Editing Puppetry (section)

===West Asia===
[[File:Karagoez davulcu.jpg|110px|thumb|right|Karagöz, Turkish shadow puppetry]]
Middle Eastern puppetry, like its other theatre forms, is influenced by the Islamic culture. [[Karagoz]], the Turkish Shadow Theatre, has widely influenced puppetry in the region and it is thought to have passed from China by way of India. Later, it was taken by the [[Mongols]] from the Chinese and passed to the Turkish peoples of Central Asia. The art of Shadow Theater was brought to [[Anatolia]] by the Turkish people emigrating from Central Asia. Other scholars claim that shadow theater came to Anatolia in the 16th century from [[Egypt]]. The advocates of this view claim that shadow theatre found its way into the Ottoman palaces when [[Selim I|Yavuz Sultan Selim]] conquered Egypt in 1517. He saw shadow theatre performed during a party in his honour and he was said to be so impressed with it that he took the puppeteer back to his palace in [[Istanbul]] where his 21-year -old son, later Sultan [[Suleyman the Magnificent]], developed an interest in the plays.<ref>Mutlu, Hayali Mustafa, ''Tradition Folk The Site''</ref>

In other areas, the style of shadow puppetry known as ''khayal al-zill'', a [[metaphor]] translated as "shadows of the imagination" or "shadow of fancy", still survives. This is a shadow play with live music, "the accompaniment of drums, tambourines and flutes...also..."special effects" – smoke, fire, thunder, rattles, squeaks, thumps, and whatever else might elicit a laugh or a shudder from his audience"<ref>Feeney, John, ''Saudi Aramco World'' (article), 1999.</ref>

In [[Iran]], puppets are known to have existed much earlier than 1000 AD, but initially only glove and string puppets were popular .<ref>Floor, Willem, ''The History of Theater in Iran'', {{ISBN|0-934211-29-9}}: Mage 2005</ref> Other genres of puppetry emerged during the [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar]] era (18th and 19th centuries) as influences from Turkey spread to the region. ''Kheimeh Shab-Bazi'' is a traditional Persian puppet show which is performed in a small chamber by a musical performer and a [[storytelling|storyteller]] called a ''morshed'' or ''naghal''. These shows often take place alongside storytelling in traditional tea and coffee-houses (''Ghahve-Khane''). The dialogue takes place between the morshed and the puppets. A recent example of puppetry in Iran is the touring opera ''[[Rostam and Sohrab (opera)|Rostam and Sohrab]]''.