ABSTRACT
Scholars of William Shakespeare and the Arab World increasingly use the term “Arab Shakespeares” to describe the multifaceted and diverse adaptations of Shakespeare and his works that arise from or bear some relationship to Arab culture. This chapter utilizes the adjective “Arabic” to modify linguistic or literary terms specific to the Arabic language, whereas it uses the adjective “Arab” to modify descriptions of persons or places associated with Arab culture. The Lebanese poet and associate of Abu Shadi had published the first Shakespearean sonnet in Arabic in his 1926 collection of poetry. In characterizing Shakespeare’s sonnets as anashid, Abu Shadi also parallels the work of Ilyas Abu Shabaka, the only poet to write a Shakespearean sonnet in Arabic prior to Abu Shadi. Abu Shadi draws a distinction between Shakespeare’s sonnets and musical or lyric poetry by pointing out the differences between anashid and aghani in terms of both their mode of performance and their effect on the audience.
