Kiz Ahmed, The Meddahs

One story-teller, Kiz Ahmed, famous for his talent and ingenuity enjoyed such popularity that his plays were attended even by European tourists. Much later, in the seventies of the last century, such a great Orientalist as Martin Hartmann studied this art with the no less famous Meddah Shükri. In 1887 Sultan Abdul Hamid invited Shükri to present his play in the palace and paid him 1000 piastres (then about 50 dollars), an enormous sum for those days.

Since the second half of the 19th century, especially during the period of the dark yoke of Abdul Hamid, the Meddahs, while retaining their moderately liberal tendencies, were obliged to express their ideas very diplomatically. The censor permitted all moral improprieties, but expressions of political opinion were severely punished. A term of imprisonment was generally fixed for any mockery of the Moslem clergy. Any reference to riots or revolutions, even non-Turkish, was punished no less rigorously. The use of the word "Sultan" was forbidden; the Meddahs evaded this ban by using the word "bei", i.e. a noble, a prince, sir. The police exacted from the Meddahs a written promise to refrain from criticizing acts of government; nor were any political allusions permitted. The following curious incident is recorded: A European magazine once published a caricature of Abdul Hamid, representing him as a lobster. When this was learned in Turkey, the Meddahs were forbidden to pronounce the word "lobster". After the constitution of 1908, at the time of the so-called era of liberty, when it became impossible to persecute the Meddahs officially, the police invented a new method of annoying them by placing excessively high taxes on their plays.

The Meddahs are subject to another censor, no less formidable-the public. Very often a member of a certain class of the citizenry or of a certain tribe or race which has been lampooned by the Meddah in his story, is transported by rage and makes a violent scene. In such cases the Meddah, in apology, explains that he imitates everybody without exception or distinction. And the other spectators generally go to his rescue and defend him.