TONY DONOVAN
In these two essays, TONY DONOVAN argues that we find only dim traces and distorted images of Islam in Dante's Divine Comedy and that the influence of the Arabic language on Spanish was transitory, without a significant or permanent linguistic impact.
THE ISLAMIC HORIZON OF DANTE
[Published December, 2005 in "The Taj Mahal Review" (www.tajmahalreview.com)]
"I saw Saladin, alone and set apart. ...
Then I raised my sight a little higher and saw the Master of Those Who Know seated in philosophic company. All look to him and do him honor; And I saw Socrates and Plato closest to him, ahead of all the rest. ...
I saw...Euclid the Geometer, and Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Avicenna and Galen, and I saw Averroes of the Great Commentary."
----Divine Comedy (Inferno Canto 4)
When in 1919 the Spanish historian M. Asin Palacios published his book on Islam and Dante's 'Divine Comedy', it set off a hornet's nest of contentious controversy which remains unresolved to this day. In it, Palacios attempted to prove that Dante's conception of the hereafter as portrayed in his canonical masterpiece was fundamentally influenced by Islamic mythology and even theology. The discovery of 'Il Libro della Scala' after Palacios' death in 1944 seemed to confirm his thesis. After all, 'Il Libro della Scala' was a translation of an Arabic work in which the Prophet Muhammad's ascent to heaven, an event confirmed by Islamic tradition and with ultimate roots in the Koran, was portrayed in detail, and versions of this work in Latin could now be shown to have been circulating in Europe during Dante's lifetime. It seemed quite plausible that the origins of the descent into Hell and the ascent into Paradise in the 'Divine Comedy' had direct links to the Prophet's Himmelsreise as depicted in 'Il Libro della Scala.'
The Commedia, after all, explicitly mentions two Muslim philosophers, Avicenna and Averroes, a heroic Muslim warrior, Saladin, and most importantly, the founder of Islam, Muhammad, and his son-in-law Ali. This would appear to suggest that Dante had more than a passing acquaintance with Islam. Today, when Islam has suddenly loomed large on the Western horizon, even minimally sophisticated Europeans and Americans are aware of who Muhammad was. But how many are aware of who Ali was or what role he played in the development of Islam? Yet the Commedia with its literary roll call of Islamic illuminati, leads us to believe that Dante was at least familiar with the basics of Islamic history and traditions.
But was he? If we closely examine the role and location of these Muslim personages in the Commedia we can come to a very different conclusion as to the extent of Dante's acquaintance with Islam. We can, in fact, make a very good case that Dante's view of Islam was a mirage, one that profoundly distorted the reality of Islam. More, I contend that Dante was ignorant of the fact that the Muslim characters he had immortalized were in fact Muslim. He knew them as historical figures of some importance, but hardly as adherents of another faith. He never once used the term "Islam" or "Muslim" in his work. How could he have? Dante, like most of his contemporaries, was completely unaware that Islam existed as an autonomous religious system.
As Dante and Virgil enter the Inferno and arrive at the upper and least sinful circle of this region, Limbo, they encounter the great philosophers, sages and scientists of antiquity: Plato, Socrates, Thales, Euclid and several others. They had been placed in Hell because as non-Christian pagans, they were ineligible to enter Paradise, at least not immediately upon their death. Yet as great men, they were assigned by Dante to the relatively mild Limbo. They had lived long before the birth of Christ and thus it was through no fault of their own that they were non-Christian. The opportunity to join Christianity had simply not been available to them during their lifetimes.
If we accept this explanation for the presence of these Ancients in Dante's Limbo – and most modern Dante scholars do - then why were Avicenna, Averroes and Saladin, three Muslim historical figures, also found in the company of the likes of Plato and Aristotle? Unlike the Greek sages, all three had lived a thousand years after the establishment of Christianity. Averroes, in fact, was a near contemporary of Dante, having died a mere 67 years before Dante's birth in 1265. Therefore, these three Muslims had had the opportunity to become Christian. Since they had remained Muslim, one would have expected Dante to have assigned them to a lower circle of Hell than to the lofty one he did.
I can think of only one tenable argument for Dante's action: He was unaware these three personages were Muslim and thus had no trouble assigning them to Limbo based on their reputations as significant men of the past. Dante may have even considered them to be Hellenes, contemporaries of the sages with whom they shared company in Limbo. There was no way Dante could have known, for example, that Avicenna was really Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdullah ibn Sina, a Muslim philosopher.
But how plausible is this explanation? To find an answer, we must briefly look at the Arabic-Latin translation movement that took place in Spain following the Muslim conquests of that peninsula in 711 A.D.
It is well known that what was to become our Hellenic heritage had mostly been lost, with a few exceptions, to the scholars of Europe following the disintegration of Roman civilization, but that it had been kept alive and developed in the Muslim Near East, mostly in the Arabic language. Following the Muslim occupation of Spain, this heritage was recovered once the translation movement got underway in Iberia.
But what is seldom pointed out, is how selective these translations were. Almost none of the vast production of Arabic literature was translated in Spain. The literary and religious works of the Arabian Classical or Golden ages were unknown to the elite of Dante's time. They surely were known to the educated, Arabic speakers of Muslim Spain, but they were ignored by the translators of Toledo and other translation centers.
In the same vein, it must be said that Arabic belles lettres had no important impact on European literature. Despite heroic attempts by some modern academics to find direct links and influences between the two literary traditions, the results have been meager and unconvincing. It should be noted in this context too, that the purported influence that Arabic had on the vocabulary of Spanish was at best transitory: Contrary to popular belief, and with the exception of place names, modern Spanish displays a remarkable lack of words of Semitic origin, a surprising fact, given the 700 years that Arabic was spoken in Iberia. (Most Arabic-origin words that appear in modern Spanish are also found in modern English and most other European languages). And while the Koran was translated for the first time into a European language (Latin) in Spain in 1143 at the behest of Peter the Venerable, whatever influence or currency it might have had in Europe following this translation was negligible. In fact, this translation remained extant only in manuscript form until it was finally published in the 16th century. We can conclude that nearly the entire Arabian and Islamic literary corpus, including the Koran, was unknown to Dante and his contemporaries in any important sense and certainly not as the works of Muslim authors.
If this is true, and I believe it is, we can then even allow that Dante may have been familiar with 'Il Libro della Scala' and that his Commedia was influenced by it. But even if this were the case, it would be bizarre to thereby jump to the conclusion that the Commedia had an Islamic precursor. Dante may indeed have read 'Il Libro della Scala'. But it was a story, a fable to him, like many others he must have known about from the European literary tradition. Myths, legends and writings of descents into Hell and ascents into Heaven were commonplace in the Middle Ages. As far as Dante was concerned, 'Il Libro della Scala' – if indeed he was familiar with it - belonged to the European tradition. It is implausible that Dante would have been aware of its Islamic origin.
In a parallel case, Aquinas's 'Summa Contra Gentiles' is no longer considered a missionary manual directed at Muslims as was believed to be the case for centuries. The Summa was directed most specifically at Christian heretics. Near contemporaries, Aquinas and Dante were in fact woefully ignorant that the Saracens had brought a new and rival religion to the European continent. Aquinas may have indeed addressed his Summa to Muslims. But he did so inadvertently. He didn't know them as Muslims: To him they formed a species of heretical Christians.
Why then, would Europeans be interested at all in any of the Arabic products in Spain? The European translators had come to Spain not to learn about Islam or to investigate Islamic themes; they had come to Spain to recover the Greek classics. They hungrily sought the wisdom of Aristotle, not the salvation of Muhammad. Most of them were probably unaware that such a choice was available. When Dante in Canto IV proclaims "Averois che 'l gran comento feo.", he inadvertently discloses his vague notions of Islam. Averroes to Dante is a pagan commentator on Aristotle. That the philosopher was in fact Muslim not only escapes a mention by Dante, it is a fact beyond Dante's intellectual boundaries.
The remarkable presence of Muhammad and Ali in the 'Divine Comedy' presents what at first appears to be a stumbling block in asserting Dante's ignorance of even the existence of Islam. But a closer inspection actually solidifies the assertion.
Both Muhammad and Ali are placed in the eighth circle of Hell, and specifically in that region reserved for schismatics and sowers of discord. But the question immediately arises: schismatics of what? Of Islam? Hardly, although Ali, of course, as the progenitor of Shia Islam, is precisely that in the Islamic tradition. But it is beyond credulity that Dante could have known this fact. If he had, it would have made him a champion of Orthodox Sunni Islam by condemning Ali as a schismatic of Islam! No matter how the facts are twisted in an attempt to explain the presence of Ali and Muhammad in the 'Divine Comedy' on the assumption that Dante was very well informed about the Islamic tradition, the results can only be described as incongruous and unsatisfactory.
Yet there is one explanation that can clarify all this ambiguity and incoherence. It is generally accepted that during the Middle Ages fantastic stories, legends and myths about Islam had great currency in the European cultural milieu. One of the most prevalent was that Muhammad was a renegade Christian cardinal who had turned away from the Church because of the dissipate and corrupt clergy that inhabited Christiandom during this period. This neatly resolves the schismatic branding of Muhammad in the 'Divine Comedy'. The Muslim Prophet was a renegade, a sower of discord and therefore eligible for placement in the Eighth Circle of Hell. Ali perhaps was his assistant and therefore accompanies Muhammad. But that is our answer: Muhammad, to Dante, was a schismatic from within the Christian world, a renegade and a corrupter it is true, but a member of the Christian world, nevertheless. Islam didn't enter into the picture at all.
By Dante's time, Islamic civilization had already had a history spanning more than half a millennium and had long been on the wane. The sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, an event which illustrated the weakness of the Caliphate and from which Islam never fully recovered, preceded Dante's birth by less than a decade. Yet in Europe these events were, if not entirely unknown, of no significance or importance. To Dante and most of his contemporaries, Islam as a religion was a reality beyond their intellectual horizons. The illustrious catalyst of a once brilliant civilization, Islam was never understood or perceived by them except within the confines of a dim, fantastic and distorted outline. They never knew Islam as Islam.
Thus, the 'Divine Comedy' was a product of European civilization conceived within the Christian constellation, and more specifically, within the Italian sphere in which Dante lived. It never explored beyond these boundaries. That Islam was a completely separate though related religious experience extant in a vast geographical area south and east of Europe was a reality that was not to be acknowledged by Western man for generations to come.
****************************************************
A LANGUAGE MYTH: THE INFLUENCE OF ARABIC ON SPANISH
[Published February, 2004 in "Language Magazine" (www.languagemagazine.com)]
When the Berber general Tariq Ibn Ziyad launched his invasion of Spain in 711 A.D. by crossing over from Africa with several thousand infantrymen, he brought with him a vigorous civilization that would quickly alter the linguistic topography of the newly conquered territory. Within a few short decades, Arabic was established as the language of culture and government throughout most of the Iberian peninsula. Although the vulgate Latin then spoken continued as a living vernacular, Arabic became the preeminent language in Spain for 700 years following Ibn Ziyad's historic expedition.
Yet curiously, the influence that Arabic had on the developing Spanish language during those 700 years was unremarkable. Despite the popular belief that Spanish was strongly impacted by its Semitic neighbor and that the modern language is replete with Arabic terms, a close study reveals just the opposite: The Spanish lexicon was barely penetrated by the conqueror's language in any fundamental or enduring way.
According to one source, more than 4000 Arabic lexical items found their way into Spanish. A 1250 word list* of these items can be found on-line, and I've used this word list as my main resource for this study.
Etymology is a notoriously deceptive field. Such seemingly useful tools as word lists must be carefully scrutinized and conclusions drawn from them need to be examined closely. Honest errors and surmises, not to mention fabrications and wishful thinking, are not unknown and the researcher would do well to heed the admonition "caveat lector".
I decided to focus on the first 12 items of the 1250 word list. They appear in the following order:
/abalorio; abarraz; abencerraje; abenuz; abismal; acafelar; acebibe; acebuche; aceche; aceifa; aceite; aceituna/.
As a native Spanish speaker and life-long student of Arabic, I was sure that I'd have no trouble with most of these words. I quickly recognized /aceite/, /aceituna/ as "oil" and "olive" from Arabic /zeit, zeitun/. The term /abismal/, an obvious cognate of English "abysmal", was also immediately familiar, though I was mildly bemused that it might be of Semitic origin. Still, I'd leave that for later and continue with my lexicographical ramble.
But bemusement quickly turned to bewilderment as I realized that I was unable to recognize any of the remaining 9 words. I'd never seen any of them in print nor had I ever heard them spoken. I decided to consult a well-known and comprehensive on-line Spanish dictionary, trusting that some if not all of these odd words would be found there.
But none of them were.
Alarmed, I checked additional sources and was able to come up with "a string of beads, necklace" for /abalorio/, the first word in the list, and "wild olive tree" for /acebuche/, a botanical term. These two terms are so specialized that I feel confident in saying that possibly two or three out of several hundred native Spanish speakers would recognize either of these words.
Returning to the cognates /abismal – abysmal/, I checked several English dictionaries only to be informed that /abysmal/ was Greek in origin, not Arabic. My references didn't even mention Arabic in any context at all for this item.
Now, it's well known that Arabic had absorbed numerous Greek terms during the great translation period of the early Islamic centuries, when many of the Greek classics were translated into Arabic. Thus the term /abismal/ may indeed have entered Spanish through Arabic after Arabic got it from Greek, if that's what really happened. But that's very different from suggesting that /abismal/ is of Arabic origin. That would be like saying that the works of Aristotle are of Semitic origin because they came to Europe via the medium of Arabic. Arabic was the intermediary, not the source.
The results of my brief investigation can be summarized as follows: Of the 12 words examined, I was able to recognize 3, but one of these turned out not to be of Arabic origin at all. Of the remaining 9, two are highly specialized and rare words and 7 remain complete mysteries. What are we to make of this baffling linguistic equation?
I don’t doubt that more than 4000 Arabic words may have entered Spanish during the 700 years the Arabs lived in Spain. But that statement must be carefully qualified to take reality into account.
The vast majority of these imported words were of a highly specialized nature, rare in daily occurrence even when they were active. Many were restricted to use in trades and professions that have been defunct for centuries. Certain Arabic-laden "sciences", such as astrology and alchemy, have long since disappeared and their specialized vocabularies are no longer functional. They have entered the subaltern world of the obsolete and archaic or have dropped out of the language entirely. Others are likely literary terms attested to once or twice in surviving texts. Those that have remained in current usage include place names and the Arabic terms for the flora and fauna introduced into Spain during this period. Stellar nomenclature is an interesting category in which Arabic names have had an impact. But even here, the meaning of the Arabic terms has long since been forgotten; only the names remain.
In fact, within contemporary Spanish usage, I surmise that perhaps only three hundred words other than place names can be traced directly back to their Arabic origins. Indeed, this may be an overly generous estimate.
I know that in my own Spanish speech, I can readily recognize only about 50 common, everyday items as being directly descendent from Arabic. /almohada/ "pillow" is one, /alcalde/ "mayor" (of a city) is another, /aduana/ "customs house" is a third. That figure might be doubled to about 100 words if I include my reading vocabulary. Were I to triple these figures, the amounts would still hardly point to a noticeable Arabic influence.
Even some of these terms, long believed to be of Semitic origin, must be viewed with some skepticism. /Aduana/ is the usual Spanish word for "customs" or "custom house". It can be seen at all the international airports of Spanish speaking countries designating the area where passenger baggage is to be opened for inspection. It's a corruption of the Arabic /diwaan/. The term has several different meanings in Arabic but it most often signifies "a public audience room" of one sort or another and it was with this meaning that the word entered Spanish.
But in fact, /diwaan/, like /abismal/, is not a Semitic word at all. Its origin lies further east in Persia where Iranian and related Indo-European tongues have been spoken for millennia. /Diwaan/ is an Iranian word that entered Arabic. There's little doubt that Arabic subsequently introduced the word into Spain, but to thereby conclude that Spanish /aduana/ is Semitic in origin is to misrepresent the facts and ignore basic etymological methodology.
Admittedly, my project was limited in scope, but a quick glance at the remaining words on the 1250 word list convinced me that further research was unnecessary. I recognized exceedingly few as within the purview of an educated Spanish speaker, and many that were recognizable were in reality international words /yemeni, visir, imam, lapislazuli/ found in many contemporary languages other than Spanish. But even these words, although probably familiar to the educated public of many nations, can hardly be designated as common words. An avid reader might run across them in print possibly a half a dozen times a year and actually use them in speech less frequently than that, if at all.
Despite centuries of proximity to one another, there was never a marriage of Spanish with Arabic as happened between English and French following the Norman Invasion. In the latter case, French influenced English fundamentally, such that related concepts can be expressed in English using the vocabulary of two distinct language families. Thus we have Germanic "freedom" and Latin "liberty", "quick" and "rapid", "help" and "assist". Nouns, verbs, adjectives, they all tumbled into English seemingly unimpeded. The list is nearly endless, the influence clearly visible and felt. By contrast, I am unaware of a single Spanish verb or even adjective in use in contemporary Spanish that came from Arabic. If some do exist, they must be very rare indeed.
Had this linguistic exchange become active between Arabic and Spanish as was the case between English and French, it would have been of the highest significance in the development of Spanish. But this never happened. Spanish was reluctant to admit the Semitic into its inner soul. In Persia and lands further east, Arabic had an enormous effect on the languages it encountered. But in Iberia, Arabic remained a guest, not a partner.
Ibn Ziyad's entry into Spain signaled one of the great adventures of early Medieval times and Arabic became the great transmitter of a lost Hellenic heritage. For this, the debt to Arabic by the West remains enormous. But Arabic ultimately found itself on alien soil in Iberia and could take no permanent root. It had ventured too far from its desert origins. Like the brilliant Islamic civilization that it represented, the formidable influence of Arabic in Europe peaked and waned. Then it was gone forever, leaving only traces of its once overwhelming presence.
That Arabic significantly affected the Spanish lexicon in any permanent way is largely a romantic, nostalgic illusion, hearkening back to a time that has long since vanished. The bed-rock Latin of Spanish was never disturbed let alone displaced. The startling conclusion we can draw from all this is to realize not how many Arabic words exist in modern Spanish usage, given the nearly 700 years that Arabic ruled in Spain, but how few.
*http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Spanish/Vocabulary/Arabic_words.html
************************************************Other Places to go:
