In 1989 Radio Tehran reported a major breakthrough in Shakespeare scholarship. The breakthrough had been made by none other than Colonel Gaddafi. He had realised and then proved that Shakespeare was not called Shakespeare, he was called Sheik Zbir (or Zubair) and that he was, in fact, an Arab.Gaddafi's reasoning is so simple that I need hardly repeat it here. Suffice to say that Macbeth is taken from The Thousand Nights and One Night, that Romeo and Juliet is just a combination of Leila and Manjoon and Quys and Lubna, and that Othello is simply a reworking of the Tale of Kamar Al Zaman.
I went to have a look at the Tale of Kamar Al Zaman, and, though I couldn't quite see how William Sheik Zbir had plagiarised it, I did find the lovely word wrongously, as in:
...the Prince had been falsely accused and wrongously
Wrong as wrongously may sound today, it was a common word right up until the nineteenth century. As wrongously's meaning is so clear I think that wrongously could and should and must be revived. As in:
Gaddafi, though a great scholar of Shakespeare, wrongously started bombing his own capital city.
The Colonel conducting his research
P.S. You'd think he'd be in line for a promotion by now. Why still only a colonel?
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Majnu(n)
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't make it up.
ReplyDeleteThe Arabian Nights tales weren't translated into a European language until the 1700s, so Shakespeare must have been an Arab to plagiarise them. Plagiarise? Well, it goes without saying that his plays had historical and literary sources (I recall Italian tales being a prominent one). But Arabia? Sheik Zbir must have spoken to the Colonel in a dream and revealed all.
ReplyDeleteobviously this is a year since the last post , and less since gaddafi's last post-rong'unlessnesses... but/and yet , nuntheless ,orreddy,rabbis and the resting remainders of usz , I--EGO--ME have humbly had a longstanding , personal , pet heretickle theoretickle about this monika ...long ago i found myself pronouncing the name jokingly , in my high school years , late 50s/early 60s ...
ReplyDeleteat home family spoke this language ...mother tongue being leb-palestinian ...spoken colloquially and haltingly by me , and i never learned it , only from the spoken in formative years ...SO , IN CONTRAST TO THE GADDAFI 'SCHOLARSHIP' [it is toooo 'logical' , effen y' get me , tho' it must have epiphanic , and CREDITABLE , research significance , if only to advance more speculation in the direction of a final explicatory truth ...THE VERBOSITY IS TO BUILD TO this idea[ideas are free ...? ]...THAT , if , say , in COLLOQUIAL LEBO-ARABIC [POSSIBLY EVEN ARAMAIC AND/ OR ISRAELI ] one PRONOUNCED , PHONETICALLY , AURALLY , the moniker , Shakespeare ; in my theoretical , it could be pronounced [el] SHAAKS PUHRU ...hich translates , surprisingly , as ' THE ACTOR ...SHINES ' !!! DAVID HELFGOTT & JULIAN JAYNES , & SCHIZOID-DRIFT , KNOT-uuithstanding ...YOUR THOUGHTS PLEAS-FOR-MURKY BEAUX-COOKOO'Z NESTLINGS ,
addendum from anonymous , ECCO ! i am happy to say i am eddie khalil from south austrailia ...and , of course it is more fundibulumentally THE ' ACTOR Burrnns' ! ...some names carry historys better than the best contempo rary vocal texters ...thanx for the accepting of a second post on that madda ......all best in health , happiness , and success in unravelling this bit of 'SKEIN-ARIO '...khalil da gibbraan-mess-age shall knot eerie our Dunlopilloze ................
ReplyDeletecould it not have also transpired that an english-speaking arab of the times [knot knessetarily a journo' ]may have commented ,as s/he bought a ticket from bill at gates of globe ...and as a result bill learned that , in arabic , say , his name sounded like the sounds , "ACTOR BURNS " ...and being a popstar of the day , it may have piqued him no-end .....to the point of investigating the genealogies of the day for signs of either of his gifted genes-on-the-chromosomes going 'back' to pre-and/or post-phoenician landings on cornuuall , and/or pre-and/or post canaan , canaanites and/or the perpetuation of the CURSE on canaan's seed these days imaginatively and conveniently and politically indirectly perpetuating certain cultural , political and unknessetarily conflictual conflictuals ...i earnestly hope that someone else can stop me from looking like hoguuashing the shouu [the double yoo on this laptop not signed-in fr'auuhile ]continuum love ,eddie KHALIL [knot uuell , dear ? ...]
ReplyDeleteYOU'VE GOT ME FEELING THAT STATE OF MAXIMUM SYMMETRY BEING BROKEN BY THIS HUMUNGOUS PHASE=TRANSITION ...somehouu this could relate to the so-called FALSE and/or TRUE vacuum ...alum..a...toodlum...allay those fears...trim tha mindermast , splice the brainbrace...thanxaggen fr'allaying my fears about filling these ' vacuum-boxes' you have generously built...on , on , further....drop the 20th sentry-century ??
ReplyDeletesssttttrrruuth , maytes , all of usz are so heavily into this one ...sudden relisation that my latest lieder could be part of a 4syth ...thanx mark forsyth for the space to drop thyme avvagood'un ...i reckon shakespeare must've been a crack bouuler of UURONG'UNS in VOIDS !!!mine feuu! rare ! i can valk!? luv , edgar dene jura-khalil [ ex-schoirboy ]...i don't fink ! i DOOITT...for
allfella astrocosmoearthspacePERSONAUTS !