The Importance of Commentaries on Aristotle

Avisena is the most difficult work of philosophy I've ever read, or tried to read, in Arabic. The compressed and deliberately obscure style of the pointers meant that it would wind up being perhaps his most popular treatise. It called out for later authors to explain it, provoking a long tradition of commentary. Some highly original thinkers like Al-Farabi were content to devote a good deal of their activity to the interpretation of Aristotle. But once Abasenna came along, things changed.