Algunas reflexiones en torno a la vigencia y actualidad de la obra de larabista español Miguel Asín Palacios (1871-1944). El caso de Dante y el Islam.

Abstract

Miguel Asín Palacios was one of the foremost Spanish Arabists of the last years of the Nineteenth century and the first decades of the Twentieth century. His original research-works, his contributions to the knowledge of Islam and the Arab presence in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the school of Arabists which he developed, all together marked the direction followed by many of his disciples. His Dante y el Islam was undoubtedly the book that had the major international impact. Miguel Asín Palacios demonstrated, after a detailed study of all the available Arabic sources and the literature around the Prophet Muhammad's legends of the isra' and the mi'raj (the journey by night and his ascension to heaven) that the Divina Comedia has numerous coincidences, parallelisms and inspirations on the Muslim legends which preceded Dante in many centuries. For the Spanish Arabist, those similarities were more than simple coincidences and parallelisms, and for him Dante clearly copied the punishments and rewards, as well as many other issues contained in the legends of the Prophet Muhammad's journey to the hereafter abodes. After analyzing all the above, this essay shows the validity of the work of Miguel Asín Palacios, especially his Dante y el Islam, as if it had been written recently.