Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory

Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics: Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory is a pioneering book that offers a fresh perspective on Arabic, Persian, and Turkic literature in their interrelations. The authors challenge Eurocentric paradigms while creating a framework for exploring these traditions on their own terms. Authored by an international team of scholars, each chapter centres the literary theoretical traditions of their respective literatures, with a focus on the discipline of comparative poetics ('ilm al-balāgha) in the Islamic world. By liberating the study of Islamicate literary texts from Eurocentric theoretical paradigms, the book paves the way for a more inclusive global discourse in literary studies. Specifically, our theoretical roots in comparative poetics and the rhetorical traditions of Arabic, Persian, and Turkic literatures will foster new methods of close reading that are in line with the aesthetic standards intrinsic to these texts and their traditions. Engaging and insightful, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in broadening their understanding of world literature and literary theory.

Hany Rashwan, United Arab Emirates University,Rebecca Ruth Gould, School of Oriental and African Studies,Nasrin Askari, School of Oriental and African Studies

Dr Hany Rashwan is a scholar of Arabic and Comparative Poetics. He is an Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at UAE University as well as an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Birmingham.



Professor Rebecca Ruth Gould is a Distinguished Professor of Comparative Poetics and Global Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.


Dr Nasrin Askari is a Research Fellow and Translator on the Persian segment of the European Research Council-funded project Global Literary Theory (GlobalLIT).

List of Figures and TablesNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Challenges of Comparison, Rebecca Ruth Gould1. The History of Literary Theory in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Cultures, Hany Rashwan2. The Arabic Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's Rhetoric: A New Space for Greek Logical and Rhetorical Terminology, Lachen El Yazghi Ezzaher3. 'The Central Jewel': The Poetics of the Khuṭba, Khiṭāba and Balāgha according to Ibn 'Abd Rabbih of Cordoba (d. 328/940), Linda G. Jones4. The Poetics of Preposing and Postposing (taqdim and ta'khir) in The History of Bayhaqi, Leila Seyed-Ghasem5. The Beauty of Misleading: Ambiguity in Persian Poetics and Ghazal Poetry, Natalia Chalisova6. The Science of Poetics and Persian Literary Riddles: The Case of Majd al-Din Hamgar, A.A. Seyed-Gohrab7. A Maghribi Poetics of Ageing? Ibn Rashiq, al-Qartājanni and Ibn Hamdis on I^"al-Shayb wa-l-Shabāb", Nicola Carpentieri8. Beyond Eurocentric Turkology: Turkic Poetry, Persian Prosody, and the Making of a Non-language-specific-system, Marc Toutant9. Exploring the Arabic and Persian Concept of Imitation (Ietebbu) in 16th Century Ottoman Biographies of Poets, A. Handan Konar10. The Proof of God's Eloquence in the Poetics of Seyh Gâlib (d. 1799), Berat Açil11. Metaphorical Literalism and the Poetics of Reality: Ahmad Ahsāi, Figuration and the World of Images, Todd Lawson12. From Balāgha to Intiqād: Politicising the Science of Literature in Modern Arabic Literary Thought, Haifa Alfaisal13. Arabic Poetics and Prosody in Practice: Najib Surur's Experimentalism in 'Kalimāt fi-l-hubb' [Love Words], Chiara FontanaIndex