The canto opens with Dante wondering how to describe the sinners in the ninth chasm. This is the place of the Sowers of Discord and Scandal, and the Creators of Schism within the papacy. He warns that the punishment in this part of Hell is bloody and grotesque. Indeed, the sinners in the ninth chasm are damned to walk around the chasm until they arrive at a devil who slashes them with a long sword, according to the nature of their sin.
The first one Dante sees is Mahomet, disemboweled, who tells him that his son-in-law, Ali, is in the same condition and that all the others are horribly mangled in some manner. As they circle the chasm, the wounds heal, but when they complete the circle, the wounds are renewed by a devil with a sword.
Mahomet explains that these sinners were responsible for scandal and rift, and therefore, they are torn apart as they tore others apart in life. Mahomet asks Dante to tell Fra Dolcino, who is still alive, to store food for the winter or risk joining him in the chasm. After asking Dante to warn his friend, Mahomet moves on.
Another soul addresses Dante and asks that he warn Guido and Angiolello that they will be thrown from their ships into the sea by the one-eyed traitor (Malatestino). Dante will bear this sinner’s name to the upper world, if he shows him a soul he spoke of as having seen the land of the traitor.
Although the soul is standing right beside Dante, he cannot speak because his tongue is chopped out. This soul is Curio, by whose council Caesar crossed the Rubicon, thus starting a war.
A third shade, Mosca dei Lamberti, calls out that he too wishes to be remembered, but Dante wishes death to all his kindred, and he runs off like a madman.
A headless figure approaches Dante, holding his head in front of him as if it were a lantern. The figure holds his head up to the poets, so they can hear him better. The figure says that he is Bertrand de Born, and that he set the young king to mutiny against his own father. Born also states that, because he parted father and son, he spends eternity with his head parted from his body.
