This issue aims to question the historiography of theatres in the Arab worlds and to reread it in light of its relationship to the archives of the performing arts. It will focus on the reasons and circumstances that lead to the preservation of traces of the performing arts, as well as on the assumptions and methods underlying the writing of theatre history.
The history of Arab theatres is often associated with voids, silences, or even a lack of representation and recognition within the global theatrical landscape. In the preface to his work al-Masraḥ al-munawwaʿ, Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm (1956) lamented that contemporary theatrical creation "thus arises from nothing or almost nothing, from a few rare experiences [...], working beyond a vertiginous abyss that the efforts made over generations by predecessors have failed to bridge" (7).
Could this "abyss" in the history of Arab performing arts be due, as Roger Assaf (2024) suggests, to a "parallax" (7) and to inherent gaps in a historiography of theatre that has turned away from practices of Arab performing arts prior to the 19th century, thereby limiting the preservation of their archives? Could "the historiographic abyss" itself result from the precariousness and fragmentation of the archives, or even from the absence of traces of traditional Arab theatrical forms?
Orality, interactivity, absence of finalized texts, and performances based on canvases – are these intrinsic characteristics of traditional Arab theatrical practices mainly responsible for the absence of precise and complete documents?
Even when they do exist, Arabic dramatic texts often remain inaccessible. Researchers attribute this scarcity to the reluctance of Arab publishing houses to publish theatrical texts, especially in local dialects. The texts that have reached us are, moreover, dependent on the selection criteria adopted by each author or anthology editor (see, for example, the justification given by Muḥammad Krayyim, 2000, p. 213, or Muḥammad Yūsuf Naǧm, 1963).
In turn, the "living archives" – according to Pavis (1996), the transmission of know-how and "embodied" scores by the actors – are often dispersed, preventing the permanence of foundational experiences in Arab theatrical movements.
More generally, many researchers and artists have emphasized the impossibility for any theatrical creation to preserve "living" traces of the entire "theatrical session" (Biet, 2013) as well as of the complete performance processes (Schechner, 2020).
This compels us to question the very nature of the preserved document, "frozen," classified as a theatre archive, as well as the criteria for its conservation and the subjectivity of its interpretation.
Critical reflections on the archiving of performing arts and on theatre historiography consistently highlight the inevitably fragmented and partial aspect of these two practices. Georges Banu (2017) observed that "in theatre, correct conservation – as in life – is impossible, but precisely because one cannot achieve it, one must attempt it" (8).
For his part, Assaf (2024) argues that "the history of theatre in the strict sense of the term is impossible, since the main element of theatrical phenomenon – performance – is essentially ephemeral" (7). He thus undertakes in his work the writing of a "non-history" of theatre which challenges the presumed universality of a history reduced "to the European model that the 19th century generalized" (8). This model marginalized not only the performative practices of the Arab and Asian worlds but also those of the Middle Ages and the European Baroque.
Therefore, Assaf seeks to describe and reread every theatrical work whose traces remain, taking into account, as far as possible, the "needs of the stage" and the socio-cultural framework in which this work was created and received (2024, p. 14). In his historical overview of world theatre, he also strives to rehabilitate the place of "theatre in the Muslim world" (2009, pp. 165-235).
Without displaying a specific program for theatrical archives, the Arab Theatre Institute (al-Hayʾa al-ʿarabiyya lil-masraḥ, 2025) includes among its objectives "the documentation of theatrical culture in the Arab world" and, since 2009, has been publishing facsimiles of historical documents, histories of the theatre, case studies, biographies, and historiographies of theatres in eighteen Arab countries.
Beyond their patrimonial function, the uses of performing arts archives may corroborate or revoke conventional histories of Arab theatres. In fact, the archives themselves are often threatened with disappearance, not only because of negligence or the claim of ephemerality on the part of artists, but also due to deliberate policies of erasure and suppression.
The decision to preserve and valorize one experience at the expense of another often reflects the priorities of predominant cultural policies at a given time. In such contexts, revisiting the archives allows us to document works, trajectories, and spaces whose existence and memory are deliberately and systematically obscured or erased.
Thanks to the discovery of the archives left by François Abou Salem to his friend Amer Khalil – current director of the Palestinian National Theatre founded by Abou Salem – Najla Nakhlé-Cerruti (2025) retraces his career, underscoring his fundamental role in the emergence and establishment of the theatrical movement in Palestine.
In sum, this issue is concerned with studying the interrelation between archives and historiography of Arab theatres, in the light of aesthetic, sociological, and ideological contexts in which the performing arts, their archives, and their historiographies, have been produced and received. Drawing on concrete cases and examples, the contributions will therefore primarily address the relationship between writing the histories of Arab performing arts and their archives.
Research axes (non-exhaustive list)Researchers, historians, and artists of Arab theatres are invited to reflect on, among other things, the following questions:
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At what moments and for what purposes do we seek to archive a theatrical experience?
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How do the historiographers of Arab theatres make use of the archives? To what extent have they had to exhume, process, or even "manufacture" these archives (Denizot, 2014, p. 93)?
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How do the archives reveal or explain the "oversights" of theatrical history? What insights do these "acts of forgetting" and possible "recollections" provide about the artistic, sociopolitical, and epistemological contexts from which they result?
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How can the study of evolving audience tastes shed light on archival and historiographic choices, and explain their possible subsequent questioning?
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What traces of the materiality of theatrical performances (costumes, sets, stage techniques, etc.) persist in the archives of Arab theatres?
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What place do the archives of the performing arts give to theatrical spaces – buildings, urban sites, and other venues invested by Arab performing arts before the hegemony of Italian-style theatre?
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To what extent do the archives and historiography of Arab theatres reveal the significant impact of exchanges and circulations on the development of the theatrical movement – not only between the West and the Arab world, but within the Arab world itself (see, for example, Trabelsi, 2023)?
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To what extent is local and regional criticism of plays an integral part of the archives, and does it compensate for the gaps in the historiography of Arab theatres?
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How does the intimate dimension possibly hidden in the personal archives of artists reflect their "dispositions" and habitus in the field of Arab theatres?
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How do certain plays seek to "perform the archive" of the performing arts or to fill in the gaps in the archives and historiographies of Arab theatres?
Studies of plays that present a personal vision of the history of Arab theatres may also be proposed.
Submission guidelinesAuthors wishing to submit an abstract (in French, English, or Arabic) are invited to send it to the following email address before November 30, 2025: regards@usj.edu.lb.
Authors should provide:
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An abstract of the article (approx. 500 words)
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5–10 keywords
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A short, indicative bibliography
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A mini biography (approx. 100 words)
The abstracts will be examined by the editorial committee, and the authors will receive an answer before December 15, 2025. The submission deadline for the article (approx. 5000 words) will be February 27, 2026.
Scientific Committee-
Hamid Aidouni, PR (Université Abdelmalek Essaadi, Maroc)
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Karl Akiki, MCF (Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban)
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Riccardo Bocco, PR (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Genève, IHEID, Suisse)
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Fabien Boully, MCF (Université Paris Nanterre, France)
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André Habib, PR (Université de Montréal, Canada)
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Dalia Mostafa, MCF (University of Manchester, UK)
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José Moure, PR (Université Paris Panthéon Sorbonne – Paris 1, France)
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Jacqueline Nacache, PR (Université de Paris, France)
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Ghada Sayegh, MCF (IESAV, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, Liban)
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Kirsten Scheid, Associate PR (American University of Beirut, Liban)
Editor-in-chief: Joseph Korkmaz, PR (Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth)
Issue Editors:
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Marianne Noujaim (Professeure – Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, IESAV – Laboratoire Littératures et Arts)
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Ons Trabelsi (Maîtresse de conférences, Université de Lorraine – CERCLE)
(Je l’ai harmonisée, en regroupant les références arabes et occidentales, avec italique pour les titres.)
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