Abdulla, Adnan

: Dr. Abdulla earned his B.A. (summa cum laude) from Mosul University, and then his M.A., M.A.T., and Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. He has taught literature, translation, history of literary criticism, and stylistics in the USA, Iraq, Jordan, and the UAE. Some of his publications include Catharsis in Literature (Indiana University Press, 1985), History of Literary Criticism: An Introductory Reader (Mosul University Press, 1989) and a co-translation with William Elliott of the medieval of the medieval mystical manuscript, The Attractions of Mystical Sessions (Bucks: Avebury, 1980). His articles have appeared in Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature and Babel.

Comparative Study of Longinus and Al-Jurjani - The Interrelationships Between Medieval Arabic Literary Criticism and Graeco-Roman Poetics

2004 0-7734-6379-8
This book investigates the similarities and differences between two critics, two books, and two concepts: Longinus’ “Sublime” in his On the Sublime (1st or 3rd A.D.) and al-Jurjani’s “Standard of Poetry” in his Mediation between al-Mutanabbi and his Adversaries (10th A.D.). Although much is known about al-Jurjani, his books and his times, almost nothing is known about Longinus: we are not sure who wrote that book, when and where it was written, and even how to translate the title. Al-Jurjani lived at least some seven centuries later and his ideas crystallize Arabic thought on great poetry.