilated Muslims or Mudejars, which were natural intermediaries through whom the infiltration of cultural elements was steadily taking place. Moreover, in many cases religious enmities were momentarily forgotten because tribal jealousies between Christians (or Muslims) became far more irritating; the linès of cleavage would then be at least for a time political instead of religious. For example, the national hero of Spain, el Cid Campeador, was almost as much a Muslim in his habits as a Christian, and fought with or against either with equal zest. At the very outset of the IXth century, the hadith were already known to the Mozarabs of Cordova. They are mentioned by the abbot ESPERAINDEO, by St. EULOGIUS (d. 859), by ALVARO OF CORDOVA (c. 86o). It is typical that the Christian prototypes of the Divine Comedy did not appear until after the tenth century, that is, until these Muslim elements had hàd plenty of time to percolate into Christendom. Leaving aside the regular translators, the early, Spanish historians made full use of Arabic sources. PETER PASCHAL had a deep knowiedge of Islam ; he visited Rome c. 1288-92 and died in 1322; DANTE visited Rome in 1301. Moreover, DANTE’S own teacher, BRUNETTO LATINI, was well acquainted with Muslim literature and customs; in 1260 he was sent as ambassador of Florence to the court of ALFONSO THE WISE in Toledo and Seville. Muslim influences may have been transmitted to DANTE also by Jews like EMMANUEL BEN SALOMO or HILLEL OF VERON
by the Catalan Franciscan RAMON LULL or the Florentine Dominic RICOLDO DE MONTE CROCE. It should be noted that even as late as t^an XIIth and XIIIth centuries the superiority of Muslim culture was acknowledged not only by Spanish scholars but by many others, the greatest of Christendom : ALBERTUS MAGNUS, BACON, LULL. Such acknowledgment helped considerably the diffusion of Muslim ideas except of course the purely religious ones. It is true, the Divine Comedy dealing with the after-life is essentially a religious poem, but Muslim eschatology, as explained for example by AL-GHAZZALI was hardly different from the Christian; thus in this particular case, religion instead of being an obstacle, favored the diffusion of those very allegories which inspired DANTE.
Outside of its religious, philosophical and historical elements, the Divine Comedy contains also an unforgettable vision of human love as symbolized by BEATRICE. The meeting of DANTE and BEATRICE, an essential episode of the poem, is foreign to the very spirit of mediaeval Christianity and unprecedented in Christian legend, but it has a striking parallel in Muslim tradition. This tradition culminates in a poem by SHAKIR IBN MUSLIM of Orihuela (c. 1136), which has many points of resemblance with DANTE’s Paradise. What we curiously call Platonic love is not Platonic, but neo-Platonic and Muslim; the troubadours of Provence and the Italian poets of the dolce stil nuovo were influenced, whether they knew it or not, by Arabic models. That is, it is only in Arabic literature (i), for example, in the writings of IBN ‘ARABI and other sûfis, that one can trace the preliminary evolution which led to that new poetry and to that new conception of love.
I have said enough to indicate the deep interest of ASIN’s memoir, It is based upon a very thorough study of Arabic and European literature, and the results are explained with admirable clearness and strength. Considerable work remains to be done to evidence the connections between the new literary creations of Europe and their Muslim prototypes, but we may consider the matter proved as far as DANTE is concerned. It would be interesting also to study eschatological writings of other peoples to see how much they may be expected to have in common, when the possibility of any sort of intellectual contagion is excluded. For example, it would be worth while to examine from that point of view the Chinese descriptions of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise composed by the Japanese bonze GENSHIN in the second half of the tenth century (see my Introduction, i, 6,6).
We must be grateful to the translator, who seems to have done his task very well, and to the DUKE OF ALBA, who patronized the undertaking. As I do not read Spanish easily, I knew this work only in an indirect way, for example, through GABRIELI’S criticism of it (1921; Isis, 6, xx),
and I must confess that I had underestimated its importance. (I understand that a French translation will be published shortly by PAUL GEUTUNER). In the meanwhile ASIN’S thesis has been considerably discussed ; it is very seldom that a literary study evokes as much criticism as a scientific one, but this has been ASIN’S good fortune, and his views have been debated with almost as much enthusiasm as psychoanalysis or relativity! I may add that MIGUEL ASIN Y PALACIOS was born in 1871, that he is a Catholic priest, a disciple of JULIAN RIBERA Y TARRAGÔ, and professor of Arabic in the University of Madrid. A long list of his writings will be found at the end of his Spanish memoir of 1919; others are quoted in Isis (6, 198 ; 7, i85); a catalogue of the sources, Arabic and otherwise, and of the main studies devoted to this controversy, is appended to the English translation.
GEORGE SARTON
Isis, Vol. 10, No. 1. (Mar., 1928), pp.65-69
An extract from the introduction :
The review Analecta Bollandiana stats: " The author of this book is universally known. There is scarcely any example of a work on Oriental philology having attracted so great attention. The audacity of the thesis could not fail to rouse the most lively interest in all who are initiated in the problems of literary history. The analogies shown by the author to exist between the Divine Comedy and Islam are so numerous and such a nature as to be disquiting to the mind of the reader, who is forced to picture to himself the great epic of Christianity as enthroned in the world of Moslem mysticism, as if in a mosque that were closed to Islam and consecrated to Christian worship. At all events, there will always remain to the author of this book the honour of having started one of the most memorable debates in the history of universal literature."
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