We've come to the ninth pouch of fraud--and perhaps the most shocking malebolge of them all. Here stands Muhammad mangled in a pit full of those who create scandals and those who make schisms.

But which is Muhammad for Dante? Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore one of the most vulgar and shocking passages in all of INFERNO. Dante may be overcompensating for his Crusading ethic, or trying to overcome it, or simply stumbling over it in this passage far down toward the center of hell.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:47] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXVIII, lines 22 - 45. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, just scroll down this page.

[04:35] The simile of the gapped-open barrel pairs with the free space in discourse and memory needed to write this canto.

[05:57] Dante the poet emphasizes commonality ("we" and "us") in this canto.

[07:17] We are moving down the body as we descend to the bottom of hell.

[08:20] Muhammad tears himself open, despite the demon in the pit who also tears him apart. And Muhammad is not alone in this pit. He's another twinned character in INFERNO.

[09:48] There's an important difference between "scandal" and "schism."

[11:24] Is Muhammad condemned by Dante for scandal or schism?

[12:17] These members of the ninth pouch are on a healing journey that is not a healing journey.

[15:47] Muhammad does not recognize that Dante the pilgrim is alive, thereby linking Muhammad with Pope Nicholas III and Guido da Montefeltro.

[19:12] Before we get to Muhammad, let's look at a quick history of the West's perception of Islam.

[24:25] Here are three possible reasons why Muhammad is in the ninth pit of fraud. 1) Muhammad was seen as a renegade Christian.

[26:06] 2) Muhammad may be here linked with the heretic Arius.

[27:35] 3) Muhammad may offer an alternate path to God, a stumbling block for Christians.

[31:07] Muhammad and Alì are together, showing us Dante's understanding of Islamic politics (and its basic schism).

[32:21] Dante the poet surprisingly uses an Arabic word in this passage, thereby increasing its Islamic valence.

And here is my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXVIII, Lines 22 – 45

 

If a barrel were missing a stave in the middle or on the side,

It wouldn’t gap so wide as one guy I saw down there,

Split from his chin down to where we fart.

 

His guts swung between his legs.

His viscera were visible, even the sorry sack

That turns what we swallow into shit.

 

While I was thunderstruck at the sight of him,

He caught my gaze and tore open his chest with his hands,

Saying, “Now see how I rip myself apart!

 

“Take a good look at how Muhammad is mangled!

Alì, wailing, walks ahead of me,

His face hewed open from his chin to his forehead.

 

“And all the others you see here

Sowed the seeds of either scandal or schism

While they were alive. That’s why they’re hacked open this way.

 

“A devil is stationed behind us.

He decks each one of this group out

Just this cruelly with the edge of his sword,

 

“When we’ve made the circuit of this sorrowful road.

You see, all our wounds have healed

Before we again come in front of that demon.

 

“But who are you, hanging around on that escarpment,

Perhaps buying a little time before the pain

Your self-recriminations have brought on you?”