Within the focus of the panel on research projects between America, Europe and the Arab world that attempt to re-theorize Arabic literature using its own terminology, the paper examines the practice of ikhtiyār. As a way of operating, an attitude or a tendency, ikhtiyār allows us to think of qualities in relation to an era or a culture, to a community, in ways that are not specific to one cultural-historical period. Yet, it remains largely informed by the ethical implication knowledge sharing claims in premodern Arabic thought. This paper approaches ikhtiyār as a site for epistemic intervention, and charts in how it yokes scholarly practices to democratic attitudes, distinct conceptualization of knowledge.