This is the second part of a three-part blog post series on early modern dramatic entertainments in the Ottoman empire. You can read the first part here, and the third part here

In my previous blog, I introduced some of the types of groups of performers and the content matter of early modern Ottoman dramatic entertainments. In this follow-up blog, I will refer to the presence of foreign performers and Jewish comedians and to other genres, namely mock battles and ballet pantomime, which hopefully will give a full picture of the cosmopolitan exchange and interpretation of various dramatic forms in the early modern Ottoman Empire.

Image of a mock battle from the 1582 festivities available via Tarihteninciler

Apart from comedies that could be found in the streets on an everyday basis or in special festivities, another important form of early modern Ottoman dramatic entertainment was that of mock battles. These mock battles were usually part of civic entertainment in celebrations attached to the Ottoman court, like preceding or following the return of a successful war campaign, or to celebrate the weddings or circumcision festivals of Ottoman royals. Apart from the actual mock battles, these entertainments would include wrestling contests, equestrian sports, shows of dangerous acrobatics and tournaments using maces, archery and swordsmanship to delight and teach both native and foreign audiences of the power of the Ottomans.

Image of wrestlers from the 1582 festivities available via Pinterest

In public spaces like the Atmeydanı, in the remnants of the old hippodrome and what is now the site of the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, or in other vast fields like the Okmeydanı, at least two temporary citadels made of wood, plaster, leather and/or cardboard would be erected, one representing the Ottomans, and the other either their European or eastern foes. Real or padded armour, swords, pikes or their padded versions, archery, and pyrotechnics with blank-firing guns and cannons were used in these mock battles. Several months of hard work and rehearsals would be spent for the highly elaborately choreographed mock battles, some of which would last for almost an entire day. For example, there was one such mock battle held in 1530, when Süleyman the Magnificent refused to sleep until he saw the battle’s end at dawn. While soldiers from each citadel fired guns and cannons at each other in these mock battles, the infantry soldiers of the two sides met at the open space in front of these citadels and their swordfights would last for several hours. Towards the end of these mock battles, the Ottomans would capture the citadel, its inhabitants and set the citadel on fire. As part of these mock battles or sometimes as independent shows, naval battles would be also re-created in the Marmara Sea where the Ottoman ship would capture that of the enemy, for reality’s sake usually a Christian one, and drag it to the shipyard. The sound of guns, metal, waves and battle-cries would mix with the smell of gunpowder, seawater and burned wood or leather to re-create the excitement of real battles via these multisensory spectacles. Apart from re-creating the glory of the victorious Ottomans to boost self-esteem, these mock battles were also used as diplomatic gestures as foreign envoys would also be present at these spectacles. For instance, the Iranian envoy was present at the 1582 festivities held in honour of the circumcision of Shahzadah Mehmet, where the hosts tried to intimidate the envoy by showing off the martial skills of the Ottomans and by making fun of the Safavids in having comedians use Iranian costumes. Likewise, in the mock battle in these festivities, the enemy forces were depicted as Christian soldiers whose citadel would have idols on its walls. When the Ottoman forces would storm part of the citadel and break into its wall, four pigs would escape, thus depicting the Europeans both as idolaters and as pigs, thus using dramatic entertainment as a diplomatic weapon of intimidation aimed at both their western and eastern enemies.

Beside mock battles, ballet pantomime, a form akin to court masques, was yet another important form of dramatic entertainment in early modern Ottoman Turkey. It was a genre which was introduced especially after the conquest of European territories and the acquisition of European slaves. Ballet pantomime would be performed by Christian slaves who would bring their own dramatic conventions and amalgamate them with those of native Orthodox Christians. One of these was performed in 1582, when Christian slaves would perform a procession of dances, a St George play¹ that featured the killing of a dragon, and a play depicting how Cupid would be saved from the hands of an Italian executor with the help of Diana and her Amazon fighters, which might show to what extent Christian and Classical mythological plots were appreciated in early modern Ottoman Turkey.

St George killing the dragon fresco at Göreme Open air Museum available via Tripadvisor

There were also highly skilled Sephardic Jewish comedians who in blackface and masks would either perform Morris dances or comedies akin to Classical New Comedies. Similar to their Turkish counterparts, Jewish comedians would perform plays on public squares or the streets in front of the mansions of rich people and use prop houses in their comic plots about love triangles, adulteries, trickster servants and the outwitting of masters. Along with these plots, they would also play tricks on locals by impersonating administrators or government officers, such as when they would remove the pavements in front of the houses of their victims and demand money to lay the stones back. Jewish comedians would also perform political satires where they would caricaturise rich people and politicians, including the grand vizier himself; but usually they would not be punished for their performances. In one incident in the early 18th century, for instance, the Qadi (judge) of İstanbul accidentally met an actor on the street who would caricaturise him via a mock administration of justice. The real Qadi reacted to this by merely greeting the actor and going on his way. Similarly, when actors impersonating the Janissary Chief and soldiers blockaded the house of the real Janissary Chief, these antics were laughed at rather than persecuted, which might show the extent of the relative freedom given to dramatic social criticism by early modern Ottoman administrators.

Despite the fact that there is an extensive number of miniatures drawn by the creators of these entertainments, like those painted by the cartographer and miniaturist Matrakçı Nasuh (1480-1564), or the court miniaturists, we have few Ottoman written accounts describing these non-verbal dramatic entertainments in full detail. In addition, the fact that most of the written information regarding early modern Ottoman dramatic entertainments are by European travellers or envoys who omitted and added their own biased points of view to these performances might explain why they have gained relatively little attention both in Turkey and abroad, except in academia. While 21st century Turkish soap operas have been trying to re-interpret and re-create both the magnificence of the Seljuk or Ottoman courts and the everyday lives of ordinary people, with the exception of reintroducing the combat art of matrak in contemporary Turkey², these screen adaptations have unfortunately failed to depict how these people entertained themselves beyond the presentation of dhikr, belly dancers or battlefields in these adaptations. In my opinion, studies on original practices by art historians should get more funding to enable the material re-creation of Ottoman dramatic entertainments as historically accurately as possible, both on screen and in real-life events to understand and show us how early modern Ottomans might have entertained themselves via drama.

A scene from the now revived early modern popular combat art matrak as depicted in the 1582 festivities available via Pinterest

Selected Bibliography

And, Metin. Geleneksel Türk Tiyatrosu: Kukla, Karagöz, Ortaoyunu. Ankara: Bilgi, 1969.

And, Metin. Osmanlı Tasvir Sanatları: 1. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2014.

Atasoy, Nurhan, Osman, Ayşe Üçok, and Bahadır Taşkın. 1582 Surname-I Hümayun: Düğün Kitabı. İstanbul: Koçbank, 1997.

Busbecq, Ogier G. The Life and Letters of Ogier Ghiselin De Busbecq, Seigneur De Bousbecque, Knight, Imperial Ambassador: Vol. 1. Eds. and trans. Charles T. Forster and Francis H. B. Daniell. London: Paul, 1881.

Çelebi, Evliya. Evliya Celebi Seyahatnamesi. Eds. Ali S. Kahraman, Yücel Dağlı, Robert Dankoff, Zekeriya Kurşun, and İbrahim Sezgin. 2 vols. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2011.

Nutku, Özdemir. Meddahlık ve Meddah Hikayeleri. 2nd ed. Ankara: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi Yayını, 1997.

Nutku, Özdemir. Zaman İçinde Zaman. İstanbul: Opus Kitap, 2014.

Sevengil, Ahmet Refik. Türk Tiyatrosu Tarihi I: Eski Türklerde Dram San’atı. Ankara: Milli Eğitim Basımevi, 1969.

[1] Although a play about St George might seem at odds with Muslim Turks, according to Busbecq’s condescending account, Turks both in İstanbul and in Anatolia associated the St George they saw in Greek Orthodox Churches with Khidr, the mystical Islamic figure who in legends was also thought to save a maiden from a dragon, which is why this St George play would have been well received by the Muslim subjects, too.

[2] Magnificent Century (2011-2014) has the exceptional re-introduction of the combat art Matrak, especially via the character Matrakçı Nasuh, the scenes of which were done under the advice of the World Matrak Association, which flourished even more after its appearance on screen. Apart from being a peace time exercise used within and without the court, historically, matrak was used in some of the instances of mock battles in early modern Ottoman entertainments, and the 21st century practice of matrak gives us a better view to what extend these mock battles were mock ones, given the pain inflicted by the use of even the padded weaponry used in this combat art.