Issue 8, June 2019 Issue 8 June 2019 Biannual Refereed Scientific Magazine Editor in Chief Mohammed Hammam Fekri Editing Consultants Prof. Jamal Hajar Dr. Ben Slot Mr. Yousef Thanon Dr. Penelope Tuson Concept and Design Rehan Saiyed Storm Worldwide, New Zealand Layout Artist Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies Archives Augustine Fernando Translation Firas Waked Linguistic Editing Huda Hawas All rights are reserved to Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies. According to scientific principles, Quoting is allowed along with referring to the source. The points of view expressed in an article are those of the author and does not represent the editorial board’s opinion. The Order of articles is based on Artistic considerations. © Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies Legal Deposit No.: 21\2017 ISBN: 978-9927-00-463-6 All correspondence should be sent to the Editing Manager on the following Address: Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies P. 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Box: 690 Doha - Qatar E-mail : rtt@hbmhc.com This publication is printed on FSC approved Arjowiggins Rives C ON DI T ION S FOR PU BL IC AT ION The Magazine welcomes publication of researches in Arabic and Foreign languages under the following conditions: 1- The material should not be previously published. 2- The material should meet the conditions of methodological scientific research. 3- References should be inserted automatically in sequential ordering. 4- Images and illustrations may be inserted provided that they are original, and the author shall obtain their publishing rights. 5- Terminologies of foreign languages should be written in their original language. 6- The material should be written on A4 word document using Arial font, and it shall not exceed thirty pages including images, illustrations and other attachments. 7- Contributions shall be subject to secret refereeing by specialists. 8- The journal shall not give reason why the material was not accepted for publication and is not required to return it. 9- The researcher shall review the material related to his research after preparing it for publication and before sending it to printing press. 10- The author shall not have the right to republish the researches in any way without prior consent of the journal. 11- The author shall provide a summary that does not exceed fifty words, and he shall also provide an abstract biography and 4x6 cm photo of the author. 12- The author shall receive one free copy of the issue in which his article is published. I N T RODUC T ION This issue includes a set of original researches characterized by variety and novelty: Dr. “Khazal Al Majidi” deals with the development and tools of modern Orientalism and sheds light on its signs, methods and scientific and ideologized aspects. Dr. “Jamal Hajar” emphasizes the importance of the “British Archives” for writing the history of Qatar from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth century. Prof. Dr. “Hossam Abdel Moati” examines the birth of the Riyal of Dubai and Qatar as the first attempt of economic unity between the emirates of the Arabian Gulf. Prof. Dr. “Al Ameen Abu Sa’da” reviews a historical study and translation of a Tartar document dictated in the time of Sultan “Sulaiman al-Qanuni” by Polish pilgrims while in Istanbul in their way to perform Hajj. The document described the status of Muslims in Poland and the impressions those pilgrims had about the Ottoman Empire. Prof. Dr. “Nasir Ibrahim” reviews a critical approach between the systems of Tax Farming in Egypt and Feudalism in France just before the French Campaign. Dr. “Mahmoud Hadiyah” examines the economy of common people in Andalusia through popular sayings as being an important source for studying social history. Dr. “Ahmed Adawi” clarifies how far the Islamic sources influenced “Dante” in writing his “Divine Comedy”. He also questions how “Dante” obtained those sources and what signs confirm that influence. The magazine, therefore, continues its role in supporting Research with studies that confirm the approach it follows since publishing the first issue in June 2015. As we provide the issues of this magazine in hard copy, we make it more widely available through specialized databases in most of the national libraries and the libraries of Arab and Foreign universities. You also find summaries of the researches published on the website of the center. C O N T E N T S 06 Intercultural Relations between East and West General Islamic Overview on Dante's The Divine Comedy AR ABIC ARTICLES The Islam in the opinion of Modern Orientalism. Modern History of Qatar in the Documents of British Archives. History of the First Monetary Economic Union in The Arabian Gulf; the Riyal of Qatar and Dubai (1966-1973). Muslims in Poland, Study and Translation of a Tartar Document Dates Back to 1558. Tax Farming System in the View of the French Campaign. Economy of Common People in Andalusia through Popular Sayings. 06 36 60 92 110 126 C I nte rc u lt u r a l Rel at ion s b et we e n E a st a nd We st G e ne r a l Isl a m ic O ve r v ie w on Da nte's The D iv i ne C ome dy C Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar R e s e a rc h e r, a u t h o r i z e d a n d a c c r e d i t e d t r a n s l a t o r, i n t e r p r e t e r, and responsible for internationa l scientif ic and technolog ica l c o o p e r a t i o n b e t we e n E g y p t (A c a d e my o f S c i e n t i f i c r e s e a rc h a n d t e c h n o l o g y) a n d C h i n a , I n d i a , Po l a n d , C z e c h R e p u b l i c , S l ov a k i a , B e l a r u s . H e i s t h e d i r e c t o r g e n e r a l o f t h e “ E g y p t i a n I n t e r n a t i o n a l A c a d e my f o r C o n s u l t a t i o n a n d Tr a i n i n g ” i n E g y p t . L e c t o r a n d c o n s u l t i n g , a s we l l a s r e v i e we r o f t h e t r a n s l a t o r s (S c h o l a r s h i p -h o l d e r s) a t t h e B a l a s s i I n s t i t u t e , M i n i s t r y o f Fo r e i g n A f f a i r s , Hu n g a r y Ph D - d e g r e e i n H i s t o r y (I n t e r n a t i o n a l R e l a t i o n s), Un i ve r s i t y o f S z e g e d (Hu n g a r y). Au t h o r o f 10 m u l t i l i n g u a l b o o k s , a n d translator of 28 book s published in Ca iro, Duba i, Budapest, Pa r i s i n a d d i t i o n t o c o m p o s i n g 32 p a p e r s s p e c i a l i z e d i n m o d e r n a n d c o n t e m p o r a r y h i s t o r y. M e m b e r o f 6 i n t e r n a t i o n a l p r o j e c t s i n c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h Hu n g a r y, It a l y a n d Fr a n c e . All images in this article were chosen by the writer :‫ترجمة هذا البحث إلى العربية على الموقع‬ www.hbmhc.com 8 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West This paper investigates relevance and impact of The Divine Comedy through providing answers to the following three points: 1) Why did Dante write this epic from an Islamic point of view? 2) The Islamic culture and inf luence in his Poem and how did he obtain such sources as would help him create the idea for his work? 3) The Arabic translations of The Divine Comedy in the Arab World in brief. Keywords: The Divine Comedy, Islamic sources, Islamic overview, intercultural relations, East and West, simulation, comparative study The first part of this article is dedicated to investigating the reasons that led Dante to write his valuable artistic work from an Islamic point of view. The order of justifications is according to their importance, strength, and priorities through Muslim eyes. – From a Muslim point of view, Dante wrote his great poem “because he wanted to write something magnificent on par with the fabled Mirā‘j or Muhammad’s [PBUH] Ascension to Heaven. Dante was not happy with the fact that Islam was becoming popular in the Middle Ages and its influence was felt on the culture of the time and he wanted to write something that would negate its effects. Dante held a negative and contemptuous view of Muslims and Islam. His antipathy for Islamic culture was based not simply on a prejudiced view that he held but rather on his disgust towards its effect on the Christian Church as well as on medieval intellectual life, which was based on his inclusion of Muslim mosques and leaders in Hell.(1) – The evidence for this point can be seen through several 1 Bilquees Dar, 2013, pp. 165. 2 Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 716. 3 Hilāl, 2008, pp. 130. 4 Said, 1979, pp. 69. scenes in The Divine Comedy, among them the following: – Dante’s classification of the Islamic characters was not from his authentic thinking. His classification of Abū Alī Al-Husain Ibn-Sīna (Avicenna) (980–1037), Abū AlWalīd Muhammad Ibn vAhmed Ibn Rushd; (1126–1198) (Averroes) (Inferno I, 143–144), and Saladin, as vitreous pagans (for not being Christians), who, along with Hector, Aeneas, Abraham, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, are confined to the first level of the Hell called Limbo, there to suffer a minimal punishment. His assorted presentation of the Prophet and his cousin Alī as imposters were copied from the common beliefs of his era. The classification was inherited from the image which his ancestors and his contemporaries had of Islamic figures.(2) Dante had a sufficient knowledge about Islam religion and its developed culture, yet he remained an archenemy of Islam, as he was under the control of his devotion to his faith. He was representing the mentality of the Middle Ages and Crusades.(3) Although such groupings were unfair, Dante admired the great accomplishments and effective contributions of Muslims in developing human thought.(4) – Dante’s ancestor Cacciaguida, a knight under the emperor Conrad III (1138–1152), participated in the Second Crusade, where he was killed. From Dante’s point of view, Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) Cacciaguida fought in an honorable cause and acquitted himself well. Although Cacciaguida was a Crusader, “the end of Paradiso, canto 15 offers the most conventional medieval Christian anti-Muslim rhetoric that you will find in the Comedy.”(1) Dante describes the Muslims as a filthy horde turpa gente, and the Islam religion as an “evil” religion (Paradiso, XV, 139–148(2)).(3) The second most important purpose of why Dante wrote his Divine Comedy was that “Dante was perturbed by the impact of Islam on medieval Christian life and he would have preferred to have his culture devoid of any Islamic Influence. The basis for this fear evolved from the belief that the Muslim religion posed a serious threat to the existence of Christianity for it gave Christianity some unwelcome competition.” Dante is even critical of Christian Clergy who use their power with the church to make money by either selling Pardons for ones’ sins or entries into Purgatory. And as we know, Simony was, and may still be one of the many faults of Christianity that Dante tried to redress that helped to bring about the establishment of Islam. While the effect of Arabic culture on Christianity urged Dante’s hatred of Islam, its effects on the medieval society as a whole also charged his increasing anger in this matter.(4) Middle Ages scientists, who were eager to control people’s beliefs and general behaviors, tried to give their theories the powers of the law. Theology was the pinnacle of this theoretical system. Despite its independence, ecclesiastical law was evolving in harmony with this system without any conflict between them. Such theories have been put within the catholic theology as a result of their knowledge of Islam, both the false and the true ideas. That has been the case with Islam and the history of its Prophet: enveloped in European concepts unrecognizable by either the Arabs or the Muslims. The theology of the Crusade was the theology of the Christian relations with Islam. Both theology and history were nothing more than propaganda to support the war – meanwhile, the ecclesiastical law lay between the borders upon which the war had to erupt. The most relevant aspect of this law to our theme is that relating to severance, and to not to tolerate any law relating to the non-Christian nonwarriors. The main intent of the former and the latter was to separate the European Christians from the outer non-Christian “enemy.”(5) The ‘Protection against Islam’ idea(6) was old and had its historic background and was not created for first time by Dante. In this regard, Mahmūd Hamdi Zakzūk(7) stated that the rapid spread of Islam in East and West had strongly attracted the attention of the Christian theologians and others, and hence their interest in studying this religion. One of the first Christian scholars of Islam – in order to protect his Christian brethren – was Saint John of Damascus (676–749). Among his books addressed to his Christian brethren were Dialogue with a Muslim and Guidelines of Christians in Muslim Debate.(8) What did Dante write the in “sacred poem”? From the beginning he had clearly shown the final goal of the journey: the divine investiture as a sacred poem and the consequent vision of God, 1 <https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/paradiso/paradiso-15/> (2018. Oct., 10) 2 (Paradiso, XV, 139–148) – original verses in vulgar Italian (Paradise, XV, 139-148) – English translation assumed by Digital Dante Edition Columbia University Poi seguitai lo ‘mperador Currado; ed el mi cinse de la sua milizia, tanto per bene ovrar li venni in grado. “I later served the Emperor Conrad, And with his knighthood he invested me, So highly I won favor by good deeds. Dietro li andai incontro a la nequizia di quella legge il cui popolo usurpa, per colpa d’i pastor, vostra giustizia. “I followed him to fight against the evil Religion [Islam] of those people who usurp, By your shepherd’s [the Pope’s] negligence, your rightful lands [Holy Lands, Jerusalem].” Quivi fu’ io da quella gente turpa disviluppato dal mondo fallace, lo cui amor molt’anime deturpa; “There finally falling to that filthy horde [Cacciaguida died in the Crusades], I gained release from that deceitful world, the love of which debases many souls,” e venni dal martiro a questa pace». “And to this peace I came from martyrdom” [that is, dying on the Crusade]. 3 <https://forum.termometropolitico.it/214274-esoterismo-dantesco.html> (2018. Oct., 14) 4 Bilquees Dar, 2013, pp. 165–166. 5 Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 716. 6 The Comedy served to strengthen the faith of the Christian believers, as has been the case in all the Christian defenses. A matter completely apparent, especially in light of the historical circumstances of Islam during that era, which was at that time a glorious empire knocking on the doors of Europe. Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 718. 7 An Egyptian academic and politician. He was the former minister of religious endowment of Egypt from 1995 to 2011. He was born in 1933 and was still alive at the time of this writing. 8 Zakzūk, 1983, pp. 23. 9 10 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West therefore the salvation of himself and of the whole humanity, as stated also in the Epistle to Cangrande della Scala(1) (Purg. Epistola. XIII. 33): “Finis totius et partis esse posset multiplex, scilicet propinquus et remotus. Sed omissa subtili investigatione, dicendum est breviter quod finis totius et partis est, removere viventes in hac vita de statu miseriae et perducere ad statum felicitatis.”(2) Why did Dante write the Commedia or the Vision Thing? The simple answer to this question is Dante’s own: “Però, in pro del mondo che mal vive, al carro tieni or li occhi, e quel che vedi, ritornato di là, fa che tu scrive” (Purg. XXXII, 103–105). “Così Beatrice; e io, che tutto ai piedi d’i suoi comandamenti era divoto, la mente e li occhi ov’ ella volle diedi.” (Purg. XXXII, 106–108). “Exchanging the chariot with any of the other sights that the pilgrim encounters on his journey, any of the other cose nove he sees along the way, we get an answer to our query: on behalf of the world that lives evilly, keep your eyes on what is in front of you, and that which you see – once you return to earth – be sure to write it down.” Here we can obviously see “Dante’s own suggestions regarding what is clearly a mystical experience he had handled with an excessive timidity that has its roots in our susceptibility to Dante’s narrative realism and our own desire to keep poets safely segregated from prophets.”(3) The fifth reason could be the corrupt political situation of Florence, which forced Dante to present The Divine Comedy as a historic document and a live witness for the events and behaviors of the personalities of that period, such as Pope Bonifacio VIII,(4) Filippo Argenti,(5) and Guido da Montefeltro.(6) He worked a series of jobs in exile while writing the Commedia and other minor works, suffering several problems and hard life circumstances and tried to document his experiments so to be offered to the succeeding generations. The Divine Comedy is a genre of travel literature, where the writer used it as a model through which he can tell stories and present thoughts and feelings.(7) Therefore, The Divine Comedy is classified as a moral educational work. This means that it is an educational message not intended for meditation and in fact it was intended to be a tool or means to make an impact. As Dante was writing for the layman, he wrote his epic in Italian; the language of the general population, not Latin; the language of the exclusively learned. He worked on conveying his message, as explicitly as possible, to the reader such that his poem would be an influential intellectual message through which he expressed what he had seen. He did not give the souls that represent the eternal destinies their abstract names. Instead he chose ordinary familiar names, whether males or females. They are the people who are very well known to both his ancestors and his contemporaries, so that the reader would recognize them immediately.(8) The second element of this paper consider the Islamic culture and influence in his Poem and how did he obtain such sources as would help him create the idea for his work. Jūrjī Zaydān, the Lebanese intellectual, said, “ The most ancient one, Dante, appeared after the Crusades, where the Europeans got in touch with the Muslims. They translated their books of science, philosophy, and medicine into their languages. The Italians preceded all the Europeans to quote from the Muslims; they established schools, modeled as the Muslim ones, furthermore, they taught books translated from Arabic.” Muhammad Kurd Ali, the Syrian scholar, said that some orientalist researchers are of the opinion that Dante imitated his Divine Comedy, specially the Inferno, on the model of The Message of Forgiveness,(9) which he used to model 1 An Italian nobleman, successful warrior and autocrat belonging to the della Scala family which ruled Verona from 1308 until 1387. Between becoming sole ruler of Verona in 1311 and his death in 1329 he took control of several neighboring cities. 2 Antonelli, 2011, pp. 4. 3 Barolini, 2011, pp. 1. 4 A notoriously corrupt pope who reigned from 1294 to 1303, Boniface made a serious attempt to increase the political might of the Catholic Church and was thus a political enemy of Dante, who advocated separation of church and state. 5 A Black Guelph, a political enemy of Dante who is now in the Fifth Circle of Inferno, among the Wrathful in the River Styx. 6 An advisor to Pope Bonifacio VIII, da Montefeltro was promised anticipatory absolution – forgiveness for a sin given prior to the perpetration of the sin itself. 7 Mansūr, 2015, pp. 7. 8 Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 720. 9 The Message of Forgiveness has a special position, which has moved it from the category of Arab literature to the international level. Until the 13th century AD, the Message was unknown, except for a few words mentioned by historians about it. In contrast, in the 19th century, the Message of Forgiveness began to circulate in European literary circles, combined with Dante’s The Divine Comedy as a kind of comparison and analogy, which confirmed that Dante was influenced by Al-Maʿarri (Al-Shanawāny, 1997, pp. 79). Al-Maʿarri, in his Conversations with the People of Paradise and of Hell, expressed his criticism of poetry and poets, and the philosophy of the language; he also expressed his opinions about death, resurrection, and torment in a manner that carries a great deal of humor and wit (Dukka, 1993, pp. 127–129). Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) 11 his style of imagery.(1) The Divine Comedy is similar to The Message of Forgiveness in terms of form and content, and both of them are composed of three parts. Both are of the genre of travel literature, and both writers used it to tell stories and relate ideas, impressions, sensibilities and reactions.(2) The artistic formulation of this work undoubtedly demonstrates its close connection to the Story of Mirā‘j in its design for the unseen world and in many of its scenes and images, especially in Inferno and Paradiso. (3) When Placios’s(4) book, La Escatología Musulmana en la Divina Comedia, was published for first time it raised much violent controversy and different views and heated discussions between supporters and opponents. According to the book, the Islamic sources in general and the writings of Ibn Arabi in particular, formed the basis of Dante’s poem The Divine Comedy. Asín was so bold in forming his opinions that Dante had depended on Islamic sources, who saw that their dignity had been scratched by the doubts aroused against the authenticity of The Divine Comedy.(5) In France Andre Bellsort and Louis Gillet(6) were of those who supported this view, and the later said: “It is the most important book authored in Dante’s literature, and the only book which made us to move forward one more step in order to identify the poet…”(7) La Comedia di Dante Alighieri con la nova esposizione di Alessandro Vellutello.... Venice, Francesco Rampazetto, 1564. One of those researchers who were reserved in accepting this influence was Giuseppe Gabrieli,(8) who proposed two logical objections in his booklet Intorno alle Fonti Orientali della Divina Commedia. First, he argued, the similarity between the epic of Dante and the story of Mirā‘j and other Arab sources is superficial. Second, Dante was not fluent in Arabic at such a level so as to know those Islamic sources mentioned by Placios.(9) A detailed reply to these questions was given by Prof. Dr. Salahuddin Mohd. Shamsuddin in his article entitled The Divine 1 Dukka, 1993, pp. 126. 2 Mansūr, 2015, pp. 78. 3 Khafāgi, 1964, pp. 83. 4 Miguel Asín Placios (1871–1944) was a world-famous Spanish orientalist. He was known for suggesting Muslim sources for ideas and motifs present in Dante’s The Divine Comedy. He wrote on medieval Islam, most extensively on Al-Ghazāli. A major book El Islam Cristianizado (1931) presents a study of Sufism through the works of Muḥyuddin Ibn Arabi of Murcia in Andalusia. 5 Hilāl, 2008, pp. 129. 6 (1876–1943) French art historian and literary historian. 7 Hilāl, 2008, pp. 129. 8 Italian orientalist (1872–1942), and librarian to the Accademia dei Lincei. His works were focused on Arabic studies. 9 Ibid, pp. 130. 12 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West Comedy and its Relevance to the Islamic Sources.(1) Muhammad Ghunaimy said that Asín was unable to determine decisively and specifically the way that let Dante to be influenced by Arab sources. All opposition and suspicion against this influence were ended thanks to the attempts of two orientalists. One of them was the Italian E. Cerulli in his long detailed book lI “Libro della Scala” e la questione delle fonti arabospagnole della Divina Commedia (‘The Midnight Journey of Muḥammad and the Issue of the Arabic-Spanish Source of the Divine Comedy’). Second of them was the Spanish Orientalist José Munoz Sandino in his book La Escala de Mahoma (‘The Midnight Journey of Muhammad’). Both of them made his search individually, and both published his book separately at one time early in the year 1949. The results of their research were the same. They both discovered the source of Dante in an Arab manuscript originally, with the theme: Mirā‘j ‘Midnight Journey of Muhammad, which was translated into Castilian, and later into French and Latin, so proving that the story of The Midnight Journey of Muhammad was well-known in Italy in the Fourteenth Century, and proving the link of the Divine Comedy to Islam. In the those two books, we are told that the Old French translation of the manuscript is deposited in the Oxford Library, and the Latin is kept in La Bibliothèque Nationale de France.(2) The latest translation of The Divine Comedy published by Medad, Abu-Dhabi. 1 Shamsuddin, 2014, pp. 33–43. 2 Ibid, pp. 130. 3 Fadl, 1995, pp. 47. The translation of Mirā‘j Muhammad from Arabic into Castilian was assumed by the Jewish physician Abraham Vaqim before 1263, and according to the desire of King Alfonso X de Castilla y León (1252–1284). The Italian notary at his court, Bonaventura da Siena, had also developed two translations of the Midnight Journey of Muhammad, the first was in French in 1264 and the other in Latin, depending on the first Castilian copy supplied by Abraham, in its original Arabic version.(3) In addition to the detailed introduction written by Bonaventura who explained the sources and factors of the translation that led to its development, we find in our hands an honest manner of translation by an Arab author who was well known at that time, and it was widely read in Spain during the Thirteenth Century. And of course the fact of translation of this book into three languages – to our knowledge – is a cultural curiosity. It soon spread widely, as seen when it is used as a reference in multiple quotations and citations in Spanish, French and Italian documents and manuscripts. „However, the quotations by Italians and their citations in a full form from this book show that it was spread in Italy and was well-known from the middle of the Fourteenth Century or the Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) late Fifteenth Century, i.e., at the same time when the books of Frensikanian Father Roberto Krasselo were published in the defense of Christianity. This author who published his book known by Aspigiodlavid during the period of Erajonezih which came with a summary of the book called by Turks (Helmrj), which is known to the Arabs by the story (Mirā‘j). There is no doubt that this book is a copy of what was intended in the Latin version. On this basis, we are very near to the era of Dante. To make the distance of time nearer we mention that the Tuscan poet Opertti circa 1350 AD who evidenced from the story (Mirā‘j), as he described (Muhammadan Paradise) in his famous book known by Ditamndo.”(1) Regarding the ways in which this translation could have reached Dante, we can summarize them as follows: After Islam, the contact and relationship between Arabs and Europe was made through conquest or trade. The story of the conquest of Spain by Arabs is well-known, and there is no need to repeat it. Arab sciences entered Europe from Spain, Sicily, and Italy. The Escuela de Traductores de Toledo ‘Toledo School of Translators’, founded in 1130, translated the most important Arabic books into Latin under the patronage of Archbishop Raymond (1130–1150). The translation movement increased in the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.(2) This School had translated several Arabic works specialized in philosophy and natural sciences into Latin. Also, in that period, in 1143, the 13 Qur’an was translated into Latin.(3) The Qur’an contains Surah An-Najm (The Star), where we can see the nucleus history of Mirā‘j.(4) The Europeans came from all over Europe to Andalusia in order to learn the arts and sciences, and were able to spread Arabic knowledge in northern Spain and southern France and Italy.(5) Dante had strong and obvious but indirect relations with Arab culture, as he lived in Sicily when it was headed by Frederick II, who had ruled for a long time (1198–1250), who beloved studying Arab culture in its original Arabic sources, and he spread Arab culture in Sicily.(6) Frederick II established the University of Naples and offered as a gift to the Universities of Paris and Oxford several translations of Arabic works. His son Manfred also continued to bring the fruits of Islamic civilization to the West.(7) One of the goals of Frederick II was to translate the Arabic writings into Latin, and he was infatuated with Arab fashion, customs and oriental traditions. Moreover, he used to correspond with Muslim scholars asking them about certain intellectual dilemmas.(8) In addition to the Arabic elements, there was Italian participation in the translation movement in Alfonso X’s court, as translators from Spanish and Arabic to Latin, or as legal and administrative experts, such as Bonaventura da Siena, Gil de Thebaldis, Juan de Mesina, Juan de Cremona, Pedro de Reggio, and Maestro Jacobo. Some of them used to visit Italy, especially Florence, Bologna, 1 Shamsuddin, 2014, pp. 38. 2 Al-Baghdādi, 1981, pp. 11–13. 3 Zakzūk, 1994, pp. 169. 4 1. By the star when it goes down, (or vanishes). 2. Your companion (Muhammad) has neither gone astray nor has erred. 3. Nor does he speak of (his own) desire.4. It is only an Inspiration that is inspired. 5. He has been taught (this Qur’an) by one mighty in power [ Jibrael (Gabriel)]. 6. Dhu Mirrah (free from any defect in body and mind), Fastawa [then he ( Jibrael - Gabriel) rose and became stable]. [Tafsir At-Tabari]. 7. While he [ Jibrael (Gabriel)] was in the highest part of the horizon, 8. Then he [ Jibrael (Gabriel)] approached and came closer, 9. And was at a distance of two bows’ length or (even) nearer, 10. So did (Allah) convey the Inspiration to His slave [Muhammad through Jibrael (Gabriel)]. 11. The (Prophet’s) heart lied not (in seeing) what he (Muhammad) saw. 12. Will you then dispute with him (Muhammad) about what he saw [during the Mi’raj: (Ascent of the Prophet over the seven heavens)]. 13. And indeed he (Muhammad) saw him [ Jibrael (Gabriel)] at a second descent (i.e. another time). 14. Near Sidrat-ulMuntaha [lote-tree of the utmost boundary (beyond which none can pass)], 15. Near it is the Paradise of Abode. 16. When that covered the lote-tree which did cover it! 17. The sight (of Prophet Muhammad) turned not aside (right or left), nor did it transgress beyond (the) limit (ordained for it). 18. Indeed he (Muhammad) did see, of the Greatest Signs, of his Lord (Allah). 19. Have you then considered Al-Lat, and Al-’Uzza (two idols of the pagan Arabs) 20. And Manat (another idol of the pagan Arabs), the other third? 21. Is it for you the males and for Him the females? 22. That indeed is a division most unfair! Qur’an, Surah An-Najm, No. 53, Uthmān Copy, Al-Azhar Islamic Research Academy, General Department for Research, Writing, Translation, pp.526. The translation of the whole Qur’an can be found on Web: <https://www.noblequran. com/translation/surah53.html> (2018. Oct., 05). 5 Shāhīn, 1985, pp. 64–65. According to the same source, the Europeans also adopted the Arabic rhyme, and used it in their poetry. The weight of old folk poetry in Italy - like Jacoboni’s songs – is no different from the weights of the poetry of Arab Andalusia. Reynold A. Nicholson, Lecturer in Persian in the University of Cambridge, and sometime Fellow of Trinity College, says in his book A Literary History of the Arabs, published in New York in 1907 that the European poetry was naive, and non-rhyming, and, thanks to Arab Andalusia, rhyme moved into European poems. The European poems, including the Greek one, in general, were free of rhyme (Ibid, pp. 64–65). 6 Moustafa, 2002, pp. 41–42. 7 Zakzūk, 1994, pp. 169. 8 Khafāgi, 1964, pp. 82. 14 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West Rome, and Parma, opening the way for such translation of Dante’s handiwork.(1) Marble Bust of Dante Alighieri The strife over the German Empire, which included a group of Italian provinces, caused a glowing political relationship between Spain and Italy. As a result of such circumstances, there were intensive contacts between Alfonso X and Italy in various ways. One of the most important and prominent Florentine ambassadors was Brunetto Latini (ca. 1220–1294) who was delegated by the ruling party in Florence in 1260 to Alfonso X to express Florence’s and other Italian neighbors’ support to Alfonso X for being crowned as Emperor of Germany worthy the title of the “King of the Romans.” In the meantime, a serious political coup was taking place in Florence that prevented Latini from returning to Italy. Latini left for France as an exile and stayed there for several years where he compiled his famous book Li livres dou Tresor.(2) Historically, Latini was Dante’s first teacher, and he was very familiar with Islamic culture. The Islamic and Arabic elements in Li livres dou Tresor were recommended to Dante to study so he would know more about Islamic culture. Besides, Arabic culture was well known and widespread in Tuscany in the Fourteenth Century, and Brunetto Latini can be theoretically considered as the intermediary between Dante and the story of the Mirā‘j.(3) Dante immortalized Latini through mentioning him in his Divine Comedy, namely in Inferno, XV. 82–87. The Jews were expelled from France and spread in Spain and southern Italy. Some of them were familiar with Islamic culture, which was evident through their prose and poetry. A competent researcher, in a detailed study, identified a group of these Jews who had authentic friendship with Dante, to whom they may have portrayed the Journey of Isrā‘ and the Mirā‘j.(4) The fifth chapter of the Historia Arabum,(5) complied in Toledo in the Twelfth Century by Rodríguez Jiménez da Rada, reported some of the narrations of the Mirā‘j. This book was widely 1 Fadl, 1995, pp. 49. 2 This was written in French during his exile in France (1260–1266), and possibly dedicated to Charles of Anjou himself and the work enjoyed wide popularity during the next two centuries. It is a compilation of material previously available to the learned in Latin texts, and contains a collection of Islamic knowledge gleaned from Toledo and the material prepared for the Encyclopedia of Alfonso X. 3 Ibid, pp. 49–50. 4 Ibid, pp. 51–52. 5 Title in English: ‘History of the Arabs’; Original Language: Latin, Publishing Date: between 1243 and 1245. Description: The Historia Arabum consists of 49 chapters, covering 63 pages in the authoritative edition by J. Fernández Valverde. The main focus of the work lies on the history of the regnum Cordube, the Muslim realm of al-Andalus, from the Arab invasion in 711 to the conquest by the Berber Almoravids after 1086. <https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/christian-muslim-relations-i/historiaarabum-COM_24224> (2018. Oct., 9). Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) circulated in many European countries during that period. Also the encyclopedic book Estoria de España(1) of Alfonso X contains a summary of the story of the Mirā‘j. It was easy for Dante to find such a book.(2) It is also likely that the Mirā‘j story would have reached Dante through Italian merchants and intellectuals, or by some Muslim prisoners who were taken to Tuscany, Pisa, or by the Italian Troubadour poets, who were moving to the Court of Alfonso X, or by Dante’s friends, and the pilgrims, who went to Santiago in Spain, such as Guido Cavalcante,(3) or by well-educated Christian theologians, familiar with the Islamic history, such as Raymond Lully (4) and others.(5) These unsuspicious facts prove that the knowledge of Dante about the Arab and Muslim World was not less than the knowledge of any other contemporary intellectuals, for it was not possible for him as being a well-known thinker and having a high cultural profile that he had not benefited from the other works in the philosophy, literature and Islamic ideas dominating and most enlightening at that time.(6) “In spite of all this we cannot say it was only the distinctive factor in the inspirations of Dante, because any attempt to limit his inspirations to the Islamic influences only will be considered an excess in controversy, due to the presence of other competing elements and necessary factors in the thinking of the poet.”(7) Now we have arrived to the third part of this research, which concentrates on the first writings and translation of the sacred poem in the Arab World. The Arabic writings on the Divine Comedy began early by Qustāki Al-Himsī(8), who wrote nine 15 articles on the Divine Comedy and its relationship with the Message of Forgiveness. They were published between 1927 and 1928 in the magazine of the Arab Academy of Damascus.(9) (10) In 1930, Taha Fawzī published a biographical profile of Dante, with “A simple and accurate analysis of the minor works and a summary of the three cantos.” The writings related to the Divine Comedy is continued today by Arab writers and scholars. In parallel with these writings, there were attempts at Arabic translations initiated between 1930 and 1933 by Abbūd Abū Rāshid, who prepared a prose version in which the names of Prophet Muhammad and his Cousin Alī were removed. The translation has many superimposed and intricate overlays. More radical would be the intervention of the Christian Jordanian Amin Abu Sha’ar, who in his prose translation of Hell, released in Jerusalem in 1938 and based on the English version of Henry Francis Cary, decided to skip not only translating the XXVIII, but also the XXIX and XXX cantos.(11) In 1934, Mahmūd Ahmed Nashāwī compiled ten articles in the journal Al-Resālah in Cairo entitled Al-Maʿarri and Dante, in which he summarized the Inferno and the Purgatorio. In 1936, Drīnī Khashaba wrote six essays in the journal Al-Resālah, in which he provided a detailed and sufficient summary on the three volumes of The Divine Comedy.(12) In 1948 Hassan Uthmān wrote a separate article published in the Al-Kātib Al-Masri ‘Egyptian Writer’s Magazine’ in Cairo on the Divine Comedy, and translated chapters of “Hell” with analysis and commentary and published it in the Journal of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University in 1949–1950.(13) It took fourteen years of work for Hassan Uthmān to carry out a “valuable” translation published between 1955 and 1969, which depended on the Italian version, and was accompanied by a 1 Also known in the 1906 edition of Ramón Menéndez Pidal as the Primera Crónica General, is a history book written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile. It is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish, a West Iberian Romance language that forms part of the lineage from Vulgar Latin to modern Spanish. 2 Ibid, pp. 52. 3 An Italian poet and troubadour, as well as an intellectual influence on his best friend, Dante. 4 Philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and writer from the Kingdom of Majorca. 5 Ibid, pp. 53. 6 Shamsuddin, 2014, pp. 40. 7 Ibid, pp. 41. 8 A Syrian writer and poet of the Nahda movement, a prominent figure in the Arabic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries and one of the first reformers of traditional Arabic poetry. 9 The oldest academy regulating the Arabic language, established in 1918. It is modeled on the language academies of Europe and founded with the explicit reference to the example of the Académie Française. 10 Uthmān, 2017, pp. 74. 11 Di Stefano, 2015, pp. 10. 12 Uthmān, 2017, pp. 74. 13 Ibid, pp. 75–76. 16 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West didactic commentary. Uthmān, however, removed verses 22–64 as “unfit for translation” and the result of “a gross error.”(1) For the first time he used primary and secondary sources in the original language.(2) The attempt to make the Divine Comedy into verses by the Iraqi Kazim Jihad, under the support of UNESCO in 2002 and based on the French version, was less successful. It was an absolutely incomprehensible translation. The Syrian Hannā Abbūd in his Damascene translation of the same year, tried to “disguise the identity of the characters to make the Dantestic step incomprehensible”.(3) A new, more accurate and probably the most precise Arabic translation of The Divine Comedy, depending on the original Italian version, was published by the famous Medad Publishing & Distribution in Dubai, and translated by Essam El-Sayed and Abdallah Al-Naggar. The new translation in its three volumes has been seen for first time at Al-Sharjah International Book Fair (31st October – 10th November 2018), organized by Al-Sharjah Book Authority. In conclusion, we have mentioned gradually and according to their importance and priorities the reasons as to why Dante wrote his Divine Comedy in an Islamic points of view. In addition, we mentioned above the indicators and evidence which are more than sufficient to prove that a comprehensive translation of (Isrā‘ and Mirā‘j) was available to the West including Italy in the Fourteenth Century, which let any person become knowledge without a knowledge of Arabic. On the basis of the those facts we can say without any hesitation or doubt that Dante was influenced by Islamic literature. Due to the points of agreement and similarities in the idea and theme between the Divine Comedy and Islamic sources of Mirā‘j, Asín and other foreign and local critics and researchers declared that Dante was influenced by the Islamic culture. The third element of my paper is addressed to the Arabic writings and translations of the Divine Comedy in the Arab world, and I have mentioned the accurate and up-to-date list of translations and translators who assumed such hard work. LIST OF REFERENCES Books: 1. Al-Baghdādi, Mariam (1981) Shoarā’ Al-Trabadūr (The Troubadour Poets). Cairo: Al-Kitāb Al-Jāmiey. 2. Al-Shanawāny, Ahmed Muhammad (1997) Kutub Ghairet Al-Fikr Al-Insāny (Books Shelved as Human Thought). 3 Vols. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization. 3. Badawi, Amīn Abdel-Megīd (1964) Al-Kessa Fī Al-Adab Al-Fārsī (History of Persian Literature). Cairo: Al-Nahda Al-Arabīya. 4. Fadl, Salāh (1995) Tathīr Al-Thaqāfa Al-Islāmīa Fī AlKomīdia Al-Ilāhīa lī-Dante (The Influence of Islamic Culture in Dante’s The Divine Comedy). Cairo: Dār Al- Al-Mā’ref. 5. Hilāl, Muhammad Ghunaimy (2008) Al-Adab Al-Muqāran (Comparative Literature). 9 edition. Cairo: Dār Nahdat Masr. 6. Khafāgi, Muhammad Abd Al-Monaim (1964) Derāsāt Fī Al-Adab Al-Muqāran (Studies in Comparative Literature). Cairo: Dār Al-Tebāa Al-Muhammadīa. 7. Mansūr, Tawfīq (2015) Fī Al-Adab Al-Muqāran – Asātīr Wa Tarjamāt (In Comparative Literature – Legendas and Translations). Cairo: Egyptian Organization for Cultural Palaces. 8. Moustafa, Hāla (2002) Al-Islam Wal–Gharb Men Tayoush Ilā Tasādoum (Islam and the West from Co-existence to Collision). Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization. 9. Said, Edward (1979) Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, Division of Random House. 10. Shāhīn, Muhammad Ismāīl (1985) Fī Al-Adab Al-Muqāran (In Comparative Literature). Zagazīg: Al-Azhar University, Faculty of Arab Language. 11. Zakzūk, Mahmūd Hamdy (1983) Al-Istishrāq WalKhalfīa Al-Fikrīa Lel-Serā’ (Orientalism and the Intellectual Background of Civilizational Conflict). Cairo: Dār Al-Mā’ref. 1 Di Stefano, 2015, pp. 10. 2 Benigni, 2011, pp. 396. 3 Di Stefano, 2015, pp. 10. Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) 12. – (1994) Al-Islam Fī Merā’t Al-Fikr Al-Gharby (Islam in the Western Mirror). 4th edition. Cairo: Dār Al-Fikr Al-Araby. Papers and book chapters: 13. Al-Sabbāh, Rasha Mahmūd (1980) ¢Al-Tasaūrāt AlIslāmīya Lel-Islām Fī Al-Osoūr Al-Wūsta Wa-Tathīrahā Fī Al-Komīdia Al-Ilāhīa ‘European Perceptions of Medieval Islam and its impact on The Divine Comedy¢, Ālām AlFikr, 11 Vol., 3, pp. 713–728. 14. Antonelli, Roberto (2011) ¢Come (e perché) Dante ha scritto la Divina Commedia?¢ Critica del testo, 14 (1), pp. 3–23. 15. Barolini, Teodolina (2011) ‘Why did Dante Write the Commedia? Dante and the Visionary Tradition’, Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture (Fordham, 2006; Italian trans. Il secolo di Dante, Bompiani, 2012), available at: http://fordham.universitypressscholarship.com/ view/10.5422/fordham/9780823227037.001.0001/upso9780823227037-chapter-6 16. Bilquees Dar (2013), Influence of Islam on Dante’s Divine Comedy¢, International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL), 3(2), pp. 165–168. 17. Benigni, Elisabetta (2011), La Divina Commedia nel mondo arabo: orientamenti critici e traduzioni’, Critica del Testo, 14 (3), pp. 391–413. 18. Di Stefano, Paolo (2015), La musulmana Commedia, Maometto è all’«Inferno», ma sempre più indizi, Corriere della Sera, 15 Feb., pp. 10. 17 19. Dukka, Muhammad Alī (1993) ¢Al-Muhāsibī Qabl Dante Wal-Maʿarri (Al-Muhāsibī before Dante and Al-Maʿarri)¢, Majallat Al-Araby (413), pp. 127. 20. Jomaa, Ibrāhīm (n.d.) ¢Adab Wa Falsafah ‘Literature and Philosophy¢, in Heikal, Muhammad Hussein Islamīyāt ‘Islamic Studies’. Cairo: Mody Graphic for Publishing, 97–106. 21. Shamsuddin, Salahuddin Mohd. (2014) ¢The Divine Comedy and its Relevance to the Islamic Sources¢, British Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, May 2014, Vol. 11 (2), pp. 33–43. Translation: Alighieri, Dante (n.d.) La Divina Commedia – Inferno, translated by Uthmān, Hassan, Egyptian Organization for Cultural Palaces, Cairo (2017). Web pages: <https://www.noblequran.com/translation/surah53.html> (2018. Oct., 05) <https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ludwig-cohn-emil> (2018. Oct., 06) <https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/ paradiso/paradiso-15/> (2018. Oct., 10) <https://forum.termometropolitico.it/214274-esoterismodantesco.html> (2018. Oct., 14) 

Issue 8, June 2019 Issue 8 June 2019 Biannual Refereed Scientific Magazine Editor in Chief Mohammed Hammam Fekri Editing Consultants Prof. Jamal Hajar Dr. Ben Slot Mr. Yousef Thanon Dr. Penelope Tuson Concept and Design Rehan Saiyed Storm Worldwide, New Zealand Layout Artist Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies Archives Augustine Fernando Translation Firas Waked Linguistic Editing Huda Hawas All rights are reserved to Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies. According to scientific principles, Quoting is allowed along with referring to the source. The points of view expressed in an article are those of the author and does not represent the editorial board’s opinion. The Order of articles is based on Artistic considerations. © Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies Legal Deposit No.: 21\2017 ISBN: 978-9927-00-463-6 All correspondence should be sent to the Editing Manager on the following Address: Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies P. O. Box: 690 Doha - Qatar E-mail : rtt@hbmhc.com This publication is printed on FSC approved Arjowiggins Rives C ON DI T ION S FOR PU BL IC AT ION The Magazine welcomes publication of researches in Arabic and Foreign languages under the following conditions: 1- The material should not be previously published. 2- The material should meet the conditions of methodological scientific research. 3- References should be inserted automatically in sequential ordering. 4- Images and illustrations may be inserted provided that they are original, and the author shall obtain their publishing rights. 5- Terminologies of foreign languages should be written in their original language. 6- The material should be written on A4 word document using Arial font, and it shall not exceed thirty pages including images, illustrations and other attachments. 7- Contributions shall be subject to secret refereeing by specialists. 8- The journal shall not give reason why the material was not accepted for publication and is not required to return it. 9- The researcher shall review the material related to his research after preparing it for publication and before sending it to printing press. 10- The author shall not have the right to republish the researches in any way without prior consent of the journal. 11- The author shall provide a summary that does not exceed fifty words, and he shall also provide an abstract biography and 4x6 cm photo of the author. 12- The author shall receive one free copy of the issue in which his article is published. I N T RODUC T ION This issue includes a set of original researches characterized by variety and novelty: Dr. “Khazal Al Majidi” deals with the development and tools of modern Orientalism and sheds light on its signs, methods and scientific and ideologized aspects. Dr. “Jamal Hajar” emphasizes the importance of the “British Archives” for writing the history of Qatar from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth century. Prof. Dr. “Hossam Abdel Moati” examines the birth of the Riyal of Dubai and Qatar as the first attempt of economic unity between the emirates of the Arabian Gulf. Prof. Dr. “Al Ameen Abu Sa’da” reviews a historical study and translation of a Tartar document dictated in the time of Sultan “Sulaiman al-Qanuni” by Polish pilgrims while in Istanbul in their way to perform Hajj. The document described the status of Muslims in Poland and the impressions those pilgrims had about the Ottoman Empire. Prof. Dr. “Nasir Ibrahim” reviews a critical approach between the systems of Tax Farming in Egypt and Feudalism in France just before the French Campaign. Dr. “Mahmoud Hadiyah” examines the economy of common people in Andalusia through popular sayings as being an important source for studying social history. Dr. “Ahmed Adawi” clarifies how far the Islamic sources influenced “Dante” in writing his “Divine Comedy”. He also questions how “Dante” obtained those sources and what signs confirm that influence. The magazine, therefore, continues its role in supporting Research with studies that confirm the approach it follows since publishing the first issue in June 2015. As we provide the issues of this magazine in hard copy, we make it more widely available through specialized databases in most of the national libraries and the libraries of Arab and Foreign universities. You also find summaries of the researches published on the website of the center. C O N T E N T S 06 Intercultural Relations between East and West General Islamic Overview on Dante's The Divine Comedy AR ABIC ARTICLES The Islam in the opinion of Modern Orientalism. Modern History of Qatar in the Documents of British Archives. History of the First Monetary Economic Union in The Arabian Gulf; the Riyal of Qatar and Dubai (1966-1973). Muslims in Poland, Study and Translation of a Tartar Document Dates Back to 1558. Tax Farming System in the View of the French Campaign. Economy of Common People in Andalusia through Popular Sayings. 06 36 60 92 110 126 C I nte rc u lt u r a l Rel at ion s b et we e n E a st a nd We st G e ne r a l Isl a m ic O ve r v ie w on Da nte's The D iv i ne C ome dy C Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar R e s e a rc h e r, a u t h o r i z e d a n d a c c r e d i t e d t r a n s l a t o r, i n t e r p r e t e r, and responsible for internationa l scientif ic and technolog ica l c o o p e r a t i o n b e t we e n E g y p t (A c a d e my o f S c i e n t i f i c r e s e a rc h a n d t e c h n o l o g y) a n d C h i n a , I n d i a , Po l a n d , C z e c h R e p u b l i c , S l ov a k i a , B e l a r u s . H e i s t h e d i r e c t o r g e n e r a l o f t h e “ E g y p t i a n I n t e r n a t i o n a l A c a d e my f o r C o n s u l t a t i o n a n d Tr a i n i n g ” i n E g y p t . L e c t o r a n d c o n s u l t i n g , a s we l l a s r e v i e we r o f t h e t r a n s l a t o r s (S c h o l a r s h i p -h o l d e r s) a t t h e B a l a s s i I n s t i t u t e , M i n i s t r y o f Fo r e i g n A f f a i r s , Hu n g a r y Ph D - d e g r e e i n H i s t o r y (I n t e r n a t i o n a l R e l a t i o n s), Un i ve r s i t y o f S z e g e d (Hu n g a r y). Au t h o r o f 10 m u l t i l i n g u a l b o o k s , a n d translator of 28 book s published in Ca iro, Duba i, Budapest, Pa r i s i n a d d i t i o n t o c o m p o s i n g 32 p a p e r s s p e c i a l i z e d i n m o d e r n a n d c o n t e m p o r a r y h i s t o r y. M e m b e r o f 6 i n t e r n a t i o n a l p r o j e c t s i n c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h Hu n g a r y, It a l y a n d Fr a n c e . All images in this article were chosen by the writer :‫ترجمة هذا البحث إلى العربية على الموقع‬ www.hbmhc.com 8 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West This paper investigates relevance and impact of The Divine Comedy through providing answers to the following three points: 1) Why did Dante write this epic from an Islamic point of view? 2) The Islamic culture and inf luence in his Poem and how did he obtain such sources as would help him create the idea for his work? 3) The Arabic translations of The Divine Comedy in the Arab World in brief. Keywords: The Divine Comedy, Islamic sources, Islamic overview, intercultural relations, East and West, simulation, comparative study The first part of this article is dedicated to investigating the reasons that led Dante to write his valuable artistic work from an Islamic point of view. The order of justifications is according to their importance, strength, and priorities through Muslim eyes. – From a Muslim point of view, Dante wrote his great poem “because he wanted to write something magnificent on par with the fabled Mirā‘j or Muhammad’s [PBUH] Ascension to Heaven. Dante was not happy with the fact that Islam was becoming popular in the Middle Ages and its influence was felt on the culture of the time and he wanted to write something that would negate its effects. Dante held a negative and contemptuous view of Muslims and Islam. His antipathy for Islamic culture was based not simply on a prejudiced view that he held but rather on his disgust towards its effect on the Christian Church as well as on medieval intellectual life, which was based on his inclusion of Muslim mosques and leaders in Hell.(1) – The evidence for this point can be seen through several 1 Bilquees Dar, 2013, pp. 165. 2 Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 716. 3 Hilāl, 2008, pp. 130. 4 Said, 1979, pp. 69. scenes in The Divine Comedy, among them the following: – Dante’s classification of the Islamic characters was not from his authentic thinking. His classification of Abū Alī Al-Husain Ibn-Sīna (Avicenna) (980–1037), Abū AlWalīd Muhammad Ibn vAhmed Ibn Rushd; (1126–1198) (Averroes) (Inferno I, 143–144), and Saladin, as vitreous pagans (for not being Christians), who, along with Hector, Aeneas, Abraham, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, are confined to the first level of the Hell called Limbo, there to suffer a minimal punishment. His assorted presentation of the Prophet and his cousin Alī as imposters were copied from the common beliefs of his era. The classification was inherited from the image which his ancestors and his contemporaries had of Islamic figures.(2) Dante had a sufficient knowledge about Islam religion and its developed culture, yet he remained an archenemy of Islam, as he was under the control of his devotion to his faith. He was representing the mentality of the Middle Ages and Crusades.(3) Although such groupings were unfair, Dante admired the great accomplishments and effective contributions of Muslims in developing human thought.(4) – Dante’s ancestor Cacciaguida, a knight under the emperor Conrad III (1138–1152), participated in the Second Crusade, where he was killed. From Dante’s point of view, Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) Cacciaguida fought in an honorable cause and acquitted himself well. Although Cacciaguida was a Crusader, “the end of Paradiso, canto 15 offers the most conventional medieval Christian anti-Muslim rhetoric that you will find in the Comedy.”(1) Dante describes the Muslims as a filthy horde turpa gente, and the Islam religion as an “evil” religion (Paradiso, XV, 139–148(2)).(3) The second most important purpose of why Dante wrote his Divine Comedy was that “Dante was perturbed by the impact of Islam on medieval Christian life and he would have preferred to have his culture devoid of any Islamic Influence. The basis for this fear evolved from the belief that the Muslim religion posed a serious threat to the existence of Christianity for it gave Christianity some unwelcome competition.” Dante is even critical of Christian Clergy who use their power with the church to make money by either selling Pardons for ones’ sins or entries into Purgatory. And as we know, Simony was, and may still be one of the many faults of Christianity that Dante tried to redress that helped to bring about the establishment of Islam. While the effect of Arabic culture on Christianity urged Dante’s hatred of Islam, its effects on the medieval society as a whole also charged his increasing anger in this matter.(4) Middle Ages scientists, who were eager to control people’s beliefs and general behaviors, tried to give their theories the powers of the law. Theology was the pinnacle of this theoretical system. Despite its independence, ecclesiastical law was evolving in harmony with this system without any conflict between them. Such theories have been put within the catholic theology as a result of their knowledge of Islam, both the false and the true ideas. That has been the case with Islam and the history of its Prophet: enveloped in European concepts unrecognizable by either the Arabs or the Muslims. The theology of the Crusade was the theology of the Christian relations with Islam. Both theology and history were nothing more than propaganda to support the war – meanwhile, the ecclesiastical law lay between the borders upon which the war had to erupt. The most relevant aspect of this law to our theme is that relating to severance, and to not to tolerate any law relating to the non-Christian nonwarriors. The main intent of the former and the latter was to separate the European Christians from the outer non-Christian “enemy.”(5) The ‘Protection against Islam’ idea(6) was old and had its historic background and was not created for first time by Dante. In this regard, Mahmūd Hamdi Zakzūk(7) stated that the rapid spread of Islam in East and West had strongly attracted the attention of the Christian theologians and others, and hence their interest in studying this religion. One of the first Christian scholars of Islam – in order to protect his Christian brethren – was Saint John of Damascus (676–749). Among his books addressed to his Christian brethren were Dialogue with a Muslim and Guidelines of Christians in Muslim Debate.(8) What did Dante write the in “sacred poem”? From the beginning he had clearly shown the final goal of the journey: the divine investiture as a sacred poem and the consequent vision of God, 1 <https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/paradiso/paradiso-15/> (2018. Oct., 10) 2 (Paradiso, XV, 139–148) – original verses in vulgar Italian (Paradise, XV, 139-148) – English translation assumed by Digital Dante Edition Columbia University Poi seguitai lo ‘mperador Currado; ed el mi cinse de la sua milizia, tanto per bene ovrar li venni in grado. “I later served the Emperor Conrad, And with his knighthood he invested me, So highly I won favor by good deeds. Dietro li andai incontro a la nequizia di quella legge il cui popolo usurpa, per colpa d’i pastor, vostra giustizia. “I followed him to fight against the evil Religion [Islam] of those people who usurp, By your shepherd’s [the Pope’s] negligence, your rightful lands [Holy Lands, Jerusalem].” Quivi fu’ io da quella gente turpa disviluppato dal mondo fallace, lo cui amor molt’anime deturpa; “There finally falling to that filthy horde [Cacciaguida died in the Crusades], I gained release from that deceitful world, the love of which debases many souls,” e venni dal martiro a questa pace». “And to this peace I came from martyrdom” [that is, dying on the Crusade]. 3 <https://forum.termometropolitico.it/214274-esoterismo-dantesco.html> (2018. Oct., 14) 4 Bilquees Dar, 2013, pp. 165–166. 5 Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 716. 6 The Comedy served to strengthen the faith of the Christian believers, as has been the case in all the Christian defenses. A matter completely apparent, especially in light of the historical circumstances of Islam during that era, which was at that time a glorious empire knocking on the doors of Europe. Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 718. 7 An Egyptian academic and politician. He was the former minister of religious endowment of Egypt from 1995 to 2011. He was born in 1933 and was still alive at the time of this writing. 8 Zakzūk, 1983, pp. 23. 9 10 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West therefore the salvation of himself and of the whole humanity, as stated also in the Epistle to Cangrande della Scala(1) (Purg. Epistola. XIII. 33): “Finis totius et partis esse posset multiplex, scilicet propinquus et remotus. Sed omissa subtili investigatione, dicendum est breviter quod finis totius et partis est, removere viventes in hac vita de statu miseriae et perducere ad statum felicitatis.”(2) Why did Dante write the Commedia or the Vision Thing? The simple answer to this question is Dante’s own: “Però, in pro del mondo che mal vive, al carro tieni or li occhi, e quel che vedi, ritornato di là, fa che tu scrive” (Purg. XXXII, 103–105). “Così Beatrice; e io, che tutto ai piedi d’i suoi comandamenti era divoto, la mente e li occhi ov’ ella volle diedi.” (Purg. XXXII, 106–108). “Exchanging the chariot with any of the other sights that the pilgrim encounters on his journey, any of the other cose nove he sees along the way, we get an answer to our query: on behalf of the world that lives evilly, keep your eyes on what is in front of you, and that which you see – once you return to earth – be sure to write it down.” Here we can obviously see “Dante’s own suggestions regarding what is clearly a mystical experience he had handled with an excessive timidity that has its roots in our susceptibility to Dante’s narrative realism and our own desire to keep poets safely segregated from prophets.”(3) The fifth reason could be the corrupt political situation of Florence, which forced Dante to present The Divine Comedy as a historic document and a live witness for the events and behaviors of the personalities of that period, such as Pope Bonifacio VIII,(4) Filippo Argenti,(5) and Guido da Montefeltro.(6) He worked a series of jobs in exile while writing the Commedia and other minor works, suffering several problems and hard life circumstances and tried to document his experiments so to be offered to the succeeding generations. The Divine Comedy is a genre of travel literature, where the writer used it as a model through which he can tell stories and present thoughts and feelings.(7) Therefore, The Divine Comedy is classified as a moral educational work. This means that it is an educational message not intended for meditation and in fact it was intended to be a tool or means to make an impact. As Dante was writing for the layman, he wrote his epic in Italian; the language of the general population, not Latin; the language of the exclusively learned. He worked on conveying his message, as explicitly as possible, to the reader such that his poem would be an influential intellectual message through which he expressed what he had seen. He did not give the souls that represent the eternal destinies their abstract names. Instead he chose ordinary familiar names, whether males or females. They are the people who are very well known to both his ancestors and his contemporaries, so that the reader would recognize them immediately.(8) The second element of this paper consider the Islamic culture and influence in his Poem and how did he obtain such sources as would help him create the idea for his work. Jūrjī Zaydān, the Lebanese intellectual, said, “ The most ancient one, Dante, appeared after the Crusades, where the Europeans got in touch with the Muslims. They translated their books of science, philosophy, and medicine into their languages. The Italians preceded all the Europeans to quote from the Muslims; they established schools, modeled as the Muslim ones, furthermore, they taught books translated from Arabic.” Muhammad Kurd Ali, the Syrian scholar, said that some orientalist researchers are of the opinion that Dante imitated his Divine Comedy, specially the Inferno, on the model of The Message of Forgiveness,(9) which he used to model 1 An Italian nobleman, successful warrior and autocrat belonging to the della Scala family which ruled Verona from 1308 until 1387. Between becoming sole ruler of Verona in 1311 and his death in 1329 he took control of several neighboring cities. 2 Antonelli, 2011, pp. 4. 3 Barolini, 2011, pp. 1. 4 A notoriously corrupt pope who reigned from 1294 to 1303, Boniface made a serious attempt to increase the political might of the Catholic Church and was thus a political enemy of Dante, who advocated separation of church and state. 5 A Black Guelph, a political enemy of Dante who is now in the Fifth Circle of Inferno, among the Wrathful in the River Styx. 6 An advisor to Pope Bonifacio VIII, da Montefeltro was promised anticipatory absolution – forgiveness for a sin given prior to the perpetration of the sin itself. 7 Mansūr, 2015, pp. 7. 8 Al-Sabbāh, 1980, pp. 720. 9 The Message of Forgiveness has a special position, which has moved it from the category of Arab literature to the international level. Until the 13th century AD, the Message was unknown, except for a few words mentioned by historians about it. In contrast, in the 19th century, the Message of Forgiveness began to circulate in European literary circles, combined with Dante’s The Divine Comedy as a kind of comparison and analogy, which confirmed that Dante was influenced by Al-Maʿarri (Al-Shanawāny, 1997, pp. 79). Al-Maʿarri, in his Conversations with the People of Paradise and of Hell, expressed his criticism of poetry and poets, and the philosophy of the language; he also expressed his opinions about death, resurrection, and torment in a manner that carries a great deal of humor and wit (Dukka, 1993, pp. 127–129). Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) 11 his style of imagery.(1) The Divine Comedy is similar to The Message of Forgiveness in terms of form and content, and both of them are composed of three parts. Both are of the genre of travel literature, and both writers used it to tell stories and relate ideas, impressions, sensibilities and reactions.(2) The artistic formulation of this work undoubtedly demonstrates its close connection to the Story of Mirā‘j in its design for the unseen world and in many of its scenes and images, especially in Inferno and Paradiso. (3) When Placios’s(4) book, La Escatología Musulmana en la Divina Comedia, was published for first time it raised much violent controversy and different views and heated discussions between supporters and opponents. According to the book, the Islamic sources in general and the writings of Ibn Arabi in particular, formed the basis of Dante’s poem The Divine Comedy. Asín was so bold in forming his opinions that Dante had depended on Islamic sources, who saw that their dignity had been scratched by the doubts aroused against the authenticity of The Divine Comedy.(5) In France Andre Bellsort and Louis Gillet(6) were of those who supported this view, and the later said: “It is the most important book authored in Dante’s literature, and the only book which made us to move forward one more step in order to identify the poet…”(7) La Comedia di Dante Alighieri con la nova esposizione di Alessandro Vellutello.... Venice, Francesco Rampazetto, 1564. One of those researchers who were reserved in accepting this influence was Giuseppe Gabrieli,(8) who proposed two logical objections in his booklet Intorno alle Fonti Orientali della Divina Commedia. First, he argued, the similarity between the epic of Dante and the story of Mirā‘j and other Arab sources is superficial. Second, Dante was not fluent in Arabic at such a level so as to know those Islamic sources mentioned by Placios.(9) A detailed reply to these questions was given by Prof. Dr. Salahuddin Mohd. Shamsuddin in his article entitled The Divine 1 Dukka, 1993, pp. 126. 2 Mansūr, 2015, pp. 78. 3 Khafāgi, 1964, pp. 83. 4 Miguel Asín Placios (1871–1944) was a world-famous Spanish orientalist. He was known for suggesting Muslim sources for ideas and motifs present in Dante’s The Divine Comedy. He wrote on medieval Islam, most extensively on Al-Ghazāli. A major book El Islam Cristianizado (1931) presents a study of Sufism through the works of Muḥyuddin Ibn Arabi of Murcia in Andalusia. 5 Hilāl, 2008, pp. 129. 6 (1876–1943) French art historian and literary historian. 7 Hilāl, 2008, pp. 129. 8 Italian orientalist (1872–1942), and librarian to the Accademia dei Lincei. His works were focused on Arabic studies. 9 Ibid, pp. 130. 12 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West Comedy and its Relevance to the Islamic Sources.(1) Muhammad Ghunaimy said that Asín was unable to determine decisively and specifically the way that let Dante to be influenced by Arab sources. All opposition and suspicion against this influence were ended thanks to the attempts of two orientalists. One of them was the Italian E. Cerulli in his long detailed book lI “Libro della Scala” e la questione delle fonti arabospagnole della Divina Commedia (‘The Midnight Journey of Muḥammad and the Issue of the Arabic-Spanish Source of the Divine Comedy’). Second of them was the Spanish Orientalist José Munoz Sandino in his book La Escala de Mahoma (‘The Midnight Journey of Muhammad’). Both of them made his search individually, and both published his book separately at one time early in the year 1949. The results of their research were the same. They both discovered the source of Dante in an Arab manuscript originally, with the theme: Mirā‘j ‘Midnight Journey of Muhammad, which was translated into Castilian, and later into French and Latin, so proving that the story of The Midnight Journey of Muhammad was well-known in Italy in the Fourteenth Century, and proving the link of the Divine Comedy to Islam. In the those two books, we are told that the Old French translation of the manuscript is deposited in the Oxford Library, and the Latin is kept in La Bibliothèque Nationale de France.(2) The latest translation of The Divine Comedy published by Medad, Abu-Dhabi. 1 Shamsuddin, 2014, pp. 33–43. 2 Ibid, pp. 130. 3 Fadl, 1995, pp. 47. The translation of Mirā‘j Muhammad from Arabic into Castilian was assumed by the Jewish physician Abraham Vaqim before 1263, and according to the desire of King Alfonso X de Castilla y León (1252–1284). The Italian notary at his court, Bonaventura da Siena, had also developed two translations of the Midnight Journey of Muhammad, the first was in French in 1264 and the other in Latin, depending on the first Castilian copy supplied by Abraham, in its original Arabic version.(3) In addition to the detailed introduction written by Bonaventura who explained the sources and factors of the translation that led to its development, we find in our hands an honest manner of translation by an Arab author who was well known at that time, and it was widely read in Spain during the Thirteenth Century. And of course the fact of translation of this book into three languages – to our knowledge – is a cultural curiosity. It soon spread widely, as seen when it is used as a reference in multiple quotations and citations in Spanish, French and Italian documents and manuscripts. „However, the quotations by Italians and their citations in a full form from this book show that it was spread in Italy and was well-known from the middle of the Fourteenth Century or the Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) late Fifteenth Century, i.e., at the same time when the books of Frensikanian Father Roberto Krasselo were published in the defense of Christianity. This author who published his book known by Aspigiodlavid during the period of Erajonezih which came with a summary of the book called by Turks (Helmrj), which is known to the Arabs by the story (Mirā‘j). There is no doubt that this book is a copy of what was intended in the Latin version. On this basis, we are very near to the era of Dante. To make the distance of time nearer we mention that the Tuscan poet Opertti circa 1350 AD who evidenced from the story (Mirā‘j), as he described (Muhammadan Paradise) in his famous book known by Ditamndo.”(1) Regarding the ways in which this translation could have reached Dante, we can summarize them as follows: After Islam, the contact and relationship between Arabs and Europe was made through conquest or trade. The story of the conquest of Spain by Arabs is well-known, and there is no need to repeat it. Arab sciences entered Europe from Spain, Sicily, and Italy. The Escuela de Traductores de Toledo ‘Toledo School of Translators’, founded in 1130, translated the most important Arabic books into Latin under the patronage of Archbishop Raymond (1130–1150). The translation movement increased in the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.(2) This School had translated several Arabic works specialized in philosophy and natural sciences into Latin. Also, in that period, in 1143, the 13 Qur’an was translated into Latin.(3) The Qur’an contains Surah An-Najm (The Star), where we can see the nucleus history of Mirā‘j.(4) The Europeans came from all over Europe to Andalusia in order to learn the arts and sciences, and were able to spread Arabic knowledge in northern Spain and southern France and Italy.(5) Dante had strong and obvious but indirect relations with Arab culture, as he lived in Sicily when it was headed by Frederick II, who had ruled for a long time (1198–1250), who beloved studying Arab culture in its original Arabic sources, and he spread Arab culture in Sicily.(6) Frederick II established the University of Naples and offered as a gift to the Universities of Paris and Oxford several translations of Arabic works. His son Manfred also continued to bring the fruits of Islamic civilization to the West.(7) One of the goals of Frederick II was to translate the Arabic writings into Latin, and he was infatuated with Arab fashion, customs and oriental traditions. Moreover, he used to correspond with Muslim scholars asking them about certain intellectual dilemmas.(8) In addition to the Arabic elements, there was Italian participation in the translation movement in Alfonso X’s court, as translators from Spanish and Arabic to Latin, or as legal and administrative experts, such as Bonaventura da Siena, Gil de Thebaldis, Juan de Mesina, Juan de Cremona, Pedro de Reggio, and Maestro Jacobo. Some of them used to visit Italy, especially Florence, Bologna, 1 Shamsuddin, 2014, pp. 38. 2 Al-Baghdādi, 1981, pp. 11–13. 3 Zakzūk, 1994, pp. 169. 4 1. By the star when it goes down, (or vanishes). 2. Your companion (Muhammad) has neither gone astray nor has erred. 3. Nor does he speak of (his own) desire.4. It is only an Inspiration that is inspired. 5. He has been taught (this Qur’an) by one mighty in power [ Jibrael (Gabriel)]. 6. Dhu Mirrah (free from any defect in body and mind), Fastawa [then he ( Jibrael - Gabriel) rose and became stable]. [Tafsir At-Tabari]. 7. While he [ Jibrael (Gabriel)] was in the highest part of the horizon, 8. Then he [ Jibrael (Gabriel)] approached and came closer, 9. And was at a distance of two bows’ length or (even) nearer, 10. So did (Allah) convey the Inspiration to His slave [Muhammad through Jibrael (Gabriel)]. 11. The (Prophet’s) heart lied not (in seeing) what he (Muhammad) saw. 12. Will you then dispute with him (Muhammad) about what he saw [during the Mi’raj: (Ascent of the Prophet over the seven heavens)]. 13. And indeed he (Muhammad) saw him [ Jibrael (Gabriel)] at a second descent (i.e. another time). 14. Near Sidrat-ulMuntaha [lote-tree of the utmost boundary (beyond which none can pass)], 15. Near it is the Paradise of Abode. 16. When that covered the lote-tree which did cover it! 17. The sight (of Prophet Muhammad) turned not aside (right or left), nor did it transgress beyond (the) limit (ordained for it). 18. Indeed he (Muhammad) did see, of the Greatest Signs, of his Lord (Allah). 19. Have you then considered Al-Lat, and Al-’Uzza (two idols of the pagan Arabs) 20. And Manat (another idol of the pagan Arabs), the other third? 21. Is it for you the males and for Him the females? 22. That indeed is a division most unfair! Qur’an, Surah An-Najm, No. 53, Uthmān Copy, Al-Azhar Islamic Research Academy, General Department for Research, Writing, Translation, pp.526. The translation of the whole Qur’an can be found on Web: <https://www.noblequran. com/translation/surah53.html> (2018. Oct., 05). 5 Shāhīn, 1985, pp. 64–65. According to the same source, the Europeans also adopted the Arabic rhyme, and used it in their poetry. The weight of old folk poetry in Italy - like Jacoboni’s songs – is no different from the weights of the poetry of Arab Andalusia. Reynold A. Nicholson, Lecturer in Persian in the University of Cambridge, and sometime Fellow of Trinity College, says in his book A Literary History of the Arabs, published in New York in 1907 that the European poetry was naive, and non-rhyming, and, thanks to Arab Andalusia, rhyme moved into European poems. The European poems, including the Greek one, in general, were free of rhyme (Ibid, pp. 64–65). 6 Moustafa, 2002, pp. 41–42. 7 Zakzūk, 1994, pp. 169. 8 Khafāgi, 1964, pp. 82. 14 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West Rome, and Parma, opening the way for such translation of Dante’s handiwork.(1) Marble Bust of Dante Alighieri The strife over the German Empire, which included a group of Italian provinces, caused a glowing political relationship between Spain and Italy. As a result of such circumstances, there were intensive contacts between Alfonso X and Italy in various ways. One of the most important and prominent Florentine ambassadors was Brunetto Latini (ca. 1220–1294) who was delegated by the ruling party in Florence in 1260 to Alfonso X to express Florence’s and other Italian neighbors’ support to Alfonso X for being crowned as Emperor of Germany worthy the title of the “King of the Romans.” In the meantime, a serious political coup was taking place in Florence that prevented Latini from returning to Italy. Latini left for France as an exile and stayed there for several years where he compiled his famous book Li livres dou Tresor.(2) Historically, Latini was Dante’s first teacher, and he was very familiar with Islamic culture. The Islamic and Arabic elements in Li livres dou Tresor were recommended to Dante to study so he would know more about Islamic culture. Besides, Arabic culture was well known and widespread in Tuscany in the Fourteenth Century, and Brunetto Latini can be theoretically considered as the intermediary between Dante and the story of the Mirā‘j.(3) Dante immortalized Latini through mentioning him in his Divine Comedy, namely in Inferno, XV. 82–87. The Jews were expelled from France and spread in Spain and southern Italy. Some of them were familiar with Islamic culture, which was evident through their prose and poetry. A competent researcher, in a detailed study, identified a group of these Jews who had authentic friendship with Dante, to whom they may have portrayed the Journey of Isrā‘ and the Mirā‘j.(4) The fifth chapter of the Historia Arabum,(5) complied in Toledo in the Twelfth Century by Rodríguez Jiménez da Rada, reported some of the narrations of the Mirā‘j. This book was widely 1 Fadl, 1995, pp. 49. 2 This was written in French during his exile in France (1260–1266), and possibly dedicated to Charles of Anjou himself and the work enjoyed wide popularity during the next two centuries. It is a compilation of material previously available to the learned in Latin texts, and contains a collection of Islamic knowledge gleaned from Toledo and the material prepared for the Encyclopedia of Alfonso X. 3 Ibid, pp. 49–50. 4 Ibid, pp. 51–52. 5 Title in English: ‘History of the Arabs’; Original Language: Latin, Publishing Date: between 1243 and 1245. Description: The Historia Arabum consists of 49 chapters, covering 63 pages in the authoritative edition by J. Fernández Valverde. The main focus of the work lies on the history of the regnum Cordube, the Muslim realm of al-Andalus, from the Arab invasion in 711 to the conquest by the Berber Almoravids after 1086. <https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/christian-muslim-relations-i/historiaarabum-COM_24224> (2018. Oct., 9). Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) circulated in many European countries during that period. Also the encyclopedic book Estoria de España(1) of Alfonso X contains a summary of the story of the Mirā‘j. It was easy for Dante to find such a book.(2) It is also likely that the Mirā‘j story would have reached Dante through Italian merchants and intellectuals, or by some Muslim prisoners who were taken to Tuscany, Pisa, or by the Italian Troubadour poets, who were moving to the Court of Alfonso X, or by Dante’s friends, and the pilgrims, who went to Santiago in Spain, such as Guido Cavalcante,(3) or by well-educated Christian theologians, familiar with the Islamic history, such as Raymond Lully (4) and others.(5) These unsuspicious facts prove that the knowledge of Dante about the Arab and Muslim World was not less than the knowledge of any other contemporary intellectuals, for it was not possible for him as being a well-known thinker and having a high cultural profile that he had not benefited from the other works in the philosophy, literature and Islamic ideas dominating and most enlightening at that time.(6) “In spite of all this we cannot say it was only the distinctive factor in the inspirations of Dante, because any attempt to limit his inspirations to the Islamic influences only will be considered an excess in controversy, due to the presence of other competing elements and necessary factors in the thinking of the poet.”(7) Now we have arrived to the third part of this research, which concentrates on the first writings and translation of the sacred poem in the Arab World. The Arabic writings on the Divine Comedy began early by Qustāki Al-Himsī(8), who wrote nine 15 articles on the Divine Comedy and its relationship with the Message of Forgiveness. They were published between 1927 and 1928 in the magazine of the Arab Academy of Damascus.(9) (10) In 1930, Taha Fawzī published a biographical profile of Dante, with “A simple and accurate analysis of the minor works and a summary of the three cantos.” The writings related to the Divine Comedy is continued today by Arab writers and scholars. In parallel with these writings, there were attempts at Arabic translations initiated between 1930 and 1933 by Abbūd Abū Rāshid, who prepared a prose version in which the names of Prophet Muhammad and his Cousin Alī were removed. The translation has many superimposed and intricate overlays. More radical would be the intervention of the Christian Jordanian Amin Abu Sha’ar, who in his prose translation of Hell, released in Jerusalem in 1938 and based on the English version of Henry Francis Cary, decided to skip not only translating the XXVIII, but also the XXIX and XXX cantos.(11) In 1934, Mahmūd Ahmed Nashāwī compiled ten articles in the journal Al-Resālah in Cairo entitled Al-Maʿarri and Dante, in which he summarized the Inferno and the Purgatorio. In 1936, Drīnī Khashaba wrote six essays in the journal Al-Resālah, in which he provided a detailed and sufficient summary on the three volumes of The Divine Comedy.(12) In 1948 Hassan Uthmān wrote a separate article published in the Al-Kātib Al-Masri ‘Egyptian Writer’s Magazine’ in Cairo on the Divine Comedy, and translated chapters of “Hell” with analysis and commentary and published it in the Journal of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University in 1949–1950.(13) It took fourteen years of work for Hassan Uthmān to carry out a “valuable” translation published between 1955 and 1969, which depended on the Italian version, and was accompanied by a 1 Also known in the 1906 edition of Ramón Menéndez Pidal as the Primera Crónica General, is a history book written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile. It is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish, a West Iberian Romance language that forms part of the lineage from Vulgar Latin to modern Spanish. 2 Ibid, pp. 52. 3 An Italian poet and troubadour, as well as an intellectual influence on his best friend, Dante. 4 Philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and writer from the Kingdom of Majorca. 5 Ibid, pp. 53. 6 Shamsuddin, 2014, pp. 40. 7 Ibid, pp. 41. 8 A Syrian writer and poet of the Nahda movement, a prominent figure in the Arabic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries and one of the first reformers of traditional Arabic poetry. 9 The oldest academy regulating the Arabic language, established in 1918. It is modeled on the language academies of Europe and founded with the explicit reference to the example of the Académie Française. 10 Uthmān, 2017, pp. 74. 11 Di Stefano, 2015, pp. 10. 12 Uthmān, 2017, pp. 74. 13 Ibid, pp. 75–76. 16 Abdallah Abdel-Ati Al-Naggar: Intercultural Relations between East and West didactic commentary. Uthmān, however, removed verses 22–64 as “unfit for translation” and the result of “a gross error.”(1) For the first time he used primary and secondary sources in the original language.(2) The attempt to make the Divine Comedy into verses by the Iraqi Kazim Jihad, under the support of UNESCO in 2002 and based on the French version, was less successful. It was an absolutely incomprehensible translation. The Syrian Hannā Abbūd in his Damascene translation of the same year, tried to “disguise the identity of the characters to make the Dantestic step incomprehensible”.(3) A new, more accurate and probably the most precise Arabic translation of The Divine Comedy, depending on the original Italian version, was published by the famous Medad Publishing & Distribution in Dubai, and translated by Essam El-Sayed and Abdallah Al-Naggar. The new translation in its three volumes has been seen for first time at Al-Sharjah International Book Fair (31st October – 10th November 2018), organized by Al-Sharjah Book Authority. In conclusion, we have mentioned gradually and according to their importance and priorities the reasons as to why Dante wrote his Divine Comedy in an Islamic points of view. In addition, we mentioned above the indicators and evidence which are more than sufficient to prove that a comprehensive translation of (Isrā‘ and Mirā‘j) was available to the West including Italy in the Fourteenth Century, which let any person become knowledge without a knowledge of Arabic. On the basis of the those facts we can say without any hesitation or doubt that Dante was influenced by Islamic literature. Due to the points of agreement and similarities in the idea and theme between the Divine Comedy and Islamic sources of Mirā‘j, Asín and other foreign and local critics and researchers declared that Dante was influenced by the Islamic culture. The third element of my paper is addressed to the Arabic writings and translations of the Divine Comedy in the Arab world, and I have mentioned the accurate and up-to-date list of translations and translators who assumed such hard work. LIST OF REFERENCES Books: 1. Al-Baghdādi, Mariam (1981) Shoarā’ Al-Trabadūr (The Troubadour Poets). Cairo: Al-Kitāb Al-Jāmiey. 2. Al-Shanawāny, Ahmed Muhammad (1997) Kutub Ghairet Al-Fikr Al-Insāny (Books Shelved as Human Thought). 3 Vols. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization. 3. Badawi, Amīn Abdel-Megīd (1964) Al-Kessa Fī Al-Adab Al-Fārsī (History of Persian Literature). Cairo: Al-Nahda Al-Arabīya. 4. Fadl, Salāh (1995) Tathīr Al-Thaqāfa Al-Islāmīa Fī AlKomīdia Al-Ilāhīa lī-Dante (The Influence of Islamic Culture in Dante’s The Divine Comedy). Cairo: Dār Al- Al-Mā’ref. 5. Hilāl, Muhammad Ghunaimy (2008) Al-Adab Al-Muqāran (Comparative Literature). 9 edition. Cairo: Dār Nahdat Masr. 6. Khafāgi, Muhammad Abd Al-Monaim (1964) Derāsāt Fī Al-Adab Al-Muqāran (Studies in Comparative Literature). Cairo: Dār Al-Tebāa Al-Muhammadīa. 7. Mansūr, Tawfīq (2015) Fī Al-Adab Al-Muqāran – Asātīr Wa Tarjamāt (In Comparative Literature – Legendas and Translations). Cairo: Egyptian Organization for Cultural Palaces. 8. Moustafa, Hāla (2002) Al-Islam Wal–Gharb Men Tayoush Ilā Tasādoum (Islam and the West from Co-existence to Collision). Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization. 9. Said, Edward (1979) Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, Division of Random House. 10. Shāhīn, Muhammad Ismāīl (1985) Fī Al-Adab Al-Muqāran (In Comparative Literature). Zagazīg: Al-Azhar University, Faculty of Arab Language. 11. Zakzūk, Mahmūd Hamdy (1983) Al-Istishrāq WalKhalfīa Al-Fikrīa Lel-Serā’ (Orientalism and the Intellectual Background of Civilizational Conflict). Cairo: Dār Al-Mā’ref. 1 Di Stefano, 2015, pp. 10. 2 Benigni, 2011, pp. 396. 3 Di Stefano, 2015, pp. 10. Rewaq History and Heritage, Issue 8, (June 2019) 12. – (1994) Al-Islam Fī Merā’t Al-Fikr Al-Gharby (Islam in the Western Mirror). 4th edition. Cairo: Dār Al-Fikr Al-Araby. Papers and book chapters: 13. Al-Sabbāh, Rasha Mahmūd (1980) ¢Al-Tasaūrāt AlIslāmīya Lel-Islām Fī Al-Osoūr Al-Wūsta Wa-Tathīrahā Fī Al-Komīdia Al-Ilāhīa ‘European Perceptions of Medieval Islam and its impact on The Divine Comedy¢, Ālām AlFikr, 11 Vol., 3, pp. 713–728. 14. Antonelli, Roberto (2011) ¢Come (e perché) Dante ha scritto la Divina Commedia?¢ Critica del testo, 14 (1), pp. 3–23. 15. Barolini, Teodolina (2011) ‘Why did Dante Write the Commedia? Dante and the Visionary Tradition’, Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture (Fordham, 2006; Italian trans. Il secolo di Dante, Bompiani, 2012), available at: http://fordham.universitypressscholarship.com/ view/10.5422/fordham/9780823227037.001.0001/upso9780823227037-chapter-6 16. Bilquees Dar (2013), Influence of Islam on Dante’s Divine Comedy¢, International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL), 3(2), pp. 165–168. 17. 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