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Home , Brunetto Latini, Convivio, Enciclopedia Dantesca, Isidore of Seville, The Dante Encyclopedia, Virtuous pagan

The

Author(s) Imprint Routledge, 2010

Extent xxvi, 1006 p.

ISBN 9780203834473

Permalink https://books.scholarsportal.info/en/read?id=/ ebooks/ebooks2/ taylorandfrancis/2013-04-15/2/9780203834473

Pages 549 to 552

Downloaded from Scholars Portal on 2019-01-11 Téléchargé de Scholars Portal Books sur 2019-01-11 brother Leander, also a notable cleric, acquain- God. Unlike Jews and Christians, who hold that I tance of Gregory the Great, and dedicatee of the the child was the son offered up by Abra- Moralia in . In 599–600 Isidore succeeded ham, recognize the adult Ishmael as the Leander, who had provided him with his early cler- intentionally submissive victim. The genealogical ical education, as of . He died there descent from Ishmael claimed by the Arab tribes in 636. His association with this has led him was recognized by medieval Christians, who often to be known as St. in addi- referred to Arabs as “Ishmaelites,” as well as tion to the name Isidorus Hispalensis. Dante “Agarenes” (after Ishmael’s mother, Hagar) or, places Isidore (Isidoro) in the sphere of the Sun in most frequently, “Saracens.” the general company of other notable doctors of Medieval theologians debated whether to the church, and the specific company of and classify as or . The ninth- Richard of St. Victor (Par. 10.131). century Byzantine theologian Isidore is best remembered as the author of refutes Islam in his De Haeresibus, while in the numerous works on a wide variety of subjects, twelfth century Peter states in a let- including De natura rerum, De ecclesiasticis ter to that he truly does not officiis, the Chronica, De viris illustribus, and the know whether to refer to Muslims as “heretics” on Sententiarum sive de summo bono libri tres. His account of their faith, or as “pagans” on account most influential work was the Originum seu ety- of their practice (Sahas, Kritzeck). This dichotomy mologiarum libri XX (also known as the Etymolo- is reflected in medieval literary depictions of Mus- giae or Origines), a sort of encyclopedia which lims, which portray them either as heretics or became a source and model for many subsequent schismatics (as does Dante), or as idolatrous poly- works; it is notable in part for providing a basic theists. The latter convention is ubiquitous, espe- knowledge of pagan classics. Among the subjects cially in the chansons de geste and the covered in the are the seven liberal romances patterned on them (, Metlitzki). arts, , , theology, poetry, natural his- Muslims are often portrayed worshiping idols tory, war, and pagan games. arranged in a kind of pagan Anti-Trinity composed It is not clear if Dante had any particular work of , Apollo, and Tervagant. of Isidore in mind when he assigned him his posi- Misrepresentations of Islam are common tion in the Sun, but it is likely that his activities as even in apparently more objective accounts: encyclopedist stood out in Dante’s mind. Never- medieval biographies of the Prophet stress his las- theless, despite much critical work, there remains civiousness and lust for temporal power, and even little consensus concerning the extent of Dante’s liken him to the Antichrist himself (Akbari 1997). direct acquaintance with the Spaniard’s works or Such accounts appear in full-length accounts such even with the Etymologiae; Isidore’s influence was as the thirteenth-century Roman de Mahomet, as so extensive that many of Dante’s seeming bor- well as in summaries in medieval , rowings from his predecessor’s works could as eas- historical chronicles, ’ lives, mirrors of ily have been derived from other authors who had princes, and even the Anonimo Fiorentino com- made extensive use of the ’s writings. Notable mentary on Inf. 28. possible mediating texts are ’s Tre- Seen in this light, Dante’s treatment of Islam sor and Uguccione’s Derivationes. appears relatively moderate. His representation of Frank B. Ordiway Muhammad as a schismatic is in keeping with the- ological views of Islam as a form of Christian heresy. Dante’s Muhammad (Mäometto) is a schis- Islam and Islamic Culture matic, the instigator of a split in the body of the Islam, like Christianity and , is an Abra- community of Christian believers. His followers hamic faith: a monotheistic religion centered on a are themselves guilty not of creating schism but of foundational moment of sacrifice. For Christians, heresy (that is, false faith), and they are led into ’s willingness to sacrifice his son prefig- this sin by Muhammad’s preaching of a nuova ures the will of the divine Father to offer up his legge (“new law”) based on Christianity, yet il con- own Son on the cross; for Muslims, who have no trario (“contrary” to it), as early commentators comparable belief in original sin, it represents such as Jacopo Alighieri and the Ottimo put it. For Abraham’s islam, literally, his “submission” to this reason, Ali (Alì) alone appears with Muham-

520 ISIDORE, ST. mad in the circle of schismatics. He is there not on Medieval commentators on the Commedia account of his belief in Islam (heresy), but because also display ignorance regarding the relationship of his role in the development of the Shi'i move­ of Christianity and Islam in their treatment of Sal- ment within orthodox Islam (schism). It is striking adin, who appears in Inf. 4 among the virtuous that Dante's identification of Ali as a schismatic pagans in . Sultan Yusuf ibn Ayyub (1138— implies that Islam itself is a form of Christianity, 1193), surnamed Salah ad-Din, reclaimed Jeru­ albeit a perverted version of it: only if Islam is, in salem for the Muslims in 1187 and defended the some sense, still a form of Christianity can Ali's city against European assaults during the Third transgression be seen as schism. The Crusade. Dante's commentators recognize that {Inf. 28.142) experienced by Muhammad em­ Saladin is a Muslim, or, as the Anonimo Fiorentino bodies the split in the Christian community caused commentator puts it, della legge di Macometto. by schism; the contrapasso experienced by Ali Theyjustify his presence in Limbo by focusing on embodies the split in the caliphate, or headship of the significance of his physical position: Saladin the Muslim community, which resulted from his is said to be solo, in parte ("by himself apart"; Inf. rule. The image of schism is reiterated as one of 4.129). The Ottimo commentator explains that this the seven major calamities in church history dra­ refers to Saladin's special position among other matized in the Earthly Paradise, where its affront Muslims: Intra Saraceni fu singulare ("Among to Christianity is allegorized as a dragon attacking Muslims he was unique"). Benvenuto glosses the and dismantling a part of the chariot of the church phrase similarly, stating that Saladin fait singu- (Purg. 32.130-135). larissimus in virtute temporibus suis ("was unique Early commentators on the Commedia ­ in among those of his time"). Jacopo della play ignorance regarding the theology underlying Lana, however, interprets the reference in the con­ Dante's treatment of Islam. Several, including text of the many popular legends of Saladin in Jacopo Alighieri (1322), Jacopo della Lana (1324), which the Muslim ruler travels throughout the the Ottimo commentator (1333), and (most elab­ West in disguise. Jacopo states that Saladin, orately) the Anonimo Fiorentino commentator dressed as a pilgrim, Venne a Parigi solo e pas- (1400), repeat the popular story that Muhammad sandoper una via solo ("Came alone to , and was a Christian cleric who, when frustrated in his went his way alone"). Here, the commentator effort to achieve the papacy, satisfied his lust for draws on a popular tradition which saw Saladin not power by founding his own religious sect (d'An- only as a model of generosity (as Dante portrays cona). Unaware of the position of Ali in the devel­ him in Conv. 4.11.14), but as a man of the East opment of Islam, they ignore him or, at best, like who could pass unnoticed throughout the West, his Jacopo Alighieri, refer to him as "one of [Muham­ identity concealed by his clothing and his mastery mad's] companions named Ali." Not until the nine­ of the local . Such portraits of Saladin teenth century do commentators show knowledge appear in Boccaccio's Decameron and the Novel- of Ali's specific role. lino, as well as many other vernacular accounts The importance of Dante's treatment of Ali (Paris, Castro, Kirkham). has been largely overlooked by modern commen­ Saladin's position solo, in parte must be tators on Inf. 28, who state that Dante's represen­ understood in the context of Dante's theology tation of the Prophet is in keeping with the popular regarding Limbo, particularly with regard to the legend of Muhammad as an apostate Christian car­ fate of the "." Efforts have been dinal. Similarly, the entry under "Maometto" in the made recently to articulate Dante's position regard­ refers to la leggenda occi­ ing the fate to be experienced after death by those dental, a cui esclusivamente D. s'ispiro ("the who, in life, were not members of the Christian Western legend, which was the only source used church. Yet the treatment of Saladin remains diffi­ by Dante"). It is certainly true that the early com­ cult to explain: in her survey of theological treat­ mentators based their understanding of Inf. 28 on ments of the virtuous pagan, Colish remarks that "the Western legend"; however, Dante's own treat­ Dante's inclusion of Saladin and in ment of Ali, an enigma to the early commentators, Limbo is "peculiar." Iannucci argues that Limbo is illustrates the poet's more subtle understanding of populated by those pagans who were "born too the theological relationship between Christianity early or too far away" to be included in the redemp­ and Islam. tion by ; yet such an explanation does not really account for Saladin, whose frequent and Dante's vision of the afterworld that each human I often friendly contacts with Christians are attested soul continue to exist after death, retaining its indi­ to in contemporary accounts, some of which go so viduality (Bynum). Those who follow Averroes in far as to claim that Saladin had a Christian mother. this matter are depicted as heretics by Dante (Inf. Saladin's position among the virtuous pagans 10; Corti 1981), and his treatment of Averroism in Limbo is liminal in a double sense. Like his must be understood in the context of his rivalry companions, he is within Hell and yet outside it; with , the poet to whom Dante but he is also separated from his companions, dedicated the Vita Nuova and whom he calls his aside, alone. In this sense, he is a figure of exile, primo amico ("first friend"; VN3A4; Corti 1983). the heroic equivalent of the narrator himself at the The works of Nardi remain authoritative outset of his journey to God. For this reason, Sal­ regarding Dante's view of Averroism. adin 's physical position parallels that of the narra­ Menocal argues that the "anxiety" regarding tor as he momentarily joins the souls in Limbo: Islamic culture displayed by Dante in the Comme- Saladin is named last among the political figures, dia can be seen most acutely in the structure of the just as Averroes appears last among the philoso­ journey to the other world. Dante's position with phers {Inf. 4.144), and Dante himself brings up the regard to Islamic eschatology has been, arguably, rear among the poets {Inf. 4.102). one of the most profound controversies in Dante This symmetrical arrangement magnifies the criticism during the twentieth century. In 1919, narrator, implicitly comparing him to Averois che 7 Asin Palacios put forth the thesis that the story of gran comentofeo ("Averroes, who made the great the miraculous journey or mi raj of Muhammad commentary," 4.144) and Saladin, unique in his through the circles of Heaven and down into the munificence. The coupling of Dante with exem­ depths of Hell was a source of the structure of plary Muslims also supports Menocal's argument Dante's Commedia. This hypothesis was coldly (1987) that Dante's position with regard to Islamic received (Cantarino, Menocal 1996); even after culture is one of "anxiety." She suggests that Latin and Old French versions of the mi raj were Dante's treatment of Muhammad and Ali, his depic­ discovered and edited (Cerulli, Wunderli, Werner), tion of the pit of Hell as a city full of meschite strong resistance to the proposal has not dimin­ ("mosques," Inf. 8.70), and his condemnation of ished. More recently, however, Corti (1995) has Averroism collectively represent a rejection of argued that there are several possible ways in Islam, seen by Dante as a religion which elevated which Dante could have known the Latin version the intellect above all else, placing the individual on of the mi 'raj, or Libro della Scala, and she has a level with God. The positioning of the narrator examined particularly the possible role of Brunetto alongside Averroes and Saladin emphasizes the Latini in mediating that knowledge. Corti's study, immediacy of the world of Islam, representing it not along with a more general willingness to acknowl­ as a threat located far away on the other side of the edge non-Western sources and influences on the world, but rather (in the form of Latin Averroism) masterworks of Western culture, may lead to a as a danger appallingly close to home. more mature understanding of Dante's relationship Just as Saladin is distinguished by his munif­ to non-Christian, non-Western culture. That indebt­ icence, Averroes is distinguished by his intellect. edness, especially manifest in the and The ibn-Rushd (1126-1198) was born Commedia, includes Dante's deployment of ­ in Muslim Cordoba, in what is now , and sophical concepts derived either directly from exerted a great influence on Western philosophi­ Islamic like Averroes, Avicenna, cal thinking during the thirteenth century. Aristo­ Algazel, and Alpetragius, or indirectly through the tle's De anima was known in the West primarily mediation of texts by Albert the Great and Thomas through the Latin translation of Averroes's text Aquinas. with commentary. In Conv. 4.13.8, Dante refers to him simply as lo Commentatore ("the Com­ Bibliography mentator"), and he cites Averroes in Mon. 1.3.9, Akbari, Suzanne Conklin. "The of Antichrist Questio 12, and Questio 46. Yet Averroes's argu­ in Western Lives of Muhammad." Islam and ment that the possible intellect is separate from the Christian-Muslim Relations 8 (1997), 297-307. individual soul is rejected by Dante in no uncer­ Asin Palacios, Miguel. La escatologia musulmana tain terms (Purg. 25.61-66); it is essential to en la Divina Comedia. 1919. Translated and

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