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"My understanding is that it classical works were mainly preserved through Arab versions and Arab commentators and it was they who began to take essays concerned only with drama to apply to all literature. The early medieval European commentators followed on from that."
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No, not the literary works and commentaries thereon. The Arabs were interested in the scientific, mathematical and medical works, and thus books like Ptolemy's Astronomy became known first in the West via Arabic translations by way of Spain (hence the usual title Almagest, and Arabic star-names still in use); but by far the majority of classical literature was preserved by the Byzantines (the Roman Empire everyone seems to forget about), and began making its way westward starting with the Crusades.
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.
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