Poetics of Islamic Canonization by Samer M. Ali
Published 2000 · 78,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Poetics of Islamic Canonization to read?
Poetics of Islamic Canonization scores 70 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it very challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 68 out of 100
- Specialized vocabulary drawn from classical Arabic poetics, philology, and contemporary literary theory.
- Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
- Abstraction: 75 out of 100
- Sustained theoretical argument about canon formation and poetic value operating at a high conceptual level.
- Information density: 78 out of 100
- Dense with primary source citations from Arabic manuscripts and secondary scholarship in multiple languages.
- Narrative indirection: 16 out of 100
- Argument is direct; some historical reconstruction requires inference from fragmentary sources.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- Symbolic analysis is applied to primary texts; the criticism itself is expository.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Scholarly tone; irony reserved for commentary on the politics of canon formation.
- Resolution withholding: 13 out of 100
- Arguments are developed fully within each chapter.
- Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
- Organized around historical periods and key anthologists; conventional scholarly architecture.
How Poetics of Islamic Canonization is regarded
Poetics of Islamic Canonization holds a literary regard score of 71 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.