Meddah

Meddah is the name given to a traditional Turkish story teller, who played in front of a small group of viewers, such as a coffeehouse audience.

Meddahs were generally traveling artists whose route took them from one large city to another, such along the towns of the spice road; the tradition supposedly goes back to Homer's time.

[2][3] These narrators of mainly epic tales were known as kıssahan, with their stories containing strong Islamic elements that reinforced the faith of the Muslims in the audience and attempting to convert the non-Muslims.

[3][1] Such kıssahan existed during the Seljuq period and usually told Arabic and Persian epics, stories of Ali and Hamza, as well as tales from One Thousand and One Nights.

As such, the performances by the meddah became theatrical acts based on satire: their themes included heroic tales as well as occurrences of daily life; humorous anecdotes, mimicry of stereotypes and familiar people, "mockery of social mores" and criticism of officials, at times even the sultan, became the quintessence of their plays.