The Miʿrāǧ of Muḥammad According to Baldassarre Loyola Mandes S.J. (1631-1667). Sources, Controversy and Christianization of an Islamic Tradition*The research leading to these results has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement no. 810141, project EuQu: “The European Qur’an. Islamic Scripture in European Culture and Religion 1150-1850”. I would like to express my gratitude to Laurent Basanese S.J. who introduced me to this field of studies some years ago. I also wish thank Leonardo Capezzone, Frederick Colby, Emanuele Colombo, and Roberto Tottoli for their suggestions and advice and Martin Morales S.J., Irene Pedretti, and Lorenzo Mancini for their help in the archival research. A preliminary result of this research was presented in the course of the Conference of the European Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism (ENSIE): Islamic Esotericism in Global Contexts, 3-5 December 2020, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium with the title: “The Mi‘rāj of Muḥammad according to Baldassarre Loyola Mandes S.J. (1631-1667). Between Controversy and Christianization”.

Introduction

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how external and internal evidence within this previously unknown early modern Latin narrative of the miʿrāǧ lead to assume that Baldassarre Loyola Mandes S.J. (1631-1667) - who was able to read and write in Arabic, Latin and Italian - made use of an Arabic source for writing his version of the legend. What we are going to propose and imply in the following pages is a close relation between Baldassarre’s version and the four long accounts of the miʿrāǧ included in al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s collection (mainly by Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa,¹ Al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Badʾ al-Ḫalq, Ḏikr al-Malāʾik (no. 6), no. 1. Anas ibn Mālik,² Al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Ṭawḥīd, no. 37. Abū Ḏarr,³ Al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Ṣalāt, no. 1. and a different version of the ḥadīṯ report passed on by Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa⁴ Al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Al-manāqib al-ansār, no. 42. From hereafter Malik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa, Version 2.) or to what Roberto Tottoli calls ḥadīṯ-oriented literature,⁵As Tottoli states: “With ‘ḥadīth-oriented’ I intend literature that relies mainly on ḥadīths (sayings of the Prophet), but also includes reports and statements going back to Companions and Successors, and literature constructed mainly from their literal quotations”. Tottoli, Muslim Eschatology and the Ascension of the Prophet Muḥammad, p. 865. rather than to the previous Latin versions which already widely circulated in the West. Furthermore, we will show the way Baldassarre dealt with this Islamic tradition, not only polemizing with it, but also giving a Christian-oriented reading of the story of the ascension of Muḥammad.

Between the Islamic World and Western Christianity

Islamic religious literature developed an incredibly extensive tradition of legends regarding the night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, the heavenly ascension of Muḥammad and the subsequent vision of the hereafter. Starting out from only a few Qurʾānic verses mainly contained in two suras and other obscure verses,⁶ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 13-27. See also Longoni, Introduzione, pp. VI-VII. over the centuries Muslim religious culture went on to produce many theological, mystical, poetical and popular works which appeared within the borders of Islamic lands, as well as in European Latin and Vernacular literature. The first and most important Qurʾānic passage regarding the night journey and the ascension of the Prophet is Q. 17:1:⁷All the English translations of the Qurʾān are taken from: Abdel Haleem, The Qurʾan. See Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 13-16.

Contained in Q. 53:1-18 are further more obscure references, which seem to outline a vision of Paradise:⁸ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 17-21.

Both the above suras⁹Other obscure references to the Throne of God can be found in Q. 81:15-24. See Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 16-17. are the main Qurʾānic sources from which the Islamic exegetical tradition on isrāʾ/miʿrāǧ has been developed. According to Colby, the technical Arabic word that meant “night journey” (isrāʾ) also became synonymous for the heavenly ascension.¹⁰ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, p. 14; according to Bencheikh, “in the older tradition isrāʾ is often used as synonymous with mi‘rādj”. Bencheikh, Mi‘rādj. 1, p. 97. Discerning whether the night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and the heavenly journey are actually the same event or two different events is not easy in early Islamic sources. Sometimes, the journey from Mecca to Jerusalem is called “night journey” (isrāʾ), while the heavenly one is called “ascension” miʿrāǧ. In other cases, such as in Ibn Ḥišām’s (d. 833) version of the Sīra originally written by Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767), the use of both words became similar, if not identical.¹¹ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, p. 15. Furthermore, as Tottoli states, the early development of miʿrāǧ literature is far from being clear, especially as regards the question of how and when Muslim scholars combined the eschatological themes (tour to Paradise and Hell) with the heavenly ascension of Muḥammad. In fact, in early Muslim literature, these two topics were not linked or connected, but they slowly became a sole legend.¹² Tottoli, Muslim Eschatology and the Ascension of the Prophet Muḥammad, pp. 858-890. Asín Palacios referred to isrāʾ solely as the night tour Muḥammad undertook through Hell and Paradise with some friends, by way of a mountain or Jerusalem, while according to modern studies the premise of the matter is quite different. According to Longoni, isrāʾ should only be seen or contemplated as the journey Muḥammad made riding the flying creature Burāq from Mecca to Jerusalem. See Asín Palacios, Dante y el Islam, pp. 28-36; Longoni, Introduzione, p. VII.

The version attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās¹³On Ibn ʿAbbās see Gilliot, “Portrait mythique d’Ibn Abbās”. - who was a relative of Muḥammad - was widely circulated and recognized starting from the second half of the eighth century or the first half of the ninth century. Cited by Ṭabarī (d. 923) in his Tafsīr - who thus demonstrates that the oral narrative was already in circulation - the first full written evidence of Ibn ʿAbbās’ version pertains to Ibn Ḥibbān Bustī’s (d. 965) critical report - in which he disapproved of the isnād and warned Muslims of its unauthenticity - in his lost work quoted by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505) in the Mamluk era.¹⁴ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 32-35, 42-46, 114-115. For the sources in which Ibn Ḥibbān’s quotation is included see Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, p. 246, n.14; see also Longoni, Introduzione, p. IX-XI. On Ibn ʿAbbās’ version see Zilio-Grandi, Introduzione, (on al-Suyūṭī see pp. XXXVII-XXXVIII). Colby has stated that miʿrāǧ literature begun to spread and circulate widely in Eastern lands from the eleventh century onwards and then in the West over the course of the following two centuries. This extensive propagation of the legend was linked to the mysterious name of Abū al-Ḥasān Bakrī (ninth century?), who was either a person or perhaps a group of people.¹⁵ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, p. 127. According to Bencheikh, Bakrī was a controversial personality who lived in the second half of thirteenth century. Bencheikh, Mi‘rādj. 2, p. 100. According to Colby, Ibn ʿAbbās’ narrative circulated extensively due to the texts which were diffused - both written and orally - under the name of Bakrī from the thirteenth century onwards.¹⁶ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 127-128. Five surviving manuscripts are attributed to Bakrī and the oldest of them is kept in Istanbul (last quarter of the thirteenth century).¹⁷ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 145-147. This last manuscript is called Ḥadīṯ al-Miʿrāǧ ‘ala al-tamām wa-l-kamāl.¹⁸ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 195-234. Bencheikh refers to one of Bakrī’s manuscripts with the title of Kitāb qissa al-miʿrāǧ. According to Bencheikh, Bakrī’s version is close to that of Ibn ʿAbbās. Bencheikh, Mi‘rādj. 2, p. 100. See Tottoli, Muslim Eschatology and the Ascension of the Prophet Muḥammad, pp. 878-880. Evidences of Bakrī’s version can be also traced back to Ibn Sīnā’s Miʿrāǧ nāme, written between 1022-1037,¹⁹ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 150-154; Longoni, Introduzione, p. XI. as well as to an incomplete Western Andalusian or North African codex (twelfth century), already referred to by Miguel Asín Palacios as Madrid MS. Gayangos 241.²⁰ Asín Palacios, Dante y el Islam, p. 279; Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 154-156; see Longoni, Introduzione, p. XI. Although Colby agrees with Asín Palacios dating of the North African fragment of Bakrī, he believes that this version - despite its incompleteness - appears to share several features in common with the Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247..²¹ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 154-158. However, scholars disagree regarding the date of Ibn ʿAbbās’ version: according to Guillaume, on the one hand, Ibn ʿAbbās’ report must have appeared after the tenth century, while, on the other, according to Bencheikh it is an apocryphal work which survived in many versions.²² Guillaume, Le texte sous le texte, pp. 39-53, 45; according to Bencheikh, Bakrī’s version “has often been regarded as apocryphal”. Bencheikh, Mi‘rādj. 2., p. 100; see the discussion in Tottoli, Two Kitāb al-mi‘rāj, p. 704.

Two further kinds of documents should be mentioned together with Ibn ʿAbbās’ narrative. On the one hand, Ibn Isḥāq’s (d. 767) above-mentioned account of isrāʾ and miʿrāǧ recounted in his Sīra, which survived in the versions written by Ibn Ḥišām - which recounts both the night journey and the heavenly ascension - ²³See the English translation: Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, pp. 181-187. and in some recently discovered fragments of an older recension written by Yūnus ibn Bukayr (d. 814),²⁴On Yūnus ibn Bukayr’s version of the Sīra see: Guillaume, New Light on the Life of Muhammad; Muranyi, “Ibn Isḥāq’s Kitāb al-Maġāzī”. which only deals with the journey of the Prophet from Mecca to Jerusalem. Within this older version, even the negotiation between Muḥammad and God regarding the number of daily ritual prayers occurs in Jerusalem and not in the heavens.²⁵ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 51-52, 251 (notes). On the other hand, the ḥadīṯ literature accounts reported in the collections of the traditionists al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] . (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875)²⁶Asín Palacios categorized al-Buḫārī’s version (as well as Muslim, but we can also consider Ibn Isḥāq’s account as a part of this cycle) in what he calls the redaction A of the second cycle (legends on miʿrāǧ), while he considers Ibn ʿAbbās’ version as an example of redaction B of the second cycle. Asín Palacios, Dante y el Islam, pp. 38-50; See also Colby Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 29-49, 81-85. were another means of spreading the legend in the Islamic lands.

The story of the ascension of the Prophet was a well-known legend in Western literature²⁷See Di Cesare, The Pseudo-Historical Image of the Prophet Muḥammad. ever since it first appeared at the Castilian court in Spain in the thirteenth century.²⁸On the spreading of the legend in the Iberian Peninsula see: Echevarría, “El Mi‘radj en la literatura castellana del siglo XV”; Echevarría, “La reescritura del Libro de la escala de Mahoma”. As Christians believed this work to be an Islamic holy book, it was translated into a Castilian version (which has not survived) by the Jewish doctor Abraham Alfaquim. Then in 1264 it was translated from the Castilian into both Latin (Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247.) and old French (Livre de l’Eschiele Mahomet), by Bonaventura da Siena, who was a notary and scribe who worked at the court of Alfonso X of Castile “the Wise”.²⁹ Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, pp. 11-23; Cerulli, Nuove ricerche sul Libro della Scala e l’Islam, pp. 11-18. According to Jacques Monfrin, the Latin version could originate from the French one and not from the Castilian. See. Monfrin, “Les sources arabes de la Divine Comédie”. This old French translation appears to be the oldest testimony of the story in a Western language.³⁰ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 156-158. According to Gargan, the oldest Latin version of which we have information is reported in a list of books to be sent to the Studium of Saint Domenico in Bologna in 1313 written up by the Dominican Ugolino. See Gargan, Dante, la sua biblioteca e lo Studio di Bologna, p. 50; Pioletti, Del Libro della Scala e altro, p. 223 As is written at the very end of the book, Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247. mentions Ibn ʿAbbās as a source of the report.³¹According to the Latin text, Ibn ʿAbbās is called “Abnez”. Liber Scalae Machometi, LXXXV, §215, p. 225. Due to it being regarded as an Islamic holy book, Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247. was incorporated into the still surviving texts of Collectio Toletana (Vatican and Paris codex³²MS Vat - Latin 4072; MS Paris, BNF - Latin 6064; Echevarría, Liber scalae Machometti, pp. 425-428. As regards the Vatican Codex, see Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, pp. 248-263.) produced by Peter the Venerable and his team of translators and polemists in the twelfth century.³³ Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, p. 248; Capezzone, “Intorno alla rimozione delle fonti arabe”, p. 528 (note n. 13); Celli, “Gli studi di Enrico Cerulli su Dante”, pp. 44, 51; Pioletti, Del Libro della Scala e altro. Furthermore, a summary of the Liber Scalae MachomettiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247. can be found in a Castilian polemic treatise attributed to Saint Pedro Pascual (d. 1300) with the title of Sobre la seta mahométana,³⁴ Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, pp. 264-328. The authorship of this work is still debated among scholars: Tolan, “Pedro Pascual”. while a further account of a description of Paradise related to the Liber Scalae, including a quotation of the title of the book (nel libro suo che Scala ha nome), is reported by Fazio degli Uberti in his Dittamondo (1350-1360).³⁵ Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, pp. 355-357.

The legend of the ascension of the Prophet also entered into Western literature through different sources other than Ibn ʿAbbās’ report. The Historia Arabum by Ximénez de RadaJiménez de Rada, Historia Arabum. Segunda edición, José Lozáno Sánchez, (ed. and study), 2nd ed., Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, 1993. ³⁶ Jiménez de Rada, Historia Arabum. See Maser, “Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada”; On Ximénez de Rada’s knowledge of Islam see Pick, “What did Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada Know About Islam?”. (1170-1247, Archbishop of Toledo) and Crónica General (which was started to be written under Alfonso the Wise and completed in 1289)³⁷ Primera Crónica General de Espaňa, pp. 270-272 (the work is wrtitten in Castilian); Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, pp. 335-345. both rely on a version of the legend closer to the ḥadīṯ’s narratives. Furthermore, a thirteenth century codex of Uncastillo contains a short account of the ascension at the end of an anti-hagiographic biography of Muḥammad (Vita Mahometi).³⁸ Valcárcel, “La Vita Mahometi del códice 10 de Uncastillo (s.XIII), pp. 243-245; Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, pp. 331-334.

References to the miʿrāǧ can be found in the Contra legem Sarracenorum, a well-known work written by the Dominican missionary Riccoldo da Montecroce,³⁹ Riccoldo da Monte di Croce, Contra legem Sarracenorum, pp. 122-125. whose source regarding the ascension of the Prophet is contained in the Liber DenudationisLiber denudationis sive ostensionis aut patefaciens, Thomas E. Burman, (ed., trans. and study), Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs, c. 1050-1200, Leiden, Brill, 1994, pp. 240-385. .⁴⁰ Liber denudationis, pp. 375-383. On Ricoldo: Burman, Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs, pp. 227-231. Liber Denudationis is a translation of an Egyptian work from the eleventh century: Bertaina, “The Arabic Version of the Liber Denudationis”. According to Elsheikh, evidence included in such writings as the codex of Uncastillo, Historia ArabumJiménez de Rada, Historia Arabum. Segunda edición, José Lozáno Sánchez, (ed. and study), 2nd ed., Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, 1993., Crónica General, Contra legem Sarracenorum and a Pisan legend⁴¹ Mancini, “Per lo studio della leggenda di Maometto in Occidente”. - to which we add the brief summary of the ascension in Alfonso BonihominisAlfonso Bonihominis, Disputatio Abutalibi, Antoni Biosca Bas (ed.), Alfonsi Bonihominis opera omnia, Turnhout, Brepols, 2020, pp. 121-170, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 295. ’ Disputatio Abutalib (fourteenth century)⁴² Alfonso Bonihominis, Disputatio Abutalib, pp. 139-141. - demonstrate that the miʿrāǧ was not only introduced into Western literature via Ibn ʿAbbās’ version - to which the Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247. seems to be related - but also by means of other sources, such as Anas ibn Mālik’s report which was mainly propagated by ḥadīṯ literature starting from the Middle Age.⁴³ Elsheikh, “Lettura (faziosa) dell’episodio di Muhammad: Inferno XXVIII”. Further citations of the miʿrāǧ can also be found in some fifteenth century authors, like Pope Pius II, Alonso de Espina, Juan de Torquemada, Roberto da Lecce,⁴⁴ McMichael, “The Night Journey (al-isrāʾ) and Ascent (al-mi‘rāj)”; Longoni, Introduzione, pp. XLIII-XLIV. and Roberto Caracciolo, who fashioned a summary - perhaps based on the Latin version of the Liber Scalae - contained in his Specchio della fede.⁴⁵ Cerulli, Il “Libro della scala”, pp. 360-366; Tommasino, L’Alcorano di Macometto, pp. 177-178.

The legend of the miʿrāǧ continued to spread throughout Europe in the early modern age. An essential work that deals with the miʿrāǧ, and which we will return to later, was the Confusión o confutación de la secta mahomética y del Alcorán (1515) written by the former Muslim jurist converted to Christianity Juan Andrés and then translated into Italian by Domingo de Gaztelu in Seville in 1537.⁴⁶On Juan Andrés style of controversy see: Starczewska, “No es esto sino hystorias de los antiguos”; on the reception of his writing between the sixteenth and the end of the eighteenth centuries see: Szpiech, “Preaching Paul to the Moriscos”, pp. 336-338. The book was rediscovered by Tirso González de Santalla S.J.Tirso González de Santalla S.J., Manuductio ad conversionem Mahumetanorum in duas partes divisa. In prima veritas religionis catholicae-romanae manifestis notis demonstrator. In secunda falsitas mahumetanae sectae convincitur, Bencard, Dilingae, 1688-89, [1st edn: Villa-Diego, Matriti, 1687] . in a library in Granada more than a century later,⁴⁷ García-Arenal and Rodríguez Mediano, The Orient in Spain, pp. 117-119; Colombo, “La Compagnia di Gesù e l’evangelizzazione dei Musulmani nella Spagna del Seicento”, pp. 208-211. On the work of Tirso González also see: Colombo, Convertire i musulmani; Colombo, “Even among Turks”; Vázquez Ruiz, “Una aproximación al Manuductio”. and inspired his Manuductio ad conversionem Mahumetanorum (Madrid 1687), which dedicated a section to the story of the conversion of Baldassarre Loyola Mandes S.J. and contained a Latin version of the miʿrāǧ taken from Juan Andres.⁴⁸ Colombo, Convertire i musulmani, pp. 101-119. See also Colombo, “La setta malvagia dell’Alcorano”, pp. 471-472. Tirso González de Santalla S.J, Manuductio, II, pp. 53-58 (on Baldassarre), 276-278 (on the miʿrāǧ). Guillaume Postel also reports a version of the miʿrāǧ based on Juan Andrés in De orbis terrae condordia (1544). See Cerulli, Nuove ricerche sul Libro della scala, pp. 202-205. Ten years after the Italian translation undertaken by Domingo de Gaztelu, the Italian version of the miʿrāǧ within the Confusión was then revised by Giovanni Battista Castrodardo in L’Alcorano di Macometto, nel qual si contiene la dottrina, la vita, i costumi e le leggi sue, edited by Andrea Arrivabene in Venice (1547)⁴⁹ Tommasino, L’Alcorano di Macometto, pp. 161-188. and partially based on Theodeor Bibliander’s printed edition of the Colletio Toletana (Machumetis Saracenorum principis Eiusque Successorum Vitae, doctrina ac ipse Alcoran, 1543 and 1550). Bibliander’s printed edition contributed to spreading the ascension of Muḥammad in Europe: in fact, it contained Riccoldo’s version of the miʿrāǧ following a previous Greek translation of the Contra legem which was carried out by Demetrio Cidonio and then translated into Latin by Bartolomeo Piceno da Montearduo⁵⁰See Miller, “Theodor Bibliander’s Machumetis Saracenorum Principis”; Balserak, “The Renaissance Impulses that drove Theodor Bibliander to Publish Machumetis Saracenorum”; Gordon, “Machumetis Saracenorum Principis”. (the Contra legem was also translated into German by Marthin Luther in 1542).

Finally, Vigliano has recently given an account of another seventeenth century representation of the miʿrāǧ written by the French Christian Cabbalist Blaise de Vigenère in his work called Vision, ou plustost pipperie controuvée par Mahomet, et ses sectateurs d’un voyage qu’en dormant il fit en Ierusalem, et de là au ciel monté dessus l’Alborach (1612). According to Vigliano, Juan AndrésJuan Andrés, Confusión o confutación de la secta Mahomética y del Alcorán, Elisa Ruiz García (study) and M.ª Isabel García-Monge (transcription), Merida, Editora Regional de Extremadura, 2003.’ Confusión, Antoine Geuffroy’s Briefve description de la cour du Grant Turc (1546) and its Latin translation (1573) can all be identified as Vigenère’s sources.⁵¹ Vigliano, “Blaise de Vigenère et les traductions du miraj”.

Biographical Note and Studies on Baldassarre

Muley Muḥammad al-Tāzī - the original Arabic name of Baldassarre Loyola Mandes S.J. (1631-1667)⁵²In the sources, the name is not always spelt in the same way. It can be read: Baldassarre, Balthasar, Baldassare, Balthazar, Mandes, Mendes, Mandez, etc. - was a Moroccan Muslim prince, the son of the ruler of Fez ‘Abd al-Wāḥid. He was born in an age of political disorder and therefore tracing his royal lineage is not an easy task.⁵³ Colombo, “A Muslim Turned Jesuit”, pp. 479-486. In fact, there is disagreement among scholars regarding his regal origin. On the one hand, according to de Castries, Baldassarre belonged to a family related to the Zāwiya of Dilā’, a Sufi brotherhood which increased its political power after the death of Aḥmad al-Mansūr and the subsequent instability.⁵⁴ De Castries, Les sources inédites de l’Histoire du Maroc, pp. 203-240; De Castries, “Trois Princes Marocains Convertis au Christianisme”, pp. 151-154; Bono, “Conversioni di musulmani al cristianesimo”, p. 440; Matar, Mediterranean Captivity through Arab Eyes, p. 163. On Aḥmad al-Mansur see: García-Arenal, Ahmad al-Mansur. On the other, Goldáraz stated that the reports regarding Baldassarre regal lineage were most likely true and, more recently, Colombo has suggested that Baldassarre belonged to the Sa‘di dynasty, and was probably the great-grandson of Aḥmad al-Mansūr.⁵⁵ Goldáraz, Baltasar Loyola Mandes, S.I, pp. 19-59; Colombo, “Baldassarre Loyola de Mandes (1631-1667), prince de Fez et jésuite”, pp. 165-166. In disagreement with the preceding statements, Matar stated that Baldassarre had no regal origin.⁵⁶Matar, Mediterranean Captivity through Arab Eyes, p. 178.

Returning to Baldassarre’s life, he was captured by the Knights of Saint John in 1651 while he was travelling on the pilgrimage to Mecca. Imprisoned in Malta, he became a well-known preacher among the Muslim slaves, as well as a copyist and writer of Islamic books. Despite this intense activity as an anti-Christian preacher, Baldassarre was afflicted by visions and dreams that caused him torment and doubts regarding his faith. In particular, he had an unusual vision of a personification of the Holy Baptism in the middle of the sea, which finally led him to convert to Christianity right after his ransom was paid after five years of imprisonment.⁵⁷For the vision of the Holy Baptism see: Archivio della Pontificia Universitá Georgiana (hereafter APUG), Ms. 1060-02, ff. 24v-25v. On North African princes converted to Christianity in Europe see: Alonso Acero, Sultanes de Berbería en tierras de la cristiandad. He became a Christian in 1656, joined the Society of Jesus as a novitiate at Sant’Andrea al Quirinale in 1661, then became a priest in 1663 and finally spent the last few years of his life (1664-1667) trying to convert Muslims in Italian port cities like Naples and Genoa.⁵⁸For an example of Baldassarre’s zeal see one of the few complete letters published, sent to Daniello Bartoli S.J. in March 1665: Del P. Baldassare Loyola Mandes Molto Rev.do in Cristo Padre, pp. 152-154. He died in Madrid on September 15 1667, shortly before travelling to India on a mission. After his death, Baldassarre became renowned, with his story featuring in several Jesuit literary writings, and in 1669, the dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca wrote a sacred drama about his story called El Gran Principe de Fez.⁵⁹ Rodríguez-Gallego, “Príncipes musulmanes conversos sobre las tablas”; Colombo, “Conversioni religiose in Calderón de la Barca: El gran príncipe de Fez (1669)”. The story of Baldassarre had been long forgotten since the eighteenth century, up until the twentieth century when Louis Lebessou, Wlodimir Ledóchowski, and Louis Pouzet all mentioned it in their works.⁶⁰The brief account of Baldassarre’s life mainly follows the following article: Colombo, “A Muslim Turned Jesuit”, pp. 479-486; see also: Colombo, “Baldassarre Loyola de Mandes (1631-1667), prince de Fez et jésuite”; Freller, “Osman and Muhammad el-Attaz, pp. 26-31; Lebessou, “Le seconde vie d’un sultan du Maroc”; Ledóchowski, “De Mahumetanorum conversione rite paranda et promovenda”; Pouzet, “Motivations et contributions des Jésuites dans les etudes islamiques”. For a general overview of the relationship between Mediterranean Barbary corsairs, slavery, and conversion from Islam to Christianity see: Bono, “Conversioni di musulmani al cristianesimo”. However, until Colombo’s latest studies, Goldáraz’s work has been the only one to take the sources held at the Archive of Pontifical Gregorian University (APUG) into account.

Text and Structure

The Latin version of the miʿrāǧ Baldassarre wrote is found in a booklet (APUG, Ms. 1060-04APUG, Ms. 1060-04, [online] , available on: <https://gate.unigre.it/mediawiki/index.php/Index:BLMM_1060_04.djvu> [consulted 10/05/2021] . Transcription by Federico Stella.) kept in the Archives of the Pontifical Gregorian University.⁶¹The booklet also contains a copy of the theological correspondence with Qurʾānic translations into Italian between Baldassarre and Muḥammad Bulġayth al-Darawī. The aim of our research will be to publish a critical edition of the discourse and the letters (in both versions: within the correspondence and booklet) with a preliminary essay in which we will explain how Baldassarre dealt with the Qurʾān and the development of the personal, intellectual and religious relationship between him and Bulġayth. Specifically, the Latin miʿrāǧ is located in the first part of the booklet (pp. 1-44), which consists of a discourse against Islam called Oratio contra Mahomettem et eius sectatores. The discourse begins with a brief introduction (pp. 1-2), after which Baldassarre sets out the tripartite scheme of his work (p. 3): 1) Falsitas Mahomettanae legis (pp. 3-19); 2) in tenebris vita sequacium illius (pp. 19-36); 3) Lex Christi sola unicam medium ad salutem (pp. 36-44). The miʿrāǧ covers six pages (those between pages 8 and 13) in the first part of the oration, namely the section regarding the falsehood of Muḥammad’s law. As can be read at the very beginning of the discourse, it was written by Baldassarre in 1665. The Latin text of the miʿrāǧ is the following:

The text can be divided into the following core themes:

The story of the ascension is interspersed with several of Baldassarre’s polemical comments.

Sources and Content

An initial and crucial clue regarding the sources of this version of the miʿrāǧ is provided by Baldassarre himself in a letter he sent from Genoa to his spiritual director Domenico Brunacci S.J. in Rome dated June 26th, 1664 (hence before the oration was written). The text of the letter that most interests us here is the following:

After two quick reminders Baldassarre sent to Brunacci on August 28th,⁶⁴“Sto aspettando da Vostra Reverenza la licenza per poter leggere quel libro, che mi ha mandato, come anco quello che manca de’scritti particolarmente, quella spiegatione del Paradiso” APUG, Ms. 1060-01, f. 134r-v. Perhaps, in this letter Baldassarre was also asking for a writing in which he depicted and drew his vision of Paradise reported here: APUG, Ms. 1060-03, ff. 16-21. See Colombo, “Baldassarre Loyola de Mandes (1631-1667), prince de Fez et jésuite”, p. 187. and September 21st,⁶⁵“Vostra Reverenza si ricordi della licenza del libro arabico perché ne ho molto bisogno”. APUG, Ms. 1060-01, f. 219r-v. Baldassarre finally got the Arabic book on October 12th, 1664: Rendo gratie infinite à Vostra Reverenza della licenza, che procurò per me di leggere quel libro arabico, e l’Alcorano.⁶⁶ APUG, Ms. 1060-01, f. 47r-v. Many thanks to Lorenzo Mancini for helping me in finding this letter.

In the first astonishing source quoted, Baldassarre is asking Brunacci to approve the reading of an Arabic book called Hadit almehrag⁶⁷Bakrī’s Ḥadīṯ al-Miʿrāǧ ‘ala al-tamām wa-l-kamāl could be compared to Baldassarre’s story for two reasons: on the one hand, because Baldassarre was asking for a book with the same title (Hadit almehrag) and, on the other, because Bakrī’s version - as scholars have stated - was one of the sources of Liber Scalae Machometi (Halmahereig as it is called in Liber Scalae Machometi, LXXXV, §215, p. 225) as well as of many Islamic traditions. Nevertheless, several textual indications suggest that Baldassarre’s version is not directly related to Bakrī’s, or to a previous Latin version of the story. See Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 156-158. that according to modern transliteration is Ḥadīṯ al-miʿrāǧ. Moreover, the second sentence of this request provides additional information regarding the nature of the book: on the one hand, Baldassarre reports that the author of the book is anonymous (E l’autore di esso libro non stà ivi scritto il suo nome). On the other, when he asserts that the sources of the unknown author can be traced back to Muḥammad as the first relater of the story (ma andava descrivendo tal storia per discendentia, che uno ha sentito tal cosa dall’altro sino all’ultimo il quale dice che l’habbia sentita raccontar dal medesimo Mahometto), he makes an implicit reference to the isnād, the chain of transmitters from the Prophet which validates the probity of each ḥadīṯ. Furthermore, the reference to isnād (discendentia) is conclusive proof that the book Baldassarre was asking for is an Arabic one: Liber Scalae Machometti (with the exception of the reference to Ibn ʿAbbās at the very end of the text) and other Western miʿrāǧ literature make no reference to the chain of the transmitters, even when they are related to Anas ibn Mālik’s report and ḥadīṯ literature (Historia ArabumJiménez de Rada, Historia Arabum. Segunda edición, José Lozáno Sánchez, (ed. and study), 2nd ed., Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, 1993., Crónica General, Contra legem Sarracenorum, etc.). In addition, in the letter dated September, he is also informing Brunacci that it is of great importance for him to obtain this Arabic book.

As regards the internal evidence, Baldassarre’s narrative begins with an angel (civis angelicus, later introduced as Gabriel) who is descending from heaven riding a mule and followed by a donkey, with the aim of making Muḥammad able to shoot lightning. According to al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s reports, the creature outlined is indubitably al-Burāq - smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey - which Baldassarre represents as two different animals: a mule, which Muḥammad is riding, and a donkey, which is following them. Then, Baldassarre describes the purification of Muḥammad’s heart.⁶⁸The Qurʾānic reference to the purification of the heart of Muḥammad is in Q. 94:1: alam našraḥ laka ṣadrak (“Did We not relieve your heart for you [Prophet] ”). On the tradition of the cutting open of Muḥammad’s breast and the purification of his heart, which early Muslims sometimes traced back to his childhood, not to the ascension, see Rubin, The Eye of the Beholder, pp. 59-75. For a study on how the purification of the heart has been interpreted by Giovanni Battista Castrodardo (translator of L’Alcorano di Macometto, 1547) and by his sources, namely Juan Andrés and his translator into Italian Domingo de Gaztelu see: Tommasino, L’Alcorano di Macometto, pp. 164-173. See also Cerulli, Nuove ricerche sul Libro della scala, pp. 277-279. It differs from ibn Ḥišām’s recension of ibn Isḥāq’s Sīra and ibn ʿAbbās who do not report this event,⁶⁹ Zilio-Grandi, Introduzione, p. XXXVI. as Baldassarre relates the purification of Muḥammad’s heart as taking place just before the ascent to the first heaven, while the prophet was dozing. This scene can be found in all four al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s long accounts, even though here Baldassarre’s version seems closer to those of Abū Ḏarr and Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa who do not refer - unlike Anas ibn Mālik and Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa, Version 2 - to the night journey. However, the manner in which Baldassarre outlines how the angel purified Muḥammad’s heart is slightly different from the ḥadīṯ’s reports: while in al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s version, Gabriel brought Muḥammad a golden tray full of wisdom (ḥikma) and faith (imān) and then cut his body to purify his heart, Baldassarre does not make any reference to the body-cutting scene, but refers only to a golden tray full of God’s grace by means of which the angel purified his heart (ille Angelus habens prae manibus poculum aureum Dei gratia plenum, statim cor Mahomettis accepit, et, purgavit).

The reason why a Western text could not have been a source becomes clear when we compare some of the events and sentences of Baldassarre’s version with other Western versions of the miʿrāǧ. The first event is the question Gabriel and Muḥammad are asked upon reaching the first heaven. After they reply to the questions at the gate to the first heaven, they are admitted through the gate of Paradise in the versions of the story according to Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247., Juan AndrésJuan Andrés, Confusión o confutación de la secta Mahomética y del Alcorán, Elisa Ruiz García (study) and M.ª Isabel García-Monge (transcription), Merida, Editora Regional de Extremadura, 2003.’ Confusión, and Baldassarre. According to both the Confusión and Baldassarre, but not to Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247., Gabriel and Muḥammad also meet Adam just after the admission into the first heaven, as shown in Table n.1:

The events narrated in the table immediately reveal the following differences: those who ask Gabriel and Muḥammad to disclose their identity are respectively: an angel (angelus, according to Liber Scalae), a gate-keeper (el portero, according to Juan Andrés) and the heavenly citizens (habitatores caelestes, according to Baldassarre).⁷³According to Tottoli, the Islamic versions also differ regarding the nature of those who ask the question: a guardian (ḫāzin) of Paradise, the angel Riḍwān and an unknown voice. Tottoli, Muslim Eschatology and the Ascension of the Prophet Muḥammad, pp. 878-879. The sentence habitatores caelestes can be easily identified as a translation from the Arabic ahl al-samāʾ (the people of the heaven who ask Muḥammad and Gabriel to disclose their identity) which can be found in Anas ibn Mālik’s account. Then, after the greetings, in both Juan Andrés and Baldassarre’s accounts, Adam appears on the scene as the prophet of the first heaven, while after entering the first heaven, Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247. presents additional angels, creatures and eschatological symbols before the moment when Gabriel and Muḥammad meet John the Baptist and Jesus.⁷⁴ Longoni, Introduzione, p. XII; Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 7-14.

The sequence of the prophets whom Gabriel and Muḥammad met in their way through the seven heavens lead us to further evidence.⁷⁵For further information regarding prophets and prophethood within the Qurʾān and Islamic tradition see: Bell, “Muhammad and Previous Messengers”; Tottoli, I profeti biblici nella tradizione islamica; Rubin, Prophets and Prophethood. In Table n.2 Baldassarre’s order has been compared with the prophets’ order included in a wider range of versions:

According to Table n.2, a clear substantiation of the relationship of Baldassarre’s narrative with the ḥadīṯ is the order in which Gabriel and Muhammad met the Prophets, the same found in Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa’s report and the Sīra - the “standard order”, according to Colby⁸⁶ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 81-82. - while in Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247. Adam is the last prophet and John the Baptist is mentioned before Jesus, even though in this text they are in the first heaven. There follows a second negative indication: Baldassarre does not make any references to Hell’s punishment, just as the early ḥadīṯ accounts did not: for example, al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s accounts of the miʿrāǧ attributed to Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa and Anas ibn Mālik.⁸⁷ Tottoli, “Tours of Hell and Punishments of Sinners in Miʿrāj Narratives”, p. 12. Finally, as a third confirmation we have to look at the content: in some passages Baldassarre appears to translate the ḥadiṯ attributed to Anas ibn Mālik quite literally from Arabic into Latin. Let us consider the passages when Gabriel and Muḥammad are going to enter the first and then proceed to the second heaven:

Al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] . (Anas ibn Mālik), Ṣaḥīḥ88 Al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Ṭawḥīd, no. 37. See the online Arabic text (with English translation) from which we have quoted the passage: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97/142>; also see Abū Ḏarr’s report with reference to the lotus tree (Sidra al-Muntahā) in al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Ṣalāt, no. 1.

Baldassarre, Oratio

hoc facto ambo coeperunt ad primum caelum ascendere, ubi statim ostia caeli aperta sunt: tunc habitatores caelestes Angelum interrogaverunt, quis esset? Respondit, se esse Gabrieli deinde quis esset illes socius, qui secum erat? respondit esse Mahomettem; et statim omnes caelestes in eo primo caelo exclamaverunt, salve Mahomettes; ò felicem adventum! deindè ingressi ambo invenerunt Patrem Adam, qui occurrit eis. Post mutuas salutationes, et notitiam Adami traditam [10] Mahometti, dixit ille, salve o filj Sancte, et Propheta magne. Hoc facto evolaverunt ad secundum caelum, ubi facta interrogatione reddita responsione, et habita salutatione sicut in primo caelo factum est ipsis obviam venit Jesus Christus, et Joannes Baptista

Thanks to this comparison, we can clearly see how some passages of the Latin version undertaken by Baldassarre seem to be a translation of a text related to the ḥadīṯ attributed to Anas ibn Mālik. Passages and sentences, such as the questions put to Gabriel, the already mentioned ahl al-samāʾ/habitatores caelestes, Adam as the father, the titles that Adam, Jesus and John gave to Muḥammad (the former called him son while the others refer to him as brother and prophet and Baldassarre simply adds the adjective Sancte to the second title) are practically the same in both Anas ibn Mālik and Baldassarre. At the same time, Baldassarre seems to carry out a de-islamization of the narrative. He only refers to Muḥammad as a prophet once, omitting the question the heavenly citizens ask Gabriel about Muḥammad: “Has he been called?” (buʿṯa waqad).⁸⁹See Q. 62:2: “It is He who raised (baʿaṯa) a messenger, among the people who had no Scripture”.

After the meeting with the prophets, Muḥammad arrived near the rivers of Paradise. The Qurʾānic description of Paradise portrayed as a place crossed by four rivers made of honey, milk, wine, and water (melle, lacte, vino, et aqua)⁹⁰Q. 47:15; Tottoli, “Muslim Eschatology and the Ascension of the Prophet Muḥammad”, p. 866. is a setting that can also be found in al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s reports. On the one hand, Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa and Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa, Version 2 simply state that the four rivers have their sources in Sidrat al-Muntahà (the Lotus tree in Paradise): two of them are hidden and located in Paradise, while the other two are visible and are the Nile and Euphrates.⁹¹ Al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Badʾ al-Ḫalq, Ḏikr al-Malāʾik (no. 6), no. 1; al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Al-manāqib al-ansār, no. 42. On the other, Anas ibn Mālik refers to three rivers situated between the first and the second heavens; the third of these is called al-Kawṯar (Abundance).⁹²Q. 108:1.

Once he arrived near the rivers of Paradise, according to Baldassarre’s narrative, Muḥammad chose the river of milk as a symbol of himself and of the pure faith of his followers; this passage could be either an echo or a misunderstanding of what Colby calls the “cup test”. According to Colby:

The “cup test” is outlined in many miʿrāǧ narratives, like Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247., Historia ArabumJiménez de Rada, Historia Arabum. Segunda edición, José Lozáno Sánchez, (ed. and study), 2nd ed., Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, 1993., Crónica General, Bakrī’s Ḥadīṯ al-miʿrāǧ, Ibn Isḥāq’s account as it is reported in Ibn Bukayr’s fragment,⁹⁴ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 51-53. Ibn Hišām version of Ibn Isḥāq and others, albeit in different ways: according to the Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247., Muḥammad took this “cup test” near the very end of his journey through Paradise. There are four cups, and he chooses to drink from three of them (milk, honey, and water), but not from the one containing wine. Bakrī’s version, both versions of the Sīra - Ibn Hišām refers to three vessels containing milk, wine and water⁹⁵ Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, p. 182; Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 51-56. - Historia ArabumJiménez de Rada, Historia Arabum. Segunda edición, José Lozáno Sánchez, (ed. and study), 2nd ed., Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, 1993., Crónica General, and further narratives state that the event takes place in Jerusalem and Muḥammad only drinks from the cup of milk.⁹⁶ Cerulli, “Il Libro della Scala”, p. 336 (Historia Arabum); Crónica General, pp. 270-271; Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, p. 220; Longoni, Introduzione, pp. XXV-XXVI. Despite the similarity between Bakrī, the Sīra, the two Medieval Iberian versions, and Baldassarre, the significance of the choice is quite different. Bakrī professes that in making his choice Muḥammad was guided by a voice, and that the cup of milk is related to punishment in Hell. In fact, according to Bakrī, Muḥammad did not drink all the milk, and thus a part of his community will be destined to Hell. On the contrary, according to Ibn Hišām’s account of the Sīra, Historia ArabumJiménez de Rada, Historia Arabum. Segunda edición, José Lozáno Sánchez, (ed. and study), 2nd ed., Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, 1993., and Crónica General the cup of milk is a sign of the right path Muḥammad and his followers will keep. This last interpretation is also followed by Baldassarre himself, according to whom, Muḥammad intentionally chooses the river of milk as a symbol of the purity of his community.

Baldassarre’s “river test” sounds similar to Malik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa, Version 2,⁹⁷ Al-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Al-manāqib al-ansār, no. 42. which is Buḫārī’s only long report narrating the “cup test”: like in the Oratio, according to Malik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa, Version 2, Muḥammad chooses the milk (the cup) making his choice without any sign or external voice to lead him or help him decide, near the end of the journey. This choice represents the nature (fiṭra) of the community (umma) he is going to establish: fa-qāla hiya l-fiṭra anta ʿalayhā ummatuka. The outcome of this choice appears to be similar to that in Baldassarre’s narrative, where Muḥammad establishes his law, right after having chosen the river of milk. However, despite some shared aspects with other narratives, to our knowledge, the origin of the change from cups to rivers - from a “cup test” to a “river test” - is unknown, but despite this is most interesting.

Finally, having established his law, Baldassarre ends his account of the miʿrāǧ with Muḥammad’s negotiation regarding the number of daily ritual prayers which - thanks to Moses advice - decrease from fifty to five, in a similar way as how they do in both al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s long accounts and Ibn Hišām’s recension of the Sīra.

Despite the strange transformation of the “cup test” into a “river test”, we are definitely convinced that all of these verifications and common elements lead us to state that, on the one hand, Baldassarre used an Arabic text as a source for his Latin version of the miʿrāǧ and, on the other, that the text he used was closely related to the reports attributed to Anas ibn Mālik and Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa or to ḥadīṯ-oriented literature, which is nonetheless closely related to what Colby calls the extended narrative of the miʿrāǧ in al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] . and Muslim’s ḥadīṯ collections. In fact, despite a brief mention of the night journey in Anas ibn Mālik’s report, both him and Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa focused their extended accounts more on the ascension of Muḥammad through the heavens rather than on the part related to the journey from Mecca to Jerusalem;⁹⁸According to Colby: “All the extended accounts in the ḥadīth collections of Buḫārī and Muslim focus on the heavenly ascension portion of the journey, refraining from narrating the specific details of the Mecca to Jerusalem portion of it, if mentioning that portion of the journey at all”. Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, p. 81. the contents they have developed can then be found - as we have already shown - in Baldassarre’s narrative use of similar words and order.⁹⁹ Colby, Narrating Muḥammad’s Night Journey, pp. 81-85.

Furthermore, al-Buḫārīal-Buḫārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, [online] , available on: <https://sunnah.com/bukhari>, [consulted 30/04/2021] .’s collection of ḥadīṯ was already circulating around Europe, the Mediterranean area and among Catholic circles in the seventeenth century as evidenced by the use Ludovico Marracci made of it in his work of translation and refutation of the Qurʾān, started circa 1650.¹⁰⁰ Bevilacqua, The Republic of Arabic Letters, p. 54. Moreover, Barthélemy d’Herbelot de Molainville also refers to al-Buḫārī in his Bibliothèque Orientale published in 1697 (see p. 115). See also Nallino, Le fonti arabo manoscritte dell’opera di Ludovico Marracci sul Corano, p. 114. On Marracci’s Islamic sources see: Glei and Tottoli, Ludovico Marracci at work, pp. 15-40.

Controversy and the Christianization of an Islamic Tradition

Baldassarre has obviously added several polemical sentences amid his narrative of the miʿrāǧ. These sentences are mainly directed at Muḥammad and the falsehood of his doctrine. These claims are nothing more than classic Medieval charges against Islam. What is more interesting to note is that these claims are not very plentiful nor particularly vehement (we are obviously referring to the account of the miʿrāǧ, and not to the whole Oratio). Why did Baldassarre choose to narrate the ascension only making use of a few sarcastic comments? Undeniably, he could have been more critical or aggressive. On the one hand, perhaps, he believed that due to its excessively extraordinary, absurd, and implausible elements this legend did not require many further negative comments. Beyond Baldassarre’s polemical purpose, we are inclined to see an additional approach in his own way of dealing with Islam, which appears to mirror the Jesuits ambivalent attitude towards Muslims.

According to Colombo, on the one hand the Jesuits demonstrated familiarity with the classic Christian polemic arguments against Islam, and they often dealt with Islam with the “rhetoric of war” understood as a “defensive war” from the aggressive Islamic attitude. At the same time, they used to say to fight Islam “with pen and ink”¹⁰¹ Colombo, Jesuits and Islam in Early Modern Europe, p. 354 demonstrating “the falsity of the Qurʾān using the Qurʾān itself”.¹⁰² Colombo, Jesuits and Islam in Early Modern Europe, p. 354. Absurd and ridiculous stories - like the miʿrāǧ Baldassarre has narrated in his Oratio - are proof of the falsehood of Islam.¹⁰³ Colombo, Jesuits and Islam in Early Modern Europe, pp. 353-356. On the other hand, they had a true interest regarding the Islamic religiosity; in fact, the Jesuits were a part of a pioneering early modern European movement involved in studying Oriental languages and Islam starting from the sixteenth century.¹⁰⁴ Colombo, Jesuits and Islam in Early Modern Europe, pp. 359-369. This dual attitude can be found in both Baldassarre’s spiritual director Domenico Brunacci S.J. and in Baldassarre himself: he often directed harsh words against Islam (especially in his Oratio) and perpetrated disrespectful acts against the Qurʾān, but, at the same time, he does seem to have true compassion and concern for the fate of Muslim’s souls.¹⁰⁵ Colombo, “A Muslim Turned into Jesuit”, pp. 493-495.

The same dual attitude could also be found in his account of the miʿrāǧ in which - besides not actually including many sarcastic comments - he also develops a more or less conscious Christianization of the legend. This attitude corresponds with his own style in his deliberations with the Muslim jurist slave in Livorno Muḥammad Bulġayṯ al-Darawī, which consists in a discovery of the Christian truths within the Qurʾān. Likewise, this theological strategy was not discovered by Baldassarre himself, but it had a long tradition that can be traced all the way back to the long-forgotten Dominican William of Tripoli (1220-unknown but definitely after 1273)¹⁰⁶ Rizzardi, “La ‘Cristologia coranica’ di Guglielmo di Tripoli”; O’Meara, “The Theology and Times of William of Tripoli”. and then to the well-known De Pace Fidei (1453) by Nicholas of Cusa. This strategy was then also widely employed by the Jesuit General Tirso González de Santalla S. J.Tirso González de Santalla S.J., Manuductio ad conversionem Mahumetanorum in duas partes divisa. In prima veritas religionis catholicae-romanae manifestis notis demonstrator. In secunda falsitas mahumetanae sectae convincitur, Bencard, Dilingae, 1688-89, [1st edn: Villa-Diego, Matriti, 1687] . (1624-1705) in his Manuductio ad conversionem Mahumetanorum;¹⁰⁷As regards the Jesuits and Islam see: Vincent, Les jésuites et l’Islam méditerranéen; Vincent, Musulmans et conversion en Espagne au XVII siècle; Colombo, Jesuits and Islam in Seventeenth-Century Europe; Copete and Vincent, Missions en Bétique; Ruiu, “Conflicting Visions of the Jesuit Missions to the Ottoman Empire, 1609-1628”; Shore, “Contact, Confrontation, Accommodation: Jesuits and Islam, 1540-1770”. according to Colombo, the second question of the handbook written by Tirso González was focused on finding the truth of Christian doctrines in the Qurʾān, while the first dealt with the errors and the falsehood of Muslim doctrines and the third with the truth of Christian faith shown through its miracles, beauty and greatness.¹⁰⁸ Colombo, Convertire i musulmani, p. 39; Colombo, “La Compagnia di Gesù e l’evangelizzazione dei musulmani nella Spagna del Seicento: il caso González”; Colombo, Even among Turks, p. 7. More than twenty years before Tirso González, Baldassarre was already seeking out Christian elements in Islamic doctrines by demonstrating how the Qurʾān contained the Christian dogma (in the letter he sent to Muḥammad Bulġayṯ al-Darawī, he used the strategy of the inventio, that means addressing to the Qurʾān some Christian doctrines which were actually not present within it) and by giving a Christian-oriented reading of the miʿrāǧ.¹⁰⁹This strategy for reading the Qurʾān was used before Baldassarre employed it, for example in Giovanni Battista Castrodardo’s L’Alcorano di Macometto (especially in the debate regarding the Purgatory) and it would be used again two centuries later Baldassarre by Antonio Rosmini. Tommasino, L’Alcorano di Macometto, pp. 192-220 (on the inventio pp. 218-220); De Giorgi, Introduzione. Rosmini e lo studio su Maria nel Corano.

Furthermore, one should not forget that as a Jesuit, Baldassarre shared the Ignatian spirituality: this means that one of his main goals was to lead Muslims to the divine light of Jesus Christ, and thus saving them from darkness. In the entirety of the Oratio, Baldassarre seems to be moved by true mercy and compassion (he said he cried a lot for them), which was probably due to both his former status as an “infidel” - even though he was strongly judgmental of Muḥammad and his doctrines - and his Ignatian spirituality, which he tried to apply for enlightening the souls of the Muslims. In fact, bringing the light of Christianity “even among Turks” was one of Ignatius’ primary dreams, as the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus state.¹¹⁰See Colombo, Defeating the Infidels, Helping Their Souls, pp. 179-180. See also Colombo, “La setta malvagia dell’Alcorano”, pp. 486-487. At the same time, Baldassarre is employing Jesuit rhetoric, which, according to O’Malley is “the orator’s ability to be in touch with the feelings and needs of his audience and to adapt himself and his speech accordingly”.¹¹¹ O’Malley, The First Jesuits, p. 255; on this topic see: Stephen Schloesser, “Recent Works in Jesuit Philosophy Vicissitudes of Rhetorical Accommodation”, pp. 106-107.

Having said this, an initial clue that reveals the way Baldassarre has “translated” some Islamic themes in a Christian-oriented way can be found in the sentence regarding the purification of Muḥammad’s heart. On the one hand, Baldassarre’s report makes no mention of the body-cutting incident, while, on the other, the angel purified the heart of Muḥammad with a golden tray full of God’s grace (Dei gratia plenum), rather than a golden tray full of wisdom (ḥikma) and faith (imān). The sentence Baldassarre chose for his translation sounds like the Annunciation of the angel to Mary (Ave gratia plena) in Luke 1:28.¹¹²See also the Spiritual Exercises: San Ignacio de Loyola, Ejercicios espirituales, §262.

In order to ascertain how Baldassarre has included some Christian themes in his report of the miʿrāǧ, we have to draw a comparison between the sequence and the appellations he gave to the prophets, with the one completed by the other converted Muslim Juan Andrés, who has been discussed above, and who also carried out a Christianization of the order. As one can easily observe in Table n.2, Juan Andrés chronologically Christianized the encounters Muḥammad had with the Biblical characters in the heavens: he encountered them starting from the first who was Adam, to the last who was Jesus Christ, no longer referred to as the son of Mary in following with how Islamic tradition used to refer to him from the Qurʾān onwards. Baldassare did not classify the encounters chronologically, but he did more than Juan Andrés to Christianize the legend.

Baldasarre calls Adam father like the Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247., Ibn Hisham’s version of the Sira and Anas ibn Malik’s report. Then, regarding Jesus and John - often known as Jesus son of Mary and John son of Zechariah as we can observe in several accounts - Baldassarre carries out a Christianization of the narrative.

As regards Jesus, he gives him the appellation of Christ.¹¹³We find the appellation of Christ in the Vita Mahometi: Valcárcel, “La Vita Mahometi del códice 10 de Uncastillo (s. XIII)”, p. 245. In his little studied translation of the Qurʾān, Ignazio Lomellini S.J. translated the Arabic al-Masīḥ with the Latin Christus (Michel Nau S.J. will also do in Religio Christiana contra Alcoranum, 1680): P. Shore, “Lexical Choice and Rhetorical Expression in Ignazio Lomellini’s 1622 Translation of and Commentary on the Qurʾān”, pp. 44-46. The intellectual process which led Baldassarre to call Jesus Christ in this fragment, is far from being clear. In the Qurʾān Jesus is often called “son of Mary”, which could be - according to several scholars - a polemical title.¹¹⁴ Merad, “Le Christ selon l’Islam”; Tottoli, I profeti biblici nella tradizione islamica, pp. 70-75. Along with this and other titles,¹¹⁵A word from God (kalima min Allāh, Q. 3:39), a word from Him [God] (kalima min-hu Q. 3:45), a Messenger and a word from God (rasūl Allāh wa-kalima, Q. 4:171), a spirit from Him [God] (rūḥmin-hu, Q. 4:171). the Qurʾān attributes the name of al-Masīḥ to Jesus several times in Medinan suras, but without stressing the Davidic genealogy in his Messianic role. Despite this vague link between Jesus the Messiah and the Davidic genealogy, the Qurʾān claims that Jesus was sent as a Messenger for the Israelites (Q. 3:49).

Now, since the Arabic word Masīḥ comes from the Hebrew Māshīaḥ and the Greek Christos is its translation,¹¹⁶ Robinson, Jesus, pp. 11-13. See Q. 5:78. a question must be asked: was Baldassarre aware that the Latin Christus could have been a translation for al-Masīḥ or did he use that title to give a Christian reading of Jesus? We are inclined to believe that Baldassarre’s main concern - without questioning his linguistic skills, since he had masterly knowledge of Arabic, Latin and Italian - was theological, and thus the way he used the word Christus was mainly focused on his more or less conscious attempt to Christianize the Islamic legend.

Furthermore, according to a Christian viewpoint, connecting Jesus the Christ to Adam the father could be read as a direct reference to both the genealogies of Jesus stated in Luke 3:23-38 and Matthew 1:1-17: to Luke, on the one hand, due to the connection between Adam and Jesus (Jesus as a son of Adam), to Matthew, on the other hand, due to the title of Christ this Gospel gives to Jesus in its very beginning.¹¹⁷ Kuschel, Natale e il Corano, pp. 40-41. (Orig. Weinachten und der Koran).

As a consequence of this theological concern, Baldassarre refers to John as the Baptist.¹¹⁸John as the Baptist can also be found even in Alfonso Bonihominis’ Latin version of the miʿrāǧ. See Table 2. The title of Baptist that Baldassarre gives to John is a clear act of de-Islamization of the legend, due to the fact that, despite later Islamic tradition reports that John baptized Jesus, John as the Baptist was unknown to the Qurʾān.¹¹⁹ Rippin, John the Baptist, pp. 51-52. Called noble (sayd), caste (ḥaṣūr), and prophet (nabī), the Qurʾān also states that John confirms a word coming from God (anna Allah yubašširuka bi-yaḥya muṣaddiqan bi-kalima min Allāh, Q. 3:39) that means Jesus. However, despite this verse, the Qurʾān principally regards John as a prophet and a sign from God, just as Jesus will be later. Whereas now, in giving him the appellation of Baptist, Baldassarre elevates John to being a central character in his account, and thus developing a close connection - in accordance with Christian doctrine - between the father Adam, Jesus Christ and John the Baptist.

Furthermore, the title of castus that Baldassare gives to Joseph merits attention as well. As is well known, Q. 12 contains the longest story devoted to a single prophet in the Qurʾān, highlighted as the best of the stories (aḥsan al-qaṣaṣ, Q. 12:3). In both the Biblical (Genesis 39:1-20) and Qurʾānic tradition, the wife of the Egyptian officer Potiphar (not called by his name in the Qurʾān) who bought him, tried unsuccessfully to seduce him. Known for his beauty, according to the Qurʾān and Rabbinic literature, Joseph would have given into temptation, if he had not witnessed a sign from God (Q. 12:24), while, according to Genesis he withstood the woman’s passion without any sign.¹²⁰ Tottoli, I profeti biblici nella tradizione islamica, pp. 52-57. However, despite the accordance between Genesis and Qurʾān, the Islamic holy book does not mention the adjective ḥaṣūr (caste) that it has already applied, already applied to John. This means that here Baldassarre adds a well-known title that the entire Christian tradition has attributed to the Patriarch Joseph.

Unknown to Christian tradition, and usually placed in the fourth heaven (following the “standard order”), Idrīs appears to be translated as Elias in the set of characters Muḥammad and Gabriel met during their ascension, in the same way as the Liber Scalae MachometiLiber Scalae Machometi, Enrico Cerulli (ed. and study), Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949, pp. 24-247. previously had but together with Enoch, who in the Islamic interpretation is identified with Idrīs (Q. 19:56-57), or sometimes with Elias as well. However, Elias was also recognized in the Islamic tradition: he appears as Iliyās in Q. 6:85 and Q. 37:123-132. Tradition also identifies Elias as the wise man who leads Moses in Q. 18.¹²¹ Liber Scalae Machometi, XIV, §33, p. 67; see the footnotes in Longoni’s edition: Il Libro della Scala di Maometto, p. 73 (n.43 and 44).

Once Muḥammad arrived in Paradise, we can observe a further example of how Baldassarre interpolates the Islamic legend with biblical themes. Depicting the landscape in Paradise as made up of the Qurʾānic rivers of honey, milk, wine, and water, Baldassarre adds the following sentence: intravit in quandam terram fluentem lacte, et melle. This sentence is taken almost literally from Exodus 33:3 (et intres in terram fluentem lacte et melle) when God reminded Moses and the People of Israel of the Promised Land he announced to Moses during the episode of the Burning Bush with similar sentences in Exodus 3:8 and 17 (in terram quae fluit lacte et melle, and ad terram fluentem lacte et melle). Therefore, it can be said that the landscape of Paradise portrayed by Baldassarre is both Biblical and Quʾrānic: according to the Exodus, it is a land where milk and honey flow and as indicated by the Qurʾān, a land in which rivers of honey, milk, wine, and water flow. Briefly, it is an Islamo-Christian Paradise.

As a final remark, we should remember that as a Christian, Baldassarre had two further examples of ascensions in mind. On the one hand, the ascension of Jesus as it is narrated and referred to in several books of the New Testament (Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:3-11), on the other, Paul’s journey to the third heaven (raptus Pauli) described in 2Corinthians 12:2-4¹²² Thomson, “Dante and Bernard Silvestris”; see Németh, “Paulus Raptus to Raptus Pauli”. and mentioned by several Christian authors such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, some of whose sentences Baldassarre quotes in his response to Muḥammad Bulġayṯ al-Darawī. This indicates that Baldassarre had several references for the mystical experience of the vision of heaven, both from his former religion and then after his conversion, from Christianity.

Conclusion

Baldassarre’s report of the miʿrāǧ is a remarkable source for several reasons. Firstly, owing to the reason that he was a Muslim now converted to Christianity who was recounting a well-known Islamic tradition as a means to bring about religious controversy. The second reason was due to his ambiguous standpoint between polemic, cultural and religious appropriation. It is true that Juan Andrés was in the same position as Baldassarre, however the manner in which he incorporated that Islamic story into his new religious identity was slightly naive. On the contrary, the way Baldassarre interpolated the miʿrāǧ seems to be more complex, not least in its interpretation. We never know exactly to what extent Baldassarre’s attempt at Christianizing the miʿrāǧ was more or less consciously motivated. However, following Wolfgang Reinhard’s suggestions we can assert that Baldassarre definitely proves to have an active identity; he did not passively suffer his new religious identity, but he developed it creatively by picturing, for instance, new landscapes in Paradise. According to Reinhard, it can be finally said that Baldassarre got an identity as a process.¹²³ Reinhard, Religione e identità - Identità e religione, pp. 93-94. According to the Italian text: “identità come processo”.

A question now arises: can Baldassarre’s interpretation of the miʿrāǧ be read as a case of cultural transfer - or rather, as an interreligious transfer - with the aim of reinterpreting and resemantizing a cultural theme,¹²⁴The concept of cultural transfer was coined by Michel Espagne in Espagne and Werner (eds.), Transferts. Les Relations interculturelles dans l’espace franco-allemand (XVIIIe et XIXe siècle). On the concept see: Rossini and Toggweiler, “Cultural Transfer: an Introduction”, pp. 6-7; on religious transfer: Dubrau, Scotto and Vimercati Sanseverino, “Introduction. Religious Transfer in the History of the Abrahamic Religions. Theoretical Implications and Case Studies”. as Martin Mulsow has suggested referring to the relationship between Socinianism and Islam?¹²⁵ Mulsow, “Socinianism, Islam and the Radical Uses of Arabic Scholarship”, pp. 550-555. Could the concept of cultural transfer be applied to the way Baldassarre dealt with his former religious tradition? Perhaps here we are dealing with an interreligious transfer, due to the reason that Baldassarre seems to have and possess knowledge of the miʿrāǧ tradition from the Islamic standpoint rather than from the Western diffusion of the narrative. This signifies that Baldassarre’s knowledge of this tradition comes from his former religious affiliation and is then transferred by means of translation to his new religious identity with a polemical goal, but also with the aim of Christianizing it. In other words, Baldassarre dealt with Islamic tradition through of a twofold movement: translating the Arabic text into a Western language and inserting Christian themes within the translated Islamic text, as if they were Islamic doctrines too.

In conclusion, Baldassarre’s attitude towards the miʿrāǧ and Islam reflects a common inclination which developed among Christians and Jesuits in the Early Modern Age, but that also had its antecedents in authors such as William of Tripoli and Nicholas of Cusa. This attitude is precariously in equilibrium between a “heresiological framework”¹²⁶ Nongbri, Before Religion, pp. 57, 65-77 (on Christian heresiology). For the Christian establishment of this “heresiological framework” towards Islam see: Schadler, John of Damascus and Islam. - this approach begun to wane from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onwards, but was still alive in a Catholic context until at least the nineteenth century - and an attempt to understand Islam by means of a Christian reading of the Islamic doctrines without the use of warlike words or the lexicon of heresy.