External Cultural Influences on the Jewish Community of Izmir r 287A Short History of the Theater in the Ottoman Empire
At the dawn of the Ottoman theater, performances were held in the old
Byzantine city squares, with a line of boxes used as seats for the audience.
They were also held in tents and under canopies. Some shows were held
on water floats and rafts or presented in embassies during and after the
French Revolution, ostensibly for the foreign residents of the Ottoman
Empire, although they would also be viewed by the Sultans Mahmut the
Second (1808–39) and Abdülmecit (1839–61) and their entourages.^14
(^) After the introduction of coffee into the Empire in the second half of
the sixteenth century, many theater performances would take place inside
coffeehouses. Their owners would hire storytellers to attract clientele, as
well as jugglers, musicians, dancers, and puppeteers. However, the most
popular form of entertainment was the silhouette show.^15 Theaters as we
know them today were built only from the first half of the nineteenth
century. By 1839, three Ottoman theaters had been established, featuring
predominantly Italian plays that were targeted at foreign audiences. The
French Theater (Fransız Tiyatrosu) was built in 1840 by the Ottoman gov-
ernment in conjunction with some foreign embassies. The first Turkish-
speaking theater, called the Ottoman Theater (Osmanli Tiyatrosu), was
established in 1867 in ancient Istanbul.^16
Cultural Influences on Jewish Theater
The Judeo-Spanish theater was thematically influenced by society, as
is evident by the performance of many Turkish plays, such as those of
Namik Kemal (1840–88). When the play’s subject matter caused distress
to the Jews, it was banned. An example appears in the journal HaMaggid:
From Constantinople we are informed that in one theater, Shake-
speare’s play The Merchant of Venice was scheduled to be performed,
but thanks to the lobbying of Haham Başı Rabbi Moshe Halevi, the
play was banned, so as not to arouse the wrath of the people in the
scenes with Shylock the usurer.^17
The rabbi feared that the ludicrous image of Shylock, which represents
the classic stereotype of the swindling Jew, would arouse scorn from
the Muslim audience. Furthermore, as modernization progressed and