In which canto of the Inferno does Dante encounter Muhammad?

Dante encounters Muhammad in Canto 28 of the Inferno. The meeting occurs in the eighth circle of Hell, specifically in the ninth bolgia, where the sowers of discord are punished.

In this bolgia, a demon repeatedly cuts the condemned with a sword. Their wounds heal as they complete the circuit, only to be reopened. Dante’s governing idea is contrapasso: those who divided communities, religions, or families in life are physically divided in death. Muhammad is portrayed according to Dante’s medieval Christian understanding as a religious schismatic, while Ali is also placed among the same sinners.

The scene should be read as a literary and theological judgment within a fourteenth-century Christian poem, not as a neutral historical account of Islam or Muhammad. Dante’s placement reflects the religious polemics and limited cross-cultural knowledge of medieval Latin Europe.

Canto 28 also includes Pier da Medicina, Curio, Mosca dei Lamberti, and Bertran de Born. Their punishments extend the theme from religious division to political and familial discord, making the canto one of the Inferno’s clearest examples of symbolic punishment.