The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (605 page)

 
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(1265–1321).
Italian poet. Little is known of his early life, but as a child he met ‘Beatrice’ with whom he fell in love. She died in 1290, the wife of another, provoking a crisis for Dante resolved by his writing
Vita Nuova
. In that, he promised her a poem ‘such as had been written for no lady before’. That poem was his
Divine Comedy
, written sometime between 1305 and 1314. It is set in a period over Easter 1300 during which Dante travels from a dark forest (in which he has lost his way) through
hell
and
purgatory
to
paradise
.

 
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Daoism
:

see
TAOISM
.

 
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Darajah
(rank or degree)
:

see
MARRIAGE
(ISLAM).

 
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(Arab., ‘abode of war’). Territory outside Muslim jurisdiction; the opposite of
d
r al-Isl
m
. In theory,
jih
d
is commanded, since inhabitants of such territory are at war with the Muslim ’umma. Qur’
n 9. 5 commands the Muslims to fight and slay the polytheists. There has been, more recently, an increased emphasis on a
third
category, the ‘domain of covenant’ or ‘of agreement’,
d
r al
ul
.