Dante and Arabic Philosophy
A Columbia University and UC Berkeley Joint Seminar
Organized by Pier Mattia Tommasino (Columbia, Italian) and Akash Kumar (UC Berkeley, Italian Studies)
Thursday, April 13, 12:15pm ET, On Zoom
The Fleeting Flash of Prophetic Vision from al-Ġazālī to Dante
Presenter: Marco Signori (Scuola IMT Alti Studi Lucca)
Respondent: Sarah bin Tyeer (Columbia University)
This paper will consider an unexpected terminological link between Dante’s verse «a flash of lightning, wherein came its wish» (Paradiso, XXXIII, 141) and the fleeting flash – fulgor cito pertransiens – to which some kinds of prophetic visions are likened in the medieval Latin translation of al-Ġazālī’s Maqāṣid al-falāsifa (“The Intentions of the Philosophers”).
Marco Signori will show that this correspondence has never been properly examined in its broader conceptual value. To this end, he will discuss the underpinnings of this potential quotation of al-Ġazālī in Dante’s Commedia by revisiting the two explicit quotations of ‘Algazel’ that occur in Dante’s Convivio. Then, he will explore in detail al-Ġazālī’s text on fulgor, analyzing its teachings about true wakeful visions and underlining the transitory nature of prophetic foreknowledge. These aspects appear to fit well into the doctrinal framework of the last canto of Dante’s Paradiso, in which the fugacity of divine vision and of its memory are emphatically addressed. Signori will also discuss the commentary tradition, Pietro Alighieri’s Comentum in particular, in order to shed new light on Dante’s possible reception of al-Ġazālī’s prophetic-poetic fulgor.
Co-sponsored by the Italian Mediterranean Colloquium (CU), the European Institute (CU), the Department of Italian (CU), the Center for the Study of Muslim Societies (CU), and the Department of Italian Studies (UCB)