Karagöz & Hacivat is a Turkish shadow play taking its name from its main
character Karagöz. The origin of the shadow plays is accepted as southeastern
part of Asia around Java. Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi says that the play was
first performed at the Ottoman palaces in the late 14th century. Some others say
that this play came into Anatolia after Yavuz Sultan Selim, who had conquered
Egypt in 1517, had brought the shadow play artists to his court.
According to a legend, they were working as construction workers in a
mosque in
Bursa. Although their satiric jokes entertained other workers it also held up
the building of the mosque by their constant joking together. As a result it
made the sultan very angry and anxious about whether Karagoz and Hacivat could
encourage rebellion in others, so they were executed. The construction of the
mosque was completed without them, but their comrades did not forget them and
kept their jokes alive, telling them over and over. In time, the adventures of Karagoz and Hacivat gained a new dimension and the traditional Turkish shadow
puppet theatre was born. Their monumental tomb stands
in Bursa today.
Karagoz & Hacivat was the most enjoyed entertainment of the
Ottoman period and
was widely performed for the public and in private houses between the 17th and
19th centuries especially during Ramadan, and at
circumcisions, feast festivals,
coffee houses and even in gardens.
Karagöz play is played depending on the talent of an artist. Moving the design
on curtain, voicing them, dialects or imitations are all made by the artist. The
subjects of Karagöz plays are funny elements with double meanings,
exaggerations, verbal plays, and imitating accents. There is always satire and
irony.
These puppets with jointed limbs are 35-40cm sized and they are generally made
from the skin of camel or cows. The skins are made semi-transparent and painted
with Indian ink or root paints. Then they are embroidered with sharp painted
blades and the pieces are tied with ropes. This is truly an
art.
The white curtain on which Karagöz is played is named as ayna (mirror), and the
light behind it as sema (candle light). There is just one puppeteer, known as
hayali (imaginary), assisted by an apprentice, who installs the curtain and
brings the puppets in order of appearance.
The main characters of the play are of course Karagoz and Hacivat. Karagoz
represents the publics morals and common sense, the ordinary man in the street,
and is straightforward and reliable. He is almost illiterate; usually unemployed
and embarks on money earning projects that never work. He is often kind of rude. You can
recognize him by his turban, his bald head and his black beard. His left arm is
longer than the other one. His friend Hacivat instead is the opposite of him; he is
educated in a Moslem theology school, speaks
Ottoman Turkish and uses poetical
and literary language. He's very clever as well.
Today a limited number of artists continue the studies related to the
art of Hacivat &
Karagoz and they're conducted by the Presidency of Turkey National Center of
International Puppet and Shadow Play Union (UNIMA) and the Ministry of Culture.
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