Dante and Muhammad

 The thing I liked when I was reading this passage was the entrance into the story. When the author discusses his first hand view and experiences through battle, it is clear that it is something that means a lot to him because he had to go through something very painful and torturous. He enters the story by basically sayiing "who dares to reiterate the story of which they didn't under go." This sets the tone for what the author of the passage was going to speak to the reader about. In the story, the author shows grieve towards what he was going through when he speaks of what he witnessed with a painted picture:

"One foot raised, halted in mid-stride, Mohammed spoke these words, then setting down that foot, went on his way. Another, with his throat pierced through and nose hacked off just where the brows begin, and only one ear left upon his head, stopped with the rest of them to gape in wonder and, before the others did, opened his windpipe, scarlet on the skin side as it was, to say: 'O you whom guilt does not condemn and whom I saw above in Italy, if in your likeness I am not deceived, 'should you ever see that gentle plain again." Through this source of imagery, it makes the reader understand why the writer uses the tone of writing that he does. The writer went through something he feels that no man should have to see but at the same time the ones who went through it are the only ones who have the right to speak of its occurrence.