“Trans*textual Shakespeare: The Arabic and Persian Pre-texts of Romeo and” Juliet is dedicated to Persian and Arabic re*source texts of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (ca.1595). It starts off from the thesis that authoritative source studies about William Shakespeare have intentionally or latently ignored the influence of the Arabic and Persian pre-texts of major tragedies and also comedies. Such studies have focused primarily on the European sources of Shakespeare's work. This indicates that Shakespearean source study is implicated in the Western cultural and literary hegemony, which is the byproduct of a colonial discourse and the politics of racial and religious representations. Taghrid Elhanafy argues, however, that textualities and the knowledge thereof have always been in motion, moving smoothly between the East and the West in the Early Modern era. Consequently, Taghrid Elhanafy suggests a rethinking of the understanding of “source” as re*source as well as of the “influence concept”.