Dante’s Hell punished heresy and rationalism severer than Muslim identity

Evidence

But why Ibn Rushd? He came after Christ, and therefore had the choice of renouncing the Islamic heresy, but didn’t! Dante never faces up ro this question, and is benign towards Ibn Rushd (‘of the Great Commentary’, he specifies) despite this key difference between him and Socrates&. Co. One grasps the full force of this discrepancy only if one recalls that Ibn Rushd was a splendid rationalist whose book5 were banned in some places by the Inquisitionnot because he was a Muslim but, explicitly, because he was a rationalist. How, then, does one explain the discrepancy in the Inferno? — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 773

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s Society Must Be Defended where discourse binaries of belief/heresy structure power, and possibly to the reader’s race-struggle counter-history thread. — connects to: Dante judged belief against heresy, never Occident against Orient — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 776; Dante placed the great Muslim philosophers in mild Hell despite their post-Christian status — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 347; Dante mistook Muhammad for a lapsed Christian rather than a foreign figure — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists…, 85 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Dante placed the great Muslim philosophers in mild Hell despite their post-Christian status #exemplifies (0.92) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 347
• Dante ranked by heresy and belief, not by Occident versus Orient #responds-to (0.88) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 349
• Dante mistook Muhammad for a lapsed Christian rather than a foreign figure #exemplifies (0.85) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 85
• Dante’s Muhammad was a schismatic Christian subplot, not an infidel outsider #exemplifies (0.85) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 107
• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-driven heresy rather than separate religion #expands (0.75)
• Medieval Christian schema ranked Mohammed among the most severe evils in Hell #qualifies (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 183
• Dante’s Hell encodes the divided loyalties of a transitional age #expands (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 348