Orta Oyunu

The earliest historical mention of this theatre of the Turks appears in the 12th century. We know that performances were given in the city of Konya (the ancient Iconium), in Asia Minor, at the court of the Sultans of the Seldjuk dynasty. But the origins of this theatre, its roots, so to say, are distinguishable in remotest antiquity. Let us assume that the reader knows nothing of that theatre of the classic world, which was called mime. Let him then consult any encyclopaedia to obtain a general idea of what that theatre was like. Comparing the classic mime with the later Turkish Orta oyunu, the resemblance is striking. The arrangement is the same, the course of action the same; even the dialogue constructions have much in common. Some scholars tend to see in the costumes of Orta oyunu also certain traces of the classic mime, as far as that detail is known to us. Thus it is evident that the Turks received their theatre of Orta oyunu from the classic world. But it was, of course, impossible that they should have received it directly. There must have been a mediator, and that mediator was Byzantium, whose heirs, the Turks, conquered Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula step by step.

The Turkish theatre was marked, besides, by a second European influence. If one compares the Turkish Orta oiunu on one hand and the Italian Commedia dell'arte on the other, one will find a great resemblance in the course of the action and in the personages of the plays. This phenomenon is very easily explained. The Turkish Empire, through many centuries, maintained the closest relations, commercial, political and cultural, with Venice and Genoa and their colonies scattered everywhere along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Thus, it was through Italy that the second road passed, along which the classic mime penetrated into Turkey and was transmuted into the Orta oiunu.

Another sufficiently important circumstance indicates the influence of the classic mime. According to the opinion of the Turks themselves, the principal feature of the entire performance in the Orta oiunu is taklid. Taklid means a mimicry, an imitation. In the plays of the Orta oiunu, as we shall see later, the personages represent various peoples inhabiting Turkey. These personages endeavor to imitate the pronunciation of these peoples, to speak the Turkish language as it is variously spoken by those they represent. Moreover they follow on the stage the professions and occupations proper to these peoples. This is known as taklid. And in the significance of taklid we see a direct connection with the classic mime.

There is considerable data extant in the works of historians, geographers and travellers, both Turkish and European, showing the existence of the Orta oiunu during the life of the Ottoman Empire. We have already mentioned its existence at the time of the Seldjuks in Asia Minor. During the ascendancy of their successors, the Ottomans, the Orta oyunu played a very important role. Imperial holidays--as for instance the birthday of a sovereign, the day of his accession to the throne, his coronation, the circumcision of a prince, and so on--were always marked by theatrical performances. A band of actors was attached to the Sultan's retinue and accompanied him on his war campaigns. The players lived in his temporary military quarters, that they might be ready to distract the Sultan after his difficult war feats. In the capital, at the Imperial ourt, such a company of actors was maintained permanently for the same reason. The aristocrats, grandees and dignitaries, who followed the customs of the Sultan's court, organized performances on family feast days. The Ottoman envoys and ambassadors extraordinary, travelling to foreign countries, took with them bands of actors. The names of the celebrated artists of those old days have been preserved in historical sources and have come down to us. These Turkish entertainments became so fashionable that they were introduced in the conquered provinces which were earlier independent states. In Moldavia and Walachia, which are now districts of Roumania, the local nobility, who wished to follow the example of the conquerors, also organized theatrical performances. Step by step this theatre was popularized, until it reached the lowest strata of society and became a source of entertainment for all.

Karagöz

We have been discussing forms of the Turkish popular theatre in which the rôles are assumed by living men. Now we pass to the puppet theatre. The name most commonly used for this theatre is Karagöz. There are other names as well, to which we shall refer later. Kara and göz are two Turkish words which mean "black-eyed". This term is applied to the principal character, and thus the theatre received its name. It suggests the childish shadow pictures shown on magic lantern slides. But whence did the Turks derive this theatre?

In the style of their art and especially in their coloring, the puppets resemble Chinese drawings more than anything else, so we have the right to assume that this theatre had its origin in the Far East. It is not without cause that the magic lantern pictures are called in French "les ombres chinoises"--Chinese shadows. It is quite probable that in ancient times the Mongols learned the art of this lantern from the Chinese and transmitted their knowledge to the Turks. How completely the Turks assimilated it is clear from the fact that as early as the 13th century the theatre was called by the purely Turkish name "cabarchuk". Later it was given the Arabic name "haial", i.e. imagination, fancy, mirror, show.

The Gipsies seem to have been instrumental in popularizing this theatre. We have data showing that the first quasi-historical Karagöz was a Gipsy. The Gipsy type is clearly defined in several of the puppets which represent Karagöz. In some plays Karagöz' addresses his welcome to the public in Gipsy language. In other plays he appears as a blacksmith, a Gipsy's occupation. Sometimes he refers to Gessas, the legendary stock of the Gipsies.

This theatre has met with great success throughout the Near East. In Beirut and Damascus we still see a strong Turkish influence in the Arabic Karagöz, but in Egypt, Morocco and Algeria it already has its own character. In Bosnia-Herzegovina it flourished even at the time of the Austrian yoke. In Greece and on the Greek islands it is still a beloved popular attraction. Some of the material of the Karagöz plays shows evidence of having been borrowed from the literature of the Arabs (The Thousand and One Nights or The Arabian Nights Entertainments), from India and China. Moreover its plays, especially the prologues, abound with the ideas of Moslem mysticism, known by the term Sufism. Numerous works have been written on Sufism, but here it is enough to say that it is a kind of pantheism, the roots of which derive from classic Greece as well as from India and Iran, or ancient Persia.

Karagöz too is related to classic Greece, through Byzantium, thanks to the Orta oyunu and Meddah. In the former as in the latter the principal action revolves about the taklid or, as we have said before, the classic mime. It is opportune to indicate here the following fact as well. The Moslem miniature, or the picture which illustrates the text, was created under the influence of the painting of several countries. Scholars see in this miniature the product of the art of the classic world, of Byzantium, of the Copts and Arabs, of India, Iran and China. All this is also true of the puppets of Karagöz. They are direct descendants of the Moslem miniature, though, of course, their style has been greatly popularized.

Generally, all that has been said of the origin of the Orta oiunu and of the Meddah may be accepted as relating to the Karagöz as well, but it must be added that the embryo of the latter appeared in China. The Karagöz is besides closely related--the cousin or brother--to all the similar popular puppet theatres of various countries of Europe; the English Punch, the French Guignol, the German Hanswurst, the Italian Pulcinella, the Russian Petrushka, and others. It bears the same relationship, on the other hand, through China with the shadow theatres of Indo-China, Siam, the Dutch East-Indies, Japan and so on. This whole question of relationship is very complicated and its final solution is far from complete. An enormous amount of work in this field has already been done as a result of the brilliant research of the German Orientalist, Georg Jacob.

Karagöz or haial was already flourishing at the dawn of Turkey's existence. That is, according to tradition, for we have no historical proof. At Bursa (in the North-Western part of Asia Minor, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire) there was a man, we are told, Sheih Küshteri by name, who presented the shows of the puppet theatre. An echo of this legend comes down to us in the term sometimes used for the Karagtz' screen--"Sheih Küshteri Meidani", i.e. the place of Sheih Kiishteri. A dervish, Mehmed Küshteri, an emigrant from Persia, actually lived at the time of the second Ottoman sovereign Orhan, 1326-1359, and died at Brusa in l366; his tomb is still preserved. But we do not know whether or not he was a specialist in Karagöz.