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

This bibliography is the not the product of an expert in the area of Arabic-Islamic rhetoric and poetics but, rather, the work of a teacher of the history of rhetoric who discovered a need for a more convenient, updated source of information for his students. The bibliography is organized into five sub-areas: (I) a section of general studies, (II-IV) a section for each of the three main figures (Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroës), and (V) a section of studies on historiography and influence. A pdf version of this bibliography is available via the following link: http://frank.mtsu.edu/~jcomas/rhetoric/arabic_rhet_biblio.pdf.

I. General Studies

Books

• Black, Deborah L. Logic and Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics in Medieval Arabic Philosophy. Islamic philosophy and theology, v. 7, Leiden: 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: Abû Tammâm’s Ode on Amorium.” Journal of Arabic Literature 9 (1978): 43-56.
• Bonebakker, S. A. “Aspects of the History of Literary Rhetoric and Poetics in Arabic Literature.” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1 (1970): 75-95.
• 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. “Alfârâbî 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

• Averroës’ 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

• Blaustein, Michael. “The Scope and Methods of Rhetoric in Averroës’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” In The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Muhsin S. Mahdi, edited by Charles E. Butterworth, 262-303. Cambridge, Mass.: Distributed for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by Harvard University Press, 1992.
• 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. “Averroës’ Platonization of Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric.” In La Rhétorique d’Aristote: traditions et commentaires de l’Antiquité au XVIIe siècle, edited by Gilbert Dahan, and Irène Rosier-Catach, 227-40. Paris: J. Vrin, 1998.
• ___. “Rhetoric and Islamic Political Philosophy.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 3, no. 2 (1972): 187-98.
• ___. “Translation and Philosophy: The Case of Averroës’ Commentaries.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 26, no. 1 (1994): 19-35.
• ___. “Rhetoric and Reason: A Study of Averroës’ Commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1966. ProQuest (302202303).
• Najjar, Fauzi M. “Ibn Rushd (Averroës) 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. “Averroës: 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 Averroës: The Influences of Aristotle’s Arabic Commentator Upon Western European and Arabic Rhetoric.” Review of Communication 7, no. 4 (2007): 369-87.
• Gutas, Dimitri. “On Translating Averroës’ Commentaries.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.1 (1990): 92-101.
• ___. “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.

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