The Poetics of Alfarabi and Avicenna

This book is an important and original study of medieval Arabic theories of poetics. It examines the commentaries on Aristotle’s Poetics by Alfarabi and Avicenna, placing them fully in the context of the Arabic development of Aristotle’s logical theory. In this the author breaks new ground, showing how the philosophers justified the logical and moral power of poetics discourse. Its concern for philosophical issues in the Classical Arabic tradition distinguishes this book from other studies of literary theory.