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Enrico Cerulli (1898-1988)
Cerulli came of age during the beginnings of
Italian colonialization in Africa and, as an adult,
became politically active during Mussolini’s further
pursuit of colonial glory in Africa; Cerulli became
Vice Governor of Italian East Africa during the
Fascist period. After the war, the restored regime of
Haile Sellasie tried to have him charged with war
crimes in Ethiopia, but the charges were eventually
dropped. Cerulli was, however, barred from ever again
setting foot in Ethiopia, notwithstanding the
considerable body of work he had contributed to the
study of the area. His first works in East African
ethnography appeared in the early 1920s and he
continued publishing until late in life; his last work
was in 1971 and was entitled L'Islam di ieri e di
oggi (Islam: Yesterday and
Today). He was one of the founders in 1975 of the
Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies. His most interesting work to
me is in the field of Islamic studies, if that is the
proper term for his 1949 book entitled Il 'Libro
della Scala' e la questione delle fonti arabospagnole
della Divina Commedia. (The Book of the Scale and
the Question of Arab-Spanish Sources of the Divine Comedy.)
Perhaps “Islamic-Christian studies” or something similar
would be a better term. Briefly, the book deals with
the possibility of a Muslim source for Dante’s
masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. That
source—at least, as an inspiration—might have been the Kitab al Miraj
(Book of the Miraj, the Arabic word for
Muhammad’s miraculous night
ride from Mecca to Jerusalem and ascension into
the heavens. The story, itself, is mentioned in the
Koran and in more detail in the body of supplemental
commentary on the Koran called the hadith.
The Book of the Miraj
was probably written in the mid-1000s by Abu'l-Qasim
'Abdalkarîm bin Hawâzin bin 'Abdalmalik bin
Talhah bin Muhammad al-Qushairî al-Nisaburi. It
was translated into Latin in the mid-1200s as Liber
Scale Machometi; generally, it is called The Book of the Scale
in English (“scale” meaning steps or ladder—thus, the
book of the upward journey of Muhammad). The structure
of the book into different degrees of heaven and hell,
and descriptions (and graphic illustrations in many
editions) bear a resemblance to the later Divine Comedy. Cerulli was not the first
person to come up with the idea of Muslim influence on
Dante. That honor goes to the Spanish scholar Don Miguel
Asín Palacios, whose 1919 work, La
escatología muselmana en la Divina Comedia
started a never-ending discussion about the possibility
that Dante used a Muslim source for inspiration. Also in
1949, besides Cerulli’s book, another work on the same
subject appeared in Spanish: La escala de
Mahoma by José Muñoz Sendino. One hears that Cerulli and
others claim that Dante used the Muslim work as a
source. That is overstated. All they say is that it is
plausible; after all, one of Dante’s teachers, Brunetto
Latini, happened to be in Cordoba in 1264; it is
certainly plausible that he had access to the Latin
translation. They all go on to point out the differences
and, of course, the particular and specifically European
genius that Dante’s work reflects. When Cerulli was awarded an honorary degree in 1963 in Rome, his one-time mentor, Giorgio Levi della Vida, spoke of him as a “prodigy” who at the age of 16 was already studying the languages and culture of east Africa; he was always up at the military hospital in Naples, interviewing soldiers returned from Africa, getting their impressions and whatever tid-bits of language and local culture they happened to have brought back with them. Cerulli was the born scholar. His association with and participation in Italian colonialism in Africa came back to haunt him, however; he never wound up as a professor at an Italian university.
Reference: Untitled review by A.R. Nykl of Il 'Libro della Scala' e la questione delle fonti arabospagnole della Divina Commedia by Enrico Cerulli, in Speculum, Vol. 26. No. 2 (Apr., 1951), pp. 376-80. to main index
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