PART III
_MOSLEM FEATURES IN THE CHRISTIAN LEGENDS PRECURSORY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY_
I
INTRODUCTION
1. The belief in the immortality of the soul and the natural desire of man to lift the veil shrouding the mysteries of the after-life appear to have been the psychological motives that inspired the authors of the many legends, popular throughout mediæval Christian Europe, the main theme of which is the picturesque description of a fantastic journey to the realms beyond the grave. These are the legends that, in the opinion of the scholars, provided Dante with the raw material for his poem.[422] Accordingly, they have been collected and analysed with scrupulous care by the leading critics, who, needless to add, consider them to be of purely Christian origin, either the spontaneous outcome of popular imagination or the result of centuries of monastic learning embellished by the artistic fancy of the troubadour.[423] The main centre from which these legends radiated over Europe appears indeed to have been the monasteries of Ireland. But it is interesting to note the marked difference between the legends that appeared before and those that appeared after the eleventh century. The monastic tales prior to that century are so poor in material and inartistic in treatment, the scenes representing the future life of the soul so trivial and at times coarse that, even had Dante known of their existence, they could scarcely have served as models for his work. This is admitted by D’Ancona himself. Later on, however, fresh tales appear, revealing a more fertile imagination and greater refinement on the part of the authors. These D’Ancona calls “veri abbozzi e prenunziamenti del poema dantesco.”[424]
2. How is this sudden change in the development of the eschatological theme in Western Christian literature to be accounted for? The hypothesis of the influence of elements, foreign to Western culture but adaptable thereto—inasmuch as their origin may in the end be traced back to the same early Christian stock—would not appear to be extravagant. Graf has observed that many particulars of the universal myth of paradise, although omitted from the Biblical narrative, reappear in these Christian legends; and he adds significantly that _it is not known whence they came nor by what means they were transmitted_.[425] Yet Graf made most methodical use of all the sources available to modern European erudition. The eschatological literature of Islam alone seems to have escaped the attention of this keen critic, for the Arabic texts, when not translated into some European tongue, were as a sealed book to him. In the following pages an attempt will be made to fill this gap by examining the Moslem legends for evidence of poetic features that may have influenced the Christian legends and thus explain their remarkable efflorescence in the eleventh century.
3. General evidence of such influence may be found in a feature observed by Graf himself. He notes that in many of the more popular legends of that date the souls of the deserving, before being admitted to eternal bliss, are led to a place other than the theological heaven, there to await the day of resurrection and judgment. But, as Graf states, from the fifth century onwards it was a dogma of the Church that the righteous were straightway admitted to the Beatific Vision, and any doctrine to the contrary was accursed.[426] Can stronger evidence exist of the non-Catholic origin of those legends? Islam, on the other hand, holds that from the time of death until the day of resurrection the souls of the just await judgment either in their graves, miraculously transformed into dwellings of temporary bliss, or in a garden of happiness lying apart from heaven.[427] The souls of martyrs alone appear to be immediately admitted to heaven, or rather to a Divine bower at the gate leading to the theological heaven. As will be shown hereunder, the scenes of this life of bliss prior to judgment bear a strong resemblance to several episodes of the Christian legends; and this similarity in descriptive detail, added to the coincidence of dogmatic belief, would seem to confirm the hypothesis of the Moslem origin of those legends. Nor is this belief, which, while still alive in Islam, had long been abandoned as heterodox by Western Christianity, the only proof of Moslem inspiration. Ozanam and D’Ancona state that many of the more poetic and edifying of these legends never received the official approval of the Church,[428] as if the latter had divined the existence, beneath the veil of poetic adornment, of a doctrine not altogether compatible with the orthodox creed. Indeed the palpable evidence of Islamic influence that will be found in many of these mediæval legends fully justifies that attitude.
4. In the following chapters the comparison of these legends with the Moslem tales is based—be it frankly admitted—not upon their entire texts, but upon the summaries furnished by the critics. Less minute, therefore, than the comparison aimed at in the two former parts of this work, it will serve to give a brief survey rather than a definite solution of this interesting literary problem.
Nor is any attempt made to group the Christian legends according to any new system. Where not already collected in cycles, they will be considered separately, even at the risk of repetition. Such repetition will not extend, however, to particulars the Islamic origin of which has already been proved. To these brief allusion only will be made and special attention paid to new features for which no Moslem precedent has so far been found.
II
LEGENDS OF VISIONS OF HELL
1. _Legend of the Three Monks of the East or of St. Macarius._[429]—Labitte and D’Ancona ascribe this legend to the sixth, seventh or eighth century; but Ozanam maintains that it must be later than Islam, seeing that in the epilogue the saint inquires of his guests what news they have of the Saracens. Graf considers it to be of Græco-Christian origin, but the mystery surrounding the person of the saint himself contributes to render the origin of the story still more obscure.
2. We will briefly examine the descriptive features that may point to a Moslem origin.
In the course of their long and adventurous pilgrimage the three monks cross Syria, Persia and Ethiopia. Passing through a country inhabited by dog-headed men, they traverse a land of pygmies and reach a territory swarming with dragons, basilisks, asps and other venomous creatures. Pursuing their way, they cross a desert region strewn with stones and rocks and, passing through the country of elephants, finally come to a land of deep shadow, behind which rises the monument erected by Alexander the Great as a boundary marking the end of the world.
The early Moslem tales referred to in a former chapter as being the remote prototypes of Dante’s hell, and notably a _hadith_ of the time of Mahomet, give a similar division of the earth into seven regions, some of which are identical with those of the legend. Thus, the dog-headed men appear in the third earth of the _hadith_; the fifth is full of serpents and scorpions; and the fourth is formed of sulphurous stones.[430] Finally, the region of darkness recurs in all the versions of the tale of Dulcarnain, who in Arabic legend is identified with Alexander the Great; and the monument appears as a wall built, according to the Koran, by Dulcarnain as a protection against the peoples of Gog and Magog, who, according to a version of the Islamic legend—like the pygmies of the Christian legend, whose stature was only an ell—measured but a hand and a half in height.[431]
The three monks then penetrate into the infernal regions and there witness tortures, some of which are noteworthy for their resemblance to Moslem punishments already mentioned. Thus, as in all the versions of the _Miraj_, sinners are seen tormented by serpents in a lake of burning sulphur; further on, the monks behold a giant chained in the midst of flames—a figure that also appeared in the _hadiths_ depicting hell[432]; again, a woman is shown tormented by an enormous serpent in a manner as horrible as that of the Moslem tortures[433]; and so on.
3. The Moslem character of the tale, however, is most apparent from the following episode:
The pilgrims have left hell behind them and now enter a wood of lofty trees, upon the branches of which sit a multitude of souls reincarnate in the form of birds. These cry out to God with the voices of human beings begging Him to forgive them their sins and explain to them the wonders they have witnessed.
Graf, in seeking to account for the frequent occurrence of this myth in mediæval legend, finds no precedent but that of early Christian symbolism, in which the soul is represented in the form of a bird. But in Christian symbolism the dove alone represented the Holy Ghost and only very occasionally, on the monuments of the Catacombs, the souls of the faithful. Moreover, the legend does not speak of symbols, but of the reincarnation of souls in birds, which live in a wood close, it is precisely stated, to paradise—features that will be seen to have a more satisfactory explanation in Moslem _hadiths_.
From early times it was a general belief in Islam that the spirits of men who fell in Holy Warfare and, occasionally, the souls of the faithful lived, incarnate in birds such as starlings, in a garden or wood at the gates of paradise, awaiting the day of resurrection. These birds, some of which are white and others green, fly freely through the garden and rest on the branches of the trees, the fruits of which they eat. They drink of the waters of the rivers flowing through the garden and spend their time in converse with God. The souls of Moslem children are likewise transferred to little birds, which fly about among the others. All these birds know and speak to one another. According to other _hadiths_, they are as white as doves or of a brilliant white like foam.
Some _hadiths_ quote the colloquies God is supposed to hold with these birds, and the text remotely resembles the words attributed to the human birds in the Christian legend. Thus[434]:
God asks them, “Know ye perchance of a better fate than that reserved unto you?” and they answer, “No. Our sole desire were that our spirits might return to our bodies once more to fight and be sacrificed in Thy service.” In other _hadiths_, the birds in which live the souls of the faithful other than martyrs, are made to utter the prayer, “Gather us, O Lord, to our brethren and grant us that which Thou hast promised unto us.”
This belief was so deeply rooted in Islam that it gave rise to other holy legends as well as to theological polemics.[435] In the legends, a bird incarnating the spirit of an ascetic or mystic is supposed to appear on earth. In their polemics, the theologians in all earnestness discuss the nature of this being, which in the body of a bird harbours the mind of a man.
4. _Vision of St. Paul._[436]—The passage in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (XII, 2-4), in which the Apostle refers to his being wafted to the third heaven, was the nucleus round which this legend grew. It first appeared in the form of an Apocalypse written in Greek about the fourth century, and does not seem to have spread to Western Christianity before the ninth century. Indeed, as a vision it only dates from the twelfth, and in its more literary forms from the thirteenth century. In transmission from East to West it underwent considerable changes, which have not yet been explained.[437] A comparison of the later texts with similar Moslem legends may therefore be of interest as pointing to the hidden channel by which the tale reached Western Europe.
5. As in the _Miraj_, Mahomet was accompanied by Gabriel, so St. Paul in his nocturnal ascension is led by the Archangel Michael.
The first torture of hell witnessed by St. Paul—that of the avaricious, hanging by their feet, their tongues, or ears from the branches of trees—is evidently an adaptation from the Isra; and it must be confessed that in the Moslem story there exists a relation between the sin committed and the member tortured that is altogether lacking in the Christian legend.
Over a turbid river, in the Pauline vision, stretches a bridge _as fine as a hair_, connecting this world with paradise; this bridge the righteous souls cross with ease, but the wicked fall into the river. Here the plagiarism is flagrant; for this is clearly a copy of the “sirat” or Moslem bridge crossed on the Day of Judgment, according to a Koranic myth, the Persian origin of which has been explained above.[438] Indeed, one of the early traditionists, Abu Said al-Khadari, in describing the “sirat” as being _finer than a hair_, uses the very same simile as the author of the Pauline vision.[439] It need hardly be pointed out that the position of this bridge, stretching from the earth to heaven across hell, is the same in both Christian and Moslem legends.
A wheel of fire that in ceaseless rotation torments the sinners is another instance of a torture copied from Islam. It will be remembered that in several _hadiths_ a precedent was found for the torture appointed by Dante to Sodomites[440]; among them is one dating from the eighth century that says, “In hell there are people bound to flaming wheels, the wheels of wells that turn in ceaseless rotation.”[441]
6. Although other picturesque features may be passed over as of minor importance,[442] the end of this apocryphal vision is remarkable for two scenes of singular poetic beauty. In the first of these, St. Paul from hell sees angels leading a righteous soul to paradise, while demons drag off a wicked soul to torture. All the religious books of Islam devote a chapter to this subject. Thus, the author of the _Tadhkira_ comments at length on a _hadith_, in which the death of the righteous man is contrasted with that of the sinner; and the fate of their souls, as they are led by angels or demons to heaven or hell, is depicted in awe-inspiring scenes.[443] But, as this scene of the Pauline vision recurs in many other Christian legends, all bearing upon the same struggle between angels and devils for the possession of the soul, its study may be held over until later, when these particular legends will be dealt with in detail.
The final vision of St. Paul is summarised by D’Ancona as follows:
The sinners humbly beg the Apostle to intercede on their behalf. The _Miserere_, uttered by millions of souls, fills the four heavens and reaches to the throne of Christ, Who thereupon descends and sternly rebukes the reprobates. For the sake of His disciple, however, He grants them a weekly respite from torture, from the ninth hour of Saturday to the first hour of Monday.
In the summary of the Greek Apocalypse, given by Graf, the analogous scene is as follows:
The Archangel Gabriel descends with the heavenly hosts, and the damned implore his assistance. St. Paul, who has wept over the indescribable tortures he has just witnessed, joins the angels in their intercession on behalf of the sufferers. Christ appears and, moved to pity by their prayers, grants the sinners an annual respite on Easter Sunday, the anniversary of His resurrection.[444]
Graf has pointed out that the main difference between the Greek Apocalypse and the Western _Visio Pauli_ lies in the fact that, whereas in the former the respite from torture is annual, in the latter it is weekly.[445] When and by whom was this change introduced? Islamic legends prior to the _Visio latina_ show the same belief in a weekly day of rest for the damned, extending from the eve of Friday to the morn of Saturday. The point will be more fully dealt with when the cycle of Christian legends on this subject of a respite comes under discussion. Meanwhile, the conclusion to be drawn is, that the _Visio Pauli_ reached Western Europe through Moslem adaptations of the Greek Apocalypse. A brief survey of these Islamic legends will complete the comparison.
One, current in the ninth century, forms but a new episode in the legend of Mahomet’s ascension.[446]
Mahomet from heaven hears the cries of pain uttered by the undutiful children in hell and, moved to pity, intercedes with God on their behalf; but God refuses to grant his request, unless the parents join him in his prayers. After witnessing the torture of the children, Mahomet returns weeping to the Throne of God and thrice repeats his entreaties, only to meet with the same answer. The Prophet then appeals in pleading tones to the parents, who are in heaven; but they, remembering the ingratitude of their children, are loth to act. However, in the end he succeeds in softening their hearts and obtains permission to lead them to hell, where at the sight of their tortured children they burst into bitter tears. The sinners reply with cries for mercy, and the entreaties of the parents, added to those of the Prophet, finally obtain the pardon of the sinners.
A similar legend, telling of the delivery from hell of the Moslem sufferers through the intercession of the Prophet, is given in the _Tadhkira_.[447]
From the bottommost pit of hell the damned, with cries of anguish, call on Mahomet to intercede on behalf of his flock. At the same time they beg the Lord to forgive them their sins, addressing Him in terms similar to those of the _Miserere_ of the Pauline vision, “Have mercy upon us, O Lord!” God grants their pardon and sends Gabriel to deliver the believers from hell.
III
LEGENDS OF VISIONS OF HELL—_continued_
1. _Legend of Tundal._[448]—As the protagonist lived in 1149, there is no doubt that this legend dates from the second half of the twelfth century. The author of the Latin version, an Irish monk, states that he composed it from a text written in a barbarous tongue.[449] Was this an Arabic text? The great number of Moslem features, several of them very striking, would seem to suggest it.
The legend tells of a journey, undertaken by the soul of Tundal upon his apparent death, to the realms beyond the grave, and describes many scenes the Moslem origin of which has already been sufficiently proved—the tortures by fire, by intense cold, and by the fiends wielding red hot prongs; the river of sulphur, the narrow bridge that only the righteous succeed in crossing, and many others.
2. But there are other more interesting visions. Thus, at the further side of the bridge of hell is a monster, named Acheronte, which, with its mighty jaws opening wide, is seen devouring two sinners. The literary device whereby hell is represented as a monstrous fiend rather than as a place of torture is to be found in Islam many centuries earlier. The Moslem _hadiths_ on the final judgment describe a monster, called Gehenna, which, according to some versions, with its many mouths devours three sinners.[450]
Tundal further tells of a place of expiation for souls that, being neither good nor wicked, are spared the torments of hell, but are not worthy of association with the saints. The prototype of this region has been shown to be the Moslem Aaraf.[451]
In another part of hell Tundal sees demons, who with heavy hammers deal furious blows at sinners stretched upon anvils. This vision is evidently an adaptation of the Moslem scene of the _punishment in the grave_.[452]
Two demons, black and of sinister and repulsive mien, appear before the sinner as soon as he is buried. So misshapen are they that they cannot be likened to angels, men, or animals. In his hands each bears, for the purpose of Divine vengeance, an iron hammer, so heavy that not all the men in the world could lift it. In thunderous tones they begin to question the soul on the sincerity of his belief in God and the Prophet. Paralysed with terror at the sight of the monsters, whose eyes flash like lightning in the darkness of the grave, the sinner is too conscious of his guilt to give a ready reply to the fiends, who at each faltering answer bring down their hammers with terrific force seven times alternately upon the wretch’s head.
The picture is so vivid that the story must undoubtedly have created a profound impression; and, indeed, it is to be found in an adapted form in many a mediæval legend. Thus, the tale of Hugh, Margrave of Brandenburg, tells how, when hunting in a wood, he came across some men of a black colour and deformed shape torturing souls by beating them with hammers as they lay stretched on anvils.[453] This picture agrees even more literally with the Islamic model than does the scene in the legend of Tundal.
3. There remain three episodes that unquestionably are copies of Islamic descriptions. These are the very three scenes that prompted D’Ancona to remark,[454] “Never perhaps has man shown such wealth of imagination in the invention of infernal tortures as did the anonymous monk that composed this legend”—a remark that the eminent critic would surely not have hazarded, had he known of the existence of the Moslem originals. The first of these scenes depicts Lucifer.
Surrounded by demons and chained to a red hot grill, he roars in agony; and, as if seeking vengeance for his own suffering, with his hundred hands he clutches at innumerable souls and crushes them between his fingers even as a man would crush a bunch of grapes. The mangled bodies are then to be seen floating in the fiery vapour of his breath, alternately attracted and repelled by the respiration of the monster.
The posture of Lucifer, chained down amidst his fiendish host, is a Moslem feature that has already been referred to.[455]
The idea of the alternate attraction and repulsion of the bodies by his breathing appears to be taken from the scene of the _Isra_ in which the bodies of the adulterers are shown floating up and down in the heat of the furnace. The most striking feature—that of Lucifer crushing the bodies of the sinners in his numerous hands—is modelled upon a _hadith_ of the eighth century, which reads as follows:
“God has created an angel with as many fingers as there are sinners condemned to fire, and each sinner is tortured by a finger. I swear by Allah that the firmament would melt with heat, were that angel to place but one of his fingers upon it!”[456]
4. The second episode is prefaced by D’Ancona with the following remark:
“The sole aim of the legend of Tundal is to provoke terror. With a refinement of torture truly mediæval, the souls of the damned are first taken to see the delights of the life led by the elect, in order that their suffering be all the greater: _ut magis doleant_.”[457]
This pathetic scene is frequently to be found in the religious works of Islam. According to the Moslem creed, identical on this point with the Christian, the moral suffering of sinners is intended to be far greater than their physical suffering. Algazel develops this theme in his _Ihia_. The grief of the sinners over their exclusion from heaven, he avers, would not be so intense were it not that God, to add to their punishment, has ordered them to be shown paradise from outside.[458] In proof, he quotes the following _hadith_:
On the day of judgment God will ordain that some of the damned be led to heaven; but, when they are near enough to inhale the delicious perfumes with which the air is laden, and behold the castles of paradise and the delights awaiting the blessed, a Voice will of a sudden be heard saying: “Withdraw them, for they are unworthy of a place in heaven”; and as they are turned away, they will be filled with a sorrow such as no one yet has felt or ever will feel. Then will they cry out, “Oh, Lord! Hadst Thou but cast us into hell without showing us the rewards prepared for Thy chosen, it had been easier for us to bear our torment”; and God will answer, “To-day shall ye taste the pain of torture, ye to whom I have denied the prize.”[459]
This scene, in which cruelty is blended with sarcasm, shows no trace of the sweet message of pity preached by the Gospel, but rather breathes the spirit of vengeance that is characteristic of the Old Testament and is transparent in more than one passage of the Koran. Some of these passages are glossed in the _Tadhkira_ with other _hadiths_, attributed to the converted Jew, Kaab al-Akhbar, describing various practical jokes played upon the sinners. Thus, the gates of hell are opened, as if to let the sufferers escape, to be quickly closed again whenever an attempt is made to pass through them; or, a pretence is made of allowing the sinners to enter paradise, the gate of which is then slammed in their faces. Under the heading of “Tricks played upon the Damned,” these cruel hoaxes prove that the comic and grotesque element found in many of the pre-Dante Christian legends was not wanting in the tales of Islam.
5. The last episode in the legend of Tundal that may be said to be of Moslem origin forms a striking picture:
The protagonist confesses to having stolen a cow from a fellow-priest and, as a punishment, his angel-guide obliges him to cross the narrow bridge leading to paradise at the same time warding off the attacks of that very cow.
D’Ancona points out a similar scene in the vision of the usurer Gottschalk, in which the Burgrave of Reiningen is condemned to be tossed and trampled upon by a mad cow, of which he had once robbed a poor widow.[460]
The episode appears to be a copy of an early Moslem _hadith_:
“I swear by Him in whose hands lies my soul that every owner of a sheep, a cow, or a camel, who has omitted to pay the ritual tax, will be confronted on the day of judgment by the animal in the fiercest form it ever assumed on earth; it will gore him with horns of fire and trample upon him until his ribs are broken and his belly split in twain; in vain will he cry out for help, for in the form of a wolf or a lion the beast will continue to torment him in hell.”[461]
6. _Legend of Purgatory of St. Patrick._[462]—This legend appeared in Ireland in the second half of the twelfth century and rapidly became popular throughout Christendom. Calderon immortalised it in his drama of the same title, and there is hardly a nation in Western Europe that has not drawn upon the legend for some literary purpose or other. The theme is a journey to the realms of the after-world by one Owen, an Irish knight, who is bold enough to penetrate into the cave by which, according to tradition, St. Patrick communicated with the other world. As D’Ancona observes, the legend is not remarkable for originality. “The visionaries,” he says, “begin to copy one another, and this is but natural, seeing that their imaginative powers have become exhausted.” The remark is very true and applies exactly to the present thesis; for most, if not all, of the picturesque features of this legend existed in Moslem eschatology.
7. Thus, Moslem models exist for the following scenes, common to so many of the legends: the torture by serpents; the submersion of sinners in a river of molten metal, on the banks of which stand demons ready to harpoon them; the passage of the narrow and slippery bridge; the monster whose breath alternately attracts and repels the bodies of the sinners; the wheel of fire; the pit of sulphur; the sinners hanging by their eyelids or nostrils, or head downwards, over flames of sulphur.
Other features of greater interest also appear to be of Islamic origin. Thus, the sinners lying crucified to the ground existed, as was shown in connection with Dante’s picture of Caiaphas, in the Moslem hell.[463]
The blast of bitterly cold wind to which other sinners are exposed, is but the _zamharir_ of Islam in one of its accepted meanings.[464]
Finally, the burning sepulchres in which some of the sinners lie buried, and the garments of fire covering others, have been shown to be of Islamic origin.[465]
IV
LEGENDS OF VISIONS OF HELL (CONCLUSION)
1. _Vision of Alberic._[466]—This legend is here included, not because the scenes depicted in it are in any way original, but because ever since the first publication of the Latin text in 1824 by the Abbé Cancellieri the Dantists have considered it to be one of the most important precursors of the Divine Comedy. Like the vision of St. Patrick, it dates from the thirteenth century, but was written in Italy, at the monastery of Montecasino. The monk, Alberic, is the protagonist and narrator of this journey to the realms of the after-life, which he is represented as having made in his childhood while unconscious during an illness.
The main episodes of the vision are those that have repeatedly been shown to be of Moslem origin. Thus, the lascivious are punished by being submerged in ice; apostates are shown devoured by serpents; murderers lie in the traditional lake of boiling blood; wicked mothers hang by their breasts from hooks, while adulteresses hang over fires. Then there is the scene of the monster whose breathing attracts and repels bodies, and that of Lucifer bound with heavy chains in a deep pit in the centre of hell. Finally, we have the most common scene of all, the narrow bridge that leads to heaven.
2. _The Song of the Sun in the Edda._—Among the forerunners of the Divine Comedy, Ozanam includes the famous Solar Liod contained in the Edda Saemundar.[467] Remote as the origin of these tales may be, the Solar Liod itself does not seem to be much older than the eleventh century. Ozanam himself observes that the poet depicts the realms of the after-life in a manner differing from the pagan traditions of his country. Moreover, the picture contains three distinctly Moslem features. In the first place, the lower world is divided into seven regions, as in the Islamic tales. Secondly, the souls in hell are represented as birds whose plumage is blackened by smoke. Now, just as in the discussion of the legend of St. Macarius it was shown to be a common feature of Moslem tales to depict the souls of the righteous as incarnate in birds of white or green plumage, so in a later chapter it will be shown that the incarnation of the souls of the wicked in birds of black plumage is an idea also prevalent in Islam. Lastly, the author of the Solar Liod depicts thieves as moving in groups in hell, laden with burdens of lead. Surely this scene also is derived from a Moslem _hadith_, which says: “On the day of judgment the rich man who failed to serve God shall be obliged to carry his riches on his back and at the passage of the bridge he shall stagger under his burden.”[468]
3. _Vision of Turcill._—This thirteenth-century vision contains, in addition to many Moslem features common to other legends, the scene in which a lawyer is forced to swallow his illicit gains.[469] The ninth century legend of Wettin showed the powerful of this world similarly expiating their crimes of rapine.[470] But this striking punishment was found in the _Isra_, where at one stage the faithless guardians and usurers are tortured by having stones of fire and darts of iron, symbolic of their ill-gotten gains, thrust down their throats, and in another scene lie helpless on the ground, their bellies swollen with the proceeds of their usury. The great age of the _hadiths_ relating this torture is confirmed by Tabari in his ninth century commentary.[471]
4. _Vision of the Abbot Joachim._—This twelfth-century vision contains the scene, so common in Moslem _hadiths_, of the narrow and slippery bridge leading across a river of burning sulphur that runs through hell. The souls of the righteous cross this bridge _with the swiftness of an eagle_.[472] The same simile occurs in a _hadith_ which reads: “Some will cross the bridge with the speed of lightning, others like the wind, _others again like birds_.”[473]
At the farther side of the bridge rises a wall, upon which the garden of paradise is built. This picture appears to be a copy of the Aaraf, which is represented in the Koran as a garden and a wall rising between hell and paradise.[474]
5. _Vision of the Bard of Regio Emilia._—This is an apocalyptic treatise composed in the thirteenth century in verse and in the vulgar dialect. Vossler states that it is difficult to understand how a nameless travelling minstrel could by his own unaided efforts have conceived so clear and comparatively logical a system of the after-world; and this very symmetry leads the critic to attach prime importance to this vision as being a prototype of Dante’s conception.[475] The troubadour imagines hell as divided into eight regions, each of which has a name and distinctive features of its own.
The first, called Ago, is full of fire; the second, Tartaro, is the region of discord; the third, Averno, of cruelty; the fourth, Asiro, of evil memories; the fifth, Gena, is a region of sulphur; the sixth, Grabasso, is a place of trial; the seventh, Baratro, is characterised by depth; and the eighth, Abisso, is full of fiery furnaces and boiling pitch. The total circumference exceeds a thousand miles. Access is afforded by means of ten gates lying a hundred miles apart; each gate has its special features and is reserved for one particular class of sinners. Mountains, rivers and lakes of fire are seen at the entrance. The first gate is called the Gate of Tears, and the others are the Gates of Pain, Terror, Chains, Sulphur, Serpents, Thirst, and so forth.
6. The comparison made in a former chapter of the symmetric plan of Dante’s hell with its Moslem prototypes shows how little originality exists in the conception of the Italian troubadour.[476] The two meanings of _storey_ and _gate_, given in Moslem exegesis to the Koranic word _bab_, he placidly accepts and simply adapts his facts to the double interpretation by representing hell as having ten gates besides eight regions or storeys. The same solution finally predominated among the Sufis, for the Murcian Ibn Arabi imagined hell as having seven strata and seven gates. The dimensions of hell are stated with similar precision, though with greater hyperbole, in the _hadiths_, which fix the distance between the gates as equal to what a man might cover on foot in seventy years.[477] Again, according to some _hadiths_, there are mountains and rivers of fire at the entrance to hell.[478] Lastly, it has repeatedly been shown that each stage of the Moslem hell had a name and special features of its own and was reserved for one category of sinners. Indeed, to judge by the names, the bard of Regio Emilia may well be suspected of having availed himself of the _hadith_ of Ibn Jurayj.[479] For, having exhausted his stock of classical and Biblical names with Tartaro, Averno, Baratro and Abisso, he seems to have resorted to transcribing roughly the Arabic terms. Thus, while Ago appears to be derived from Haguia, Asiro is clearly copied from Asair, and Gena from Gehenam.[480]
V
LEGENDS ON THE WEIGHING OF SOULS
1. Throughout a whole cycle of legends, which D’Ancona groups with the political legends, there recurs a scene the immediate, though not remote, origin of which is Islamic. The protagonists of these legends are the Emperors Charlemagne and Henry III., and King Rudolph of Burgundy.
These princes are brought up before the Divine tribunal, and their sins are cast on to the balance by demons; but, just as the scale is about to sink under the heavy weight, a saint, such as St. James, St. Denis or St. Lawrence, throws on the other scale all the good deeds of the prince, the sanctuaries he erected, the ornaments he presented to churches and abbeys, and so on. These outweigh the sins, and the soul is saved from hell.[481]
2. That the religious myth of the weighing of the souls on scales at Divine judgment had its early origin in Egypt is well known.[482] The myth reappeared in the Persian eschatology of the Avesta,[483] and it had penetrated into Arabia by Mahomet’s time, as is shown, among other passages, by Ch. XXI, 48, of the Koran: “We shall set up true scales on the Day of Judgment. No soul shall be unjustly dealt with, though the works to be judged should weigh no more than a grain of mustard seed.” The traditionists, needless to say, soon seized upon the theme and adorned it with realistic scenes, some of which are identical with those of the Christian legends.[484]
A Moslem is brought up before the Divine tribunal on the Day of Judgment. His sins, recorded in ninety-nine books, are read out to him and, after he has confessed, the books are placed on one of the scales, which naturally falls; whereupon God Himself places on the other scale a scrap of paper containing the profession of faith made by the sinner in his lifetime. The scales are turned, and the Moslem is saved. According to other legends Mahomet intervenes by placing on the right hand scale a scrap of paper representing the prayers addressed to him by the sinner. Often the realistic effect is enhanced by the substitution of objects for the pieces of paper. Thus, a small bag containing a handful of earth, which the sinner once threw on the grave of a fellow-man that his soul might have peace, alone suffices to outweigh a heap of sins. In many legends the sinners are shown co-operating towards their mutual salvation: Those rich in virtue assist their needy brethren by lending them their surplus merits; and often the anxious sinner is to be seen threading his way through the groups of souls in search of a friend who can oblige him with the one virtue he may lack, by the weight of which he hopes to turn the balance in his favour.
As it is inconceivable that in that obscure age Western Christianity should have had direct knowledge of the Egypto-Persian myth, the immediate origin of the Christian legends must be sought for in the Islamic tales. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that in both the _hadiths_ and the Christian legends the same _Deus ex machina_ effect is introduced.
3. The same explanation may throw light upon a point in mediæval art that has hitherto remained obscure. Mâle, in his work “L’art religieux du XIIIme siècle en France,” calls attention to the fact that in the porches of the Gothic cathedrals of France St. Michael is represented with scales in his hand weighing the good and evil deeds of men.[485] Apart from a few vague phrases of St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom to the effect that the deeds of men will be weighed “as in a balance,” Mâle finds no authority for this scene and concludes, that the image must have been formed in the popular mind by spontaneous evolution from those allusions of the Saints, and may thus have reached the artists.
A more specific explanation is provided by the effect of Moslem influence in producing legends in Christianity similar to those existing in Islam. In the Bible and in Christian doctrine generally, St. Michael is the _princeps militiae coelestis_, and as such he is represented, clad in armour, in early mediæval monuments, notably in an eighth-century window of the Cathedral of Châlons-sur-Marne. In paintings and bas-reliefs of a later date, however, as in Van der Weyden’s Day of Judgment in the Hospital of Beaune, and in that of Memling at Dantzig, he is always shown with the scales in his hand. The inference to be drawn is that the myth of the scales was introduced in the ninth or tenth century and, in the course of adaptation, the Archangel Gabriel (who in Islam was entrusted with the weighing) was replaced by the Archangel St. Michael, one of whose functions indeed, according to the doctrine of the Church is to lead the souls of the deceased to the Divine throne and introduce them into heaven.[486] This adaptation was not only unauthorised by the Catholic Church, but condemned by learned religious critics. Thus, the seventeenth century Spanish friar, Interián de Ayala, in his work “El pintor cristiano y erudito,” says: “It will appear even stranger to see the Archangel Michael himself depicted with scales in his hand; the origin of this, I must frankly confess, is unknown to me.”[487]
4. Nor is this instance of the influence of Islam upon mediæval art by any means exceptional. Both Mâle and Friar Interián point out other scenes of the day of judgment as equally unauthorised by Catholic tradition,[488] and notably the scene of intercession. In the sculpture of several French cathedrals of the thirteenth century; in the fourteenth century Day of Judgment at the Campo Santo of Pisa; in that of Fra Angelico at the Academy of Florence belonging to the fifteenth century—in all the Virgin Mary is shown, either alone or accompanied by St. John the Baptist, kneeling at the throne of Christ, the Judge, and interceding for the sinners. The scene is, of course, quite contrary to the spirit of that day of wrath, when there shall be neither intercession nor pardon. With the Moslem creed, however, it is in perfect agreement. Algazel—to quote the highest authority only—states that, after the Moslem sinners have been sentenced, God in His mercy will hearken to the pleading of the prophets and saints that stand highest in His favour.[489] As evidence he adduces many passages in the Koran and _hadiths_ of the Prophet, in which the scene is described in picturesque detail.
Mahomet, the leader of the prophets, draws nigh to the seat of the Divine Judge casting, as he passes, a look of compassion on the unhappy throng of Moslem sinners. In vain have the other prophets interceded for them; their sole hope now lies with him. Moved to pity by their entreaties and at the special request of Jesus, he prostrates himself before the throne of God and obtains the desired pardon.[490]
Lastly, the scenes in mediæval and renaissance pictures of the day of judgment in which the sinners are shown coming to life again naked, are denounced by Friar Interián as shameless and unchristian.[491] Those scenes, though indeed lacking all authority of the Church, are strictly in accordance with Moslem doctrine, which categorically states that on the day of judgment all men will meet before the throne of God naked and uncircumcised.[492] In fact, their very nakedness is a cause of physical suffering; for, as the sun will on that day draw nearer to the earth, they will sweat exceedingly and suffer greatly from thirst. This detail was even objected to by the early Moslems, and Aysha, the Prophet’s wife, pointed out how unseemly was such promiscuous nakedness. But Mahomet replied:
“Oh, Aysha! On that dread day none will bethink himself of casting eyes upon his neighbour, for each one will be intent upon his own thoughts.”[493]
Nevertheless, _hadiths_ of a later date sought to lessen the crudeness of the scene by reserving such nakedness to infidels.[494]
VI
LEGENDS OF PARADISE
1. D’Ancona paid due heed to the materialism shown in the conceptions of paradise in almost all the Christian legends precursory of the Divine Comedy, and concluded that Dante, in tracing his spiritual and ethereal picture of paradise, was uninfluenced by those legends. The contrast between Dante and his Christian predecessors was referred to in the discussion of the Paradiso,[495] when it was suggested that the materialistic pictures of heaven appearing in the mediæval Christian legends were themselves based on Moslem models. Now is the occasion to prove that assertion.
To begin with, these Christian legends bear a general resemblance to the Moslem tales in that they often make no distinction between the earthly and the heavenly paradise.[496] This confusion, it will be remembered, is characteristic of Islamic stories, and particularly of some versions of the ascension of Mahomet. In these, a garden of bliss, watered by clear streams, is the scene of the theological paradise, which, although not specifically laid on earth, is not supposed to be in the firmament of the heavens.[497]
This Moslem conception of paradise as a garden reappears in some poetical legends of thirteenth-century Christian Europe. For instance, in the poem “Le vergier du paradis,” published by Jubinal,[498] paradise is represented as a garden watered by limpid streams and shaded by trees; the air is scented with rare perfumes and the sweet music of instruments and the song of birds enchant the ear; within the bowers of this garden are castles of marvellous beauty, built of gold and precious stones. Were it not for some exclusively Islamic features, the picture might indeed have been evolved from the Celestial Jerusalem of Revelations.[499] Some of these features are of interest.
2. The protagonist of the legend of Turcill, in passing through the garden of paradise, sees Adam seated at the foot of a miraculous tree, close to the source of the four Biblical rivers.[500] He observes that “Adam appeared to be smiling with one eye, and weeping with the other; smiling at the thought of those of his descendants who would find eternal life, and weeping at the thought of those destined to eternal damnation.”
This episode, for which Graf quotes no precedent, is undeniably based upon a scene in the ascension of Mahomet[501]; and the fact that the version in question is included in the collection of Bukhari and Muslim is proof that it was current in Islam before the ninth century.
3. But, apart from mere episode, in many Christian legends of paradise the general outline of the conception is of Moslem origin. This conception is mostly modelled upon one type; paradise is conceived as the court of a feudal lord who receives his retainers at a brilliant gathering enlivened by music and dancing. The _Cour du paradis_, the work of an anonymous Provençal troubadour of the thirteenth century, describes the reception as follows[502]:
On All Saints Day the Lord holds a festive meeting at His court. St. Simon and St. Jude are sent to each dwelling in paradise to invite the blessed to the party; they call in turn at the mansions of the angels, the patriarchs, the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, the innocent children, the virgins and the widows. In these groups the blessed flock to the reception, where they sing songs of heavenly love and tread the same measures as are danced on earth; Mary and Mary Magdalene lead the singing and dancing.
The _Visione dei gaudii de’ santi_,[503] a legend of Dante’s time, depicts the blessed as barons and paradise as a feudal castle with battlements and towers of crystal and precious stones. This picture is reproduced in the poem of the minstrel Giacomino of Verona, in which the saints are represented as knights militant under the banner of the Virgin, who in reward crowns them with wreaths of flowers of a perfume sweeter than musk or amber, and bestows upon them precious gifts of harness set with gold and emeralds and of chargers swifter than the hart or the wind chasing over the sea.[504]
In other legends, the festival in paradise is conceived on less worldly lines, more as a religious ceremony; in place of the cavalcade of knights is a holy procession led by the Lord, and then follows a meeting, at which St. Stephen recites the Epistle, and St. John the Gospel.[505]
It is significant that long before the tenth century there existed in Islam a whole cycle of _hadiths_ the very title of which—“The Court of Holiness”—suggests a resemblance to the Christian legends. As a matter of fact, the same general ideas underlie both. Paradise is conceived either as a courtly gathering where there is music and dancing, or, again, as a religious festival. The likeness extends down to actual detail, which would seem to be undeniable evidence of imitation.
This cycle of _hadiths_ comprises, not only those legends upon which the Beatific Vision of the mystics was founded, but others created by the traditionists to satisfy the ruder tastes of the early Moslems, whose only interests ever lay in the direction of the miraculous.[506]
The _hadiths_ of the “Court of Holiness” begin, like the Christian legends, with the invitation of the blessed to the reception at the heavenly court. The invitation is for Friday, the festive day of Islam, on which the elect, in addition to their continual bliss, are granted the special favour of gazing upon the face of the Almighty. Thus the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision is not constant, but weekly; and in the “Cour du Paradis” the blessed only behold the Almighty once a year. The point is important in that it is quite unauthorised by Christian doctrine.
Early on Friday morn angel messengers call upon the blessed in their mansions and deliver a sealed invitation to each together with rich gifts of jewelry for his adornment. The reception is held in two castles, built of pearls, that stand in the gardens of paradise—the one destined for the men, under Mahomet, and the other for the women, under Fatima. Reclining on soft cushions, the guests listen to houris chanting hymns of praise to the Lord to the accompaniment of countless flutes that hang from the trees and are sounded by the softest of breezes. Enraptured by the music, the blessed feel an impulse to dance; so, in order that they may be spared the physical exertion, they are provided with instruments fitted with wings, on which they sway hither and thither to the rhythm of the music. After the dancing follows the reception by God, Who speaks to each guest in turn, whereupon they retire each to his dwelling.
The analogy of this version to the “Cour du Paradis” is obvious. In other versions, the reception is followed by a religious ceremony.
The blessed beg to be allowed the pleasure of holy prayer, which was their delight on earth. God bids David ascend the pulpit, and in an inspired voice he chants one of his Psalms. Thereupon Mahomet in even more impressive tones recites a chapter from the Koran. Finally God shows Himself to each of the guests, who then retire to their mansions.
A third version of the _hadith_ appears to be the prototype of the Christian legends that represent the heavenly festivity as a brilliant cavalcade. After the prologue of the invitation common to all the readings, the story proceeds as follows:
After all the guests have mounted, the men on horses of the purest breed and the women on she-camels, they are led by Mahomet and Fatima to the court. Mahomet, mounted on Boraq, hoists the Green Standard of the Glory of God, which is borne by angels on a staff of light above his head. The prophets Adam, Moses, and Jesus join the procession, as it passes their castles. In other versions, Mahomet is surrounded by Abu Bakr, Adam, and Omar and preceded by the first muezzin Bilal, who rides at the head of the heavenly muezzins. The cavalcade follows the flowery banks of the river Kauthar till it reaches the golden walls of the castle of the King of Heaven. Gabriel climbs to the battlements and summons all the blessed to join in the festivity. They arrive in groups led by their respective prophets and take up their place behind Mahomet and his flock. Inside the castle walls the sward is perfumed and shaded by trees, whose branches are laden with fruit and peopled with countless birds of song. Here the reception is held in a manner similar to that already described.
The resemblance between this version and the Christian legends of the cavalcade of knights extends even to descriptive detail. Mary presents her knights with coursers such as never were seen on earth, red in colour, and swifter than the hart or the wind sweeping over the sea; their trappings are of gold resplendent with emeralds. The terms of the Moslem legend are almost identical:
God saith to His angels, “Give My elect steeds of the purest breed, yet such as they have never ridden.” And the angels proffered them coursers of a ruby red, the trappings of which are set with emeralds; with their wings of gold and hoofs of silver, they can outrun the swiftest race-horse and fly faster than lightning....[507]
VII
LEGENDS OF SEA VOYAGES
1. Through the Christian literature of the Middle Ages from the eleventh century onwards runs a rich vein of legend, which Dante students have explored in search of a possible clue to the genesis of the Divine Comedy. The theme, it may be said, is also a visit to places, which, being inaccessible to the ordinary mortal, may readily be identifiable with the regions beyond the grave. These legends, having three main characteristics in common, may be grouped in one cycle. They are tales of wonderful voyages to fantastic islands; the protagonists are either adventurers, or saints, or conquerors, who are invariably more mythical than historical; and the aim of these is generally a religious one—to spread the Gospel, to do penance, to find the isle of earthly paradise or the fountain of life, or to seek the immortal prophets, Enoch and Elijah.[508]
These legends may be roughly subdivided into three groups corresponding to the natures of the protagonist. Tales of mere adventure are the voyages of Harold of Norway and Gorm of Denmark; the Celtic voyages of Maldwin, of the sons of Conall Dearg Ua-Corra, and of Snedhgus and MacRiaghla. Of the adventurous pilgrimages by sea the most celebrated is the voyage of St. Brandan, a veritable monastic odyssey, imitations of which are the stories of the voyages of St. Barintus, St. Mernoc, St. Malo, St. Amarus, and the Armorican monks. Voyages of conquest are the parallels to the voyage of Alexander the Great, such as the legends of Hugh of Bordeaux, Baldwin of Seeburg, Ugger the Dane, Hugh of Auvergne, and Guerin the Mean.
2. By the tenth century, at the very latest—the epoch of flourishing trade in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean—Islam had produced and given widespread popularity to a whole cycle of similar legends; and the hypothesis that their influence was responsible for the genesis of the Christian legends is strengthened by the fact that they show the same three characteristics mentioned above. They also are stories of wondrous adventure in fabulous islands. The protagonists are seldom historical persons and, like the heroes of the Christian legends, are either adventurers or conquerors, religious devotees or pseudo-prophets. Thirdly, the aim of most of these voyages is religious. The adventurers set out to seek Mahomet or spread the gospel of Islam; to visit hell and the paradise of saints and martyrs; or to find the abode either of the prophets Enoch and Elijah or of the fabulous pseudo-prophet Khidr, who is the protagonist of some of the legends.
Like their Christian counterparts, these Moslem legends may be grouped, in accordance with the nature of the protagonist in each, under three headings. The voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, of Hassan of Basra, of Azim, of Ganisa, and of the Prince of Karizme, are purely voyages of adventure. The heroes of the religious voyages are prophets or ascetics, who are either wholly mythical or are historical personages clothed in mythical garb, such as Khidr, Moses, Joseph, Jonah, and Boluqiya. To this group also belong the tales of the birth of Mahomet, the tales of Abd al-Mutallib the Wise, Yarab the Judge, Tamim Dari the Soldier, Abu Talib the Lawyer, Zesbet, Abu al-Fawaris, and Sayf al-Muluk. The third group comprises the expeditions that are partly warlike and partly religious; typical of these is the Koranic legend of Dulcarnain, a mythical figure that in Moslem legend is strangely interwoven with the figure of Alexander the Great as depicted by the pseudo-Callisthenes.
3. This similarity in outline shown by the two legendary cycles is in itself significant of Moslem influence. But there is further evidence. Victor Chauvin, in his monumental work on the bibliography of Moslem fiction, has traced a number of episodes and descriptive features from the Moslem to Christian tales.[509] Thus, the legends of Herzog Ernst, of Heinrich der Loewe, of Reinfried of Brunswick, of Hugh of Bordeaux, and of Guerin the Mean, would all appear to be derived from the Arabic story of the Prince of Karizme. Hence Chauvin’s conclusion that “the direct or indirect influence of Oriental tales of marvellous voyages is to be seen in several works of mediæval fiction.”[510] In addition, there is the testimony of the Dutchman, De Goeje, the eminent Arabic scholar, whose inquiry into the close relationship between the “Voyage of St. Brandan,” the most typical of Irish tales, and the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, has won at least the partial adhesion of so great an authority on Romance philology as Graf.[511] Thus, the problem may be regarded as practically solved, and there only remains to add a few data corroborative of De Goeje, and to point out the hitherto unsuspected Arabic origin of some other Christian legends.
4. A typical instance of imitation from a Moslem source is provided by the “Voyage of St. Brandan.” De Goeje attributes its origin to the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor and a few other tales of adventurous voyages that are briefly recorded by Al-Idrisi. Even more likely sources, however, would appear to have been the tales of Boluqiya and of Dulcarnain, which, having been handed down by Thaalabi, must have been known before the eleventh century. Other Islamic tales of remote date also come into consideration.
St. Brandan chances upon an uninhabited castle on an island, and in the castle a table laden with the richest food, of which he and his followers eat their fill.[512]
Boluqiya, on arriving at an island, likewise finds beneath a tree a table set with food of different kinds. A bird greets him from the branches of the tree and invites him to partake of the food, which has been prepared by the order of God for all His servants who come on foreign pilgrimage; and Boluqiya eats his fill.[513]
On another island, visited by St. Brandan and his monks, grow trees, from which they cut wood and make a fire to cook their food. But what appeared to them an island was, in fact, an enormous whale, which, upon feeling the heat of the fire upon its back, begins to move and the monks throw themselves into the sea and swim to safety.
This episode, as has been pointed out by De Goeje, and before De Goeje by Reinaud and D’Avezac, is identical with that of the island-whale which Sindbad and his companions come across on the first of their voyages. This fact, however, does not dispose of the difficulty; for the legend of St. Brandan, though none of its extant versions dates back further than the eleventh century, is by some supposed to be derived from earlier Irish sources. Hence it is that Schroeder even goes so far as to suppose that the episode of the whale passed from Ireland to the East, and Graf himself does not deny the possibility of this.[514] Weighty arguments can, however, be adduced against this theory. For one thing, the myth is contained in remote works of Oriental literature,[515] for both the Talmud and the Avesta mention a sea-serpent or tortoise on whose back the same scene is enacted; so that, as any direct imitation of these works by the author of the legend of St. Brandan is out of the question, it is reasonable to suppose that Arabic literature was the medium of communication. Is it possible that the tale of Sindbad the Sailor formed this connecting link? In default of any documentary evidence of the date of the Arabic tale, De Goeje has recourse to an argument which, though interesting, is not conclusive. “In the oldest forms of the legend that I know,” he says, “the island-whale is devoid of all vegetation. The tale of Sindbad and the _Navigatio_ (of St. Brandan) alone mention trees as growing on the fish.” Accordingly, he argues, as it appeared in the East in its simple as well as its more complex form, the tale originated there rather than in Ireland, where it appeared only in the latter form, and that at a comparatively late time. De Goeje’s argument would have been strengthened had he been able to produce an Arabic document giving the myth in its more complex form before the tale of Sindbad appeared. Such a document does exist in the _Book of Animals_, written by Al Jahiz, of Basra, who lived from 781 to 869 A.D., or more than a century prior to the date attributed to the tale of Sindbad,[516] and certainly long before the composition of the Irish tales that have been regarded as the sources of the “Voyage of St. Brandan.”[517] Al Jahiz, speaking of monsters that are supposed to live in the sea, mentions the sea-serpent or dragon, a certain crustacean of the sea called “_sarathan_,” and an enormous fish, which undoubtedly is the whale. He is inclined to doubt the existence of the two first-mentioned animals.[518]
“To tell the truth,” he says, “we have never heard of these” (the sea-serpents) “except in tales of magic and in sailors’ yarns. To believe in the existence of the sea dragon is akin to believing in the existence of the phœnix. Never did I hear the dragon spoken of, but those present called the teller of the tale a liar.... As to the _sarathan_, I have never yet met anybody who could assure me he had seen it with his own eyes. Of course, if we were to believe all that sailors tell ... for they claim that on occasions they have landed on certain islands having woods and valleys and fissures and have lit a great fire; and when the monster felt the fire on its back, it began to glide away with them and all the plants growing on it, so that only such as managed to flee were saved. This tale outdoes the most fabulous and preposterous of stories.... However, as for the fish, I state that it is as true as I am alive that I have with my own eyes seen the fish of enormous size called _Albala_ (the whale) and it was killed with unerring aim.”
Originating in Persia, the myth lived on in the neighbouring countries and, seeing that Al Jahiz gives it as a common theme of the sea legends of his time, must have passed into Islam at least as early as the eighth century. Thus, it is included in the popular tenth-century story of Sindbad the Sailor, and is handed down in various Arabic works to the twelfth century. Algazel refers to it in his _Ihia_, written at the beginning of that century. Speaking of the immensity of the ocean, he says, “in it live animals of so great a size that when the back of one of them appears upon the water it is taken for an island and sailors land upon it; but should they perchance light a fire, the monster, feeling the heat, moves and the sailors become aware that it is alive.”[519]
The further arguments adduced by Schroeder in support of his theory, that the myth of the whale arose in the north, are feeble. His assertion that the whale is only to be found in the northern seas we have just seen categorically denied by Al Jahiz. Surely the myth would be more likely to arise among a people to whose seas whales would only come from time to time rather than in the northern countries, where their appearance was too common an occurrence even to suggest such a fable.
The next island to which St. Brandan comes is inhabited by a multitude of birds which are gifted with speech and conceal certain angelic spirits beneath their plumage.
Boluqiya, it will be remembered, also meets a marvellous bird, endowed with the gift of speech, which invites him to partake of the food spread upon a table. It explains that it was one of the birds of paradise sent by God to offer Adam, after he was driven out of Eden, food from that very table. Later it is this same bird, or another, also of white plumage, that is charged with carrying Boluqiya on its wings from the island to his home. It is seen, then, that the Moslem legend also mentions birds of white plumage, that are gifted with speech and act as angels or messengers of God. Moreover, in the discussion of the legend of St. Macarius, Moslem precedents were shown to exist for the idea of supposing human souls incarnate in birds gifted with speech from the time of death until the day of judgment. Some _hadiths_ even go further[520]; speaking precisely of white birds, endowed with the gift of speech, they say that they incarnate, not human souls, but angelic spirits, to wit, the angels that are entrusted with the duty of judging the soul after death. Again, several religious legends attest the Moslem belief that flocks of white birds, beyond all doubt angels incarnate, attended the burial of ascetics as if to receive their souls and lead them up to heaven.[521] The strong hold this myth had on the Moslem imagination explains why in all books on the interpretation of dreams birds are said to signify angels.[522]
Proceeding on his voyage, St. Brandan lands on another island, inhabited by holy monks whose only sustenance is the bread that falls from heaven; these monks observe strict silence and are subject neither to illness nor old age.
This episode is simply an amalgamation of two scenes appearing in some versions of the expeditions of Dulcarnain—the scene of the island of the monks and the island of the wise men.[523]
On the former island Dulcarnain finds ascetics so emaciated by the austerity of their holy life that they appear as black as coal; the fish and herbs provided for them by God are their only nourishment, yet they assure Dulcarnain that they feel no desire for the things of this world. On the other island the wise men ask him whether with all his vaunted power he can vouchsafe them eternal life and freedom from sickness. To his answer that he cannot, they reply that God has granted them this, and many other things besides.
Another island in the voyage of St. Brandan is described as bearing enormous vines, from which hang bunches of grapes of monstrous size; the seeds alone are as large as apples and suffice to satisfy the hunger and slake the thirst of the saint and all his companions.
This incident is undoubtedly founded on the _hadiths_ telling of the gardens of paradise, in which grow vines of monstrous size.[524]
“Does the vine grow in heaven?” asked one of the first disciples of Mahomet, and upon the Prophet’s answering that it did, the disciple inquired, “Of what size are the fruit?” “As the distance covered by a raven in a month’s uninterrupted flight,” was the answer. “And what is the size of the seeds?” “Of that of a large jar.” “Then, with a single seed I and all my family could eat their fill?” “And thy whole tribe as well,” concluded Mahomet. Other _hadiths_ even state the exact length of each bunch of grapes to be twelve cubits.
Continuing his pilgrimage, St. Brandan comes to an enormous column of the clearest crystal; rising from the bottom of the sea it appears to touch the sky, and around it is what seems to be a great pavilion formed of a silvery substance with large meshes.
Two very similar descriptions are found in the Islamic fables of Solomon, which depict a submarine dome and an aerial city.[525]
Solomon sees rising from the bottom of the sea a pavilion, tent, tabernacle, or tower, vaulted like a dome, which is made of crystal and is beaten by the waves; from a gate emerges a youth, who proceeds to relate to him his life of solitary devotion beneath the waters. The aerial city is erected by the genii at the order of Solomon, who bids them build him a city or palace of crystal a hundred thousand fathoms in extent and a thousand storeys high, of solid foundations but with a dome airy and lighter than water; the whole to be transparent so that the light of the sun and the moon may penetrate its walls; a white cupola, surmounting the highest storey and crowned by a brilliant banner, with a resplendent light lit up the route of Solomon’s army during the night, when the king, floating through space in his aerial castle as in an airship driven by the wind, sallied forth on an expedition.
Upon reaching the regions of the damned, St. Brandan and his companions find Judas sad, and naked but for a rag over his face, seated upon a rock in the midst of the ocean. Other similar Christian legends show Judas standing in a pool or pit through which flow all the waters of the world; or again, he is represented as being consumed internally with fire in spite of the waters that beat incessantly upon him. The picture is an adaptation from the Moslem legends of the torment of Cain, one of which, dating from the eighth century, reads as follows:
A man of the Yemen, named Abd Allah, with various companions set out on a voyage, in the course of which they came to a sea that was wrapt in darkness. For several days they sailed onwards until suddenly the veil of darkness lifted and they found themselves close to an inhabited coast. “I went ashore,” said Abd Allah, “in search of water, but all the houses I came to were closed; in vain I knocked at the doors, for no one answered. Of a sudden two horsemen appeared, mounted on snow-white steeds, who said to me: ‘Abd Allah! follow yonder path and thou wilt come to a pool of water; drink thy fill and be not afeared at what thou seest there.’ I inquired of them about the empty houses through which the wind whistled, and they told me they were the dwellings of the souls of the dead. Upon arriving at the pool, I found a man leaning head downwards and seeking to reach the water with his hand. When he saw me, he cried out: ‘Abd Allah, I pray thee, give me to drink,’ and I filled the cup to give him water, but lo! my hand was stayed. I said to him, ‘Oh, servant of the Lord! thou hast seen that I would fain have served thee. Tell me, then, who thou art!’ And he answered, ‘I am the son of Adam who first shed blood upon earth.’”
Another tale, also dating from the eighth century, is similar:
A shipwrecked sailor saves himself by clinging to a spar and is flung upon the shore of an island. Proceeding along the shore, he comes to a stream the course of which he follows to a spot where the water seems to flow from the bottom of the earth. There he finds, chained by the feet just out of reach of the water, a man who begs him to slake his thirst, saying he is the son of Adam that slew his brother and since that deed is chastised for every murder that is committed on earth.[526]
The last incident in the voyage of St. Brandan that is worthy of note is his meeting with the hermit Paul, who lives on a rock in the middle of the ocean, fed by a lark for the last hundred and forty years, and will there remain alive until the day of judgment.
Here, blended into one, we have two characters—the historical person of St. Paul the Hermit, who, fed by a raven until his death, lived in the desert of Thebes, and the mythical figure of Khidr, in the conformation of which Islam combined features of Elijah, Elishah, the Wandering Jew, and St. George. Khidr, like Elijah, is immortal, and in many legends is depicted as a sea-hermit, praying in the midst of a desert island, or on a rock beaten by the waves, where he is fed by a bird, which brings him food and water in its beak, or from a table sent down from heaven. There, it is said, he will live until the day of judgment and, having often been seen by shipwrecked sailors, he is regarded in Islam as the patron saint of mariners.[527]
St. Brandan now approaches the Isle of Paradise, which is the goal of his pilgrimage; but, like Abd Allah of the Yemen, and like Dulcarnain in his search for the Fountain of Life, he first has to pass through a region of darkness. The German version of the voyage, moreover, contains two interesting features. The ground of the Isle of Paradise is, like the ground traversed by Dulcarnain, strewn with precious stones; and from a fountain spring four rivers, of milk, of wine, of oil, and of honey, similar to the rivers that water the gardens of paradise in the Koran (XLVII, 16-17).
5. It would thus seem that everything points to the same conclusion, namely, that an Eastern or, to be more precise, an Islamic origin must be given to this legend—the legend that Renan regarded as “the most perfect expression of the Celtic ideal and one of the most admirable creations of the human mind,”[528] and that Graf, though admitting the influence of the story of Sindbad the Sailor, nevertheless believes to be Gaelic in foundation. Other Romance scholars, however—owing to their lack of all documentary evidence, they could never go beyond mere suppositions—came nearer to the truth. Labitte, for instance, was struck by “le tour, l’imagination brillante et presque orientale qu’elle décèle”;[529] and D’Ancona admits that Eastern fables are mixed among its other elements.[530] The very monotony of rhythm in the narration; the precise number of seven voyages, corresponding to the seven seas through which Boluqiya also sailed; the fantastic adventures, which led St. Vincent of Beauvais and the Bollandists to describe these legends as _apocrypha deliramenta_; and, lastly, the many episodes traced to Islamic sources by De Goeje[531] and in the above pages—all go to warrant the conclusion that, if the voyage of St. Brandan and other similar legends were indeed written by an Irish monk on a basis of Celtic tradition, the plethora of Islamic elements that were grafted on to the native stock was such as to change their original character.
6. The same conclusion may be drawn from an examination of the other tales of voyages that are more warlike expeditions than mere pilgrimages. In these legends traces of the Arabic stories of the fabulous Dulcarnain are frequently to be found.
Thus, in the legend of the Frisian sailors, narrated by Adam of Bremen in the eleventh century, the adventurers, after traversing a dark region of the ocean, arrive at an island the inhabitants of which hide in caves while the sun is on the horizon, that is to say, at midday, the time of the arrival of the strangers.[532]
This detail is characteristic of the country described in the legends of the voyage of Dulcarnain as being that in which the sun rises, “the inhabitants of which do not build houses, but take refuge in caves until the sun goes down, when they sally forth to seek their living.”[533] The tenth century Moslem record is based on _hadiths_ of a much earlier date, and they in their turn were written as gloss on a passage of the Koran (XVIII, 89), which alludes to the fabulous voyage of Dulcarnain to “the country where the sun shines on people to whom We have given no protection from its rays.”
A more striking instance of imitation from the Arabic is seen, however, in the final episode of the Latin and German versions of the voyage of Alexander the Great to the earthly paradise.[534]
The guardian of paradise presents Alexander with a precious stone, the hidden virtues of which, he says, will cure him of his ambition. Alexander returns with the stone to where his army awaits him, and of all his followers a wise Hebrew alone is capable of solving the riddle. The stone, he finds, outweighs whatever quantity of gold is put in the balance, but, when covered with a little dust, it at once loses its weight and becomes as light as a feather. The aged Hebrew concludes his interpretation with the words: “This precious stone is an image of the human eye; when alive, it is insatiable, but, when dead and covered with earth, it aspires to nought.”
Graf, after tracing the story to its most ancient sources both in Greek and Hebrew lore, comes to the conclusion that its model is to be sought in a tale of the Babylonian Talmud, though that tale mentions a real human eye. A more likely model, however, is provided by the Arabian story, recorded in the tenth century and attributed to Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet[535]:
Alexander, or rather the Koranic Dulcarnain, with his army reaches the region of darkness that lies before the Fountain of Life, and, beyond this region, he beholds a palace rising to an enormous height. Advancing to the gate, he speaks to the youthful guardian, who hands him an object like a stone, saying, “If this be satisfied, thou also wilt be satisfied; if it be hungry, then wilt thou be hungry too.” Alexander returns to his companions with the stone and summons the wise men to discuss the riddle. They test the stone in the balance with first one, then two, and finally a thousand similar stones, and find to their amazement that it outweighs them all. Khidr, a counsellor of Alexander’s, upon seeing that all the sages are unable to solve the riddle, thereupon intervenes and places on one of the scales an ordinary stone and, on the other, the miraculous stone covered with a handful of dust; and, to the amazement of all, the scales now balance. To Alexander, Khidr then explains the riddle as follows: “God has granted thee the utmost power achievable by man, yet thou art not satisfied. For man is never satisfied until dust cover him and the earth fill his belly.” According to another, longer, version, Khidr ends his explanation with the words: “The stone is the human eye, which, whilst alive, even though it should possess the whole world, is insatiable, and which only death can satisfy.”[536]
VIII
LEGENDS OF SLEEPERS
1. Graf has reviewed all the legends on this theme that were common in Christian Europe from the thirteenth century onwards.[537] In the main they tell the same story. The protagonists are monks or princes who, after visiting the earthly paradise, return to their homes believing that their absence has lasted but a few hours or days; whereas in reality long years, even centuries, have passed; astonished at the change in their surroundings, they try to make themselves known, only to meet with incredulity; in the end they succeed in establishing their identity either by the testimony of some venerable old man, who vaguely remembers the story of their disappearance, or by the aid of books of record.
Of the three principal legends of this cycle, the Italian one of the monks of the Jihun dates from the fourteenth century:
Three monks set out to seek the earthly paradise, and after many adventures succeed in finding it. They return under the delusion that they have been absent but three days, whereas three whole centuries have elapsed. The monastery still stands, but the monks are strangers who do not recognise them. With the aid of old records they manage to prove their identity, and forty days after recounting their experiences they turn into dust.
The German legend of the Cistercian monk, Felix, also dates from the fourteenth century:
Felix doubts that the bliss of heaven can last eternally without cloying the elect. But one day, listening in the garden to the sweet song of a little bird of white plumage, he falls into a trance. The clanging of the bell calling to Matins awakens him and he hastens towards the monastery to find that he is unknown to the porter, who, on hearing his explanations, believes him to be either drunk or mad and turns him away. Nor do the monks recognise him, although one of them, a centenarian and infirm, does remember that when he was a novice a monk named Felix disappeared; and it is found that the books record his supposed death. A century had passed in what seemed to Felix a single hour.
Another Italian legend, which is later than the eleventh century, tells a similar story of a young prince:
Three days after his wedding, the prince sets out from his castle and is miraculously led to a garden of paradise, where he remains for three hundred years, which to him appear but three hours. On his return, he finds his home strangely changed; for his wife and parents, having given him up for dead, had converted the castle into a monastery and his hall into a church. On the tower, where formerly had flown the standard of his family with the eagle, he sees a banner with the cross. He makes himself known to the porter and tells his story to the monks and people of the village, who listen to him in awe. The story is recorded, but the prince, upon eating the bread of man, ages and dies and is buried by the side of his wife.
Occasionally, this theme is introduced into stories of fabulous voyages, as in the legend of the Armorican monks, which is an imitation of the voyage of St. Brandan[538]:
After visiting the isle of paradise, the monks return to their monastery and find everything changed; church and town have disappeared, and a new king rules over a strange people. They have been absent for three hundred years.
The Spanish legend of San Amaro, which is still current in Spain, belongs to the same group:
After many wonderful adventures at sea, the saint visits the earthly paradise and, on returning to the place where his companions were to await him, finds a city built by them; and, in a monastery erected to his memory, he dies. His absence, which he had believed to be but of an hour’s duration, had lasted two centuries.
2. From the eighth century onwards there existed in Islam two groups of legends, which deal with this subject pretty much after the manner of the Christian legends. The protagonists are either prophets—Hebrew or mythical—or noble Christian martyrs, who, after a sleep of centuries, which to them appear brief hours, return to their homes where they finally succeed in proving their identity by means either of witnesses of venerable age or of ancient documents.
3. The tales of the first group were composed by companions of the Prophet as gloss on a passage of the Koran (II, 261), in which the theme is outlined as follows:
Behold him who, passing one day by a ruined and deserted city, cried out, “How shall God bring this dead city to life again?” God laid the hand of death upon this man for a hundred years and then, bringing him to life again, asked him: “How long hast thou lain here?” “A few hours, or maybe a day,” answered the man. And God replied: “Thou hast lain there for a hundred years. Behold thy food and thy drink, they are yet good; and, lo! there is thine ass. We have proposed thee as a sign (of wonder) to the people. Behold how the bones are brought to life again and are clothed with flesh.” And when (this miracle) was made manifest (the man) exclaimed: “Verily, I see that God is all-powerful.”
Around this nucleus, which had its origin in a Talmudic source, three legends appeared, one of which, dating from the eighth century, reads as follows[539]:
Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem and its temple and carries off the surviving Israelites into captivity at Babylon. Jeremiah (in other versions, Esdras), who had sought refuge in the desert, returns to find the city in ruins and he doubts whether God will be able to rebuild the city and its temple. God sends him into a profound slumber, which lasts for a hundred years. In the meantime, the ass he was mounted on dies, but the wine and figs he carried with him remain intact. God shields the prophet from beasts and birds of prey and renders him invisible to man. A hundred years later, and thirty years after God has caused Jerusalem to be rebuilt, Jeremiah is brought to life again and, when he opens his eyes, he sees the bones of the ass lying scattered on the ground. A voice from heaven calls upon them to unite and clothe themselves with flesh and skin, and the ass returns to life. God asks Jeremiah how long he thinks he has slept and, when he answers “a few hours or a day,” tells him that he has slept a hundred years.
The second tale dates from the seventh century:
Esdras, who had been carried off into captivity at Babylon in his boyhood, escapes some years later and, mounted on an ass, sets out for his native country. Passing on his way through a deserted village on the banks of the Tigris, he eats his fill of the fruit of the trees and, having drunk the juice of the grapes, he stores the remainder in a pitcher and some figs in a basket. He does not believe that God could ever rebuild the ruined village and, having tied up his ass, he falls asleep. God sends death upon him for a hundred years and then brings him to life again. The angel Gabriel asks him how long he thinks he has been asleep, and he replies “A day or less.” Gabriel tells him that he has slept a hundred years and bids him observe that the ass, the figs and the wine are intact. Thereupon Esdras returns to his native country and finds that his children and grandchildren have grown old, whilst his own hair and beard are still black.
The third legend is attributed to Ibn Abbas, and provides the conclusion to the two former versions:
Upon awakening from his hundred years’ sleep, Esdras returns to his native village, where no one will believe his story. At last he finds an old woman who had been his father’s servant and is now a hundred and twenty years of age, blind and paralytic. “Esdras,” replies the old woman to his story, “was hearkened to by the Lord in his prayers. If thou art he, pray then to God that He restore my sight, that I may see thee.” Esdras cures the old woman of her infirmities, and she leads him to the house where a son of his is still alive, although a hundred and eighteen years old. Even his grandchildren are of great age. None will believe either him or the old woman, until finally his son recognises him by a birth-mark he bears between his shoulders.
According to a variant version, he is recognised by his knowledge of the Torah[540]:
During their captivity at Babylon, the Israelites lose their knowledge of the Mosaic Law. Esdras, on his return, is scoffed at as a liar and is only believed when he recites by heart and writes out the whole of the Torah and the text is found to agree literally with an old copy found buried in a vineyard.
4. The Islamic tales belonging to the second group of this cycle were also woven around a passage of the Koran (XVIII, 8-24), which in its turn was based upon a Christian legend of the East, the tale of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. The fact that this Islamic myth had its remote origin in Christianity renders it of little interest as far as our argument is concerned, so that especially as Guidi has published an Italian version of the Oriental texts, both Christian and Moslem, we need give here only the outline of the Moslem tale, as it appears in the four versions handed down by Thaalabi and translated by Guidi[541]:
During the persecution under Dacian seven Christian nobles of Ephesus seek refuge in a cave where, after a frugal meal, they fall asleep for three hundred years. Their kinsmen give them up for lost, and record on a tablet the story and date of their disappearance. At the end of the three centuries God restores them to life, and they awake thinking they have slept but a day. Under this delusion, one of them sets out for Ephesus to purchase provisions and secretly bring back tidings of the persecution. As he proceeds, his astonishment increases at the changes he sees on every side. Over the gate of the city a banner bearing the inscription, “There is but One God, and Jesus is His Spirit,” puzzles him greatly. In the city the people are all strange and, when he tenders a coin of the time of Dacian in payment of bread, he arouses suspicion and is led before the authorities on the charge of having found secret treasure. In vain does he attempt to vindicate his story, for the authorities refuse to listen to him until he can find someone who can identify him. He ultimately succeeds in reaching his own house, when a grandson of his, though blind and infirm with great age, recognises him. The tablet recording his disappearance is also found and thus his story is corroborated. The authorities and townsfolk seek out his companions, who now definitively die and are buried with great pomp.
5. The close resemblance of the Islamic tales of both the above-mentioned groups to the Christian mediæval legends related by Graf is too evident to be ignored. But, it will be asked, is this resemblance to be attributed to Moslem influence upon Christian folklore? Graf, with all his erudition, makes no mention of the precedents that these Christian tales may have had in other literatures.[542] And, indeed, the question is not an easy one to answer. Guidi has shown[543] that the Islamic tales of Jeremiah and Esdras are derived from rabbinical stories, the protagonist of which is either Abimelech or the Rabbi, Joni Hamaggel. Now both of these probably lived before the third century of our era, but there is no evidence to prove that these Jewish tales, as such, ever spread to the West. On the other hand, the Islamic legends of the Seven Sleepers are based on a Syrian legend that appeared, also in the East, in the sixth century; and this tale, we know, in that very century passed to the West, where it is found in a Latin version that St. Gregory, of Tours, included in one of his books on the saints.[544] But are we, on that account, to suppose that the Christian mediæval tales mentioned by Graf grew solely from the seed sown by St. Gregory and were uninfluenced by the Islamic legends? If so, how can it be explained that that seed should have taken over six centuries to germinate and did not produce its crop of legends until the thirteenth century?
That is the problem, in so far as the influence of the myth of the Seven Sleepers on the similar Christian tales of the thirteenth century is concerned. But there still remains the other group of Islamic legends, of which the protagonists are Jeremiah and Esdras. The resemblance of these to the Christian tales is no less striking; and here there can be less doubt about the direct Moslem influence, for there is nothing to show that the early rabbinical models ever passed to Christian Europe.
IX
LEGENDS OF THE RESPITE FROM TORTURE
1. Until the sixth century the question whether the sufferings of the sinners in hell were to be regarded as eternal or not was still debated by the Fathers of the Church. Indeed some doctors, mainly of the Eastern Church, favoured temporality.[545] Western opinion prevailed, however, and by the Council of Constantinople the doctrine of everlasting punishment was definitely established as part of the Catholic dogma. It is, then, all the more strange to find, in the eleventh century, legends popular in Western Christendom treating mainly of a respite from, or mitigation of, the sufferings of the damned.[546] The myth first appeared in the vision of St. Paul. But, as was pointed out in the discussion of that legend, the primitive Greek version spoke of a _yearly_ respite, whereas in the Latin versions, dating from the twelfth century, the respite is _weekly_.[547] The difference is significant, as explaining the genesis of the later forms of the legend from Moslem models; for, whilst the doctrine of a weekly respite lacks foundation in Christian tradition, and particularly in that of the West, it was indeed fully justified in the dogma of Islam.
2. Even more striking influence of Islamic influence is shown by another Christian tale, told in substantially the same terms by St. Peter Damian, in the eleventh century, and Conrad of Querfurt and St. Vincent of Beauvais, in the twelfth.[548]
A cavern situated in the volcanic region of Pozzuoli, to the west of Naples, or on the volcanic island of Ischia in the gulf of the same city, and washed by black and evil-smelling waters, was supposed to be the mouth of hell. At sunset every Saturday, birds of a sulphur-blackened plumage and fearsome aspect were believed to rise from the waters of that cave and fly away to the neighbouring mountains. There they would stay stretching and pruning their wings until the early morn of the following Monday, when they would return and enter the waters of the cave. These birds were generally believed to be the souls of the dwellers in hell, who thus enjoyed a respite from their tortures.
3. It was a doctrine of Islam,[549] quoted even by Graf, that the torture of both believers and infidels ceased for the day and night on Friday, during which time the soul is allowed to visit its tomb and there receive the prayers offered up on its behalf. The belief, which inspired many very popular legends,[550] is based on the sanctity of the day and is as old as the Moslem religion; indeed from the first century of the Hegira onwards it was held for certain that Moslems who died during the day or night of Friday were exempt from the private judgment of the soul that is peculiar to Islam.[551]
That the souls of the wicked are incarnate in birds of black plumage is a belief attributed to Mahomet himself, just as the myth that holds the saintly soul or angelic spirit to be incarnate in white birds has been shown to be of Moslem origin.[552]
“The souls of the host of Pharaoh are imprisoned in hell in the body or belly of birds of a black hue; these birds sit on nests of fire in the bottommost depths of the seventh earth and eat and drink fire.”[553]
That these black birds rise to the surface, in respite from their torture, and precisely from the waters on the seashore, is told in a Moslem legend so strikingly similar to the Christian tale as actually to appear to be its model or prototype. The legend in question is attributed to Al-Awzai, a writer of the eighth century, and is related by Ibn Abu Aldunya, of the ninth century[554]:
A man of Askalon inquired of Al-Awzai, “Oh, Abuamer! We see birds of a black plumage rise from the sea and when they return at night, behold! their plumage is white.” And Al-Awzai said to him, “Dost thou not know what those birds are?” And he answered, “Yes.” And Al-Awzai proceeded, “In the entrails of those birds are the souls of the host of Pharaoh; they are exposed to the fires of hell, which burn and blacken their plumes. After a while they lose those plumes, but, when they return to their nests, once again they are burnt in the fire. Thus shall they continue to the day of judgment, when a Voice shall say: Cast the host of Pharaoh into the bottommost pit.”
4. Closely related to this subject of respite from torture is that of the mitigation of suffering when a debt is paid. Graf quotes, among others, the legend related by Cæsar of Heidenbach in the thirteenth century.[555]
After his death a soldier appears before a certain man and tells him that he is in hell for an act of robbery. He begs the man tell his children of his wish that the property be restored to its rightful owner, so that his punishment may be lightened, but the children turn a deaf ear to the other’s pleadings.
It was a Moslem belief, borne out by numerous _hadiths_, that debts left behind on earth either delayed or hampered the soul in its ascension to heaven[556]:
Thus, at a certain funeral Mahomet decreed that no prayers should be said for the deceased until his debts had been paid. On another occasion, he addressed the children of the deceased thus, “Your father stands at the gates of heaven, detained by a debt. If ye wish, ye may yet ransom him; if not, ye must leave him to be dealt with by the wrath of God.” In other _hadiths_, Mahomet is represented as ordering a son of the deceased to pay the debts in order to obtain a remission of his father’s suffering.
Around these _hadiths_ there grew up legends very similar to the Christian tale described above. One such legend, dating from the ninth century, runs as follows:
To two ascetics, who lived in the eighth century, there appeared a man who, seated on boards floating in the bottom of a pit, cried out to them in a hoarse voice, saying he was a citizen of Antioch who had just died and was held prisoner in that pit until a debt of his were paid. He added, “My children live at Antioch unmindful of me and of my debt.” The two ascetics proceed to Antioch and pay the debt, and the next night the deceased again appears to them and thanks them for their act of charity.[557]
5. In conclusion, it was a common belief in mediæval Europe that prayers, fasting and almsgiving served to obtain mitigation, not merely of the expiatory suffering in purgatory, but even of the punishments of hell.[558] This belief persisted in the face of the opposition of the Church, which adhered the more rigidly to the doctrine of everlasting damnation as being the one feature distinguishing hell from purgatory. But the rigidity of the official theology was set off by what Graf happily terms the theology of sentiment, as expressed in many popular legends. These, Graf is of opinion, were the spontaneous outcome of the feelings of pity to which the masses are ever prone. That such feelings may lead to popular reactions, unconsciously heterodox, against the strictness of doctrine based on intellectual exegesis, is undeniable; but the growth of the belief in question may have been stimulated by contact with Moslem eschatology, which on this point was much more benign than the official Christian doctrine.
Islam, as is well known, condemns only the infidel and the polytheist to eternal punishment; the true believer, however sinning, will one day see an end to his suffering. And even this temporary torture may be alleviated by the prayers of those on earth. Suyuti, with many other authors, has left us a collection of authoritative texts on this point.[559] These show that prayer, almsgiving, pilgrimage, fasting, and even such pious or merely beneficent works as the erection and endowment of mosques, hostels, schools, or the construction of bridges and irrigation works, all serve to influence the lot of the soul; but special importance is attached to the offering up of prayers on Fridays on the tomb of the deceased. Thus Islam, in adopting the milder views of a minority of Eastern churchmen, may have been the medium through which this belief was transmitted to the West after it had been unanimously rejected as heretical by the Councils, the Fathers, and the Doctors of the Roman Church.
X
LEGENDS OF THE DEBATE BETWEEN ANGELS AND DEVILS FOR POSSESSION OF THE SOUL
1. A common subject of Christian mediæval legend is the inquest held on the soul immediately after death by angels and devils as a preliminary to final judgment. Graf, in _Demonologia di Dante_,[560] and Batiouchkof, in _Le débat de l’âme et du corps_,[561] have analysed these legends, the main elements of which are the following: