From the early twentieth century in Europe and America and then with a few decades’ delay in Iran, a new understanding of literary criticism was formed on the basis of interdisciplinary theories. Though such a theory was absent in the history of literary criticism in Islam and Iran, it does not imply that there were no literary criticism at that time. Such criticism was traceable in historical and rhetorical accounts. It should be mentioned that this kind of criticism was built on theorization as well, since no literary criticism could be formed without conceptualization. The present paper has explored the book “Naghd Al-Sher” [Poetic Criticism] by Qudama ibn Jafar (260- 337 AH.), to analyze the literary criticism, as a historical account on criticism in Islam and Iran. Upon analysis, the researcher came to conclusion that Qudama’s theory is better be called as a rhetorical literary theory, rather than a theory on the basis of classicism and formalism. His theory was observed to be text-based, and provides the reader with a basis to evaluate poemst to say”.