The Original of Arab Theater - Research Paper Example

Quran as the basic holy book of Islam seems to provide no exact and solid proofs of prohibition of theatre because Quran as any serious scripture requires thorough and dedicated interpretation that is why prohibition of theatre cannot be directly found in the text, and it can only be achieved as interpretation of the texts. All in all, the opposition between Islamic dogma and theatre existed for a long time and prevented flourishing of this type of visual art on the territory of Arab countries.

However, Islam culture has shaped the traditions that were very similar to the theatrical representation of other countries, European in particular. It is also quite interesting that despite prohibition of theater separate works of prominent Greek authors were translated in the beginning of the 8th century. However, despite the fact that many scholars deny existing of the theatre in Arab countries in its traditional understanding (a play on a stage with real actors a), some argue that separate forms of Islamic culture can be considered pre-theatrical phenomena.

According to Botintshiva, there is a number of performances that were popular in Arab countries from Middle Ages: Al-Hakawati (الحكواتي ), is the type of art that presupposes oral retelling of stories in public places, such as city markets or coffe shops that was popular in many Arab cities such as Cairo, Bagdad, Damascus, Marrakesh .There were also variations of story-tellers some of which preferred accompanying themselves with musical instruments such as lyres. Religious ceremonies that were conducted every year among Shi’ite Muslims aimed to commemorate the death of the nephew of Prophet Mohammed.

The rituals reminded mourning which is common for the ritual of funerals and were accompanied by sympathy expression, crying, and singing. In the course of the ritual the story telling about al-Husain`s arrival to Iraq and his unexpected