From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Aug 21 2002 - 22:03:43 MDT
Serafino wrote:
>Queridos amigos,
>It seems that mr. Bin is very angry because Dante Alighieri wrote,
>at that time, something about Mohammed, which is (perhaps) not fair.
>
>Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, canto XXVIII, circle 8,
>malebolge of fraud, ninth bolgia, sowers of discord.
>
>Into the ninth bolgia Dante's horrifying vision of the 'sowers of
>splits and schisms' features Mohammed, the founder of Islam, who,
>along with the other sinners here has been split from chin to crotch
>with his guts hanging out. Note the total intolerance for another
>religion; this is typical of the christian middle ages and later; it
>led to many wars against those who believed differently (including
>different sects of christians) and massacres of unbelievers as well
>as christian heretics Another sower of discord was Bertram de Born,
>a Provencal troubadour poet. In the same canto he carries his head
>like a lantern because he used vicious scandals to separate Henry II
>of England from his eldest son. Therefore, his head is separated
>from his body.
Yes the intolerance for another religion typical in Middle Ages, I
wonder if La Divina Commedia will be banned by the fundamentalists
(on both sides) ?
But we know it is an old story. Dante's links to Arab mystical
poetry (Sufis) and the troubadours et al is part of an ancient tradition
of viewing love as a vehicle for ascending to the divine.
Amara
--------------------------
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/US310/Dante-Fedeli-d-Amore.html
<begin quote>
Arab Mystical Poetry
Several different lines of development converge at Dante. The first is the
tradition of Arab mystical poetry, which expresses longing and love for God,
who is addressed as "the Beloved." This tradition began in the ninth
century, but is most familiar to us in the poetry of Rumi (1207-1273), who
lived some two generations before Dante (see Examples of the Poetry of
Divine Love).
Arab mystical poetry draws from many sources, including Neoplatonism and
Manichaeanism, in its idea of love and union with the divine, ideas which
were considered heretical because, according to orthodox Islam, a finite
being (such as a person) cannot love an infinite being (such as God).
Indeed, several Sufi poets were tortured and executed for heresy, including
al-Hallaj (857-922), known as "the martyr of mystical love." The charges
against him said, "To adore God from love alone is the crime of the
Manichaeans..." Therefore it was necessary to be somewhat vague about the
identity of "the Beloved"; also, inebriation was used as a metaphor for the
intoxication of divine love. Al-Hallaj wrote,
I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I.
We are two spirits dwelling in one body,
If thou seest me, thou seest Him;
And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both.
It is interesting to note that the nearest contemporary analogues to the
Commedia come from the Islamic world. For example, in Sura XVII of the
Koran, Mohammed is transported by Gabriel from Mecca to the Dome of the Rock
in Jerusalem, and from there he is taken to Heaven. Dante may have been
familiar with a translation (Libro della Scala) of an Arabic popular text
describing the Prophet's visit to the other world. There are also many
parallels between the Commedia and the Meccan Revelations of Ibn al-'Arabi,
a Sufi poet.
Dante's innovation of placing Purgatory on a mountain may have Middle
Eastern origins. In Muslim tradition, as well as in Hindu, Buddhist and
Middle Eastern traditions, mountain tops are places where the gods are
appeased and by which heaven may be approached (recall Moses on Mt. Sinai
and the Tower of Babel). In many of these traditions, as in the Paradisio
(cantos 31-33), the World Mountain is surmounted by a sacred tree at which a
goddess figure sits dispensing the waters of life.
<end quote>
--------------------------
--
********************************************************************
Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/
********************************************************************
"Trust in the Universe, but tie up your camels first."
(adaptation of a Sufi proverb)
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