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Meşhur Arap filozof ve şair Ebu'l-'Alâ el-Ma'arrî'nin (ö.449/1057) üstün
edebi değere sahip olduğu kabul edilen ve manevi dünyalara hayali yolculuğu içeren
Risâletü'l-Gufrân adlı eseri m.1033 yılında yazılmıştır. Bu eserin yazılışından yaklaşık
300 yıl sonra (1320) büyük İtalyan şairi Dante Alighieri'nin (1265-1321), dünya
edebiyat tarihinin en büyük eserlerinden biri kabul edilen ve modern İtalyancanın da
temelini oluşturan İlâhî Komedya (La Divina Commedia) adlı eseri ortaya çıkmıştır.
Bu iki eserin arasında son derece dikkat çekici benzerlikler bulunmaktadır. Nedir bu?
Sadece bir tesadüf müdür? Yoksa dâhice süslenip gizlenmiş bir taklit midir?
Dante Alighieri'nin İlâhî Komedya adlı eserinde genel anlamda İslam
kaynaklarından faydalanmasıyla ilgili şimdiye kadar başta İspanyol müsteşrik Miguel
Asin Palacios'un 1919 yılında yayımlanıp olay yaratan La Escatalogia Musulmana en
la Divina Comedia'sı olmak üzere birçok araştırma yapılmıştır. Bununla birlikte İlâhî
Komedya'nın doğrudan Risâletü'l-Gufrân'la olan ilişkisini inceleyen küçük çaplı
birçok çalışma olmasına rağmen büyük ve detaylı bir araştırmaya rastlayamadık ve bu
sebeple böyle bir çalışma yapmak istedik.
Tezimizde Arap filozof ve şair Ebu'l-'Alâ el-Ma'arrî'nin Risâletü'l-
Gufrân'ıyla İtalyan şair Dante Alighieri'nin İlâhî Komedya'sını karşılaştırma
yöntemiyle ele alıp farklı dillerde yazılmış bu iki eseri konu, düşünce ve biçim
bakımından inceledik. Bunu yaparken bir yandan ortak, benzer ve farklı yanlarını
tespit ederek nedenler üzerinde dururken diğer yandan yazarları, birçok şeyi
açıklayabilen yaşamları ve yaşadıkları zamanın sosyopolitik ortamı açısından da
değerlendirerek konuya farklı bir açıyla bakmaya ve biraz boyut katmaya çalıştık.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Risâletü'l-Gufrân, İlâhî Komedya, Dante Alighieri,
Ebu'l-'Alâ el-Maʽarrî, Gufrân Risâlesi, Bağışlanma Risalesi.
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The famous Arab philosopher and poet Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri's (d.o.b. A.H. 489/A.D. 1057) work named Risalat Al-Ghufran is considered to possess outstanding literary value and contents imaginary journey to the spiritual worlds. It was written in A.D.1033. Almost 300 years after this date (A.D.1320), the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote his Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia). It is one of the greatest works in the history of World Literature representing the basis of the modern Italian language. There are remarkable similarities between these two works. This thesis looks into the following questions: What is the reason for these similarities? Is it just a coincidence or a brilliantly disguised imitation?
On the one hand the Middle Ages, the medieval period of European history are sometimes referred to as the "Dark Ages". On the other hand the same period for the Middle East was the time of the heyday of Sciences. At the time of Maʿarri there were a lot of conflicts between Muslims of the different Islamic denominations. Europeans realized the extent of their own ignorance and benefited from the Eastern works as much as possible. These works were written by Arabic authors from different branches of science and were of the Arabic translations of the Ancient Greek Philosophers' works. These works were translated first of all into Latin mainly in Toledo and Sicily. The cultural exchange between Muslims and Europeans reached its peak in 1085 when Christians successfully recaptured Toledo thanks to the 'Reconquista' movement.
The idea of Dante's plagiarism emerged in the late 19th century as a result of the comparisons made by different researchers however has not been proven until now. Nowadays there are a large amount of research has been carried out on Dante Alighieri's use of Islamic sources in his Divine Comedy. One of them belongs to a Spanish orientalist Miguel Asin Palacios. His research La Escatologia Musulmana en la Divina Comedia was published in 1919 and made a lot of noise in those times. The Spanish orientalist Miguel Asin Palacios (1871-1944) in his work claimed that Dante Alighieri was influenced by Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri and Risalat Al-Ghufran that were the inspiration of the Divine Comedy.
As far as we know the only article in Turkey about this book owned by Palacios is Hilmi Ziya Ulken's article named "Dante and Miʿrāj, Islamic Resources in Divine Comedia". In this article Ulken pointed out that religious ecstasy, joy, kindliness, contempt and ridicule in Risalat Al-Ghufrân are similar to joy, compassion, scorn and the religious ecstasy in Divine Comedy.
In the time period which Dante lived in, there was a great deal of interest in Islamic science and arts. Of course, Andalusia had an impact on this interest. Palacios was explaining the fact that Dante's work has an Islamic origin by the fact that he was tolerant to Islam. But there are also those people who reject this idea.
Different sources tell us about several Islamic works which Dante was inspired by when writing the Divine Comedy. However all of them have a common feature. All these books are about an imaginary journey to the spiritual realms, or in other words they contain stories which were similar to the story of Mi'rāj and Isra. If we look into the origin of Dante's Divine Comedy more carefully, we can see that one book is different than the others. This book is the work of Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri which is named as Risalat Al-Ghufran. In contrast to other works, this work was written with a worldly purpose, not a religious one. Most of the characters mentioned in both works (Risalat Al-Ghufran and Divine Comedy) are ordinary people, even the protagonist of the Mi'rāj incident was an ordinary person. Thus, we can see the humane and realistic approach in the first two chapters of both Dante's Divine Comedy and the work of Ma'arri. In addition, both stories have the same general structure which include similar events and show tolerance towards the famous unbelievers by not putting them in the Hell.
Dante was a member of a tertiary order of Templar association called Fede Santa. That's why he had to conceal himself and his progressive ideas, especially in order to avoid the wrath of the Catholic Church. Dante was also a member of a literary movement known as Fedeli d'Amore. The representatives of this movement adopted secrecy and were using a secret language. In fact, all of them were influenced by Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri. We can see it in their works. On the other hand, Dante's hell reminds the snake-like hell plan in Al- Futuhat al-Makkiyah, which Ibn al-Arabî borrowed from Ibn Kasevi, who was bound up with the Ma'arri's School. Thus, although Dante did not know Arabic, and although any Medieval Latin translation of Risalat Al-Ghufran did not reach the present, like we said earlier, the conditions of that time was suitable and this translation could be made in Sicily or Toledo. It is also highly likely that Risalat Al-Ghufran could be translated by a European man who may have stolen and passed off the work as his own. In this case Dante could obtain Risalat Al-Ghufran alone, from his teacher and at the same time a statesman Brunetto Latini, or through the connections of secret organizations.
There are many similar aspects in the lives and thoughts of Dante Alighieri and Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri. Both of them were very well-educated people who had come together with famous scholars, writers and poets of their time. Dante ripened the origin of modern Italian by enriching the Florence's dialect with words and determining the first grammar rules. So, he is considered as the father of the İtalian language and the ancestor of İtalian culture and science. Ma'arri also learned many different sciences as well as language, literature and grammar from the elite scholars and trained many students, including Khatib Tabrizi, and had a great reputation. According to some sources there were always about ten or twenty scribes near Ma'arri who were writing lesson notes on all kinds of science. In addition, both Dante and Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri were talented poets. Neither of them saw a comfortable and happy life in the world. Ma'arri spent most of his life in seclusion, while Dante spent it in exile. Dante attributed the social turbulence that had dominated Italy in his time to the expansionist aims of the pope and because of it deprived himself of the right to happiness in his own country. As for Ma'arri, he said for tyrants in his poem:
"The rulers bullied their people and didn't see any harm. They acted against the people, even though they were appointed by them."
In another place he also said:
"All people in all countries are governed by devil-haunted governors."
As a result, it would be useful to say that Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri transfered almost all of his literary knowledge and thoughts on Arab writers in his book Risalat Al-Ghufran. Dante Alighieri also transfered to Divine Comedy his views on religion, politics and art in his century.
Although there are many small-scale studies examining the relationship of the Divine Comedy directly with Risalat Al-Ghufran, we could not find a large and detailed one. So we wanted to do it.
The aim of my thesis is to make a comparative study of these two works, which are similar to each other.
In my thesis, I analyzed the Divine Comedy written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri and the Risalat Al-Ghufran writen by the Arab philosopher and poet Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri and compared these two works written in different languages in terms of subject, thought and form. In doing so, I tried to look at the subject from a different perspective and add some dimension to it by evaluating the reasons for identifying common, similar and different sides of the writers, their lives and socio-political environment in which they were living in that time.
In this thesis I used various Arabic, Turkish, Russian and English sources as well as translations made in one of the above-mentioned languages in order to benefit from the works and articles written in some other languages. Among them, Miguel Asin Palacios' La Escatologia Musulmana en la Divina Comedia (in the title of Dante and Islam), René Guénon's L'ésotérisme de Dante (Turkish translation: Dante and Religious Symbolism in the Middle Ages) and Kurt Leonhard's Dante Alighieri. In comparison, the Turkish translation of the Divine Comedy by Rekin Teksoy was taken as the basis.
Keywords: Dante Alighieri, Abu'l-'Ala Al-Ma'arri, Risalat Al-Ghufran, The Epistle of Forgiveness, The Divine Comedy, La Divina Commedia. |
