Comparative Analysis Of Ibn Sīnā’s And Al-Fārābī’s Treatises On Poetics

This article presents a comparative analysis of Poetics in the writings of two major medieval Islamic philosophers: Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī (Al-Farabi) and Abū ‘Alī Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna). Both scholars engaged deeply with Aristotle’s Poetics, integrating it into the Arabic-Islamic intellectual milieu. Al-Farabi’s Canons of Poetry and Ibn Sina’s Poetics (as part of his encyclopedic Kitāb al-Shifā’, “Book of Healing”) are examined to elucidate their respective theories of poetic art. Key areas of comparison include their classification of poetics within the Aristotelian logical corpus, their conceptions of poetic syllogism and imaginative “assent,” and their treatment of tragedy and comedy as high versus low forms of art. Drawing on Aristotle’s legacy and the Neoplatonic context, Al-Farabi and Avicenna each made distinct contributions: Al-Farabi emphasized the logical and social function of poetry (often linking it to rhetoric and political philosophy) while Avicenna expanded the moral and psychological dimensions of poetics. Influences from Aristotle’s Poetics and late antique commentary are traced, alongside insights from modern scholars (e.g. Dimitri Gutas, Jon Walbridge, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Abd al-Raḥmān Badawī). The study concludes that Ibn Sina’s commentary builds upon and departs from Al-Farabi’s foundations – for instance, by rejecting the notion that poetic syllogisms must be false and by affirming the role of imaginative discourse in eliciting emotional responses and conveying moral insights. This comparative inquiry sheds light on how medieval Islamic thinkers preserved, interpreted, and transformed Aristotle’s Poetics, laying groundwork for subsequent literary theory in both the Islamic world and, via Ibn Rushd (Averroes), medieval Europe.