The aim of the current project is to edit critically and translate into English all translations of Aristotle's Poetics and their commentaries in all languages they existed: Syriac, Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew. This is accompanied by the comparative study of its intellectual history that bridges the cultures in the Near East, North Africa, and Europe, and traverses the religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

With the support of the Einstein Visiting Fellowship, the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies was able to bring a leading international scholar in Graeco-Arabica to Freie Universität Berlin. Professor Dimitri Gutas of Yale University is co-editor of the first editio maior of the Greek original of the Poetics (Leiden 2012, with L. Tarán). He was appointed Einstein Visiting Fellow at the BGSMCS in 2016-2019 (project phase I), and 2019-2021 (project phase II).The third phase of the project (2021-2027) is supported by the DFG Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz prize awarded to Beatrice Gruendler in 2017.

For their work, Dimitri Gutas and Beatrice Gruendler have gathered a group of cooperating international scholars. These are organized in core teams for each language, focussing on the respective editions of the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, and Hebrew versions. They also study the cultural and intellectual history of the Poetics as the debate – initiated by the Arabic commentaries – continued in Syriac as well as the European reception in Latin and Hebrew.

For the first time, a key work of world literature and science – and one that shows the cultural continuum of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East – is being philologically documented and historically contextualized throughout its entire history. The salient developments in the long transmission from antiquity to the Renaissance took place in the Islamic world where the earliest commentaries to the Aristotelian text were composed. Thus, at the core of the project stands the focus on the Poetics in Arabic-Islamic culture. The work is to become a model for future work on key texts, their multilingual editions and contextual studies.

Commentary volumes (Brill publishers)

Vol. 1, The extant Syriac translation of the passage on tragedy, and the Arabic translation of the Poetics from Syriac by Abu Bishr (editors: O. Overwien and M. Martelli [Syriac]; D. Gutas [Arabic]).

Vol. 2, Avicenna's Arabic paraphrase in the Kitāb al-Shiʿr from the Shifā'; Bar Hebraeus's Syriac summary of Avicenna and possibly with reference to the Syriac translation (editors: D. Gutas, A. A. Sakr [Arabic]; H. Takahashi, V. Chamourgiotaki [Syriac]).

Vol. 3, Averroes' Talkhīṣ and Ibn Tumlus's paraphrase related to Averroes (editors: M. Salim Salim, D. Gutas, T. Frey, B. Gruendler, A. al-Quraini [Averroes]; M. Aouad, H. Haddad [Ibn Tumlus]).

Vol. 4, The medieval Latin translation of Averroes by Hermann the German and the medieval Hebrew translation of Averroes by Todrosi (editors: L. Minio-Paluello, D. Gutas, T. Frey [Hermann]; F. Gorgoni, V. Chamourgiotaki [Todrosi]).

Vol. 5, The Renaissance retroversions into Latin by Mantino and De Balmes; together with the Poetica Minora(editors: F. Gorgoni,T. Frey, D. Gutas [retroversions]; A. A. Sakr, V. Chamourgiotaki, D. Gutas [Poetica Minora]).

Vol. 6, Studies on the reception of the Poetics. It will portray the life of the text as a key work for both Europe and Islam in its different linguistic and cultural surroundings and its cumulative reception from Hellenism to the Renaissance. (editors B. Gruendler; D. Gutas et al.).

Vol. 7, Concordance of the glossaries and related studies; Bibliographies; Indices (editors: D. Gutas; B. Gruendler, S. Wilder, T. Frey et al.).

Vol. 8, Proceedings of the conference Why We (Should) Translate Science and Philosophy. A Collection of Contemporary Documents. The source texts are published both in the original language and in English translation; a general introduction; introductory sections by each contributor, (editors: D. Gutas, with the assistance of Ch. Burnett and U. Vagelpohl; contributions by M. Angold; Ch. Burnett, D. Cohen; G. Freudenthal; D. N. Hasse; A. Kaldellis; F. Mundt; I. Sánchez; I. Toral; U. Vagelpohl; M. Zakeri).