A Comparative Analysis of the Concept of Hell from the Perspectives of Dante and Ibn Arabi

The comparative analytical study of the great literary works of the world, known as comparative literature and intertextual research, is a striking and remarkable issue that addresses the essential requirements of interdisciplinary and comparative studies. Accordingly, the present study focuses on the comparison of the foundations of Hell in the Divine Comedy and Islamic Sufism and also more on the teachings of Ibn Arabi. It aims to define the principles of differences and similarities of the mentioned book and Islamic teachings. The research method in this study is descriptive analytical and is based on documents and on the content of the text. The comparison between the poems of Dante's Inferno and principles of the Quran, discursive, mystical and literally reveals the mysterious and secretive language of the text. In the end, the study concludes that there are apparent and substantial semantic and formal connections between the epistemological principles of Dante's hell and Islamic Sufism especially teachings of Ibn al Arabi which shows the influence of ibn Arabi and Islamic texts on Dante. They include creation and availability of a circular board, the division of levels of hell, and conflicts of its followers. Of course, the differences between the form and nature of the ideological foundations of Dante’s Divine Comedy and teachings of Ibn Arabi due to the differences among Christian sources, Greek mythology of Dante and Islamic resource of Sheykh Akbar are really notable and impressive. Some of the differences are: the discrepancy in status and geography of hell, the number of levels of hell, and immortality of it