Note 602 — PART IV PROBABILITY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF ISLAMIC MODELS TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE AND PARTICULARLY TO DANTE

Blochet in his Sources orientales de la Divine Comédie, omits or disregards the nearest and most constant channels of communication between Eastern and Western culture. To him the main channels are the trade routes from Persia to the North-East of Europe via Byzance; the intellectual relations between Ireland and Italy, and Italy and Byzance; and, finally, the Crusades. Moslem Spain is hardly once mentioned as a means of communication. This appears to be due to the fact that, in Blochet’s opinion, the pre-Dante legends (such as the Voyage of St. Brandan, the Visions of St. Paul, St. Patrick, Hincmar, Charles the Bald, and Tundal, and the Tale of the Three Monks of the East) are derived rather from the Persian ascension of Ardâ Virâf than from Arabic and Islamic sources. He admits, indeed, that the Miraj may also have influenced these legends, but only as transmitted by the Crusaders from the East. The vast majority, however, of Islamic elements in the precursory legends have been shown to be derived from hadiths of the future life and only very few from the Miraj. Still less can there be any question of direct relation between the precursors and the Persian legend. Blochet, moreover, contents himself with pointing out analogies between the precursory legends and the Eastern sources, but hardly ever furnishes documentary evidence; though, even if he did so, it would still be more natural to account for the resemblance as due to the effect of Islamic religious literature, rather than any direct contact with Persia. Jourdain (Recherches, 208 et seq.) long ago pointed out how insignificant was the influence of Byzance and the Crusades on the transmission of science and philosophy to Western Christendom, compared with that of the Hispano-Arabic centre.