“Subjugating Arab forms to European meters”?

Scholars of 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. Arab culture, in this case, is a term used to describe the culture associated with speakers of Arabic and is not an ethnic term, nor is it associated with any particular religious group, as there are Arab Christians and Arab Jews, as well as Arab Muslims (and, for that matter, non-Arab Muslims). This chapter utilizes “Arab Shakespeares,” rather than “Arabic Shakespeares” or Shakespeare in the Arab World,” as it better includes adaptations that are not performed in the Arabic language but are clearly part of Arab culture, such as early versions of Sulayman al-Bassam’s Al-Hamlet Summit, which were performed in English, as well as Arab adaptions of Shakespeare that arise outside of that geographic region. ¹ This chapter uses the adjective “Arabic” to modify linguistic or literary terms specific to the Arabic language (“Arabic poetry,” “Arabic language”), whereas it uses the adjective “Arab” to modify descriptions of persons or places associated with Arab culture (“Arab poets,” “Arab World”).