In the last two Cantos, Virgil and Dante were in the eighth circle of Hell called Malebolgia (evil ditches, ravines, moats, pouches) where Fraud is punished. There are ten bolgia (ditches, ravines, moats, pouches) and each punishes a different type of fraud. They were at the eight bolgia where Evil Counsellors were punished. Now they have moved to the ninth bolgia where Sowers of Discord and Scandal are punished.
“In other words, in the overall category — sowers of discord — there are two sub-categories: sowers of civic discord (“scandalo”) and sowers of religious discord (“scisma”). The ninth bolgia contains political and religious figures who span history from antiquity to Dante’s time. Dante views these souls as having fostered schism or division within the body politic of the Church or of the state.” – DigitalDante.columbia.edu
Who could find words, even in free-running prose,
For the blood and wounds I saw, in all their horror –
Telling it over as often as you choose,
It’s certain no human tongue could take the measure
Of those enormities. Our speech and mind,
Straining to comprehend them, flail, and falter.
If all the Apulians who long ago mourned
Their lives cut off by Trojans could live once more,
Assembled to grieve again with all those stained
By their own blood in the long Carthaginian war –
Rings pillaged from their corpses poured by the bushel,
As Livey writes, who never was known to err –
And they who took their mortal blows in battle
With Robert Guiscard, and those whose bones were heaped
At Ceperano, killed in the Puglian betrayal,
And the soldiers massacred in the strategem shaped
By old Alardo, who conquered without a weapon
Near Tagliacozzo when their army was trapped –
And some were showing wounds still hot and open,
Others the gashes where severed limbs had been:
It would be nothing to equal the mutilation
I saw in that Ninth Chasm.
Dante struggles to describe the horrors he saw in the 8th circle of Hell in the 9th bolgia, “who could find words, even in free-running prose”. Even if loosed from rhyme, meter and rhythm, how would he describe it. He compares the wounds he sees on these shades to wounds made in battles. If all those wounded in these battles showed their carnage at once, it still wouldn’t be as bad as what he saw here. He mentions four battles, two ancient and two contemporary.
- Aeneas’ Trojan Triumph in 500 BC – Aeneas was the son of the Prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy. The story of the birth of Aeneas is told in the “Hymn to Aphrodite”, one of the major Homeric Hymns. Aphrodite has caused Zeus to fall in love with mortal women. In retaliation, Zeus puts desire in her heart for Anchises, who is tending his cattle among the hills near Mount Ida. When Aphrodite sees him she is smitten. She adorns herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, but Aphrodite identifies herself as a Phrygian princess. After they make love, Aphrodite reveals her true identity to him and Anchises fears what might happen to him as a result of their liaison. Aphrodite assures him that he will be protected, and tells him that she will bear him a son to be called Aeneas. However, she warns him that he must never tell anyone that he has lain with a goddess. When Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to the nymphs of Mount Ida. She directs them to raise the child to age five, then take him to Anchises. Aeneas is a minor character in the Iliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny, but is an honorable warrior in his own right. He is the leader of the Trojans’ Dardanian allies, as well as a second cousin and principal lieutenant of Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam. Aeneas’s mother Aphrodite frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield, and he is a favorite of Apollo. Aphrodite and Apollo rescue Aeneas from combat with Diomedes of Argos, who nearly kills him, and carry him away to Pergamos for healing. Even Poseidon, who normally favors the Greeks, comes to Aeneas’s rescue after he falls under the assault of Achilles, noting that Aeneas, though from a junior branch of the royal family, is destined to become king of the Trojan people. The history of Aeneas was continued by Roman authors. The Aeneas legend was well known in Virgil’s day and appeared in various historical works, including the Roman Antiquities of the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ab Urbe Condita by Livy, and Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus. The Aeneid explains that Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed or enslaved when Troy fell. Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group, collectively known as the Aeneads, who then traveled to Italy and became progenitors of Romans. Several attempts to find a new home failed; one such stop was on Sicily, where in Drepanum, on the island’s western coast, his father, Anchises, died peacefully. After a brief but fierce storm sent up against the group at Juno’s request, Aeneas and his fleet made landfall at Carthage after six years of wanderings. Aeneas had a year-long affair with the Carthaginian queen Dido (also known as Elissa), who proposed that the Trojans settle in her land and that she and Aeneas reign jointly over their peoples. A marriage of sorts was arranged between Dido and Aeneas at the instigation of Juno, who was told that her favorite city would eventually be defeated by the Trojans’ descendants. The messenger god Mercury was sent by Jupiter and Venus to remind Aeneas of his journey and his purpose, compelling him to leave secretly. When Dido learned of this, she uttered a curse that would forever pit Carthage against Rome, an enmity that would culminate in the Punic Wars. She then committed suicide by stabbing herself with the same sword she gave Aeneas when they first met. After the sojourn in Carthage, the Trojans returned to Sicily where Aeneas organized funeral games to honor his father, who had died a year before. The company traveled on and landed on the western coast of Italy. Aeneas descended into the underworld where he met Dido (who turned away from him to return to her husband) and his father, who showed him the future of his descendants and thus the history of Rome. The rest of Aeneas’s biography is gleaned from other ancient sources, including Livy and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. According to Livy, Aeneas was victorious but Latinus died in the war. Aeneas founded the city of Lavinium, named after his wife. He later welcomed Dido’s sister, Anna Perenna, who then committed suicide after learning of Lavinia’s jealousy. After Aeneas’s death, Venus asked Jupiter to make her son immortal. Jupiter agreed. The river god Numicus cleansed Aeneas of all his mortal parts and Venus anointed him with ambrosia and nectar, making him a god. Aeneas was recognized as the god Jupiter Indiges. – Wikipedia
- Punic Wars – The Punic Wars were a series of three wars between 264 and 146 BC fought by the states of Rome and Carthage. The First Punic War broke out in Sicily in 264 BC as a result of Rome’s expansionary attitude combined with Carthage’s proprietary approach to the island. The fighting took place primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia. It lasted 23 years, until 241 BC, when after immense materiel and human losses on both sides the Carthaginians were defeated. By the terms of the peace treaty agreed Carthage paid large reparations and Sicily was annexed as a Roman province. The Second Punic War began in 218 BC and witnessed Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps and invasion of mainland Italy in 217 BC. This expedition enjoyed considerable early success, but after 14 years the survivors withdrew. There was also extensive fighting in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal); on Sicily; on Sardinia; and in North Africa. The successful Roman invasion of the Carthaginian homeland in Africa in 204 BC led to Hannibal’s recall. He was defeated in the Battle of Zama and Carthage sued for peace. A treaty was agreed in 201 BC which stripped Carthage of its overseas territories, and some of their African ones; imposed a large indemnity, to be paid over 50 years; severely restricted the size of its armed forces; and prohibited Carthage from waging war without Rome’s express permission. Carthage ceased to be a military threat. Rome contrived a justification to declare war on Carthage again in 149 BC in the Third Punic War. This conflict was fought entirely on Carthage’s territories in what is now Tunisia and largely centred around the Siege of Carthage. In 146 BC the Romans stormed the city of Carthage, sacked it, slaughtered most of its population and completely demolished it. – Wikipedia
- Wars between the Normans and the Byzantine Empire were fought from c. 1040 until 1185, when the last Norman invasion of the Byzantine Empire was defeated. Robert Guiscard (aka “the Resourceful”, “the Cunning”, “the Wily”, “the Fox”, or “the Weasel”)(c. 1015 – 17 July 1085) was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, went on to become Count of Apulia and Calabria (1057–1059), Duke of Apulia and Calabria, Duke of Sicily (1059–1085), and briefly Prince of Benevento (1078–1081) before returning the title to the Pope. He was the sixth son of Tancred of Hauteville and eldest by his second wife Fressenda. From 999 to 1042 the Normans in Italy, coming first as pilgrims. According to the Byzantine historian Anna Comnena, Guiscard left Normandy with only five mounted riders and thirty followers on foot. Upon arriving in Langobardia in 1047, he became the chief of a roving robber-band. Lands were scarce in Apulia at the time and the roving Guiscard could not expect any grant from his brother Drogo, then reigning, for Humphrey had just received his own county of Lavello. Guiscard soon joined Prince Pandulf IV of Capua in his ceaseless wars with Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno (1048). The next year, however, Guiscard left Pandulf, according to Amatus of Montecassino because Pandulf reneged on a promise of a castle and his daughter’s hand. Guiscard returned to his brother Drogo and asked to be granted a fief. Drogo, who had just finished campaigning in Calabria, gave Guiscard command of the fortress of Scribla. During his time in Calabria, Guiscard married his first wife, Alberada of Buonalbergo. Guiscard soon rose to distinction. The Lombards turned against their erstwhile allies, and Pope Leo IX determined to expel the Norman freebooters. Married in 1051 to Alberada of Buonalbergo (1032 – aft. July 1122) they had Bohemund and Emma. His army was defeated, however, at the Battle of Civitate sul Fortore in 1053 by the Normans, united under Humphrey. Humphrey commanded the centre against the pope’s Swabian troops. Early in the battle Count Richard of Aversa, commanding the right van, put the Lombards to flight and chased them down, then returned to help rout the Swabians. Guiscard had come all the way from Calabria to command the left. His troops were held in reserve until, seeing Humphrey’s forces ineffectually charging the pope’s centre, he called up his father-in-law’s reinforcements and joined the fray, distinguishing himself personally, even being dismounted and remounting again three separate times, according to William of Apulia. Honored for his actions at Civitate, Guiscard succeeded Humphrey as count of Apulia in 1057, over his elder half-brother Geoffrey. In company with Roger, his youngest brother, Guiscard carried on the conquest of Apulia and Calabria, while Richard conquered the principality of Capua. Soon after his succession, probably in 1058, Guiscard separated from his wife Alberada because they were related within the prohibited degrees. Shortly after, he married Sichelgaita, the sister of Gisulf II of Salerno, Guaimar’s successor. Married in 1058 or 1059 to Sichelgaita, they had: Matilda (also Mahalta, Maud, or Maude), Roger Borsa, Mabile, Gersent, Robert Scalio, Guy, Sibylla, Olympias (renamed Helena). In return for giving him his sister’s hand, Gisulf demanded that Guiscard destroy two castles of his brother William, count of the Principate, which had encroached on Gisulf’s territory. The reformist Papacy, at odds with the Holy Roman Emperor (due to the Investiture Controversy) and the Roman nobility itself, resolved to recognize the Normans and secure them as allies. Guiscard, now “by the Grace of God and St Peter duke of Apulia and Calabria and, if either aid me, future lord of Sicily”, agreed to hold his titles and lands by annual rent of the Holy See and to maintain its cause. In the next twenty years he undertook a series of conquests, winning his Sicilian dukedom. uiscard invaded Sicily with his brother Roger, capturing Messina in 1061 with comparable ease: they landed unsighted during the night and surprised the Saracen army. This success gave them control over the Strait of Messina. Guiscard immediately fortified Messina and allied himself with Ibn at-Timnah, one of the rival emirs of Sicily, against Ibn al-Hawas, another emir. The armies of Guiscard, his brother, and his Muslim friend marched into central Sicily by way of Rometta, which had remained loyal to al-Timnah. Bari was reduced in April 1071, and Byzantine forces were finally ousted from southern Italy. The territory around Salerno was already held by Guiscard, and in December 1076 he took the city, expelling its Lombard prince Gisulf, whose sister Sichelgaita he had married. During the time that the Normans had conquered southern Italy, the Byzantine Empire was in a state of internal decay; the administration of the Empire had been wrecked, the efficient government institutions that provided Basil II with a quarter of a million troops and adequate resources by taxation had collapsed within a period of three decades. The Norman attacks on Benevento, a papal fief, alarmed and angered Pope Gregory VII. In his last enterprise, Guiscard mounted an attack on the Byzantine Empire, taking up the cause of Raiktor, a monk pretending to be Michael VII, who had been deposed in 1078 and to whose son Guiscard’s daughter had been betrothed. In 1079–80, the Byzantines again gave their support to a rebellion against Guiscard. This support came largely in the form of financing smaller Norman mercenary groups to assist in the rebellion. He sailed with 16,000 men, including 1,300 Norman knights, against the empire in May 1081. He defeated Emperor Alexius I Comnenus at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in October 1081, and by February 1082 he had occupied Corfu and Durazzo. He was recalled to the aid of Gregory VII, however, who was besieged in Castel Sant’Angelo by Henry IV, in June 1083. Also in 1083, Guiscard destroyed the town of Cannae, leaving only the cathedral and bishop’s residence. Guiscard was ally to kingdom of Duklja and Constantine Bodin. In 1081 he married his vassal’s daughter Jaquinta of Bari to Bodin. In May 1084, Guiscard marched north with 36,000 men, entered Rome, and forced Henry to retreat. A rebellion, or seditious tumult (émeute), of the citizens led to a three-day sack of the city, after which Guiscard escorted the pope to Rome. Guiscard’s son Bohemund, for a time master of Thessaly, had now lost the Byzantine conquests. Guiscard returned with 150 ships to restore them, and he occupied Corfu and Kefalonia with the help of Ragusa and the Dalmatian cities (which were under the rule of Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia). On 17 July 1085, Guiscard died of fever in Kefalonia, at Atheras, north of Lixouri, along with 500 Norman knights. He was buried in the Hauteville family mausoleum of the Abbey of the Santissima Trinità at Venosa. The town of Fiscardo on Kefalonia is named after him. At his death Guiscard was duke of Apulia and Calabria, prince of Salerno, and suzerain of Sicily. Although the last two invasions and last large scale conflict between the two powers lasted less than two years, the third Norman invasions came closer still to taking Constantinople. he city being captured with relative ease by Norman forces. Upon gaining control of the city Norman forces sacked Thessalonica. The following panic resulted in a revolt placing Isaac Angelus on the throne. In the aftermath of the fall of Andronicus, a reinforced Byzantine field army under Alexios Branas decisively defeated the Normans at the Battle of Demetritzes. Following this battle Thessalonica was speedily recovered and the Normans were pushed back to Italy. The only exception being the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, the latter remained in the hands of the Norman admiral Margaritus of Brindisi and his successors until 1479. – Wikipedia
- Charles I (early 1226/1227 – 7 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) in the Holy Roman Empire, Count of Anjou and Maine (1246–85) in France; he was also King of Sicily (1266–85) and Prince of Achaea (1278–85). In 1272, he was proclaimed King of Albania; and in 1277 he purchased a claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The youngest son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. He acquired Provence and Forcalquier through his marriage to their heiress, Beatrice. His attempts to secure comital rights brought him into conflict with his mother-in-law, Beatrice of Savoy, and the nobility. He received Anjou and Maine from his brother, Louis IX of France, in appanage. He accompanied Louis during the Seventh Crusade to Egypt. Shortly after he returned to Provence in 1250, Charles forced three wealthy autonomous cities—Marseilles, Arles and Avignon—to acknowledge his suzerainty. Manfred (1232 – 26 February 1266) was the last King of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, reigning from 1258 until his death. The natural son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. As regent he subdued rebellions in the kingdom, until in 1258 he usurped Conradin’s rule. After an initial attempt to appease pope Innocent IV he took up the ongoing conflict between the Hohenstaufens and the papacy through combat and political alliances. He defeated the papal army at Foggia on 2 December 1254. Excommunicated by three successive popes, Manfred was the target of a Crusade (1255–66) called first by Pope Alexander IV and then by Urban IV. Nothing came of Alexander’s call, but Urban enlisted the aid of Charles of Anjou in overthrowing Manfred. Manfred was killed during his defeat by Charles at the Battle of Benevento, and Charles assumed kingship of Sicily. Charles’ army, some 30,000 strong, entered Italy from the Col de Tende in late 1265. He soon reduced numerous Ghibelline strongholds in northern Italy and was crowned in Rome in January 1266, the pope being absent. On 20 January he set southwards and waded the Liri river, invading the Kingdom of Sicily. After some minor clashes, the rival armies met at the Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266, and Manfred’s army was defeated. The king himself, refusing to flee, rushed into the midst of his enemies and was killed. Over his body, which was buried on the battlefield, a huge heap of stones was placed, but afterwards with the consent of the pope the remains were unearthed, cast out of the papal territory, and interred on the bank of the Garigliano River, outside of the boundaries of Naples and the Papal States. At the Battle of Benevento Charles captured Helena, Manfred’s second wife, and imprisoned her. She lived five years later in captivity in the castle of Nocera Inferiore where she died in 1271. – Wikipedia
In just a few poetic lines, Dante references all this history. But the point being is the sheer butchery, slaughter, maiming and mutilating.
No barrel staved-in
And missing its end-piece ever gaped as wide
As the man I saw split open from his chin
Down to the farting-place, and from the splayed
Trunk the spilled entrails dangled between his thighs.
I saw his organs, and the sack that makes the bread
We swallow turn to shit. Seeing my eyes
Fastened upon him, he pulled open his chest
With both hands, saying, “Look how Mohammed claws
And mangles himself, torn open down the breast!
Look how I tear myself! And Ali goes
Weeping before me – like me, a schismatic, and cleft:
Split open from the chin along his face
Up to the forelock. All you see here, when alive
Taught scandal and schism, so they are cleavered like this.
A devil waits with a sword back there to carve
Each of us open afresh each time we’ve gone
Our circuit round this road, where while we grieve
Our wounds close up before we pass him again –
But who are you that stand here, perhaps to delay
Torments pronounced on your own false words to men?”
“Neither has death yet reached him, nor does he stay
For punishment of guilt,” my master replied,
“But for experience. And for that purpose I,
Who am dead, lead him through Hell as rightful guide,
From circle to circle. Of this you can be as sure
As that I speak to you here at his side.”
More than a hundred shades were gathered there
Who hearing my master’s words had halted, and came
Along the trench toward me in order to stare,
Forgetting their torment in wonder for a time.
Mohammed (Muhammed) – (c. 570 AD – 8 June 632 AD) was born in Mecca. He belonged to the Banu Hashim clan, part of the Quraysh tribe, and was one of Mecca’s prominent families, although it appears less prosperous during Muhammad’s early lifetime. Muhammad’s father, Abdullah, died almost six months before he was born. Muhammad stayed with his foster-mother, Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, and her husband until he was two years old. At the age of six, Muhammad lost his biological mother Amina to illness and became an orphan. For the next two years, until he was eight years old, Muhammad was under the guardianship of his paternal grandfather Abdul-Muttalib, of the Banu Hashim clan until his death. He then came under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, the new leader of the Banu Hashim. In his teens, Muhammad accompanied his uncle on Syrian trading journeys to gain experience in commercial trade. Islamic tradition states that when Muhammad was either nine or twelve while accompanying the Meccans’ caravan to Syria, he met a Christian monk or hermit named Bahira who is said to have foreseen Muhammad’s career as a prophet of God. It is known that he became a merchant and “was involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.” Due to his upright character he acquired the nickname “al-Amin”, meaning “faithful, trustworthy” and “al-Sadiq” meaning “truthful”. His reputation attracted a proposal in 595 from Khadijah, a successful businesswoman. Muhammad consented to the marriage, which by all accounts was a happy one. Muhammad began to pray alone in a cave named Hira on Mount Jabal al-Nour, near Mecca for several weeks every year. Islamic tradition holds that during one of his visits to that cave, in the year 610 the angel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded Muhammad to recite verses that would be included in the Quran. Muhammad was deeply distressed upon receiving his first revelations. After returning home, Muhammad was consoled and reassured by Khadijah and her Christian cousin, Waraka ibn Nawfal. The initial revelation was followed by a three-year pause (a period known as fatra) during which Muhammad felt depressed and further gave himself to prayers and spiritual practices. The revelations resumed he was reassured and commanded to begin preaching. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad’s wife Khadija was the first to believe he was a prophet. She was followed by Muhammad’s ten-year-old cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, close friend Abu Bakr, and adopted son Zaid. As his followers increased, Muhammad became a threat to the local tribes and rulers of the city, whose wealth rested upon the Ka’aba, the focal point of Meccan religious life that Muhammad threatened to overthrow. Muhammad’s denunciation of the Meccan traditional religion was especially offensive to his own tribe, the Quraysh, as they were the guardians of the Ka’aba. Muhammad’s wife Khadijah and uncle Abu Talib both died in 619, the year thus being known as the “Year of Sorrow”. With the death of Abu Talib, leadership of the Banu Hashim clan passed to Abu Lahab, a tenacious enemy of Muhammad. Soon afterward, Abu Lahab withdrew the clan’s protection over Muhammad. This placed Muhammad in danger; the withdrawal of clan protection implied that blood revenge for his killing would not be exacted. After several unsuccessful negotiations, he found hope with some men from Yathrib (later called Medina). They hoped, by the means of Muhammad and the new faith, to gain supremacy over Mecca. Converts to Islam came from nearly all Arab tribes in Medina; by June of the subsequent year, seventy-five Muslims came to Mecca for pilgrimage and to meet Muhammad. The Hijra is the migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. In June 622, warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly slipped out of Mecca and moved his followers to Medina. Following the emigration, the people of Mecca seized property of Muslim emigrants to Medina. War would later break out between the people of Mecca and the Muslims. Muhammad delivered Quranic verses permitting Muslims to fight the Meccans. Muhammad received revelations from God that he should be facing Mecca rather than Jerusalem during prayer. In March 624, Muhammad led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Muslims set an ambush for the caravan at Badr. Aware of the plan, the Meccan caravan eluded the Muslims. A Meccan force was sent to protect the caravan and went on to confront the Muslims upon receiving word that the caravan was safe. The Battle of Badr commenced. Though outnumbered more than three to one, the Muslims won the battle, killing at least forty-five Meccans with fourteen Muslims dead. They also succeeded in killing many Meccan leaders, including Abu Jahl. Muhammad and his followers saw the victory as confirmation of their faith and Muhammad ascribed the victory to the assistance of an invisible host of angels. Battles and sieges continued between Medina and Mecca with Mohammed leading his men. He also began to demand Jews at Khaybar convert to Islam. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad also sent letters to many rulers, asking them to convert to Islam (the exact date is given variously in the sources). He sent messengers (with letters) to Heraclius of the Byzantine Empire (the eastern Roman Empire), Khosrau of Persia, the chief of Yemen and to some others. In the years following the truce of Hudaybiyya, Muhammad directed his forces against the Arabs on Transjordanian Byzantine soil in the Battle of Mu’tah. In 630, Muhammad marched on Mecca with 10,000 Muslim converts. With minimal casualties, Muhammad seized control of Mecca. Most Meccans converted to Islam and Muhammad proceeded to destroy all the statues of Arabian gods in and around the Kaaba. The Banu Hawazin were old enemies of the Meccans. They were joined by the Banu Thaqif (inhabiting the city of Ta’if) who adopted an anti-Meccan policy due to the decline of the prestige of Meccans. Muhammad defeated the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes in the Battle of Hunayn. In the same year, Muhammad organized an attack against northern Arabia because of their previous defeat at the Battle of Mu’tah and reports of hostility adopted against Muslims. Although Muhammad did not engage with hostile forces at Tabuk, he received the submission of some local chiefs of the region. He also ordered the destruction of any remaining pagan idols in Eastern Arabia. The last city to hold out against the Muslims in Western Arabia was Taif. Muhammad refused to accept the city’s surrender until they agreed to convert to Islam and allowed men to destroy the statue of their goddess Al-Lat. A year after the Battle of Tabuk, the Banu Thaqif sent emissaries to surrender to Muhammad and adopt Islam. Many bedouins submitted to Muhammad to safeguard against his attacks and to benefit from the spoils of war. In 632, at the end of the tenth year after migration to Medina, Muhammad completed his first true Islamic pilgrimage, setting precedent for the annual Great Pilgrimage, known as Hajj. Muhammad delivered his Farewell Sermon, at Mount Arafat east of Mecca. A few months after the farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and suffered for several days with fever, head pain, and weakness. He died on Monday, 8 June 632, in Medina, at the age of 62 or 63, in the house of his wife Aisha. With Muhammad’s death, disagreement broke out over who his successor would be. Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s friend and collaborator. With additional support Abu Bakr was confirmed as the first caliph. This choice was disputed by some of Muhammad’s companions, who held that Ali ibn Abi Talib, his cousin and son-in-law, had been designated the successor by Muhammad at Ghadir Khumm. – Wikipedia
Ali ibn Abi Talib (13 September 601 – 29 January 661) was a cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who ruled as the fourth caliph from 656 to 661. Ali was born inside the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest place in Islam, to Abu Taliband Fatimah bint Asad. Muhammad named him Ali, meaning “the exalted one”. Muhammad had a close relationship with Ali’s parents. He was the first male who accepted Islam under Muhammad’s watch. When Ali was five years old, Muhammad took Ali into his home to raise him. Ali protected Muhammad from an early age. He took part in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community. After migrating to Medina, he married Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah. Ali had four children born to Fatimah, the only child of Muhammad to have surviving progeny. They had Al-Hasan, Al-Husayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum. Their two sons, Hasan and Husain, were cited by Muhammad to be his own sons, honoured numerous times in his lifetime. After her death, he had other wives, including Muhammad’s granddaughter Umamah bint Zaynab. After Fatimah’s death, he married Umamah the daughter of Zaynab the elder daughter of Muhammad, and had at least two sons with her: Hilal or “Muhammad al-Awsat” and ‘Awn. His other well-known sons were Al-Abbas ibn Ali, born to Umm al-Banin Fatimah binte Hizam, and Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, from Khawlah bint Ja’far, another wife from the central Arabian tribe of Banu Hanifah. He was appointed caliph by Muhammad’s companions in 656, after Caliph Uthman ibn Affan was assassinated. He was a pious Muslim, devoted to the cause of Islam. While Ali was preparing Muhammad’s body for burial and performing his funeral rites, a small group of approximately fourteen Muslims met at Saqifah. There, Umar ibn al-Khattab pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr, who subsequently assumed political power. The gathering at Saqifah was disputed by some of Muhammad’s companions, who held that Ali had been designated his successor by Muhammad himself. Relations between Abu Bakr and Ali were strained after this. The issue of succession to Muhammad caused the Muslims to split into two groups, Sunni and Shia. Sunnis assert that even though Muhammad never appointed a successor, Abu Bakr was elected first caliph by the Muslim community. The Sunnis recognize the first four caliphs as Muhammad’s rightful successors. Shias believe that Muhammad explicitly named Ali as his successor at Ghadir Khumm and Muslim leadership belonged to him by dint of divine order. Ali himself was firmly convinced of his legitimacy for the caliphate based on his close kinship with Muhammad, his knowledge of Islam, and his merits in serving its cause. He told Abu Bakr that his delay in pledging allegiance (bay’ah) to him was based on his belief in his own claim to the caliphate. Ali did not change his mind when he finally pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr and then to Umar and to Uthman but had done so for the sake of the unity of Islam, at a time when it was clear that the Muslims had turned away from him. He pledged allegiance to the second caliph, ‘Umar ibn Khattab, and helped him as a trusted advisor. Umar particularly relied upon Ali as the chief judge of Medina. Ali was one of the electoral council to choose the third caliph which was appointed by Umar. Although Ali was one of the two major candidates, the council was inclined against him. Uthman ibn Affan and Ali were candidates for the third caliphate. Abdur Rahman, who offered the caliphate to Ali on the condition that he should rule in accordance with the Quran, the example set by Muhammad, and the precedents established by the first two caliphs. Ali rejected the third condition while Uthman accepted it. Dissatisfaction with his rule and the governments appointed by him provoked outrage among some groups of people. Uthman had appointed his family members as governors and in other positions of power, and public dissatisfaction with this nepotism was one of the factors that had caused a rebellion against him. In addition, Uthman’s governors were widely known for their corruption and plundering. Overt resistance arose in 650–651 throughout most of the empire. Although pledging allegiance to Uthman, Ali disagreed with some of his policies. In particular, he clashed with Uthman on the question of religious law. Uthman’s assassination meant that rebels had to select a new caliph. Ali was caliph between 656 and 661 during the First Fitna, one of the most turbulent periods in Muslim history. While the overwhelming majority of Medina’s population as well as many of the rebels gave their pledge, some important figures or tribes did not do so. The Umayyads, kinsmen of Uthman, fled to the Levant, or remained in their houses, later refusing ‘Ali’s legitimacy. Sa’ad ibn Abi Waqqas was absent and ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar abstained from offering his allegiance. Ali thus inherited the Rashidun caliphate – which extended from Egypt in the west to the Iranian highlands in the east. According to Madelung, Ali was deeply convinced of his right and his religious mission, unwilling to compromise his principles for the sake of political expediency, and ready to fight against overwhelming odds. Some of Uthman’s governors were replaced, but others, such as Muawiyah I (a relative of Uthman and governor of the Levant), refused to submit to Ali’s orders. Except for Muhammad, there is no one in Islamic history about whom as much has been written in Islamic languages as Ali.[1] In Muslim culture, Ali is respected for his courage, knowledge, belief, honesty, unbending devotion to Islam, deep loyalty to Muhammad, equal treatment of all Muslims and generosity in forgiving his defeated enemies, and therefore is central to mystical traditions in Islam such as Sufism. The Shia regard Ali as the most important figure after Muhammad. According to this view, Ali as the successor of Muhammad not only ruled over the community in justice, but also interpreted the Sharia Law and its esoteric meaning. Hence he was regarded as being free from error and sin (infallible), and appointed by God by divine decree (nass) through Muhammad. It is believed in Twelver and Ismaili Shaa Islam that ‘aql, divine wisdom, was the source of the souls of the Prophets and Imams and gave them esoteric knowledge called ḥikmah and that their sufferings were a means of divine grace to their devotees. Although the Imam was not the recipient of a divine revelation, he had a close relationship with God, through which God guides him, and the Imam in turn guides the people. His words and deeds are a guide and model for the community to follow; as a result it is a source of sharia law. Sunnis view Ali as the fourth caliph. Ali is also known as one of the greatest warrior champions of Islam. Almost all Sufi orders trace their lineage to Muhammad through Ali. Ali’s reign saw civil wars and in 661, he was attacked and assassinated by a Kharijite while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa. He was wounded by ibn Muljam’s poison-coated sword while prostrating in the Fajr prayer. He was wounded by ibn Muljam’s poison-coated sword while prostrating in the Fajr prayer. Muawiyah held both the Levant and Egypt and, as commander of the largest force in the Muslim. he died after being poisoned by a member of his own household who, according to historians, had been motivated by Mu’awiyah. Husayn, born in 626, was the third Shia Imam, whom Mu’awiyah persecuted severely. On the tenth day of Muharram, of the year 680, Husayn lined up before the army of the caliph with his small band of followers and nearly all of them were killed in the Battle of Karbala. – Wikipedia
In reading a little history about Muhammed and Ali, you can see why Dante had them in the 8th circle of Hell in the 9th bolgia. They certainly were not men of peace. Mohammed came from a family that worshipped idols. He began taking spiritual retreats to a cave where the angel, Gabriel, appeared to him and gave him extraneous words from God into which he made into the Quran. Sounds a lot like Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons.
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was born in Sharon, Vermont. Smith was born on December 23, 1805 to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Smith Sr., a merchant and farmer. He was one of 11 children. At the age of seven Smith suffered a crippling bone infection and, after receiving surgery, used crutches for three years. After an ill-fated business venture and three successive years of crop failures culminating in the 1816 Year Without a Summer, the Smith family left Vermont and moved to western New York, taking out a mortgage on a 100-acre farm in the townships of Palmyra and Manchester. It was a site of intense religious revivalism during the Second Great Awakening. Smith’s first seer stone, apparently the same one that he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of a chicken egg, found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors. The LDS Church released photographs of the stone on August 4, 2015. In 1820, Smith wrote that he had received a vision that resolved his religious confusion. In a vision God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him his sins were forgiven and that all contemporary churches had “turned aside from the gospel.” Smith was visited by an angel named Moroni, while praying one night in 1823. Moroni was a resurrected being who had died close to Smith’s area in New York state about 1400 years earlier. Moroni, Joseph Smith asserted, had buried a record of his people who had lived on the American continent from about 600 B.C. to about 421 A.D. in New York in the Hill Cumorah. That record, Joseph Smith was told, would be given to him to translate. Smith said that this angel revealed the location of a buried book made of golden plates, as well as other artifacts, including a breastplate and a set of interpreters composed of two seer stones set in a frame, which had been hidden in a hill near his home. The seer stones were a pair of large spectacles he called the Urim and Thummim or “Interpreters,” with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother when he returned in the morning. Beginning in the early 1820s, Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer, using what were termed “seer stones” in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure. Eyewitnesses to the process said Smith translated the plates, not by looking directly at them, but by looking through a transparent seer stone in the bottom of his hat, similar to modern-day glasses. Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning, but was unsuccessful because the angel returned and prevented him. Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22, 1824, with the “right person”: his older brother Alvin. Alvin died in November 1823, and Smith returned to the hill in 1824 to ask what he should do. Smith said he was told to return the following year (1825) with the “right person” but the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be. Smith reported that during the next four years, he made annual visits to the hill, but, until the fourth and final visit, each time he returned without the plates. Smith met and began courting Emma Hale. When Smith proposed marriage, Emma’s father, Isaac Hale objected, primarily because he believed Smith had no means to support Emma. Smith and Emma eloped and married on January 18, 1827. Smith made his last visit to the hill on September 22, 1827, taking Emma with him. This time, he said he successfully retrieved the plates. He said the angel commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else, but to translate them and publish their translation. Smith said the translation was a religious record of Middle-Eastern indigenous Americans, and were engraved in an unknown language, called reformed Egyptian. He also told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them. Smith said he used what he called Urim and Thummim, two seer stones set in a frame like a set of large spectacles. In October 1827, Joseph and Emma moved from Palmyra to Harmony (now Oakland), PA. Living near his in-laws, Smith transcribed some characters that he said were engraved on the plates and then dictated a translation to Emma. Smith placed the stone in a hat, buried his face in it to eliminate all outside light, and peered into the stone to see the words of the translation. Smith’s translation did not require the use of the plates themselves. A few times during the translation, a curtain or blanket was raised between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked. Sometimes, Smith dictated to Harris from upstairs or from a different room. In February 1828, Martin Harris arrived to assist Smith by transcribing his dictation. By June 1828, Harris began having doubts about the project, fueled in part by his wife’s skepticism. Lucy searched the Smith house and grounds for the plates but was unable to locate them. Smith said he did not need their physical presence to create the transcription and that they were hidden in nearby woods. Harris persuaded Smith to let him take the existing 116 pages of manuscript to Palmyra to show a few family members, including his wife. Harris lost the manuscript, of which there was no other copy. As punishment for losing the manuscript, Smith said that the angel returned and took away the plates, and revoked his ability to translate. Smith said that the angel returned the plates to him in September 1828. In April 1829, he met Oliver Cowdery, who replaced Harris as his scribe, and resumed dictation. They worked full time on the manuscript between April and early June 1829. Then they moved to Fayette, NY. Dictation was completed about July 1, 1829 producing the Book of Mormon in a few months. Although Smith had previously refused to show the plates to anyone, he told Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer that they would be allowed to see them. These men, known collectively as the Three Witnesses, signed a statement stating that they had been shown the golden plates by an angel, and that the voice of God had confirmed the truth of their translation. Later, a group of Eight Witnesses — composed of male members of the Whitmer and Smith families — issued a statement that they had been shown the golden plates by Smith. Most of these men left the Church, but claims are also made that even though they did, they never denied that they had seen an angel who showed them “the plates of the Book of Mormon.” However, in the Journal of Discourses, (7:164 ), Brigham Young stated that: “…witnesses of the Book of Mormon who handled the plates and conversed with the angels of God were afterwards left to doubt and to disbelieve that they had ever seen an angel”. These witnesses were unstable men and easily convinced; for example, Martin Harris changed his religion at least eight times. Some of the others started their own religions later. According to Smith, the angel Moroni took back the plates once Smith finished using them. The completed work, titled the Book of Mormon, was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, by printer E. B. Grandin. Soon after, on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the Church of Christ, and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, NY. He and Cowdery fled to Colesville to escape a gathering mob. In probable reference to this period of flight, Smith said that Peter, James, and John had appeared to him and had ordained him and Cowdery to a higher priesthood. Smith’s authority was undermined when Oliver Cowdery, Hiram Page, and other church members also claimed to receive revelations. In response, Smith dictated a revelation which clarified his office as a prophet and an apostle, and which declared that only he held the ability to give doctrine and scripture for the entire church. Shortly after the conference, Smith dispatched Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and others on a mission to proselytize Native Americans. Cowdery was also assigned the task of locating the site of the New Jerusalem. With growing opposition in New York, Smith gave a revelation stating that Kirtland was the eastern boundary of the New Jerusalem, and that his followers must gather there. Smith had promised church elders that in Kirtland they would receive an endowment of heavenly power, and at the June 1831 general conference, he introduced the greater authority of a High (“Melchizedek”) Priesthood to the church hierarchy. Converts poured into Kirtland. By the summer of 1835, there were fifteen hundred to two thousand Mormons in the vicinity, many expecting Smith to lead them shortly to the Millennial kingdom. Cowdery reported that he had found the site of the New Jerusalem in Jackson County, Missouri. After Smith visited in July 1831, he agreed, pronouncing the frontier hamlet of Independence the “center place” of Zion. On their way to Missouri, Cowdery’s party passed through northeastern Ohio, where Sidney Rigdon and over a hundred followers of his variety of Campbellite Restorationism converted to Mormonism, more than doubling the size of the church. Rigdon soon visited New York and quickly became Smith’s primary assistant. Ohio residents who were incensed over the United Order and Smith’s political power; the mob beat Smith and Rigdon unconscious, tarred and feathered them, and left them for dead. In Jackson County, existing Missouri residents resented the Mormon newcomers for both political and religious reasons. Tension increased until July 1833, when non-Mormons forcibly evicted the Mormons and destroyed their property. In late 1837, a series of internal disputes led to the collapse of the Kirtland Mormon community. Smith was blamed for having promoted a church-sponsored bank that failed. He was also being accused by Assistant President of the Church Oliver Cowdery of engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage servant in his home, Fanny Alger. Fanny Alger was his first plural wife, married to Joseph in 1834. Joseph Smith (and later Brigham Young, also) were even married to women who, at the time of marriage, were still other men’s wives. Historical Records of these strange marriages are available. Building the temple had left the church deeply in debt, and Smith was hounded by creditors. Having heard of a large sum of money supposedly hidden in Salem, Massachusetts, Smith traveled there and received a revelation that God had “much treasure in this city”. After a month, however, he returned to Kirtland empty-handed. In January 1837, Smith and other church leaders created a joint stock company, called the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, to act as a quasi-bank; the company issued bank notes capitalized in part by real estate. Smith encouraged the Latter Day Saints to buy the notes, and he invested heavily in them himself, but the bank failed within a month. As a result, the Latter Day Saints in Kirtland suffered intense pressure from debt collectors and severe price volatility. Smith was held responsible for the failure. During this time, a church council expelled many of the oldest and most prominent leaders of the church, including John Whitmer, David Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, and Oliver Cowdery. Smith explicitly approved of the expulsion of these men, who were known collectively as the “dissenters”. Smith’s experiences with mob violence led him to believe that his faith’s survival required greater militancy against anti-Mormons. Around June 1838, recent convert Sampson Avard formed a covert organization called the Danites to intimidate Mormon dissenters and oppose anti-Mormon militia units. Though it is unclear how much Smith knew of the Danites’ activities, he clearly approved of those of which he did know. On August 6, 1838, non-Mormons in Gallatin tried to prevent Mormons from voting, and the election-day scuffles initiated the 1838 Mormon War. Non-Mormon vigilantes raided and burned Mormon farms, while Danites and other Mormons pillaged non-Mormon towns. In the Battle of Crooked River, a group of Mormons attacked the Missouri state militia, mistakenly believing them to be anti-Mormon vigilantes. Governor Lilburn Boggs then ordered that the Mormons be “exterminated or driven from the state”. On October 30, a party of Missourians surprised and killed seventeen Mormons in the Haun’s Mill massacre. Smith and five others, including Rigdon, were charged with “overt acts of treason”, and transferred to the jail at Liberty, Missouri, to await trial. Smith’s months in prison with an ill and whining Rigdon strained their relationship. Meanwhile Brigham Young, the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, rose to prominence when he organized the move of about 14,000 Mormon refugees to Illinois and eastern Iowa. Illinois accepted Mormon refugees who gathered along the banks of the Mississippi River, where Smith purchased high-priced, swampy woodland in the hamlet of Commerce. Smith also attracted a few wealthy and influential converts, including John C. Bennett, the Illinois quartermaster general. Bennett used his connections in the Illinois legislature to obtain an unusually liberal charter for the new city, which Smith renamed “Nauvoo”. In 1841, Smith began revealing the doctrine of plural marriage to a few of his closest male associates, including Bennett, who used it as an excuse to seduce numerous women wed and unwed. When embarrassing rumors of “spiritual wifery” got abroad, Smith forced Bennett’s resignation as Nauvoo mayor. In retaliation, Bennett left Smith’s following and wrote “lurid exposés of life in Nauvoo”. The early Nauvoo years were a period of doctrinal innovation. Smith introduced baptism for the dead in 1840, and in 1841, construction began on the Nauvoo Temple as a place for recovering lost ancient knowledge. An 1841 revelation promised the restoration of the “fulness of the priesthood”; and in May 1842, Smith inaugurated a revised endowment or “first anointing”. The endowment resembled rites of freemasonry that Smith had observed two months earlier when he had been initiated “at sight” into the Nauvoo Masonic lodge. At first, the endowment was open only to men, who were initiated into a special group called the Anointed Quorum. For women, Smith introduced the Relief Society, a service club and sorority within which Smith predicted women would receive “the keys of the kingdom”. In the summer of 1842, Smith revealed a plan to establish the millennial Kingdom of God, which would eventually establish theocratic rule over the whole Earth. In June 1843, enemies of Smith convinced a reluctant Illinois Governor Thomas Ford to extradite Smith to Missouri on an old charge of treason. Two law officers arrested Smith, but were intercepted by a party of Mormons before they could reach Missouri. Smith was then released on a writ of habeas corpus from the Nauvoo municipal court. While this ended the Missourians’ attempts at extradition, it caused significant political fallout in Illinois. In December 1843, Smith petitioned Congress to make Nauvoo an independent territory with the right to call out federal troops in its defense. Smith announced his own independent candidacy for President of the United States, suspended regular proselytizing, and sent out the Quorum of the Twelve and hundreds of other political missionaries. By early 1844, a rift developed between Smith and a half dozen of his closest associates. Most notably, William Law, Smith’s trusted counselor, and Robert Foster, a general of the Nauvoo Legion, disagreed with Smith about how to manage Nauvoo’s economy. Both also said that Smith had proposed marriage to their wives. Believing the dissidents were plotting against his life, Smith excommunicated them on April 18, 1844. These dissidents formed a competing church and the following month, at Carthage, the county seat, they procured indictments against Smith for perjury and polygamy. William Law’s wife had confessed that she had an affair with Joseph. William Law left. On June 7, the dissidents published the first (and only) issue of the Nauvoo Expositor, calling for reform within the church and appealing to the political views of the county’s other faiths as well as those of former Mormons. The paper decried Smith’s new “doctrines of many Gods”, alluded to Smith’s theocratic aspirations, and called for a repeal of the Nauvoo city charter. It also attacked Smith’s practice of polygamy, implying that Smith was using religion as a pretext to draw unassuming women to Nauvoo in order to seduce and marry them. Fearing the newspaper would bring the countryside down on the Mormons, the Nauvoo city council declared the Expositor a public nuisance and ordered the Nauvoo Legion to destroy the press. Destruction of the newspaper provoked a strident call to arms from Thomas C. Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal and longtime critic of Smith. Fearing an uprising, Smith mobilized the Nauvoo Legion on June 18 and declared martial law. Officials in Carthage responded by mobilizing their small detachment of the state militia, and Governor Thomas Ford appeared, threatening to raise a larger militia unless Smith and the Nauvoo city council surrendered themselves. On June 23, Smith and his brother Hyrum rode to Carthage to stand trial for inciting a riot. Once the Smiths were in custody, the charges were increased to treason, preventing them from posting bail. On June 27, 1844, an armed mob with blackened faces stormed Carthage Jail where Joseph and Hyrum were being held. Hyrum, who was trying to secure the door, was killed instantly with a shot to the face. Smith fired three shots from a pepper-box pistol that his friend, Cyrus Wheelock, had lent him, wounding three men, before he sprang for the window. He was shot multiple times before falling out the window, crying, “Oh Lord my God!” He died shortly after hitting the ground, but was shot several more times before the mob dispersed. Five men were later tried for Smith’s murder, but were all acquitted. Samuel was attacked by mobbers, while traveling toward Carthage after hearing rumors of trouble, and is said to have developed some kind of stitch in his side evading them, which may have contributed to his subsequent death. After evading the mobbers, he traveled to the jail (said to have been the first Latter-day Saint after the mobbers left), and retrieved his brothers’ bodies. With Hyrum dead, some church members assumed that Samuel would succeed Joseph as the president of the Latter Day Saint church. Samuel fell ill shortly after their deaths and died just one month later. Smith’s official cause of death was “bilious fever”, which is an archaic and inexact term for any disease accompanied by a fever and the evacuation of bile, such as typhoid fever or malaria. Lucy Mack Smith later suggested Smith had become ill because of the fatigue and shock occasioning by his experience of the death of his brothers. Rumors circulated that Smith was poisoned by Hosea Stout on orders from Willard Richards. On July 10, 1844, Smith had been in a meeting with Richards in which Smith reminded the group that he was Joseph’s designee as president if both Joseph and Hyrum had died. Richards, however, had wanted to delay the decision on succession until Brigham Young and other prominent missionaries had returned to Nauvoo. Stout was implicated because he had been administering a white powder to Samuel for his “sickness”. The remaining brother accused them both of foul play much later. – Wikipedia
Lets look at some facts and compare the two:
Mohammed (570AD-632AD)
Was not a believer in Jesus Christ. Raised in pagan family.
Orphaned and moved around a lot within the family so unstable childhood.
Supposedly, a Christian told him he would be a prophet.
He went into business as a tradesman and merchant.
By the accounts he was happily married to Khadijah, herself a successful businesswoman.
He began taking spiritual retreats to a cave.
An Angel named Gabriel appeared to him and gave him the verses of the Quran.
At first he was greatly distressed with the revelations but his wife reassured him.
A 3 year pause in the revelations in which he fell into depression.
He continued in “prayers and spiritual practices”.
When the revelations began again, he began preaching.
As his followers increased so did his power in the local area and he was seen as a threat.
When his wife and uncle both died in 619, the new clan leader withdrew all support of Mohammed putting him in much danger.
He married multiple wives and had more children.
As more and more people converted to Islam, the threat included an assassination plot which made him flee to Medina.
The people of Mecca seized his property and the battles began. Mohammed became a fighter. If he took prisoners, it was only if they converted to Islam and accepted him as their leader.
When he won the Battle of Badr, Mohammed attributed it to an invisible host of angels that only he could see.
He began demanding that other leaders and their people convert to Islam.
As he conquered the Arabs, he destroyed their idols and forced them to convert to Islam. They would in order to save themselves from being killed.
After his first “Great Pilgrimage” and farewell sermon, he became sick and died.
His successor became a debated topic with the followers and split the Muslims into Shiite and Sunnis.
Joseph Smith, Jr. (12/23/1805-6/27/1844)
He was born into a large family.
At 7 he suffered a bone infection and after surgery had to use crutches for 3 years.
His father had a failed business venture and crop failures and the family moved to NY in 1816.
Intense religious revival during the Second Great Awakening was occurring.
While helping a neighbor dig a well, he found a stone he called a “seer stone” which he used to try to find buried treasure and lost items for a fee.
At 15 yrs old (in 1820) he got a vision of God and Jesus Christ.
At 18 yrs old (in 1823) an angel named Moroni visited him.
Moroni revealed a location of a buried book of history composed of gold plates, and some other artifacts that he, himself, had buried in NY 1,400 years earlier in the Hill Cumorah.
Moroni told him his brother Alvin was the right person for him to bring when he got the gold plates but Alvin died.
The artifacts included a pair of spectacles with stones for lenses which were “seer stones” to help him interpret the golden plates.
He interpreted the gold plates without looking at the gold plates but using the seer stones, the Urim and Thummim. The result was the Book of Mormon.
Nobody else was allowed to see the golden plates except for 8 other men who were called the Eight Witnesses who supposedly saw the gold plates before they forever disappeared.
As he made converts, people began to feel threatened and responded with persecution.
He was run out of towns, driven out of states, lost close friends, supporters, believers and moved around always looking for Zion so he could start the Millennial Kingdom. When they had to move away, they lost property, buildings, etc.
As the constant stress pressured him, he began changing things with more and more new revelations.
He had business failures and failed banks.
He had multiple wives and children.
He became paranoid and excommunicated any dissenters.
He became violent with Mormon militias and the Danites. In Nauvoo he declared martial law.
His delusions of grandeur led him to run for President of the United States.
He was arrested for treason and he and his brother, Hyrum, were killed trying to escape a mob who was storming the jail. In the gunfight, he killed two men with a pistol smuggled to him.
Their only remaining brother died a month later under somewhat mysterious and convenient circumstances.
Succession was contested.
When we look at facts and circumstances of their lives you can sort of see a pattern. You see an unstable childhood, even traumatic. Mohammed losing his parents very young and being moved around. Joseph Smith in a large family, that suffered financially, moved around, and his very serious illness that nearly crippled him.
You see a tendency towards spiritual “practices”. I don’t know what they “practised”. Prayer, fasting, isolation? But in unbalanced minds, that can easily go overboard leading to visions and revelations. It’s a wonderful thing to pray to the one true God and to take times to focus on your relationship with God in spiritual retreats but if someone has an unbalanced mind, religious mania and obsession can occur. And if you fast until your hallucinating, you’ve got a problem. Because it’s not so much spiritual as it is physical. Your body could be reacting to being without proper food and water just like someone trapped in a dessert sees mirages or someone who is starving to death has wild dreams. If you are isolating yourself, you could also fall into hallucinations. We’ve learned that putting prisoners into solitary confinement can do a lot of mental damage making things worse instead of better. I have no idea what Mohammed and Joseph Smith “practised” but it came out in visions. I believe God can use visions and dreams. I believe He can speak to us. But I’m talking about two people who did NOT have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. They were vulnerable to whatever satan could concoct. They did not know the Bible and accept it by faith as their standard of truth. When they had these “visions” and “revelations” that were contrary to the already revealed Word of God, they followed after these strange and heretical ideas.
Notice both had visions of angels? Mohammed supposedly saw Gabriel and Joseph Smith saw Moroni. Both angels tell them that the Christian Bible is not the true word of God. It got messed up and is unreliable. So both angels have to give Mohammed and Joseph Smith and new word. Mohammed got the Quran and Joseph Smith got the Book of Mormon. Those were not godly angels, but demons masquerading as angels of light. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (BSB) 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions.
And the revealed Quran and Book of Mormon were not enough. Both Mohammed and Joseph Smith added to those supposedly perfected and completed books given to them by “angels”. As the pressures in their lives increased so did the “new revelations”.
They both had to make converts. They couldn’t just take their visions and apply it to themselves, they had to force others to believe too. At first it was persuasive but as converts increased and pressures increased, they forced people to believe their way or condemned them and even killed them. They were “excommunicated”, considered “dissenters” and would be lost. In the end, as things got worse and worse, they and their “loyal followers” were killing people who came against them.
I’m sure Mohammed and Joseph Smith faced true unfairness, persecution and bullying. There really is no doubt there. But we’ve all faced hard obstacles in life. I’ve faced unfairness, persecution, bullying and I know you have too. But these men had already turned. Something in them had switched. They became what they feared. They became the bullies. They became the aggressors. They became the enforcers. Mohammed had to conquer and force others to convert to Islam. Joseph Smith sent the Danites to punish. They became paranoid, saw enemies everywhere and reacted in paranoia.
They both had supposedly good marriages but they both went on to have multiple wives. I don’t know what it is, but give man power and he thinks women are his to use. They both made women into possessions and wielded power over women and children. Both new religions took all power away from the women and children and gave it to the men. There is no equality in these religions. Men are users and women are used. They both had delusions of grandeur. They think they are the only ones God speaks through. They have the inside track and nobody else does. They think they must rule the world in order to enforce God’s special revelations. They have to be in control. Not only of their family, but of their community and the WORLD!!! Mohammed began sending out notices to other world leaders telling them they must convert to Islam and submit to him. Joseph Smith ran for President of the United States!
Although both claimed to hear from God and be the only ones who heard from God, they were surprised when things happened. For instance, the angel Moroni told Joseph Smith the “right one” to bring with him to collect the golden plates was his brother, Alvin. But Alvin died. How come Moroni didn’t know Alvin would die and name someone else? How come God didn’t give him sound financial advice before his businesses and banks failed? What about Mohammed? Why didn’t God reveal to him that he was on his last pilgrimage and warn him to name a successor? It’s like fortunetellers. If they really can give you sound advice, then why are they not winning the lottery and living in luxury? Why are they talking to you on the phone from the back of a trailer in a trailer park giving you advice on your life?
Why is this different from true Christianity? This would be a whole blog post on it’s own, or even a series. But let’s summarize it a little. Jehovah God, the one true God, and His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, are a trinity of perfect harmony and unity, working as one. The Trinity is the all powerful God and They have given the world the only true Word of God. There is long history, and I have researched it somewhat, but the Word of God has miraculously been preserved and passed down to us. It is the only acceptable standard of truth. Anything that contradicts the Word of God (the Holy Bible) is heretical. God revealed Himself in His Word as a letter to His people. In it we find what we need to know about God and about how He wants us to live. What does the Word reveal about how we are to live? We are to live in love towards God and towards our fellow man. We are to consider others before ourselves. That means women and children, anyone who is vulnerable, should be treated with love, respect and cared for. Jesus had women who were disciples of His. Women were the first ones to discover Jesus had risen from the dead. Women were fellow workers with the Apostles in starting churches and leading others to Christ. Yes, men are given headship but God said men and women were considered equal in God’s eyes. Equality of sexes, races, financial resources, ages… we are equally loved, and respected. God gives us all a relationship with Him if we accept Jesus Christ. It’s called the priesthood of the believer. I don’t need any mediary between myself and God. My husband doesn’t hear from God and then tell me what God says. My priest/minister, my President, a Saint… no one has to come between myself and my God. If I keep that relationship with God, God can reveal Himself to me and direct me. He will never tell me anything contrary to His already revealed Word. As the stresses of the outside world increase, I can find peace in Him. I may suffer but God’s grace is given for me to face whatever I have to face. He tells us to be a peaceful people, obeying God first and then laws that are not contrary to God’s ways. He tells us to forgive others, releasing them to Him to be dealt with. God knows whether someone needs mercy and grace or punishment. He is the only one who knows someone inside out and what it will take to make things right with them and everyone affected by them. So He says for us not to judge others but to forgive and leave it to Him. He has revealed in His Word that people must make their own choices concerning Jesus Christ. We are to tell others about Him. We are commissioned to be witnesses of His love, mercy and grace. But we cannot force someone to accept Jesus. It is not a true conversion if a person is forced. God says we are responsible for our choice. We will suffer judgment and eternal damnation if we don’t choose Jesus Christ but it is our free choice. It is up to us to obey God by telling of Jesus Christ. It is up to the Holy Spirit to try and prepare hearts and present the gospel. But it is up to each person to freely, voluntarily choose their salvation or their judgment. Freedom of will and choice is key to the Christian gospel. God provides a way to salvation through Jesus Christ. But we must choose to follow Him or not. God knows what you will do because He lives in no time. The past, present and future is the same to Him. But you and I do not know who will and who will not accept Jesus Christ.
Have Christians always walked the way God teaches us to walk? No. We still have a sinful nature and we are tempted to follow our own sins at times. The Holy Spirit within us should lead us by conviction to repent and try harder next time. And there are plenty of people who are not true believers, but who claim to be, and they do a lot of damage in the “name of God”. The Inquisition and Crusades come to mind. Knights who went on crusades to make their fortune and to earn Heaven by doing it in the name of God, were not God’s representatives! Power and money hungry “priests” who used torture and killed those whom they declared were heretics, were not God’s representatives! They may have dressed and spoke the part but it only masked their evil hearts.
John 17:14-23 (BSB, Jesus speaking) 14 I have given them Your word and the world has hated them; for they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.
20 I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one— 23 I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.
Dante has unmasked quite a few “christians” in this work. Plenty of priests and Popes who landed throughout the circles of Hell and are being punished for their evil and un-regenerate hearts. In this 8th circle of Hell and the 9th bolgia, Dante sees Mohammed who has been cut open with his entrails falling out. He tells Dante that as he goes around the circle of this bolgia, his wounds will heal only to be cut open again by a demon with a sword. He says Ali is also in this bolgia of grim gore and horror. To Dante, those who brought Islam into the world, and created such a horrible blight that has cost the lives of millions of people, are being duly and well punished in this bolgia. As they tore others apart in life, they are now split, mutilated. These sinners were active in rending apart families. They tore apart governments and the church. Mohammed had caused a great religious schism and led his followers into false religion and warring against the true Church.
“Tell Fra Dolcino, you who may see the sun,
If he wants not to follow soon to the same
Punishment, he had better store up grain
Against a winter siege and the snows’ duress,
Or the Novarese will easily bring him down” –
After he had lifted his foot to resume the pace
Mohammed spoke these words, and having spoken
He stepped away again on his painful course.
Fra Dolcino – (c. 1250 – 1307) was the second leader of the Dulcinian reformists. His origins are obscure. He was born in Romagnano Sesia, went in his childhood to Vercelli and there lived in the church of St. Agnes where he studied grammar. He was very intelligent and proficient in the studies, of short stature, always smiling and of gentle temperament. One day a priest lamented that some money had been stolen and accused one of his familiars, Patras, of the theft; he in turn accused Dolcino and wanted him tortured to make him confess. The priests refused and did not accuse him of anything but Dolcino was terrorized and fled far away to the city of Trento where he met and joined the sect of the Apostolics. Dolcino left Vercelli between 1280 and 1290. The Dulcinian sect began in 1300 when Gherardo Segarelli, founder of the Apostolic Brethren, was burned at the stake in Parma during a brutal repression of the Apostolics. His followers went into hiding to save their lives. Fra Dolcino had joined the Apostolics between 1288 and 1292, and became their leader. Fra Dolcino, a former member, became the leader of the movement of Apostolics, and influenced by the millenarist theories of Gioacchino da Fiore gave birth to the Dulcinian movement, which existed between the years 1300 and 1307. It ended in the mountains in Sesia Valley and in the Biella area, in Piedmont, Italy, on 23 March 1307 when many crusaders finally conquered the fortification built on the mount Rubello by the Dulcinians. The Dulcinians were a religious sect of the Late Middle Ages, originating within the Apostolic Brethren. Dolcino and his followers, in reaction to attacks by Catholic troops, became criminals (today they would be probably called guerrilla fighters), who would not hesitate, for their own survival, to plunder and devastate villages, killing any who opposed them, and burning their houses. At the beginning of 1304, three Dulcinians were burned by the Inquisition, leading Dolcino to evacuate the community to the west side of the Sesia valley, near his native Novara. At the end of 1304, only 1400 survived on the top of Mount Parete Calva, in the fortified Piano dei Gazzari. They descended the mountain to pillage and kill the people in the valley, responsible in their eyes for not defending the group against the episcopal troops. The villagers called them “Gazzari” (Cathars), and joined the soldiers in opposition. Fra Dolcino and his co-preacher or concubine Margaret of Trent were never tried by the Church. Manly Hall claims (as do many other modern writers) that Dolcino was castrated and torn to pieces, limb by limb, the pieces afterward burned by the public executioner. Fifteen years later (in 1322), approximately thirty of Dolcino’s disciples were burned alive in the marketplace at Padua. He may have been burned at the stake. Some consider him to be one of the reformers of the Church and one of the founders of the ideals of the French revolution and socialism. In particular he was positively reevaluated toward the end of the 19th century and was dubbed the Apostle of the Socialist Jesus and thus in 1907 left wing workers of Biella and the Sesia Valley erected a monument on mount Rubello, the place of its last resistance. – Wikipedia
Dante sees Mohammed, Alie and Fra Dolcino as religious schismatics.
Another there, whose face was cruelly broken,
The throat pierced through, the nose cut off at the brow,
One ear remaining, stopped and gazed at me, stricken
With recognition as well as wonder. “Ah, you,”
His bleeding throat spoke, “you here, yet not eternally
Doomed here by guilt – unless I’m deceived, I knew
Your face when I still walked about in Italy.
If you return to the sweet plain I knew well
That slopes toward Marcabo from Vercelli
Remember Pier da Medicina.
Pier Da Medicina is has his throat slit and using this wound like a mouth. Nothing is known of Pier da Medicina except that he was a sower of discord or he wouldn’t be in this bolgia. He wanted to be remembered and he is but he isn’t. His name is in this classic so will be remembered. But no one remembers who he was so his name is all there is.
And tell
Ser Guido and Angeolello, the two best men
Of Fano: if we have foresight here in Hell
Then by a tyrant’s treachery they will drown
Off La Cattolica – bound and thrown in the sea
From their ships. Neptune has never seen, between
Cyprus and Majorca, whether committed by
pirates or Argives, such a crime. The betrayer
Who sees from one eye only (he holds a city
Found bitter by another who’s with me here)
Will lure them to set sail for truce-talks; then,
When he has dealt with them, they’ll need no prayer
For safe winds near Focara – not ever again.”
Then I to him: “If you’d have me be the bearer
of news from you to those above, explain –
What man do you mean, who found a city bitter?”
Then he grasped one shade near him by the jaw,
And opened the mouth, and said, “This is the creature,
He does not speak, who once, in exile, knew
Words to persuade Caesar at the Rubicon –
Affirming, to help him thrust his doubt below,
‘Delaying when he’s ready hurts a man.'”
I saw how helpless Curio’s tongue was cut
To a stub in his throat, whose speech had been so keen.
Guido I del Cassero was a nobleman of Fano but otherwise unknown.
Angiolello da Carignano was a nobleman of Fano but otherwise unknown.
Malatestino Malatesta (aka the Eye because he had lost an eye) son of Malatesta da Verrucchio became lord of Rimini on the death of his father in 1312. He took part in the civil wars that infested Romagna and, in 1288, by Pietro Stefaneschi, papal rector, he was declared a rebel and forfeited from any public office. Malatestino, when the Rimini expelled his father, joined the count of Romagna and in the fight that took over for the return to his homeland, he showed himself courageous. He conquered various castles, sacked Lauditorio, occupied Montescudolo. Besieged by the Rimini people, he heroically defended himself, but in October 1288. He was arrested and taken with all his men to the prisons of Rimini. He fled in 1289 and rushed to the defense of Stefano Colonna the Elder, when he was attacked by the Rimini people. In 1294 he fought against Count Guido da Montefeltro and went victorious as far as the walls of Urbino , but he soon had to lift the siege and also lost Pesaro. The following year he was forced to leave the podestà of Cesena, because he was opposed by the archbishop of Monreale. He played a major part in the struggle that year against the Ghibellines of Rimini. It seems that it was the advisor of the deceptions who forced the Parcitadi to lay down their arms. He committed not a few crimes. In 1296 he was elected captain of the Bolognese Guelphs, in war against the Marquis of Ferrara. However, he had taken part in an attempt against Forlì, during which he was taken prisoner by Scarpetta Ordelaffi. At the head of the Bolognese, he moved against Azzo d’Este, from whom he forcibly removed the castle of Bazzano. In 1303, as captain of the people of Florence, he led the Florentines against the exiles commanded by Scarpetta and won them at Mugello. He tried to take over Pistoia, but was unable to do so and therefore in revenge, he devastated the countryside, returning to Florence with a very rich booty.
Dante has Pier da Medicina prophetically telling the two noblemen mentioned, “the best men of Fano”, will be set up by Malatestino da Verrucchio, lord of Rimini. In 1306, Malatestino will invite them on his ship for “truce talks” but will set sail. Near the city of Cattolica, on the Adriatic coast of Romagna, he will tie their hands and feet, put them in a bag with ballast stone and toss them into the sea to drown. This murder by “mazzeratura” is seen as crueler than anything done by pirates or “Argives” (Greeks).
With this crime he procured the Podesta office of Fano from Pandolfo, from where he was soon expelled. In 1307 he was fighting against Federico da Montefeltro, whom he wanted to prevent from bringing aid to Cardinal Napoleone Orsini, who was besieged in Arezzo by the Florentines. Malatestino got the worst of it, and indeed, going to besiege Bertinoro, he was attacked and defeated by Scarpetta Ordelaffi. It was also at war against the Venetians to drive them out of Ferrara, but the city had to pass under the Venetian rule.
Opposed by Guglielmo Malatesta, count of Sogliano, who was a Ghibelline, Malatestino moved to besiege him in Sogliano and in 1312 occupied the castle and destroyed it, saving however the life of Guglielmo. In the same year he succeeded his father in the lordship of Rimini. In 1314 Cesena submitted to him, therefore also Forlì, with the help of the king of Naples. In 1316, having rebelled Forlì, he besieged it. Many other feats of arms had him as a protagonist, until 1317, the year in which he died. – Wikipedia
Gaius Scribonius Curio (d. 49 BC) was a Roman tribune, initially a supporter of Pompey and later an adherent of Caesar, who, according to Lucan, urged Caesar to cross the Rubicon and attack Rome. He was the son of Gaius Scribonius Curio, consul in 76 BC. He was a friend to Pompey, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Clodius and Cicero. There was a rumor that Curio and Mark Antony had an affair when they were young. When the two men had been banned from seeing each other by Curio’s father, Curio had smuggled Mark Antony in through his father’s roof. It is likely that before Curio married Fulvia, he had another wife named Memmia by whom he also had a son named Gaius Scribonius Curio. This son might have died young as his name was reused for Curio’s son with Fulvia. In about 52 BC, he married Fulvia, the widow of his close friend Publius Clodius which helped his public image among Clodius supporters and gave him the support of Clodius’ gangs. His and Fulvia’s son Scribonius Curio was born soon after. Known universally as unpredictable, by standing for the Tribuneship in 51 he placed himself (as Cicero told him) in a pivotal position at the Republic’s crisis point, when at the end of 51 BC Curio got himself elected as a tribune of the Plebs for 50 BC. As Tribune he suddenly did a volte-face and became a supporter of Caesar (probably because in return for his support, Caesar paid off his debts). According to Tacitus, Caesar bribed him for his oratory. Curio vetoed every effort by Caesar’s opponents to prise his provinces from him. Before the Civil War, Curio was one of the last politicians to call on Pompey and Caesar to make peace. At the end of his year as tribune Curio travelled to Ravenna to inform Caesar about developments in Rome. Caesar gave Curio instructions and sent him back to Rome with an ultimatum. On 1 January of 49 BC Mark Antony entered office as one of the tribunes of the Plebs, he took over from Curio, he summoned a meeting of the Senate and read out Caesar’s letter. The meeting ended with the consul Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus expelling Antony from the Senate building by force. Antony fled Rome, fearing for his life, and returned to Caesar’s camp on the banks of the Rubicon River. On his flight Anthony was accompanied by Marcus Caelius and Curio. On the tenth of January the Civil War between Caesar and his opponents started when Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy proper. The cities and communities of northern Italy quickly fell or surrendered to Caesar and he ordered the recruitment of additional soldiers. Curio was put in charge of the recruiting operation. When Caesar reached Corfinium Curio brought twenty-two cohorts of recruits to assist in the siege. Caesar made Curio a praetor and sent him with four legions and 1,000 Gallic cavalry to Sicily and Africa to take possession of both provinces and secure the grain supply. Curio drove Cato from Sicily and secured the island for Caesar. After receiving word that Caesar had defeated the Pompeians in Spain he embarked with two of his legions and half the cavalry and sailed to Africa. In Africa he faced Attius Varus and King Juba I of Numidia (a supporter of Pompey). Although he won the Battle of Utica (49 BC), he was eventually defeated by Juba at the Second Battle of the Bagradas River and fought to his death, along with his army, rather than attempting to flee to his camp. Curio built Rome’s first permanent amphitheatre, in his father’s memory and celebrated funeral games there with seating built on a pivot that could move the entire audience. – Wikipedia
One with both hands lopped off came forward to shout,
Stumps raised in the murk to spatter his cheeks with blood,
“Also remember Mosca! I too gave out
A slogan urging bloodshed, when I said
‘Once done it’s done with'” words which were seeds of pain
For the Tuscan people.” Then, when he heard me add,
“- and death to your family line,” utterly undone
By sorrow heaped upon his sorrow, the soul
Went away like one whom grief has made insane.
Mosca dei Lamberti was born towards the end of the 12th century to the important Ghibelline Lamberti family, allies of the Uberti di Farinata. He was a politician and leader. He was Podestà of Viterbo in 1220, of Todi in 1227, leader during the war against Siena in 1229-1235 and Podestà of Reggio Emilia in 1242. He is in this bolgia as a punishment of his advice “Cosa fare capo ha” which convinced the Amidei to kill Buondelmonte de Buondelmonti. Buondelmonte de Buondelmonti was engaged to a woman of the Amidei family but he broke off the engagement when he fell in love with a woman of the Donati household. The marriage was supposed to be a “remedy” for another offense that originated in a fight at a banquet, so leaving the bride at the altar was doubly offensive to the Amidei family. They had decided the issue could only be resolved with a shotgun wedding. The proposal was accepted. A contract was stipulated by a notary which provided for a heavy penalty in case of failure to celebrate the marriage. Gualdrada Donati, who wanted Buondelmonte as his son-in-law at all costs, accused the young man of being afraid of the powerful Fifanti and their many friends. He also made fun of the physical appearance of the young Amidei woman. He proposed the boy marry his daughter. In agreement with her husband, she also offered to pay the penalty along with the girl’s rich dowry. The Amidei family swore revenge for this offense. Florentine idiom “capo ha cosa fatta” is a resolute phrase meaning an action, when it is done, always has a specific purpose, while procrastinating leads nowhere. Take control, for what’s done is done. You move forward and do what has to be done. Mosca gave that advice when the Amidei family met to consult. So Buondelmonte was murdered on Easter morning of that same year, while on his way to the new wedding. The young man was riding to church, dressed in white and with a wreath on his head. A blow from the Uberti threw him off. Amidei and Mosca stabbed him. And Fifanti, as a final blow, cut his veins when he was already in agony. Villani points to this bloody episode as the first spark that led the city to split into the factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines through the cross vendettas of the factions. Dante, the poet, saw this as the primary cause of the ruin of Florence. So Dante, the pilgrim, muttered an imprecation, “and death to your family line” which made Mosca run away “like one whom grief has made insane”.
I stayed to see more, one sight so incredible
As I should fear to describe, except that conscience,
Being pure in this, encourages me to tell:
I saw – and writing it now, my brain still envisions –
A headless trunk that walked, in sad promenade
Shuffling the dolorous track with its companions,
And the trunk was carrying the severed head,
Gripping its hair like a lantern, letting it swing,
And the head looked up at us: “Oh me!” it cried.
He was himself and his lamp as he strode along,
Two in one, and one in two – and how it can be,
Only He knows, who so ordains the thing.
Reaching the bridge, the trunk held the head up high
So we could hear his words, which were “Look well,
You who come breathing to view the dead, and say
If there is punishment harder than mine in Hell.
Carry the word, and know me: Bertran de Born,
Who made the father and the son rebel
The one against the other, by the evil turn
I did the young king, counseling him to ill.
David and Absalom had nothing worse to learn
From the wickedness contrived by Achitophel.
Because I parted their union, I carry my brain
Parted from this, its pitiful stem: Mark well
This retribution that you see is mine.”
Bertran de Born (born c. 1140, Viscount of Limoges, France—died 1212–15) was the eldest son of Bertran de Born, Lord of Hautefort, and his wife Ermengardis. He had two younger brothers, Constantine and Itier. His father died in 1178, and Bertran succeeded him as lord of Hautefort. By this time, he was already married to his first wife, Raimonda, and had two sons. By his second wife, Philippa, he had two more sons. Hautefort lies at the border between the Limousin and Périgord. Bertran became involved in the conflicts of the sons of Henry II Plantagenet. According to his later vida (a romanticised short biography attached to his songs), Henry II believed Bertran had fomented the rebellion of his son Henry the Young King. But Born was also fighting for control of Hautefort. He was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the twelfth century. According to the feudal custom of his region, he was not the only lord of Hautefort, but held it jointly with his brothers. Bertran’s struggle, especially with his brother Constantine, is at the heart of his poetry, which is dominated by political topics. He was present at his overlord Henry II of England’s court at Argentan. That same year, he had joined in Henry the Young King’s revolt against his younger brother, Richard, Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine. He wrote songs encouraging Aimar V of Limoges and others to rebel, and took the oath against Richard at Limoges. His brother Constantine took the opposing side, and Bertran drove him out of the castle in July. Henry the Young King died on campaign in June 1183 in Martel. In his punitive campaign against the rebels, Richard, aided by Alfonso II of Aragon, besieged Autafort and gave it to Constantine de Born. Henry II, however, is reported to have been moved by Bertran’s lament for his son, and returned the castle to the poet. Constantine seems to have become a mercenary. Bertran was reconciled also with Richard, whom he supported in turn against Philip II of France. Widowed for the second time c. 1196, Bertran became a monk and entered the Cistercian abbey of Dalon at Sainte-Trie in the Dordogne region. He had made numerous grants to the abbey over the years. His œuvre consists of about 47 works, 36 unambiguously attributed to him in the manuscripts, and 11 uncertain attributions. – Wikipedia
Absalom in the Bible was the third son of King David and his wife Maacah. Absalom was born in Hebron, during the early part of David’s reign in Judah. “He was flawless from head to foot.” (2 Samuel 14:25) A very handsome young man who cut his hair once a year because it became too heavy. It would weigh 5 lbs cut. He had one daughter and three sons, all of whom died at an early age. Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar, who was a virgin. Another of David’s sons, Amnon, was their half-brother. Amnon fell in love with Tamar, raped her, then rejected her in disgrace. For two years Absalom kept silent, sheltering Tamar in his home. He had expected his father David to punish Amnon for his act. When David did nothing, Absalom’s rage and anger seethed into a vengeful plot. One day Absalom invited all the king’s sons to a sheep-shearing festival. When Amnon was celebrating, Absalom ordered his soldiers to kill him. He fled to Geshur, northeast of the Sea of Galilee, to the house of his grandfather. He hid there for three years. David missed his son deeply. David “mourned for his son day after day” (2 Samuel 13:37). Absalom went to Hebron and began to gather an army. He sent messengers throughout the land, proclaiming his kingship. When King David learned of the rebellion, he and his followers fled Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Absalom took advice from his counselors on the best way to defeat his father. Before the battle, David ordered his troops not to harm Absalom. The two armies clashed at Ephraim, in a large oak forest. Twenty thousand men fell that day. The army of David prevailed. As Absalom was riding his mule under a tree, his hair got entangled in the branches. The mule ran off, leaving Absalom hanging in the air, helpless. Joab, one of David’s generals, took three javelins and thrust them into Absalom’s heart. Then ten of Joab’s armor-bearers circled Absalom and killed him. David was heartbroken over the death of his son, the man who tried to kill him and steal his throne. He loved Absalom dearly. When David was an old man, his son Adonijah rebelled in the same way Absalom had. Absalom took justice into his own hands by murdering his half-brother Amnon. Then he followed unwise counsel, rebelled against his own father, and tried to steal David’s kingdom. His selfishness and pride ruled him and caused him to oppose God’s Will and unseat God’s duly appointed King.
“Factions and schisms unhappily still exist, but the modern spirit of toleration makes it difficult for us to understand why Dante thus fiercely plunges Schismatics of every kind into one of the lowest pits of Hell. The historical reason is undoubtedly the deplorable condition of Italy in his day. It was one vast battlefield, and the wounds of the souls in this valley are but the spiritual and symbolic counterpart of the literal wounds which the discords they had sowed had inflicted upon their fellows. Look where he would, Church, State, and Family were like the sinners here – continually cloven by the sword of the Demon of Discord.” – John S. Carroll (1904)
Romans 12:16 (BSB) Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but enjoy the company of the lowly. Do not be conceited.
Romans 15:4-6 (BSB) 4 For everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. 5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you harmony with one another in Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2:2 (BSB) then make my joy complete by being of one mind, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose.
1 Peter 3:8 (BSB) Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tender-hearted and humble.
Jeremiah 32:36-41 (BSB, after Jerusalem and the unbelievers are punished, the believers will be brought back) 36 Now therefore, about this city of which you say, ‘It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and famine and plague,’ this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 37 I will surely gather My people from all the lands to which I have banished them in My furious anger and great wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them dwell in safety. 38 They will be My people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me. 41 Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.
Reminds me of the song we learned as a child in Sunday School, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His Sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Excerpts of Dante’s Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky .
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