Editing Performing arts (section)

====West Asia====
The most popular forms of theater in the [[Islamic Golden Age|medieval Islamic world]] were [[puppet]] theatre (which included hand puppets, [[shadow play]]s and [[marionette]] productions) and live passion plays known as ''ta'ziya'', where actors re-enact episodes from [[Muslim history]]. In particular, [[Shia Islam]]ic plays revolved around the ''[[Shahid|shaheed]]'' (martyrdom) of [[Ali]]'s sons [[Hasan ibn Ali]] and [[Husayn ibn Ali]]. It commonly refers to passion plays about the [[battle of Karbala]] and its prior and subsequent events. [[Lewis Pelly|Sir Lewis Pelly]] begins the preface of his book about Ta'zieh maintaining that "If the success of a drama is to be measured by the effects
which it produces upon the people for whom it is composed, or upon the audiences before whom it is represented, no play has ever surpassed the tragedy known in the Mussulman world as that of [[Hasan ibn Ali|Hasan]] and [[Husayn ibn Ali|Husain]]."
<ref name="Pelly">{{cite book|last1=Pelly|first1=Lewis|title=The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.175218|date=1879|publisher=W. H. Allen and Co.|isbn=978-1-0152-8641-2|page=III|language=en}}</ref> Years later Peter Chelkowski, professor of Iranian and Islamic studies at [[NYU]], chooses the same words for the beginning of his book 'Ta`ziyeh, ritual and drama in Iran'.<ref name="Chelkowski">{{cite book|last1=Chelkowski|first1=Peter J.|title=Ta'ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran|url=https://archive.org/details/tazyehritualdram0000unse|date=1979|publisher=New York University|isbn=0-8147-1375-0|page=XV|language=en}}</ref>
Live secular plays were known as ''akhraja'', recorded in medieval ''[[Adab (behavior)|adab]]'' literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ''ta'ziya'' theater.<ref>{{citation|last=Moreh |first=Shmuel |author-link=Shmuel Moreh |contribution=Live Theater in Medieval Islam |title=Studies in Islamic History and Civilization |editor=David Ayalon |editor2=[[Moshe Sharon]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |year=1986 |isbn=978-965-264-014-7 |pages=565–601}}</ref>
[[File:Valiollah Torabi.jpg|thumb|Valiollah Torabi, Iranian naqqāl (storyteller) of Shahnameh]]