Chapter III: Part II

THE DIVINE COMEDY COMPARED WITH OTHER MOSLEM LEGENDS ON THE
AFTER-LIFE

I. INTRODUCTION:

1. Need of further examination of the poem in its five
parts—limbo, hell, purgatory, earthly and celestial
paradises 79
2. Preliminary enquiry into the doctrine of Islam on the
after-life 79
3. Comparison of that doctrine with the teaching of Christianity 79

II. THE MOSLEM LIMBO IN THE DIVINE COMEDY:

1. The name and site of Dante’s limbo, the dwellers therein
and their suffering 81
2. Was Dante’s picture, for which there is no Christian
precedent, derived from Moslem eschatology? 82
3. The name and site of the Moslem limbo, the dwellers therein
and their suffering. The picture is identical with that
of Dante’s limbo 83

III. THE MOSLEM HELL IN THE DIVINE COMEDY:

1. The supposed originality of Dante’s conception of the
architecture of hell 85
2. The Moslem hell, according to the Koran and the _hadiths_,
agrees with Dante’s hell in architectural outline 86
3. The Moslem hell, according to the description and designs
of Ibn Arabi, is identical in its architectural plan with
the hell described by Dante and graphically illustrated
by the Dantists 91

IV. THE MOSLEM HELL IN THE DIVINE COMEDY—_continued._

1. Islamic origin of descriptive detail and actual scenes, such
as the movement towards the left 96
2. The torture of the adulterers 97
3. The City of Dis 98
4. The rain of fire and the meeting with Brunetto Latini 98
5. The first three valleys of Malebolge 99
6. The torture of the soothsayers in the fourth pit 100
7. The torture of hypocrites 101
8. The torture of thieves 102
9. The torture of the schismatic 103
10. The last chasm of Malebolge 104

V. THE MOSLEM HELL IN THE DIVINE COMEDY (Conclusion):

1. The giants of Dante’s hell 105
2. The torture of cold 106
3. Dante’s picture of Lucifer and its supposed originality 108
4. Its prototypes in Islam 109

VI. THE MOSLEM PURGATORY IN THE DIVINE COMEDY:

1. Dante’s conception of purgatory 111
2. Its supposed originality 112
3. Precedents for the topography are to be found in Moslem
tradition 113
4. Further precedents for the topography furnished by Ibn
Arabi’s conception 115
5. The punishments in the ante-purgatory 117
6. The torments of purgatory 118

VII. THE EARTHLY PARADISE OF ISLAM IN THE DIVINE COMEDY:

1. Dante’s story of the earthly paradise and the supposed
originality of its setting 121
2. Situation of the earthly paradise, according to Islam, on a
lofty mountain in the middle of the ocean 122
3. The garden of paradise placed by Islamic legend between
purgatory and heaven 125
4. Dante’s picture compared with the story of Shakir ibn
Muslim, of Orihuela 125
5. Islamic sources of the scene of the meeting of Beatrice and
Dante 128
6. Summary of the principal Moslem legends on the meeting
of the heavenly bride and bridegroom. Their comparison
with the episode in Dante 130
7. Recapitulation of partial comparisons 134

VIII. THE CELESTIAL PARADISE OF ISLAM IN THE DIVINE COMEDY:

1. The sensuality of the Koranic paradise spiritually
interpreted in the _hadiths_ 135
2. Idealistic conception of the delights of paradise according
to Algazel, Averrhoes, and Ibn Arabi 137
3. The Moslem paradise susceptible of comparison with that
of Dante 139
4. The general scheme of the Paradiso and its precedents in
Islam 142
5. Dante’s conception of the abode of glory 145
6. Islamic precedents for that conception 147

IX. THE CELESTIAL PARADISE OF ISLAM IN THE DIVINE COMEDY (Conclusion):

1. The architecture of paradise, according to Ibn Arabi 150
2. His geometrical design of paradise is identical with the
plan of the mystic rose, as traced by the Dantists 151
3. Dante and Ibn Arabi use the same similes in describing
paradise 152
4. The moral structure of paradise is strikingly similar in
both authors 154
5. The life of glory, as depicted by Ibn Arabi 157
6. Ibn Arabi’s cardinal theses compared with Dante’s ideas:
(1) Beatific Vision of the Divine Light 160
7. (2) Different grades in the Vision; (3) External brilliance
of the elect; (4) Ecstasy of delight; (5) Absence of envy 163
8. Dante’s symbol of the Trinity compared with similar
geometrical symbols used by Ibn Arabi 167

X. SYNTHESIS OF ALL THE PARTIAL COMPARISONS:

1. General conclusions to be drawn from the resemblances
found 171
2. Identity in construction shown by Ibn Arabi’s and Dante’s
plans of the hereafter 172
3. Analogies in topographical decoration 172
4. Analogies in symmetry of conception 173
5. The likeness extends to many of the episodes and scenes 173
6. Conclusions to be drawn from the first two parts of this
enquiry: Islamic literature sheds light upon a greater
number of problems in Dante than do all other religious
literatures combined 173
7. Transition to Part III 174