page_title: Safa Khulusi
section_title: Shakespeare and the theory of Arab ancestry and Arabic influence
hierarchical_section_title: Safa Khulusi / Shakespeare and the theory of Arab ancestry and Arabic influence
caption_attribution_description: العربية: اعتُقد طويلًا أنَّ هذه هي الصورة الوحيدة لويليام شكسپير التي رُسمت خلال حياته، إلى أن تمَّ العُثور على صورةٍ أُخرى يُحتمل أن تكون قد رُسمت كذلك قبل وفاته، وهي رسمة كوبّ، التي كُشف النقاب عنها سنة 2009م. تُعرف هذه اللوحة باسم 'لوحة شاندوس' تيمُنًا بمالكها السَّابق، جيمس بريدجز، دوق شاندوس الأوَّل. كانت هذه الصورة أوَّل لوحة يحصل عليها معرض اللوحات الوطني سنة 1856م. English: This was long thought to be the only portrait of William Shakespeare that had any claim to have been painted from life, until another possible life portrait, the Cobbe portrait, was revealed in 2009. The portrait is known as the 'Chandos portrait' after a previous owner, James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. It was the first portrait to be acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 1856. The artist may be by a painter called John Taylor who was an important member of the Painter-Stainers' Company.&#91;1&#93;
context_page_description: Safa Abdul-Aziz Khulusi was an Iraqi historian, novelist, poet, journalist and broadcaster. He is known for mediating between Arabic- and English-language cultures, and for his scholarship of modern Iraqi literature. He is also remembered for his theories on Arabic grammar, on Shakespeare, as well as his role in Islamic education and his work on the poetry of al-Mutanabbi.
context_section_description: Following the lead of the 19th-century Arab scholar Ahmad Faris Shidyaq, Khulusi wrote an article in the Arabic Journal, al-Ma'rifa (The Knowledge), in 1960 which attempted to prove that William Shakespeare may have had Arab ancestry, the original form of his surname being 'Shaykh Zubayr'.  Khulusi suggested that the family name originated from Zubayr, an autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire ruled by an Emir (or Shaykh), hence 'Shaykh Zubayr', a name which he suggested was then anglicized to Shakespeare. Khulusi notes that Shakespeare had many variations in the spelling of his name, including hyphenated forms. He suggests that a name that is unusual may produce many written versions, and that the hyphenated variants, such as 'Shake-speare', could reflect an original that is composed of two parts.
  Khulusi records some of the known details about Shakespeare, including his birth and early life in Stratford-upon-Avon, details of his parents and his literary career. He suggests however, that information relating to Shakespeare's ancestral origin is lacking and believes that evidence pointing to his Arab ancestry is reflected in his choice of writing style and the content of his work, as well as in his own personal appearance. He comments on Shakespeare's possible ancestral lineage based on physical features in the Chandos portrait, which was painted during Shakespeare's lifetime.
  In other parts of his theory, Khulusi identifies words originating from Arabic that appear in Shakespearian plays and sonnets and argues that their use is more common than expected for that time. Certain words were unheard of before being introduced by Shakespeare. The earliest literary use in English of the word assassination (from the Arabic word ħashshāshīyīn) is in Macbeth.
  Khulusi notes the observations of Walt Taylor (Arabic Words in English, 1933) that about a thousand main words of Arabic origin and many more of their derivatives, were incorporated into the English language through translations of French, Spanish and Latin re-workings of Arabic texts (mainly scientific and medical). However, about a third of all loan words (mainly conversational), were taken directly from Arabic, from the end of the 16th century to the time of the Restoration.  Many of the words are now obsolete or rare but the ones still in everyday use have a completely English appearance, accent, stress and pronunciation. By all appearance they are not consciously regarded as Arabic. In contrast, more recent borrowings have neither settled pronunciation nor settled form. Taylor suggests that the absorption of Arabic words directly into English was the result of increased travel and trade as well as direct contact with both Arabic speakers and texts.
  Khulusi adds that it was around this time that Arabic began to be studied in England. William Bedwell (1561–1632) is credited with introducing formal academic studies in Arabic. The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud (1573–1645), in his role as Chancellor of the University of Oxford, recognised the importance to English of Arabic as a source of reference material. He procured numerous original Arabic manuscripts and books for the University, housing them in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He created the position of Professor of Arabic in 1636, appointing the Chaplain of Aleppo, Edward Pococke, as the first Laudian Professor of Arabic at The University of Oxford. Pococke was tasked with returning to the East and collecting further Arabic scholastic and scientific works. He was accompanied by other academics and scientists, returning to England a few years later, with numerous Arabic texts. The astronomer John Greaves travelled with Pococke and secured valuable Arabic manuscripts for his own work. He was later appointed as Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford.
  
   
  Khulusi speculates about the inclusion of large numbers of Arabic geographic locations and place names in Shakespeare's work. He details Arab countries from North Africa that are referred to by Shakespeare, including Egypt, Morocco, Tunis 
caption: The Chandos portrait of Shakespeare. Khulusi argued that the dusky features and pointed 'Islamic' beard were evidence of Shakespeare's Arabic ethnicity.[19]
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