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Medieval Islamic Puppetry and Theatre

Theatre was popular in the medieval Islamic world, with puppet theatre and live passion plays being most common. Puppet theatre included hand puppets, shadow plays, and marionettes depicting important religious events. Live secular plays were less prevalent. The art of shadow puppetry originated in China and spread to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, influencing Turkish Karagoz theatre. Puppetry remained popular in Iran, with string and glove puppets originally and various regional styles developing under influences from Turkey, such as the traditional Kheimeh Shab-Bazi puppet shows performed in tea houses.

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Azrul Ikhwan Azhar
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834 views1 page

Medieval Islamic Puppetry and Theatre

Theatre was popular in the medieval Islamic world, with puppet theatre and live passion plays being most common. Puppet theatre included hand puppets, shadow plays, and marionettes depicting important religious events. Live secular plays were less prevalent. The art of shadow puppetry originated in China and spread to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, influencing Turkish Karagoz theatre. Puppetry remained popular in Iran, with string and glove puppets originally and various regional styles developing under influences from Turkey, such as the traditional Kheimeh Shab-Bazi puppet shows performed in tea houses.

Uploaded by

Azrul Ikhwan Azhar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Theatre

In the performing arts, the most popular skittle of theatre in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow playsand marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamicplays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Live secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab literature, [1] though they were less common than puppetry and ta'zieh theatre.

The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. It is considered to be the first opera house linking Islamic culture with classical music.[2]

Karagoz, the Turkish Shadow Theatre has influenced puppetry widely in the region. It is thought to have passed from China by way of India. Later it was taken by the Mongols from the Chinese and transmitted to the Turkish peoples of Central Asia. Thus the art of Shadow Theater was brought to Anatolia by the Turkish people emigrating from Central Asia. Other scholars claim that shadow theater came to Anatolia in the 16th century from Egypt. The advocates of this view claim that when Yavuz Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in 1517, he saw shadow theatre performed during an extacy party put on in his honour. Yavuz Sultan Selim was so impressed with it that he took the puppeteer back to his palace in Istanbul. There his 21 year old son, later Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, developed an interest in the [3] plays and watched them a great deal. Thus shadow theatre found its way into the Ottoman palaces. In other areas the style of shadow puppetry known as khayal al-zill an intentionally metaphorical term whose meaning is best translated as shadows of the imagination or shadow of fancy' survives. This is a shadow play with live music ..the accompaniment of drums, tambourines and flutes...also...special effects smoke, fire, thunder, rattles, squeaks, thumps, and whatever else might elicit a laugh or a [4] shudder from his audience In Iran puppets are known to have existed much earlier than 1000 CE, but initially only glove and string [5] puppets were popular in Iran. Other genres of puppetry emerged during the Qajar era (18th-19th century BCE) as influences from Turkey spread to the region. Kheimeh Shab-Bazi is a Persian traditional puppet show which is performed in a small chamber by a musical performer and a storyteller called a morshed or naghal. These shows often take place alongside storytelling in traditional tea and coffee[6] houses (Ghahve-Khave). The dialogue takes place between the morshed and the puppets. Puppetry remains very popular in Iran, the touring opera Rostam and Sohrab puppet opera being a recent [7] example.

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