ENGL 6/7505
J. Comas
12 Mar 2011

Medieval Arabic-Islamic Poetics and Rhetoric: Selected Bibliography of Work in English

I have organized the items of this bibliography into five main sections: a section of general studies, a section for each of the three main figures (Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroës), and a section of studies on historiography and influence.

I. General Studies on Medieval Arabic-Islamic Poetics and Rhetoric
Books
Black, Deborah L. Logic and Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics in Medieval Arabic Philosophy. Vol. Islamic philosophy and theology, v. 7, Leiden ; New York: E.J. Brill, 1990.
Kemal, Salim. The Philosophical Poetics of Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroës: The Aristotelian Reception. London: Routledge, 2003.
Menocal, Maria Rosa. The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage. 1987. Reprint, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
Ouyang, Wen-chin. Literary Criticism in Medieval Arabic-Islamic Culture: The Making of a Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997.
Vagelpohl, Uwe. Aristotle’s Rhetoric in the East: The Syriac and Arabic Translation and Commentary Tradition. Vol. 76, Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
Articles & Chapters
Badawi, M. M. “The Function of Rhetoric in Medieval Arabic Poetry: Abū Tammām’s Ode on Amorium.” Journal of Arabic Literature 9 (1978): 43-56.
Butterworth, Charles E. “The Rhetorician and His Relationship to Community: Three Accounts of Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” In Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani, edited by Michael E. Marmura, 111-36. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.
Endress, Gerhard. “The Language of Demonstration: Translating Science and the Formation of Terminology in Arabic Philosophy and Science.” Early Science and Medicine 7, no. 3 (2002): 231-54.
Halldén, Philip. “What is Arab Islamic Rhetoric? Rethinking the History of Muslim Oratory Art and Homiletics.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 37, no. 1 (2005): 19-38.
Hatim, Basil. “A Model of Argumentation From Arabic Rhetoric: Insights for a Theory of Text Types.” Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies) 17, no. 1 (1990): 47-54.
Lameer, Joep. “The Organon of Aristotle in the Medieval Oriental and Occidental Traditions.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 116, no. 1 (1996): 90-98.
Merriam, Allen H. “Rhetoric and the Islamic Tradition.” Today’s Speech 22, no. 1 (1974): 43-49.
Swartz, Merlin. “Arabic Rhetoric and the Art of the Homily in Medieval Islam.” In Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian, and Georges. Sabagh, 36-65. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

II. Alfarabi (c. 872-c. 951)
Primary
Ezzaher, Lachen E. “Alfarabi’s Book of Rhetoric: An Arabic-English Translation of Alfarabi’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric 26, no. 4 (2008): 347-91.
Matar, Nabil. “Alfārābī on Imagination: With a Translation of His ‘Treatise on Poetry.’” College Literature 23, no. 1 (1996): 100-10.
Secondary
Boggess, William F. “Alfarabi and the Rhetoric: The Cave Revisited.” Phronesis 15, no. 1 (1970): 86-90.
Lameer, Joep. Al-Farabi and Aristotelian Syllogistics: Greek Theory and Islamic Practice. Vol. 20, Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994.
Watt, John W. “From Themistius to Al-Farabi: Platonic Political Philosophy and Aristotle’s Rhetoric in the East.” Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric 13, no. 1 (1995): 17-41.

III. Avicenna (980-1037)
Primary
Dahiyat, Ismail M. Avicenna’s Commentary on the Poetics of Aristotle: A Critical Study With an Annotated Translation of the Text. Leiden: Brill, 1974.
Haddawy, Husain. “Avicenna on Style.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 1 (1981): 21-37.
Secondary
Afnan, Soheil. “The Commentary of Avicenna on Aristotle’s Poetics.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2 (1947): 188-90.
Stroumsa, Sarah. “Avicenna’s Philosophical Stories: Aristotle’s Poetics Reinterpreted.” Arabica: Revue d’ Etudes Arabes 39, no. 2 (1992): 183-206.
Winovsky, Robert. “Avicenna and the Avicennian Tradition.” In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, edited by Peter Adamson, and Richard C. Taylor, 92-136. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

IV. Averroës (1126-1198)
Primary
Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics. Translated by Charles E. Butterworth. South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press, 2000.
Averroës’ Three Short Commentaries on Aristotle’s Topics, Rhetoric, and Poetics. Translated by Charles E. Butterworth. Studies in Islamic Philosophy and Science. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1977.
Secondary
Borrowman, Shane. “The Islamization of Rhetoric: Ibn Rushd and the Reintroduction of Aristotle Into Medieval Europe.” Rhetoric Review 27, no. 4 (2008): 341-60.
Butterworth, Charles E. “Rhetoric and Islamic Political Philosophy.” International Journal of Middle East Studies (1972): 187-98.
___. “Translation and Philosophy: The Case of Averroes’ Commentaries.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 26, no. 1 (1994): 19-35.
Najjar, Fauzi M. “Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and the Egyptian Enlightenment Movement.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 31, no. 2 (2004): 195-213.
Najjar, Ibrahim Y. “Ibn Rushd’s Theory of Rationality.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 16 (1996): 191-216.
Taylor, Richard C. “Averroes: Religious Dialectic and Aristotelian Philosophical Thought.” In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, edited by Peter Adamson, and Richard C. Taylor, 180-200. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

V. Historiography and Influence
Brague, Rémi. “Athens, Jerusalem, Mecca: Leo Strauss’s ‘Muslim’ Understanding of Greek Philosophy.” Poetics Today 19, no. 2 (1998): 235-59.
Butterworth, Charles. “Averroës, Precursor of the Enlightenment?” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics (1996): 6-18.
Clark, Carol Lea. “Aristotle and Averroes: The Influences of Aristotle’s Arabic Commentator Upon Western European and Arabic Rhetoric.” Review of Communication 7, no. 4 (2007): 369-87.
Gutas, Dimitri. “The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: An Essay on the Historiography of Arabic Philosophy.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 29, no. 1 (2002): 5-25.
Schaub, Mark. “Rhetorical Studies in America: The Place of Averroës and the Medieval Arab Commentators.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 16 (1996): 233-54.
Wolf-Gazo, Ernest. “Contextualizing Averroës Within the German Hermeneutic Tradition.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 16 (1996): 133-63.