Jan M. Ziolkowski is Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University, and Director of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. His research into the Latin Middle Ages has concentrated on the classical tradition, especially Virgil (The Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years and The Virgil Encyclopedia); the grammatical and rhetorical traditions; and the relationship of folk tales and vernacular epics with Latin. In Dante scholarship an edited volume on Dante and the Greeks is in press.

• Introduction Jan Ziolkowski Approaches to a Controversy Dante and Islam: History and Analysis of a Controversy (1965) Vicente Cantarino Dante and Islamic Culture (1999) Maria Corti Dante and Knowledge of the Qur'an Translations of the Qur'an and Other Islamic Texts before Dante (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries) Jose Martinez Gazquez How an Italian Friar Read His Arabic Qur'an Thomas Burman Images of Islamic Philosophy and Learning in Dante Philosophers, Theologians, and the Islamic Legacy in Dante: Inferno 4 versus Paradiso 4 Brenda Deen Schildgen Dante and the Falasifa: Religion as Imagination Gregory B. Stone Falconry as a Transmutative Art: Dante, Frederick II, and Islam Daniela Boccassini Images of Muammad in Dante Dante's Muammad: Parallels between Islam and Arianism Maria Esposito Frank Muhammad in Hell Karla Mallette Islam in Dante's Italy Mendicants and Muslims in Dante's Florence John Tolan Dante and the Three Religions Giorgio Battistoni The Last Muslims in Italy David Abulafia Notes Index of references to Dante's major works General Index

"This volume gathers together some of the major figures in the study of Dante and Islam, including the seminal work of Cantarino and Corti, as well as ground-breaking articles such as Burman on medieval readers of the Latin Qur'an and Mallette on the figure of Muhammad. Dante's visionary poetry is placed in the context of western reception of Arabic literature as well as the dynamic field of Mediterranean Studies. A must-read volume for scholars and students of European views of the Muslim world." -- -Suzanne Conklin Akbari author of Idols in the East: European Representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100-1450