Chapter XV: Introduction (3)

Daud, as he lies sick, sees a black figure of monstrous shape
appear, whom he takes to be a demon come to carry him off to
hell. At that moment two men in white tunics descend through
the ceiling, who, after warding off the other, seat themselves
at the foot and head of Daud’s bed; they feel his palate and
toes and conclude that both show signs of a life of prayer.[573]

The legend of the seventh-century traditionist, Shahr ibn Hawshab, is similar:

Two white angels seat themselves on the right of the sick-bed,
and two black angels, on the left, and dispute over the soul.
An examination of the dying man’s tongue, which shows traces of
having uttered a certain prayer, finally settles the dispute in
his favour.[574]

3. _Legends introducing the books of record_

These legends are all based on the passages of the Koran[575] treating of the two books in which angels record the good and evil deeds of each man. These books were mentioned in one of the tales of Group i, and many other similar legends might be quoted. Thus, a _hadith_ attributed to Ibn Abbas[576] tells of the recording angels and describes minutely the pens, the ink, and the sheets they use.[577]

4. _Legends treating mainly of the personification of virtues and vices_

This feature, though also of Zoroastrian origin, attained its full development in the eschatological lore of Islam.

A _hadith_ quoted from earlier traditionists by Ibn Abu Aldunya, of the ninth century, says:

“No man dies but his good and evil deeds appear in person
before him, and he turns his eyes away from the evil towards
the good deeds.”[578]

A _hadith_ attributed to Mahomet says:

“At the death-bed of the believer attend his prayers, his
fasting, the alms he gave....”[579]

A _hadith_ quoted by a companion of the Prophet reads:

At the judgment of the soul the Koran will appear in its
defence before the angels Munkar and Nakir. It will ask the
soul, “Dost thou know me? I am the Koran which thou didst
recite and which delivered thee from evil. Fear not.”[580]

Other similar _hadiths_ relate as follows[581]:

To the righteous soul there appears in the grave a man of
great beauty, dressed in fine garments and scented with rare
perfumes, who says, “I am thy good deed.” To the wicked soul
appear its vices, in evil shape.

His prayer places itself on the right of the virtuous soul; his
fasting, on the left; the Koran, at his head; the virtue of
walking to the Mosque, at his feet; his fortitude in adversity,
at the side of the tomb. The punishment of the soul, which then
appears in person, is driven off by these virtues.

5. _Legends in which the members of the body are personified_

A typical legend of this group, though attributed to Mahomet, is recorded in the tenth-century _Corra_:

An adulterer is brought before the Divine Judge, and the thigh
relates the sin it committed. The accused indignantly denies
the charge, but God imposes silence on the lying tongue. Each
of the members then confesses its share in the sin, and their
evidence is borne out by the recording angels and the earth. At
God’s bidding the angels seize the sinner and cast him into the
pit.[582]

6. _Legends of feature_ vii.

All the legends of this group are variants of the _hadith_ of the Prophet relating the death of the upright man and the sinner.[583] A brief outline is here given:

The angel of death extracts the soul from the body gently or
violently, according as it is righteous or sinning. The angels
guard the body as it is lowered to the grave. The devil, upon
seeing a soul escape him, turns in anger upon his host of
demons, who explain that they were powerless, as the soul was
free of sin. The soul is then led through the astronomical
heavens to the Throne of God. A similar, but antithetical,
story is told of the death of the sinner.[584]

4. Summarising the partial comparisons contained in this third part of our work, we may divide the Moslem features appearing in the mediæval Christian legends precursory of the Divine Comedy into two categories.[585] The first category is formed of those Islamic features that reappeared in Dante’s poem and accordingly were treated at greater length in the first and second parts of this work. These, with the Christian legends in which they appear, may briefly be enumerated as follows:

Division of hell into seven regions (_St. Macarius_, _Edda_), or eight storeys (_Bard of Regio Emilia_). Typical tortures of hell, such as the tunics of fire (_St. Patrick_); fiery sepulchres (_St. Patrick_); molten metal and sulphur (_St. Patrick_ and _Tundal_); immersion of the sinners in a lake (_St. Macarius_, _St. Patrick_, and _Alberic_); graduation of the fire (_St. Paul_); demons armed with prongs (_Tundal_); torture by the monster (_Tundal_); attraction and repulsion of the damned by its breathing (_Tundal_, _St. Patrick_, and _St. Paul_); sinners hanging head downwards (_St. Patrick_, _Alberic_, and _St. Paul_); or crucified to the ground (_St. Patrick_); or devoured by serpents (_St. Macarius_, _St. Patrick_, and _Alberic_); or laden with burdens (_Edda_); or forced to swallow their illicit gains (_Turcill_); the torture of ice (_Tundal_, _St. Patrick_, and _Alberic_); the picture of the giant held in chains (_St. Macarius_); and Lucifer bound in the bottommost pit of hell (_Alberic_).

The second category consists of Moslem features detected in the Christian legends, but not appearing in the Divine Comedy. These features, not having been mentioned in the two former parts of this work, have been dealt with in this part at greater length. The more important among them are the following:

The myth of the balance (_Ch. V_); the slippery bridge (_Tundal_, _St. Patrick_, _St. Paul_, _Abbot Joachim_); the torture of the sepulchre (_Hugh of Brandenburg_, _St. Brandan_); the intercession at the final judgment (_Ch. V_); the nakedness of sinners (_Ch. V_); the torture by the mad cow (_Tundal_); the vision of heaven granted to the sinners in order to increase their suffering (_Tundal_); the devil with the hundred hands (_Tundal_); the damned incarnate in birds of black plumage (_Edda_, and others in _Ch. IX_); the saintly souls and angels incarnate in white birds (_St. Macarius_, _St. Brandan_); Adam in paradise, smiling and crying at the same time (_Turcill_); the life of glory conceived as a courtly or religious festival (_Cour du Paradis_, _Vergier du Paradis_, _Visione dei gaudii de’ santi_). Finally, the main characteristics of the cycles examined in the last four chapters: the voyages, particularly the voyage of St. Brandan with its scenes, such as the table decked with food, the enormous vines, the torture of Judas, the description of the sea hermit, the island-whale; the legends of sleepers; the tales of respite from torture; the legends of the debate for the soul, with the striking features of the books of record, the personification of virtues and vices, and the accusation by the members of the body.

In view of the abundance of Islamic features present in the pre-Dante Christian legends, there is but one conclusion to be drawn: The many poetic conceptions of the after-life current throughout Europe before Dante’s time had grown from contact with Islam rather than from the native stock, for several of those poetic myths or their descriptive features had no foundation in Christian doctrine but owed their origin to other religions of the East, whence they were transmitted in a new and richer form by Islam.

5. The doubt that had assailed the mind at the end of the second part of our work is thus dispelled. The natural inference to be drawn at that stage of our inquiry from the great number of analogies detected in the Divine Comedy and the eschatological literature of Islam was that there existed some relation connecting the poem with that literature. To that hypothesis, however, it was possible to object the hypothesis put forward by the Dantists, that the conception of the divine poem could only have been influenced, and that indirectly, by the precursory Christian legends. But, once it has been shown that these legends also bear unmistakable signs of Moslem influence, that objection falls to the ground, and Dante now appears connected to Islam by a double tie—the indirect relation of the Islamic features present in his Christian precursors, and the direct relation of the Islamic elements contained in the Divine Comedy.

One question arises at this culminating point of our investigation: could Dante have known of the Moslem works on the after-life, and, if so, by what channels? The answer to this question will complete the chain of reasoning.

PART IV

_PROBABILITY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF ISLAMIC MODELS TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE AND PARTICULARLY TO DANTE_