Beheading the Son: Muhammad and Bertran de Born in Inferno 28
In recent years, partly because of the current political resonance of the relationship between Islam and the West, significant attention has been paid to the disturbing portrait of the prophet Muhammad in Inferno 28 and, more broadly, to the issue of Dante and Islam. In this essay I analyze Dante’s depiction of Muhammad in relation to its theological framework, arguing that the Muslims’ rejection of the dogma of the Trinity, which constitutes the central source of doctrinal dissension between Islam and Christianity, allows us to establish a link between Muhammad and Bertran de Born, the other main character in the gallery of sowers of discord presented in Inferno 28. As both sinners severed the tie between father and son, the former breached the principle upon which the unity of the Church is founded, whereas the latter violated the norm that undergirds the dynastic legitimacy of a kingdom. In contrast with Bertran’s and Muhammad’s language of division, Dante conceives his work as a vessel for peace and reconciliation between secular and spiritual authorities.
How an Italian Friar Read His Arabic Qur'an
no one has undertaken any serious study of Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS Arabe 384, is a sign of how far the discipline of medieval studies is from exploring even the most remarkable sources surviving from the Middle Ages. This manuscript, a handsome though hardly ornate copy of the Qur'an in Arabic, apparently produced in Egypt or Syria in the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries, has been part of what is now France's national library since 1622 and has been well cataloged since late in the nineteenth century. The remarkable fact which will preoccupy us here that it has dozens of marginal notes in Medieval Latin, written, according to a nineteenth-century scholar, by a "Roman Catholic cleric who possessed a perfect knowledge of the Qur'an and of the Arabic Language" has been known just as long.1 Indeed, Francois Deroche has recently reiterated this point in his excellent catalog of Arabic manuscripts at the Bibliotheque nationale, making clear that there are actually two Latin hands to be found in the margins, both dating from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries.2 By any interpretation, this Qur'an manuscript is an important, perhaps even seminal, source for understanding how Latin Christian scholars interacted with the holy book of Islam. Yet references to it in studies on these topics can be counted on one hand.3 What follows are the results of my initial examination of this precious manuscript. I have focused here on the question that struck me the first time I looked at this Arabic Qur'an and its Latin marginalia ten years ago: who were these medieval Latin scholars who had such an advanced knowledge of the Qur'an and the Arabic language? As it happens, my
Troubadours and Love
List of plates Acknowledgments Map Introduction Part I. Early Troubadours: 1. Guilhem IX of Aquitaine and the quest for joy 2. Jaufre Rudel and love from afar 3. Marcabru and Fin'Amors Part II. The Generation of 1170: 4. Bernart de Ventadorn 5. Raimbaut d'Aurenga 6. Peire d'Alvernhe Part III. The Generation of 1200: 7. Arnaut Daniel 8. Raimon de Miraval and the Joy of the Court Part IV. Late Troubadours: 9. Guilhem de Montanhagol, Peire Cardenal and Guiraut Riquier Appendices: 1. Chronological table 2. A short glossary of poetic and courtly terms List of abbreviations Notes Bibliography General index Index of verse-quotations.