ABSTRACT
I. Anyone of the channels mentioned may have served as the means of communication, even to the farthest ends of Europe, for the news of the legends on the after-life that were popular throughout Islam.2 It has been shown that the legends that sprang up in Ireland, Scandinavia, France, Germany and Italy-the so-called precursors of the Divine Comedy-were most probably based on Islamic models. These may have been introduced into Christian Europe by pilgrims, Crusaders, merchants or missionaries; or, again, by Norman adventurers, slaves, men of learning or simple travellers. Once the possibility of a connecting link has been established, the hypothesis of imitation tends to become
that moral certainty that historical demonstration requires and is content to accept.
