The Kitab al-Mi'raj (Arabic: كتاب المعراج "Book of the Ascension") is a book by al-Qushayri (died 1072) concerning the Miraj, that is, Muhammad's ascension into Heaven following his miraculous one-night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. The book is divided into seven chapters, and was written in Arabic using the Naskh script.
In the second half of the 13th century, the book was translated into Latin (as Liber scalae Machometi) and Spanish (by Abraham of Toledo), and soon thereafter (in 1264 CE) into Old French. Its Islamic depictions of Hell are believed by some scholars to have been a major influence on Dante's Divine Comedy (completed in 1320), including Miguel Asín Palacios, and Enrico Cerulli .
Notes
- I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, "Histoire d'une traduction," in Le Livre de l'échelle de Mahomet, translated by Gisèle Besson and Michèle Brossard-Dandré, Collection Lettres Gothiques, Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p. 22.
References
- Traces de soufisme en Europe occidentale Archived 2009-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
- Bibliographic reference to the Miraj from Khuda Bakhsh Library in Patna, India
- THE NIGHT JOURNEY OF MUHAMMAD TO HEAVEN