Hacivat & Karagöz: Traditional Turkish Shadow Show

Karagöz and Hacivat are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period and then spread to most nation-states of the Ottoman Empire. It is most prominent in Turkey, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Adjara. 

The central theme of the play is the contrasting interaction between the two main characters. These are perfect foils of each other: in the Turkish version, Karagöz represents the illiterate but straightforward public, whereas Hacivat belongs to the educated class, speaking Ottoman Turkish and using a poetical and literary language. Although Karagöz is the more popular character with the Turkish peasantry, Hacivat is the one with a level head. Though Karagöz always outmatches Hacivat's superior education with his "native wit," he is also very impulsive and his never-ending deluge of get-rich-quick schemes always results in failure.