Dante's Divine Comedy

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, Islam is treated in several ways from different angles. Indeed, we can find figures such as Muhammad and Saladin, as men of religion or as men of science, letters and state.

We will try first to take a look at the presence and principal figures of the Muslims in Dante’s work as a whole, and will treat after the possible influence that the Muslims had on his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy.

In Inferno, canto XXVII, Guido da Montefeltro, a famous warrior, accused Boniface VIII to not go to war against the Jews, traditional enemies of the Christian faith, but to attack, however, the authentic Christians, who had committed no wrongdoing. What were these mistakes? To go to the East, as warriors or traders, breaking the interdiction to trade with Muslims countries, which the church had decided.

In Purgatory, canto XXIII, Forese Donati, Dante’s friend, is criticizing women from Florence for their lack of sense of modesty, because they were showing their throats and breasts in public. He is also comparing these women with Muslims women, who cover themselves naturally, without the need of spiritual or other regulations for this. Through Forese’s voice, Dante gives a positive image of Muslims women.

A clear negative image of Muslims is found, however, in Paradise, canto XV, where Cacciaguida, Dante’s great-grandfather, said he followed the Emperor Conrad III during the second Crusade (1147 – 1149) and was killed by the infidels in Palestine. Cacciaguida therefore deserved to go to Paradise, not only as the ancestor of Dante, but especially for having sacrificed his life against the enemies of the Church.

We also find the Sultan in Paradise, XI, 101. In this chapter, St. Thomas Aquinas praised St. Francis of Assisi, and the trip to Egypt is mentioned in which Francis failed to convince the Sultan Al-Malek Kamil - the same dynasty as Saladin's Ayyubid - to convert to Christianity. Moreover, we know that Francis went to the Orient in 1290 to affirm the superiority of the Gospel among Muslims. Captured by the Saracens at Saint-Jean d'Acre, he was brought to the Sultan of Egypt, where he was treated with all consideration. In Dante's Inferno, however, we find a neutral image of the Sultan, canto V, to describe the extent of the kingdom of Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians. But it should be noted that, according to some experts, the poet was wrong because the Semiramis of Babylon did not understand Egypt. An error due to the confusion by Dante between the Egyptian Babylon, corresponding to the old Cairo, and the land of the great sovereign.

Salah ad-Din (Yusuf ibn Ayyub), sultan of Egypt (1137-1193) is a character often found in the literature of the Middle Ages, and the image we give of him is often positive. Although he was a Muslim head of state, he was well regarded in Europe for his courtesy, his generosity, his openness and his leniency. We find him in canto IV of Inferno in the first circle (the "limbo"), among the heroes of antiquity such as Averroes (`Abu l-Walid Muhammad Ibn Rushd) (1126-1198), Arab philosopher and physician. His doctrine (Averroism) was condemned not only by the Christian Church (in 1240), but also by the Muslim orthodoxy. We find him in canto IV of Inferno. Averroes is certain that Dante appreciated him particurarly, as a commentator of Greek phiosophy. This is why he was included in the Divine Comedy.

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