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ed. However, the pair of comedians were so sorely missed by the townsfolk that a man named Seyh Kusteri made images of Karagöz and Hacivad from camel hide and began to give puppet shows. Karagöz screen is named after him as the "Sheikh Kusteri Court". Karagöz came to represent the ordinary man in the street forthbright and trustworthy. He is virtually illiterate, usually unemployed, and embarks on money earning ventures which never work. He is, nosy, tactless, often deceitful and inclined to lewd talk. He frequently resorts to violence, beating Hacivad and the other characters. On its outward appearance Karagöz could be deemed no more than a simple entertainment device, but in reality, this show is a profoundly meaningful product of Mysticism. The spotless screen, the animated images that inhabit it, and the flickering light all have their philosophical implications. Beneath their comical plots, the plays reflect an interpretation and critique of the world, daily life, and social culture. The screen displays a variety of characters, attitudes, opinions, worldviews and beliefs which it subjects to scrutiny and criticism, and which it ridicules through the solid common sense of Karagöz, a man of the people. At the same time, the Karagöz show is a lesson in language, setting the naturalness, charm, and expressive power of popular speech against the artificial and snobbish speech of Hacivat. It sides with virtue and naivety against deceit, with benevolence against calculation. The shadow play puppets are coloured and semi-transparent, with jointed limbs. Light

from a lamp behind the stage reflects their images onto the muslin curtain, around which is a border of floral material. This curtain is known as the ayna (mirror) and the light as a sem'a (candle). The latter consists of an oil lamp with a wick of cotton or string soaked in beeswax. The puppets are made from camel or water buffalo hide. Worked until it is semi- transparent, the hide is punctured with a special knifes called nevrekan and dyed with natural pigments (today the method is mostly forgotton, only two of the masters can do it). The joints are made by threading gut strings through perforations made with a needle. Some of the puppets have many joints, and are usually 35-40 centimetres high. The mobile joints are connected to each other with gut or strings, and the playing sticks are attached to specially reinforced holes. Karagöz plays consist of four parts, the mukaddime, muhavere, fasil and bitis (can be said prologues, battle of wit, episiodes and éxodos). The classical play is called to order with the sound of a whistle (nareke) and the rising of göstermelik (screen ornement). The göstermelik itself depicts a scene to give audience an inkling of the action that will follow, be it a Turkish bath, a lemon orchard, mermaids or something more surreal. The mukaddime or introduction always begins with Hacivad's entry, the puppet moving to the rhythm of the tambourine. He sings a song known as the semai, which is different at each performance. He recites a poem called gazel, alluding to mystical meaning of the play. After his pray he announces that he is searching for a