摘要：The relationship between Arab literature and ancient dramatic art is relatively new in many regards. Translating the ancient dramatic texts for Arab readers is a trend that dates back only to the third decade of the twentieth century. Despite the originality of Arabic poetry and the wide reputation of the ancient Arabic poets as talented in classical poetry all through history, drama as a poetic form never existed in the Arab world before it was imported from western culture, arguably via Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition in Egypt at the end of the eighteenth century. Thus the genre of drama in Arabic literature is an imported form of poetry as much as it is an imported type of performanc
