Divided Mediterranean, Divided World: The Influence of Arabic on Medieval Italian Poetry

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/arabstudquar.40.3.0197
• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Date: 01 July 2018
• Pages: 197-212
• Author: Samar Attar
• Subject Matter: Mediterranean,medieval history,Arab influence,medieval Italian literature,Cavalcanti,Petrarch,Dante,Boccaccio

ASQ 40.3 Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals

DIVIDED MEDITERRANEAN, DIVIDED WORLD:

THE INFLUENCE OF ARABIC ON MEDIEVAL

ITALIAN POETRY

Samar Attar

Abstract: Divided Mediterranean, Divided World: The Influence of Arabic on Medieval Ital-

ian Poetry describes the significant role played by Arabic and Islamic poetry, legends, tales,

and philosophy on major Italian poets in the Middle Ages in spite of the denial of some of

the poets themselves of such an influence. Psychologists do not seem to pay much atten-

tion to the love–hate syndrome that affects sensitive souls in politically unstable states.

Similarly, many literary critics continue to turn a blind eye to the influence of Arabic on

Medieval Italian poetry. Historians also present history to us not only through documents

they have read in archives, but they similarly express their own divergent personal opin-

ions and interpretations of historical events.

Keywords: Mediterranean, medieval history, Arab influence, medieval Italian literature,

Cavalcanti, Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio

It is easy to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards

himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion.

—Mahatma Gandhi

In his book, Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch, John Larner argues that

The majority of Italians who lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries

never heard the word “Italy.” It was a country in which only the literate lived.

Consciousness of its meaning arose from three sources: the classics, xenophobia,

and exile. The study of classical literature gave the idea of the old Roman

province, praises of Italia from the Latin poets, and a belief that the peninsula

formed a territory with natural boundaries . . . These learned insights could

blend easily with hatred of non-Italians, of peoples whose language could not

be understood and whose soldiers devastated native f‌ields and towns in some

of claim to lordship over them . . . It was from outside Italy that the word found

the strongest response, among merchants and exiles . . . It was from the circle of

Italians resident at Avignon that Petrarch drew his intense consciousness of Italy

Samar Attar is an Independent Scholar in Sydney, Australia

198 ARAB STUDIES QUARTERLY

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and hatred of foreigners. It was a land with no linguistic unity . . . Until Dante

there was no common vernacular literary language (and even then no common

language in prose but only in verse) . . . The truth is “Italy” was nothing more

than a sentiment or . . . a literary idea. The reality was not unity, but a mass of

divided cities, lordships, and towns, dominated by particularist sentiments and

local interests.1

Yet, this hatred of foreigners and disunity of language and towns attracted the

educated classes to discover more about their enemies, particularly, the Arabs and

Muslims who were vastly advanced in every conceivable branch of knowledge.

The formation of Italian literary texts between 1200 and 1400 cannot adequately

be understood without reference to the various Arabic and Islamic sources that

date back to the seventh century onward. But how did the literate know about

these foreign sources if they never acknowledged their interest at least in reading

them or hearing about them? Surely, there were many Arabic books translated into

Latin. We know only a fraction of what was available. Even if we are able to com-

pile statistics on the Arabic works familiar to European scholars of the thirteenth

and fourteenth centuries, as Fernand Braudel (1973) suggests, the history of the

Middle Ages will not be complete or clear.2 The matter is very complicated.

Legends, tales, poems, or sources that were transmitted orally from country to

country throughout the ancient world cannot easily be documented.

Petrarch, the Italian poet laureate, was vehement in his attack against the Arabs

as a race. He never wanted an Italian medical doctor to sing the praises of his

enemies. It is not only their scientific advances that Petrarch detested, but also

their poetry as he said.3 Yet, if one examines Petrarch’s wonderful sonnets, written

in the vernacular, depicting an idealized woman throughout her life, one will

surely hear the voice of a mad Arab poet from the seventh century in every single

line. The Italian poet laureate considered his Rime as his juvenile trifles, for he

believed that good literature must be written in Latin. Yet, ironically, his fame all

over Europe rested on these poems that influenced Shakespeare along with many

other poets in Europe.

Unlike Petrarch, Dante was more cautious in his utterance, but still very prob-

lematic. He may have detested everything about Arabs and Muslims. But at the

same time, he seems to have admired everything about them. Was he afraid of

clarifying his position to the public? He certainly did not wish to be called a traitor,

or a heretic. Perhaps for this reason, he placed Muhammad and his son-in-law Ali

with the sowers of discord at the bottom of Hell, while he populated his Paradise

with warriors against Islam and Moslems, not only during the Crusades but also in

earlier times. Roland and Charlemagne soar like falcons in the abode of the just.4

Both are venerated as the champions of Christendom and the enemies of Muslims