Dante judged belief against heresy, never Occident against Orient

Evidence

The literary-critical point I am making is that one cannot read that passage about Muhammad outside this whole range of enormous complexity. The methodological point, in Foucauldian language, is that one cannot detach a representation of Muhammad, which is produced in the discourse of Christian binaries between belief and heresy, and relocate that representation· in the altogether different discourse of ‘Oriental ism’, which - if it exists at all, and even though it may occasionally use religious forms of ideological interpellation - is a secular knowledge. Furthermore, Dante’s treatment of Ibn Rushd - who is placed at least on a par with Socrates & Co., and towards whom Dante is altogether more forgiving - shows that the poet makes a severe distinction between belief and heresy, bur none between Occident and Orient, as would be clear if Said were to reflect upon the fact that Judas, Brutus and Cassius do actually come even after Muhammad, in closer proximity to Satan himself. I might add that the treatment Ibn Rushd receives in Dante’s imagination was no worse than the treatment he received in real life from Abu Yusuf, the Almohid King of Muslim Spain, who ordered him banished inro exile and his books burned on charges of heresy. Medievality exacted irs price from rationalism on both sides of the Muslim/Christian divide. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 776

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports Ahmad’s materialist critique: Said relocates a discourse produced in Christian belief/heresy binaries into a secular ‘Orientalism’ discourse, ignoring the discourse’s own genealogical conditions — an instance of discourse-first moves erasing material/historical specificity. — connects to: Dante ranked by heresy and belief, not by Occident versus Orient — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 349; Dante’s Muhammad was a schismatic Christian subplot, not an infidel outsider — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 107; Dante’s Hell punished heresy and rationalism severer than Muslim identity — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 773 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: This ‘belief vs heresy, not Occident vs Orient’ point undercuts the transhistorical continuity Said needs — worth pinning down as evidence against unbroken Orientalist lineage in the reader’s research.

Broader Connections

• Dante ranked by heresy and belief, not by Occident versus Orient #corroborates (1.00) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 349
• Dante’s Muhammad was a schismatic Christian subplot, not an infidel outsider #exemplifies (0.95) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 107
• Dante’s Hell punished heresy and rationalism severer than Muslim identity #corroborates (0.90) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 773
• Dante mistook Muhammad for a lapsed Christian rather than a foreign figure #exemplifies (0.85) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 85
• Dante placed the great Muslim philosophers in mild Hell despite their post-Christian status #exemplifies (0.80) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 347