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Kheimeh shab bazi is a traditional marionette form of Iran. The historical background is obscure, though we find references to puppetry in literature and travel reports. The practice of the art in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Iran is detailed.
Kheimeh shab bazi, also known pardeh (curtain) bazi or lo'bat (puppet) bazi (Floor 2005: 70), is a traditional puppet theatre of Iran that continues to the present. Kheimeh means castello or "booth"; shab is "night," the time when a show is normally performed; and bazi means "play"; therefore a literal translation is "evening performance in a puppet booth." A string puppet tradition (see Fig. 1), the form has been called by this name since at least since the seventeenth century but relates to older puppetry that may have developed under international influences with possible Indian and Mongolian impacts. This article will look at the early references to puppetry that inform the genre; then the present practice of the art will be detailed. (For additional European language sources see Thalasso 1905 and Aubin 1908.)
The two major types of kheimeh shab bazi today are traditional performance and innovative performance. Tradition will be represented in this article by the example of the Khamsei Troupe, an all-male company made up of relatives and friends. Groups such as Khamsei are now rare, but have gained limited support as preservers of national heritage. Innovative kheimeh shab bazi, by contrast, is a growing genre developed over the last seven years as the art has been taught at the university. Young graduates, male and female, adapt the form to their own expression, giving it new life, but most gain only modest recompense for performances.
Literary and Historical References
We lack definitive information about the who, what, why, and when of kheimeh shab bazi's origin, however poems, historical writings, and reports by foreign travelers and local audience members give background on the genre. Classic poems by well-known poets such as Omar Khayam (1028-1122), Nezami Ganjavi (1141-1209), Rumi (1207-73), and Hafez (1310-1379) are essential for understanding the social thought of earlier Persian culture. Nezami Ganjavi, a major poet whose epics include the important Storehouse of Mysteries and the tale of the lovers Layla and Majnun, mentioned puppetry (though not necessarily kheimeh shab bazi ) in...