The East

This chapter addresses four aspects of Dante’s use of the concept of oriens or the East: First, scientific, his geographical knowledge and orientation, that is the orbis terrarum model that underlies the Commedia and the Monarchia and the role of the East in it; second, political geography whereby he renders the theory of a tripartite single-landmass Earth in service to his historical theory that puts Rome in the center of the political world; third, his use of Arabic learning and philosophy; fourth, the fictive ‘orient’ or East, which poses political Islam as a danger and threat (and includes North Africa and the Middle East); imagines India as a revered East; finally, presents the ‘East’ as the source for ‘wonders’ that reveal God’s creative grandeur and incommensurability. Dante, thus, represents many Easts, including a political East and a geographical East, a learned East, as well as an imaginary East.