Chapter XVI: Introduction

1. Whenever it is required to prove—in so far as historical matters admit of proof—a case of literary imitation, an answer must first be found to three pertinent questions.[586] Firstly, do there exist between the alleged copy and its model so many and so striking features of resemblance as to render it morally impossible to attribute them to mere chance or to derivation from a common source? Secondly, can that which is assumed to be the model be shown to have existed prior to the copy or imitation? Thirdly, could the author of the supposed copy have known of the original; or, alternatively, is it evident that the two writers were separated by so wide a gulf as to make all communication impossible?

The first and second questions, which really furnish the key to the problem, have been sufficiently determined above. The third is of less interest. For, even if the historical data about the connection between the model and the copy were vague, this would not detract from the force of the argument based upon their likeness, especially when the points of resemblance are so clearly defined and so recurrent that the likeness cannot be ascribed to chance.

2. This is the case with the present problem. For it might be possible to attribute to mere coincidence, or to a common Christian origin, the _general_ features of resemblance between Dante’s and the Islamic solution of the theological problem of the after-life, that is to say, the _ideas_ or doctrines common to both eschatological conceptions. But, when these doctrines appear clothed in the same artistic form, when the ideas are represented by the same symbols and described with similar details, then the hypothesis of chance coincidence can no longer be maintained.

The difference is obvious. The ideas or doctrines are limited in number. Being the outcome of a trend of thought followed by mankind throughout the ages, they all necessarily fall within a few main categories. Not so the images. These, which are but the reflexion of the _actual_ forms of _material_ objects, are as numerous and varied as the objects themselves. It is morally impossible, therefore, that two conceptions of one and the same idea actually agreeing in detail should be formed in two minds, unless there existed a connecting link between the two. Such a miracle would be all the more unlikely, as the coincidence would be one, not of the conceptions of two particular minds, but of the artistic fancy of an individual, and the imaginings of a collective body such as Islam. In other words, it would be necessary to admit the possibility of Dante’s having, by his sole mental effort, conceived in a few years the same fantastic picture of life beyond the grave as took the Moslem traditionists, mystics and poets centuries of artistic endeavour to elaborate. The claim to so marvellous an originality would require to be substantiated by evidence showing how this miracle came to be accomplished by Dante Alighieri. The burden of proof would thus be on the Dantists, and it would be for them to explain the enigma of the coincidences between Dante’s poem and the Islamic legends, were it not that there did indeed exist a link between the two and evidence of that contact that is indispensable to all imitation.

3. This evidence may be furnished under three headings. It may be shown, firstly, that the Christian peoples of mediæval Europe, by their contact with Moslems, acquired a knowledge of their beliefs and conceptions of the after-life; secondly, that Dante may well have drawn, directly or indirectly, upon Moslem sources for the material of his poem; and, lastly, that there are indications of his having been influenced by those sources.

II

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES

1. Islam, after the conquest of the countries bordering on Arabia, spread rapidly throughout the north of Africa, Spain, the south of France and southern Italy, and extended its dominion over the Balearic Isles and Sicily. The effect of war in imparting to the belligerents an intimate knowledge of each other is notorious; but in times of peace, too, contact between the two civilisations of Christianity and Islam was established across their eastern and western frontiers through the medium of commerce.

From the eighth to the eleventh century an active trade was carried on between Moslem countries of the East and Russia and other countries of northern Europe. Expeditions left the Caspian regularly and, ascending the Volga, reached the Gulf of Finland and so through the Baltic to Denmark, Britain, and even as far as Iceland. The quantities of Arabic coins found at various places in this extensive commercial zone bear witness to its importance.[587] In the eleventh century trade was conducted by the easier sea route across the Mediterranean, chiefly by means of Genoese, Venetian or Moslem vessels. Large colonies of Italian traders settled in all the Moslem ports of the Mediterranean, and merchants, explorers, and adventurers sailed at will across its waters. Benjamin of Tudela has left us trustworthy evidence, in his “Itinerary” of the twelfth century, of the busy intercourse between Christians and Moslems at that time.

To the stimulus of trade must be added the impulse of the religious ideal. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, which had been suspended owing to the early conquests of Islam, were renewed and, with the establishment under Charlemagne of the Frank Protectorate over the Christian churches of the East, were assured by conventions and assisted by the foundation of hostels and monasteries in Moslem lands. During the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries the number of pilgrims grew, until some of the expeditions comprised as many as twelve thousand; these expeditions were the forerunners of the Crusades.[588]

The influence of the Crusades in bringing Islam and Christian Europe together need hardly be insisted upon. The Christian States founded after the first Crusade may be likened to a European colony implanted in the heart of Islam, between the Euphrates and Egypt. The civil administration and the army of these States were formed on the Moslem model, and even the habits, food, and dress of the Orientals were adopted by the Frankish knights, who poured into Syria in Crusades from all parts of Europe even as far distant as Scandinavia.[589]

The failure to destroy Islam by the sword begot in its turn the idea of the pacific conquest of souls, and led in the thirteenth century to the establishment of the Missions to Islam. The Franciscan and Dominican Friars who formed this new tie of spiritual communication were obliged to make a thorough study of the language and religious literature of Islam, and to reside for many years amongst Moslems.[590]

2. More important and more interesting, however, from our point of view than any of these general channels of communication, is the contact of the two civilisations in Sicily and Spain. Beginning in the ninth century with piratical raids upon the coasts of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the Normans gradually formed settlements in Moslem towns of the Peninsula (such as Lisbon, Seville, Orihuela and Barbastro) and in Sicily.[591] The latter island, indeed, which had become permeated with Islam, was conquered in the eleventh century and ruled by a dynasty of Norman Kings until the thirteenth century. Throughout that period the Sicilian population was composed of a medley of races professing different religions and speaking several languages. The court of the Norman King, Roger II, at Palermo, was formed of both Christians and Moslems, who were equally versed in Arabic literature and Greek science. Norman knights and soldiers, Italian and French noblemen and clergy, Moslem men of learning and literature from Spain, Africa, and the East lived together in the service of the King, forming a palatine organisation that in all respects was a copy of the Moslem courts. The King himself spoke and read Arabic, kept a harem in the Moslem manner, and attired himself after the Oriental fashion. Even the Christian women of Palermo adopted the dress, veil, and speech of their Moslem sisters.

But the time when Palermo most resembled a Moslem court was the first half of the thirteenth century, during the long reign of Frederick, King of Sicily and Emperor of Germany. A philosopher, free-thinker and polyglot, the Emperor, even as his predecessors had done in war and peace, surrounded himself with Moslems. They were his masters and fellow-students, his courtiers, officers and ministers; and he was accompanied by them on his travels to the Holy Land and throughout Italy. His harems, one in Sicily and the other in Italy, were under the charge of eunuchs; and even the tunic in which he was buried bore an Arabic inscription. The Popes and other Kings of Christendom raised public outcry against the scandal of the court of such an Emperor, who, though representing the highest civil authority of the Middle Ages, was Christian only in name.

This patron of literature and learning formed a unique collection of Arabic MSS. at the University of Naples, which he founded in 1224; and he had the works of Aristotle and Averrhoes translated, and copies sent to Paris and Bologna. Not only did he gather to his court Hebrew and Moslem philosophers, astrologers and mathematicians, but he corresponded with men of learning throughout Islam.

It was at the court of Frederick that the Sicilian school of poetry, which first used the vulgar tongue and thus laid the foundations of Italian literature, arose. The Arab troubadours assembled at his court were emulated by the Christians; and the fact is significant inasmuch as it affords an instance of contact between the two literatures, Christian and Moslem.[592]

3. Important as Norman Sicily was as a centre of Islamic culture, it is nevertheless eclipsed in this respect by mediæval Spain. Here were to be found the same phenomena as in Sicily, but on a much larger scale and with the precedence of centuries. For Spain was the first country in Christian Europe to enter into intimate contact with Islam. For 500 years, from the eighth to the thirteenth century, when the Florentine poet came into the world, the two populations, Christian and Mahometan, lived side by side in war and peace.

The Mozarabs formed the first link between the two peoples. As early as the ninth century the Christians of Cordova had adopted the Moslem style of living, some even to the extent of keeping harems and being circumcised. Their delight in Arabic poetry and fiction, and their enthusiasm for the study of the philosophical and theological doctrines of Islam, are characteristically lamented by Alvaro of Cordova in his _Indiculus luminosus_.

The contact thus established in the early centuries of the Islamic conquest became, as may be imagined, more pronounced in the course of time. With intervals of intermittent strife, the intermingling of the two elements of the population steadily continued. And thus we find the Mozarabs of Toledo, the ancient capital of the Visigoths, using the Arabic language and characters in their public documents as late as the twelfth century, after the reconquest of the city. The suggestion that these Christians, who had become half Arabs, communicated to their brethren in the north of Spain, and even in other parts of Europe a knowledge of Islamic culture, may, therefore, be readily accepted. The hypothesis is strengthened by the fact of the constant emigration of Mozarabs northwards from Andalusia.[593]

To the Mozarab influence must be added another factor in the communication of Moslem culture—that of the slaves of Christian origin. Drawn from northern Spain and all parts of Europe, even as far as Russia, large numbers of slaves served in the court and in the army of the Emirs of Cordova. Many, no doubt, remained in their adoptive country where they had acquired both rank and fortune; but some, it may well be believed, would return to their native country in their old age.[594]

To attempt to enumerate the many other channels of communication between Christian Europe and Moslem Spain, we should require to re-create in our imagination the wonderful picture of Moslem society in Spain. As the centre of Western culture, Moslem Spain irresistibly attracted the semi-barbarous peoples of Christian Europe. From all parts came travellers, bent on study as well as trade, and eager to behold the wonders of this new classic civilisation of the Orient.

To paint the picture in detail it would be necessary to include the Jewish traders as other instruments of communication. With their flourishing international trade and their aptitude for languages and the sciences, they knit ties both material and spiritual between Moslem Spain and the chief cities of Christian Europe. Nor should we omit the part played by prisoners of war returning often after many years’ absence to their native country; nor the effects of the frequent visits of Christian Ambassadors to the Moslem courts of the Peninsula.[595]

4. With the gradual reconquest of Spain by the armies of the Christian kings, the Mudejars, their subdued Moslem subjects, took the place of the Mozarabs in transmitting Islamic culture. The undeniable superiority of this culture commanded the respect of the Christians, and the kings were prompt to adopt the policy of attracting the Mudejar element, thereby contributing to the more rapid and easy assimilation of Moslem civilisation. Further political alliances through marriage between the royal houses of Castile or Aragon and the reigning Moslem families were frequent.

Thus Alphonso VI, the conqueror of Toledo, married Zaida, the daughter of the Moorish King of Seville, and his capital resembled the seat of a Moslem court. The fashion quickly spread to private life; the Christians dressed in Moorish style, and the rising Romance language of Castile was enriched by a large number of Arabic words. In commerce, in the arts and trades, in municipal organisation, as well as in agricultural pursuits, the influence of the Mudejars was predominant, and thus the way was prepared for literary invasion, that was to reach its climax at the court of Alphonso X or the Wise.[596]

Toledo had throughout the twelfth century been an important centre for the dissemination of Arabic science and _belles-lettres_ in Christian Europe. In the first half of that century, shortly after the city had been captured from the Moors, Archbishop Raymond began the translation of some of the more celebrated works of Arabic learning. Thus, the whole encyclopædia of Aristoteles was translated from the Arabic, with the commentaries of Alkindius, Alfarabius, Avicenna, Algazel and Averrhoes; as also the master works of Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen, and Hippocrates, with the comments upon them of learned Moslems, such as Albatenius, Avicenna, Averrhoes, Rhazes, and Alpetragius. Translated into the Romance language of Castile with the help of learned Mudejars and Hebrews, these works were in turn rendered into Latin by Christian doctors drawn from all parts of Christendom.[597]

5. Alphonso the Wise, who had been educated in this environment of Semitic culture, on ascending the throne personally directed the work of translation, and gathered to his court as collaborators wise men of the three religions, an instance demonstrative of the tolerance of his time. Besides contributing new works on physics and astronomy, he also devoted considerable attention to subjects that would appeal more to the popular mind. His father, Ferdinand the Saint, had encouraged the compilation of the _Libro de los doce sabios_ and _Flores de filosofia_, in which Oriental influence is first seen; and Alphonso caused similar books, such as _Calila y Dimna_, _Bocados de Oro_, and _Poridad de poridades_ to be translated and works on Oriental pastimes compiled. From Arabic sources he wrote his _Grand e General Estoria_, and he ordered the translation of Talmudic and cabbalistic works, and, lastly, of the Koran.[598]

The advance of the Reconquest opened up a new field of action, and Murcia and Seville, after their recapture, became centres of philosophy and literature that rivalled Toledo. During the lifetime of his father, Alphonso had been Governor of Murcia, where he had a school built specially for Muhammad ar-Riquti, in which the Moslem sage lectured to Moors, Jews, and Christians alike.[599] Before 1158, another learned Moslem, Abd Allah ibn Sahloh, had taught mathematics and philosophy to Moors and Christians at Baeza, and in his school discussed theological questions with the Christian clergy.[600] Encouraged, no doubt, by these precedents, the king decided to give official sanction to the fusion of the two civilisations, of Christendom and Islam. He founded at Seville a general Latin and Arabic college, at which Moslems taught medicine and science side by side with Christian professors.[601] This in itself is eloquent of the close relationship between the two elements of the population in the first half of the thirteenth century.

III

TRANSMISSION OF THE MOSLEM LEGENDS ON THE AFTER-LIFE TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE AND DANTE

1. Any one of the channels mentioned may have served as the means of communication, even to the farthest ends of Europe, for the news of the legends on the after-life that were popular throughout Islam.[602] It has been shown that the legends that sprang up in Ireland, Scandinavia, France, Germany and Italy—the so-called precursors of the Divine Comedy—were most probably based on Islamic models. These may have been introduced into Christian Europe by pilgrims, Crusaders, merchants or missionaries; or, again, by Norman adventurers, slaves, men of learning or simple travellers. Once the possibility of a connecting link has been established, the hypothesis of imitation tends to become that moral certainty that historical demonstration requires and is content to accept.

It must be borne in mind that the majority of the Christian legends prior to the Divine Comedy originated later than the tenth century, whereas the _hadiths_ on the after-life date much further back. That these _hadiths_ were of popular origin is, moreover, evident. Until the ninth century they were transmitted solely by word of mouth, a fact that helped to spread them and rendered the creation of new legends easier.[603] Not until the formation by the two great critics, Bukhari and Muslim, of the collections of authentic _hadiths_ can the era of invention be considered closed. Their popularity did not, however, diminish on that account. Moslems everywhere, of all ages and every social rank, acted as transmitters, often undertaking long journeys to hear new tales and so increase their stock of religious lore; for, apart from the attraction that the fantastic nature of the theme held for the masses, it was considered an act of faith to learn these tales and share in their dissemination. No wonder, therefore, that the teachers of _hadiths_ prior to the ninth century were reckoned by thousands.

2. It may be said that from the earliest times Spain was the country most addicted to the study of these legends; for the intolerance of the Faqihs alone produced a superabundance of traditional lore. Indeed, in the ninth century, it was regarded as the home of the traditions of the Prophet and of all these it was but natural that the story of the _Miraj_, or ascension of Mahomet, should have the widest diffusion, as narrating an important part of the biography of the Prophet—the story of the performance of his supreme miracle, which has been accepted as a dogma, and is solemnly commemorated to this day throughout Islam.

Knowledge of these Moslem tales would, sooner or later, inevitably filter through the slender barrier separating the two peoples in their conception of the hereafter.[604] Indeed, poor as are the records of the beliefs of Islam left us by mediæval Christian writers, there is evidence that the Christians in Spain were, from the first centuries of the conquest, aware of these legends, and especially of the legend of the _Miraj_.

3. At the very outset of the ninth century, in the apologetic writings of the Mozarabs of Cordova, mention is made of Moslem _hadiths_. Alvaro of Cordova, in his _Indiculus luminosus_; St. Eulogius, in his _Memoriale Sanctum_; and the Abbot Esperaindeo, in his _Apologetico contra Mahoma_, repeatedly allude to tales “leves et risu dignas” describing the life and miracles of the pretended prophet.[605] In his _Apologeticus Martyrum_ St. Eulogius interpolates a brief biography of Mahomet. Founded largely upon spurious data, it is in the main a baseless fabrication that, nevertheless, shows a considerable knowledge of the Koran and the _hadiths_.[606]

4. This biography of Mahomet, St. Eulogius found at the Monastery of Leire in Navarre, which proves that as early as the ninth century the legend had penetrated to the north of Spain. This explains why Spain should have been the country from which it first passed into Western literature. Indeed, in 1143 a Latin version of the Koran was written by the Archdeacon of Pamplona, Robert of Reading, an English ecclesiastic who had formerly worked at the college of translators founded at Toledo by Archbishop Raymond. Together with this version, the archdeacon wrote a treatise entitled “Summa brevis contra haereses et sectam Sarracenorum” and derived from Arabic sources.[607] It is unlikely that a polemical work of this kind would omit to mention the _Miraj_, which by its very extravagance would readily lend itself to refutation; but it is impossible to make any definite assertion on the point, as the treatise in question has not been preserved complete.

5. Another document of the same century still exists however—the “Historia Arabum,” written in Latin by Archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada of Toledo.[608] In the prologue the author states that his compendium will start from the time of Mahomet, and that his data upon the origin, teaching and government of the Prophet will be taken “ex relatione fideli et eorum scripturis.” Nor should this have been difficult, seeing that he wrote in Toledo, where at the time many Arabic books on religion, science, and lighter literature were then being translated.[609] In