Research Article

The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran

Number: 9 October 23, 2025
TR EN

The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran

Abstract

The way we understand mimesis is fundamental to epistemology, physics, and representation in political life as well as in the arts. Can truth/reality be copied? The most enduring understanding of what truth and reality are has come to us from Plato, who launched an attack on poetry as false representation of the divine. Although a rarely defined Neoplatonism is routinely attributed to the ninth and tenth-century philosophers who wrote in Arabic, I and others have overlooked how much of Plato there is in the whole of Islamicate literature and culture, beginning with the linguistic environment of the Quran. But it is well known that Plato was revered in historical Islamicate societies; Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1037) and many others referred to him as “the divine Plato,” and considered him a prophet in the monotheistic tradition. There is now a small body of work on mimesis and Islam, but here I will look specifically at Platonic topics found in the Quran with regard to mimesis and poetry, and the kind of methodology needed to appreciate them.

Keywords

References

  1. Alon, Ilai. Socrates in Mediaeval Arabic Literature. E. J. Brill, The Magnes Press, 1991. al-Azmeh, Aziz. The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity: Allah and his People. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
  2. al-Sharkawi, Muhammed. History and Development of the Arabic Language. Routledge, 2016.
  3. Arnzen, Rudiger. “Plato, Arabic.” In Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy, edited by Henrik Lagerlund. Springer, 2020.
  4. Arzhanov, Yuri. “Plato in Syriac Literature.” Le Muséon 132, no. 1–2 (2019): 1–36.
  5. Asmis, Elizabeth, ed. “Beauty, Harmony, and the Good.” Special issue of Classical Philology 105, no. 4 (2010).
  6. Badawi, El-Said M. and M. A. Abdel Haleem. Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage. Brill, 2008.
  7. Barney, Rachael. “Notes on Plato on the Kalon and the Good.” Classical Philology 105, no. 4 (2010): 363–77.
  8. Belhaj, Abdessamad. “The Dialectics of the Quran Through 2:258.” Islamic Studies 51, no. 3 (2012): 263-273.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

World Languages, Literature and Culture (Other), Literary Theory, Comparative and Transnational Literature, Literary Studies (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

October 23, 2025

Submission Date

August 1, 2025

Acceptance Date

October 8, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Number: 9

APA
Rowe Holbrook, V. (2025). The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 9, 29-45. https://doi.org/10.64957/nesir.1802850
AMA
1.Rowe Holbrook V. The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi. 2025;(9):29-45. doi:10.64957/nesir.1802850
Chicago
Rowe Holbrook, Victoria. 2025. “The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran”. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, nos. 9: 29-45. https://doi.org/10.64957/nesir.1802850.
EndNote
Rowe Holbrook V (October 1, 2025) The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 9 29–45.
IEEE
[1]V. Rowe Holbrook, “The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran”, Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 9, pp. 29–45, Oct. 2025, doi: 10.64957/nesir.1802850.
ISNAD
Rowe Holbrook, Victoria. “The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran”. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi. 9 (October 1, 2025): 29-45. https://doi.org/10.64957/nesir.1802850.
JAMA
1.Rowe Holbrook V. The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi. 2025;:29–45.
MLA
Rowe Holbrook, Victoria. “The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran”. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 9, Oct. 2025, pp. 29-45, doi:10.64957/nesir.1802850.
Vancouver
1.Victoria Rowe Holbrook. The Architecture of Mimesis in Plato and in the Quran. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi. 2025 Oct. 1;(9):29-45. doi:10.64957/nesir.1802850

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