Theatre and Islamic Tradition:

Prohibition of human representation in Arts and its complexity

Abstract

Drama and theatre activities were unknown in Arab-speaking countries

for centuries before they were imported from Western culture during the
first half of the nineteenth century. The Islamic religious law is thought to
be one of the main reasons why Arabs, especially Muslims, ignored the
theatre for centuries. The belief that theatre is against Islamic dogma is
partly motivated by the negative reaction of conservative Muslims to
theatre activities in modern Arab culture. It is however debatable whether
Islam has any prohibition of theatre and its basic concepts. Is there any
reliable evidence that legitimates such a prohibition or is this prohibition a
result of traditional interpretations of the holy book: Quran? It is therefore
the aim of this paper to investigate the tension between Islamic dogma
and the concept of theatre, and to highlight theatrical phenomena in
Islamic traditions that are remarkably similar to the pre-theatrical
phenomena in other cultures. It is also interesting to examine the extent
to which this prohibition, if it existed, affected the early translations of the
ancient Greek heritage during the 8th and 12th century in Bagdad.

(Slide-2)

My talk will be divided into five parts, in the first part I will be looking at
The Problem of Arabic Theatre: Is theatre in the Arab world an imported
art in all respects? What about Arab Theatrical Phenomena, do such
phenomena provide useful interpretations of the Islamic point of view
regarding theatre? For this, I will consider two cases: Al-Taaziya, and the
Shadow play. I will also take a look at early Muslim translators’ attitude
toward the subject of theatre in the so-called Golden Age of Islam. In the
last part I shall argue against the theory that Islamic law directly or

1
indirectly prohibited theatre activities. So let’s start with the Problem of
Arabic Theatre.

The Problem of Arabic Theatre: Western Traditions and Arab

Theatrical Phenomena:

The search for the origin of the Arab theatre has been a major subject
in criticism of the twentieth century Arab world. In fact many of the
researches in the field of Arabic humanities studies have engaged in the
discussion of whether Arab culture knew a genuine form of drama before
theatre activities were imported from the Western world 1. As a result,
they were divided into two camps; the first thinks that Arabs throughout
their history knew many forms which they considered as theatrical
phenomena or in some cases pre-theatrical phenomena 2. For instance,
Tamara Alexandrovna Botintshiva in her book ‘A Thousand and One Years
for Arab Theatre’ devoted four chapters3 to searching for the origin of
Arab theatre in a variety of public performances including:

(Slide-3)

1- Al-Hakawati (‫) الحكواتي‬, we can define it as a narrator who tells folk

stories in public places, like traditional coffeehouses known in many
cities around the Arab world (e.g. Cairo, Bagdad, Damascus,
Marrakesh … etc)). Similar to al-Hakawati we find also the story-
teller known as al-Gasas (‫)القصاص‬, al-Rawya (‫ )الراوية‬or the narrator,
and Shaar al-Rababa ( ‫)شاعر الربابة‬: literarily the poet of the Lyre; a
narrator who recites different stories and uses a Bedouin Lyre to
accompany the narration.

1
- The first theatrical activities in the Arab world are associated with the French military expedition (1798) in
Egypt in which at least one performance was held to entertain the French troops in Egypt (see: (Etman (2004)
291); (Pormann (2006) 13), however the first Arabic theatrical production is widely agreed to be ‫ البخيل‬Albachil
(inspired by Molière’s L’Avare) which was written, directed, and produced in Beirut by Maurun Al-Naqqash in
1848. see: (Landau (1972) 116-122); (Landau (1958) chapter 2); (Allen (2000) 193-215); (Botintshiva (1981)
112-22); (Al-Ra’ei (1978) 69-73).
2
- See for example: Botintshiva (1981) 5-39; Al-Raai (1978) 33-49.
3
- See: Botintshiva (1981) 5-105.

2
 2- Al-Semaja (‫)الس ّماجة‬: a group of comic performers appears first in the
court of caliph al-Mutawakkil in the ninth century4.
3- Shadow plays, known as Khaial al-Del ( ‫ )خيال الظل‬in which only a few
texts survived from the works of Ibn Denial.
4- Al-Taaziya (‫)التعزية‬ literally means ‘expressions of sympathy,
mourning, and consolation’5. It is an annual religious ceremony of
Shi’ite Muslims commemorating the tragic death of al-Husain, the
nephew of the prophet Mohammad (‫)ص‬, in which many rituals are
performed during the ceremony, including a performance showing
the arrival of al-Husain in Iraq and the sequences leading to his
brutal death.

Botintshiva then concludes that theatre is deeply rooted in the history

of Arabic culture, though the concept of theatrical performance remained
bounded to its ritual space or public form 6. In spite of many theatrical
characteristics found in these phenomena which attract Botintshiva and
many other scholars, it is hard to follow any kind of significant
development in these phenomena toward a mature form of performance,
close to theatre performance. Some of these phenomena which I would
prefer to call traditional performances still exist today in different places
but never replaced theatre or were replaced by theatre. They
independently remained where they originated at the coffeehouses or
market squares like those street artists in Djamea Alfena in Marrakesh 7
(slide-4), or even in the worship places of the Shia. It is therefore safe to
consider these phenomena as traditional performances rather than seeds
of Arabic theatre. What also encourages us to take this view is the fact
that Arab theatre in the nineteenth century never interacted with these
phenomena, nor did it follow its footsteps. One of the Arab theatre
pioneers, that is Maron al-Naqash, would be technically and thematically
closer to classical French theatre.
4
- See also: Qaja (2001) 213; Suqer (1998)34-6.
5
- Chelkowski (1977) 32.
6
- Botintshiva (1981) 21-6.
7
- Al-Raai (1969).

3
 That leads us to look at the second camp’s point of view 8. It suggests
that the Arabs never had theatre before they borrowed it from the French
in the first half of the nineteenth century, and all those phenomena called
Arabic theatrical phenomena – according to the second camp’s measure –
are merely public phenomena influenced either by religious or social
groups and they generally lack the basic norms of theatre performance. It
is not the purpose of this paper to explain these two points of view
further, though it will touch upon some of them at a later stage, but it
aims now to set a ground to start from; this is to say that both parties
agree on one factual claim: the Arabs never knew theatre in its western
form before the nineteenth century. And from this point I shall address
the first question: if this type of theatre performance exists not later than
the sixth century BCE in the Western world, why did it take such a long
time to appear in the Arab world?

Before trying to answer this question, let’s take a closer look at two
remarkable forms of performance arts known in the Islamic world: al-
Taaziya and the Shadow play.

Al-Taaziya:

This annual religious ceremony is held by the Shia every year over the
first ten days of Muharam; the first month of the Muslim calendar. In this
ceremony the Shea commemorate the battle of Karbala that occurred on
Iraqi soil on the 10th of Muharam in year 61AH (October/680CE) between
the army of the new Caliph, Yazid ibn Muaawiya and Al-Husain, nephew of
the prophet Mohammad (‫ )ص‬and his companions who had refused to
pledge allegiance to Yazid. This very unequal battle ended with a defeat of
Al-Husain’s small army and with his tragic death. Then his family
members were taken as prisoners to Damascus, the capital of the
Umayyad caliphs.

8
- This is the point of view of (e.g. Taha Hussien; Tawfiq al-Hakim; Mohammed Mandor).

4
 The traditions of mourning the tragedy of Karbal were set soon after the
event occurred, evidently by Zainab the daughter of Ali and the sister of
AlHussain who as members of AlHusain’s family in Karbal witnessed all
the tragic events. She established the early traditions of Al-Taaziya by
founding Majles Al-Azaa: a gathering to commemorate the tragedy of
Karbala. These traditions still exist today in Shi’ite Muslim societies, like
for example in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

(Slide-5)

The memory of this historical event were then transformed to a

ceremony with many rituals, including processions, lamentation, and oral
narration.

(Slide- 6+7)

The memories of the Karbala battle were also a subject of Islamic arts,
specially painting.

(Slide-8+9+10)

The major developments of al-Taaziya ceremonies occurred around the

beginning of the sixteenth century in Persia. At this period the Safavid
dynasty established a powerful Shi’at state in Persia and at this time Al-
Taaziya ceremonies cultivated and started to carry out a variety of rituals
including acting performances reflecting Shi’ite Identity. These
performances which we can compere with passion plays in Christian
traditions, is the most relevant element to our discussion. The
performances feature selected events from the battle of Karbala.

(Slide-11)

These ceremonies were attended by religious figures and the public,

and took place in a public space, in private places, or even in a place
designated to such occasions (e.g. Hussainya).

5
 In the ritual of al-Taaziya a group of volunteer actors take the role of
historical characters, including: Al-Husain, Al-Abas his brother, Zainab his
sister, Omar ibn Saad the leader of Yazid’s army, Shemr ibn
Thealjawshan, who brutally dared to decapitate Al-Husain.

The French traveller J.M. Tancoigne describes one of these ceremonies

held in Tehran around the beginning of the nineteenth century, he reports
(Slide-12):

‘On a theatre erected opposite to the king’s kiosk, is to be seen

the family of Hussein, represented by men in women’s dresses.
They are in great agitation, seem to have foreboding of the dismal
fate which that Imam must experience in the plain of Kerbela, and
make the air resound with shrieks and dreadful groans. Horsemen
soon arrive, load them with chains and carry them off. The two
armies of Iman Hussein and the caliph Yazid then appear in the
square: the battle commences; Hussein soon falls from his horse
covered with wounds, and Yazid orders his head to be cut off. At
that moment the sobbings and lamentations of all the assembly
are redoubled; the spectators strike their breasts, and tears
stream from every eye! On the following days, the representation
of this tragedy is continued; Yazid successively destroys Hassan
and the two children of Hussein, who had fallen into his power,
and a general procession terminates the fifth day’9

In spite of all the theatrical features in Al-Taaziya it remained for most

of Arab scholars in the discipline of Arabic theatre as a limited
phenomenon, for many reasons:

1- Al-Taaziya is well bounded with the Shi’a doctrine, most of the Al-
Taaziya texts were originally written in Persian, and it is therefore
mostly regarded as a Persian Shi’a cult rather than Islamic tradition.
This judgment wastes the chance of Arab culture to rediscover the

9
- Tancoigne (1820) 169-201.

6
 theatrical features of Al-Taaziya as an example of genuine Arabic
tragedy.

2- Scholars like Jacob Landau raise suspicions of ancient Persian

elements in this ceremony10.

3- Lack of evidence and documentation about the actual practice of Al-

Taazia, especially that the popularity of these ceremonies around
the Arab world is questionable, mainly because its provocative
motifs are to some extent political, and generally against the
majority Islamic Sunni doctrine.

It is however true that Al-Taaziya did not develop itself into a kind of
non-ritual drama; and it remained restricted to its original space, faithful
to its religious context, and never adapted its themes beyond the story of
Karbala, but one should not underestimate its uniqueness in the Islamic
culture. It is after all as Peter Chelkowski puts it ‘the only serious drama
ever developed in the Islamic world’11.

The concept of Al-Taaziya performances remind us of its similarities with

the basic concept of dramatic performance; a group of people gathered in
front of a space to see a group of actors performing a story, which is
certainly, like a myth, a story they already know.

We may also make a few observations:

1- That al-Taaziya is, like the Dionysus festival in ancient Greece, held
every year with advance preparation.

2- The performance, among its aims, is meant to honour a religious figure

and to show deep emotions for him.

3 - On the thematic level the story of Al-Husain ideally represents the

model of a tragic hero. His awareness of his fate in Karbala is attested in
Shia’s sources in which he declares that he completely resigns himself to
10
- Landau (1972) 42.
11
- Chelkowski (2002).

7
the will of God who wanted his death to occur in that place at that time.
This reminds us again of the unavoidable prophecy in Greek tragedy.

In the 2oth century the performances of Al-Taaziya have attracted

some of the major theatre directors in the west, such as Jerzy Grotowski,
Tadeuz Kantor, and Peter Brook who strongly underlined the theatricality
of this phenomenon, saying: ‘I saw in a remote Iranian village one of the
strongest things I have ever seen in theatre: a group of 400 villagers, the
entire population of the place, sitting under the tree and passing from
roars of laughter to outright sobbing -- although they knew perfectly well
the end of the story -- as they saw Hussein in danger of being killed, and
then fooling his enemies, and then being martyred. And when he was
martyred, the theatre form became truth’12.

Khaial al-Dil or the Shadow play:

In addition to Al-Taaziya there existed another interesting theatrical

phenomenon in the Arab Muslim world, and this is Khaial al-Dil or the
Shadow play.

We can define the shadow plays as performances that use a stage fully
covered with a wooden partition which has a window in its middle; this
window is normally covered by white fabric and lighted from the inside by
a bright light, the player, or the puppeteer, uses different puppets of
humanlike, animal ...etc. made out of leather, fabrics, or cardboard and
moves them between the lamp and the covered window; as a result the
shadows of these shapes falling on the fabrics are reflected on the other
side of the window (e.g. screen) where a group or audience are gathered
to see the shadows and hear the voice of the player who imitates different
voices, according to the characters that he is moving at a moment 13.

12
- Parabola (1979).
13
- Hamada (1961) 43.

8
 Shadow play appeared in the Arab world in the eleventh century. The
performance was called Khaial al-Dil, literarily the imitation of the
shadow. In the Ayyubid period we find indications of shadow play
performances, most remarkably that the famous Sultan Saladin attended
one of these performance with his vizier Alkadi Fadel which the later
described saying ‘I learned great lessons … I saw empires fall down,
others arise … but when the curtain was removed … the mover (player)
was one person’14.

The art of shadow play was remarkably improved by Mohammad Jamal

ibn Daniel Almoseli (646 H / 1248 CE – 720-H / 1320 CE), a unique name
which is associated with the shadow plays’ performances, and the only
one of whose work we have a surviving example 15. From these surviving
texts and also from other indications we can say that the style of the Arab
middle ages shadow plays were commonly satiric, aiming to criticise the
social order and perhaps in some cases politics, thus it uses stereotype
characters. With its excessive expressions and the colloquial language,
Arabic shadow plays seem, in comparison with al-Taaziya, closer to the
comic genres16.

Shadow play was not only popular in the Arab-Muslim countries; it also
existed in many southern Asian countries which became Muslim between
the fifteenth and the seventeenth century.

(Slide-13)

Our example here is the shadow theatre in Java in Indonesia. The

shadow play was popular in Java before Islam became the major religion
on this island. It was evidently associated with the Hindu traditions as it
features its central character called Bima; the monkey Hindu God. The
subjects of these plays were taken from the Hindu epics the Mahabharata
and the Ramayana. It is interesting however that Bima remained popular
14
- Yaqi (1999) 10.
15
- Landau (1972) 60, N52;Qaja (2001) 247-58.
16
- Ateya (1982) 51; Suqer (1998) 55.

9
in the Muslim Indonesian puppet theatre. This is because the Muslim
puppeteers in Java had reshaped the puppet of Bima possibly under the
influence of the Islamic prohibition of making images of living creatures;
the puppet of Bima then became less realistic with an enormous long
nose and long thin arms, unlike the Bima puppet used in Bali which
reflected a more realistic representation. Accordingly this allowed the
Muslim puppeteers to get around the traditional prohibition 17.

(Slide-14)

The example of Java’s shadow play indicates that Islamic law, though it
supposedly banned images and representation of living creatures, could
not be totally responsible for the absence of dramatic art in Arab-Muslim
culture.

Al-Taaziya and shadow play remain the most remarkable pre-theatrical

performances in Arab history, both of them have basic principles of
theatre performance and it would be interesting to think of their impacts
in contemporary Arab theatre if they were allowed to develop toward
profane human performance. The valid theory today suggests that the
Arabic theatre which we know today is a purely imported form of art that
came first to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria via Napoleon’s army and later by
the individual effort of Maroon Al-Naqqash. What al-Taaziya and the
shadow play prove to us is that the very basic concept of theatre
performance did exist in the Arab world, without being banned by direct
religious prohibition.

The Golden Age of Islam:

I will move now to the fourth part of my paper, to look at one of the
significant periods of Islamic culture when early Muslims had the
opportunity to invite theatre to the Arab world.

17
- See the broadcast of BBC Radio 4 “Shadow Puppet of Bima”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tyr5v
(05-10-2010). I am indebted to Alan Sommerstein for this reference.

10
The Abbasid era is known in the history as the golden age of Islamic
culture. In this era Muslim states established a huge cultural project
aimed at translating many books from other languages, especially Greek.
Early Arabic translators devoted their efforts to translating many books of
science, mathematics, and medicine and also from other disciplines. While
they were hesitant with philosophy, they almost neglected the major
books dealing with arts and literature 18. And so the masterpieces of
ancient Greek drama were never translated into Arabic in this era. This
raises a question whether this neglect was fed by a religious prohibition of
dramatic poetry.

Mohammad al-Fil explains the translators’ neglect of dramatic texts by

pointing to some cultural factors including:

1 – The domination of the collective consciousness in Islamic culture and

the absence of the superman model in Islamic traditional thinking.

2- The concept of curse and its consequences are rejected by Islamic

teaching as God is always impartial and never held a man responsible for
the mistake of his ancestors.

(Slide-15)

‘If you disbelieve - indeed, Allah is Free from need of you. And He
does not approve of His servants disbelief. And if you are grateful,
He approves it for you; and no bearer of burdens will bear the
burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return, and He will
inform you about what you used to do. Indeed, He is Knowing of
that within the breasts’ Surat Az-Zumar 39: 7.

(Slide-16)

‘And those who believed and whose descendants followed them in

faith - We will join with them their descendants, and We will not

18
- Etman (2008) 141-3; Etman (2004) 285; Leezenberg (2004) 300-2; Pormann (2007) 28; Janssen (2004) 326-
7; Van Leeuwen (2004) 344-5; Carlson (2006) 1-5.

11
deprive them of anything of their deeds. Every person, for what he
earned, is retained’ Surat Aţ-Ţūr: 52: 21.

Thus al-Fil points out that the early translators must practice a self-
censorship when selecting the material that they would translate.

For Twfiq al-Hakim the lack of settlement in the life of Arab Bedouins is
one factor, and even in the Arabic cities, specially in the Umayyad and
Abbasid eras, Arabs prefer to learn science, medicine and such subjects,
but poetry was, as they thought, their best talent.

Ahmed Saqer underlines the concept of monotheism in the Arabic

culture, looking back to the pre-Islamic periods where each tribe
worshiped only one god, and from this he observed that the polytheism of
Greek drama would be a major problem for Arab readers.

But there is yet other important explanation found in the translation of

the terminology relevant to the drama. This is that early translators chose
to translate tragedy as eulogy and comedy as satire, keeping in mind that
these were the major genres in the Arabic traditional poetry 19.

Jacob Landau suggests another reason why the Arabs neglected

translating Greek drama in the Abbasid period; it is that the countries
which the Muslims conquered at this period did not have theatre so that
the Muslims could associate these dramatic texts with it.

Somehow the philosophy of Islamic law has affected the selection of

subjects for the early translators, and it seems hard to deny that the
mythological element in the ancient Greek poetry (e.g. Homeric epics),
and particularly in drama, were difficult to accept for Muslims’ mentality.
But this is not the only possible reason. There is a major difficulty with
translating poetry in general. Early Arabs have noticed such difficulty. Al-
Jahiz for example raises this concern in his book ‘Kitab al-Haywan’: ‘Only
Arabs and the people who speak Arabic have a correct understanding of

19
- Qaja (2001) 199.

12
poetry. Poems do not lend themselves to translation and ought not to be
translated. When they are translated, their poetic structure is rent; the
metre is no longer correct; poetic beauty disappears and nothing worthy
of admiration remains in the poems. It is different with prose.
Accordingly, original prose is more beautiful and appropriate than prose
renderings of metric poetry’20.

So at this point we, again, encounter the question why the Arabs did
not know theatre. There are many theories that try to provide some
explanations. One theory considers the language factor, that different
Arabic dialects would not be so helpful, but this paper is interested more
in looking at one particular theory which suggests that Islam and Quranic
thought prevented the Arabs from knowing or developing any form of
theatre performance. That is understandable if we consider the
domination of the Islamic ruling state for nearly thirteen centuries before
the Arabs got to know theatre, and it is perhaps the most influential faith
in the modem Arab world. It is therefore justified for one to think of
Islamic traditions when trying to explain why Arabs were so late to know
theatre.

This theory is based on the idea that Islamic traditions banned the
artistic representation of living creatures. And this takes us to the last
part of this paper.

Islam and theatre:

In spite of the fact that this prohibition must have existed and affected
the style of early Islamic arts, it is hard to find the evidence of it from the
holy book; al-Quran. What is claimed to be the Quranic evidence is an
indication that the ability of creating the soul is only for God, and Prophet
Jesus who is taught to create a birdlike shape is still far from creating its
soul unless God enable him to do so.
20
- See: Rosenthal (1992) 18-9.

13
(Slide-17+18)

“[The Day] when Allah will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, remember
My favor upon you and upon your mother when I supported you
with the Pure Spirit and you spoke to the people in the cradle and
in maturity; and [remember] when I taught you writing and
wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you designed
from clay [what was] like the form of a bird with My permission,
then you breathed into it, and it became a bird with My
permission; and you healed the blind and the leper with My
permission; and when you brought forth the dead with My
permission; and when I restrained the Children of Israel from
[killing] you when you came to them with clear proofs and those
who disbelieved among them said, "This is not but obvious
magic." Surat Al-Mā'idah (The Table Spread), 5: 110.

This text was interpreted in a way that Muslims should not allow
themselves to make or keep images of living creatures. Such judgment
was supposedly supported by the words of Prophet Muhammad, such as:

(Slide-19)

1- ‘Whoever makes a picture in this world will be asked to put

life into it on the Day of Resurrection, but he will not be able
to do so’21.

(Slide-20)

2 -‘Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or a

picture’22.

(Slide-21)

21
- Al-Bukhari: Volume 7, Book 72, Number 846; cf. Muslim: Book 24, 5268.

22
- Muslim: Book 24, 5249; cf. Al-Bukhari : Volume 7, Book 72, Number 843.

14
3 - ‘Verity the most grievously tormented people on the Day of
23
Resurrection would be the painters of pictures .

(Slide-22)

4 – ‘Abu'l-Hayyaj al-Asadi told that 'Ali (b. Abu Talib) said to him:
Should I not send you on the same mission as Allah's Messenger
(may peace be upon him) sent me? Do not leave an image without
obliterating it, or a high grave without levelling It. This hadith has
been reported by Habib with the same chain of transmitters and
24
he said: (Do not leave) a picture without obliterating it’ .

It is important here to distinguish between the holy texts and the other
sources of Islamic tradition. This is because of the legitimacy of the Quran
which is axiomatic for Muslims, while Hadith, the second source for
Muslims, is controversial and subjectto other considerations, such as the
division between Muslims into several doctrines and the different opinions
resulting from this division. And there is also the overlap between Islamic
thought and the Arab traditional thoughts which often became confused
and often influenced each other.

For al-Tabari the third hadith must have aimed to forbid a certain type
of painting, which creates an image meant to be worshipped, other
paintings are permissible though undesirable.

Aisha, the wife of Prophet Mohammad, reported that Um-Salama and

Um-Habib mentioned to the prophet that they saw many paintings at a
church in al-Habasha (e.g. Ethiopia), the prophet then said: those people
used to build tombs upon the graves of their good men and decorated
them with paintings but they would be the worst among the humankind in
the Last Day25. Alhijr ibn Hafez found in this particular event evidence
that paintings are forbidden in Islamic law26.
23
- Muslim: Book 24, 5270; cf. Al-Bukhari: Volume 9, Book 93, Number 648.
24
- Muslim: Book 4, 2115.
25
- Al-Bukhari 417; Muslim 528.
26
- Alhijr ibn Hafez, Fateh Albari 525.1.

15
 According to al-Nawawi ‘the representation of an animal is strictly
haram (prohibited) and it is certainly one of the greatest sins, because of
many hadiths which condemn the representation whether of sacred or
non-sacred objects (e.g. toys, rags ...etc) its making is prohibited as it is
competition against the creation of God, whether it is clothes, rag,
Dirham, Dinar, Fils (coins), pottery, wall, and so on’27.
Inb Taymiyya referring to the fourth hadith (Slide-23) says ‘Ali ordered
Al-Asadi to destroy both type of statues; the representation (e.g. portrait)
of the dead and the standing statue above his grave, for shirk (idolatry)
comes from both these and from those’28.
We can summarize these different interpretations under two
categories:

1- An absolute prohibition which is generally adopted by the Salafist

School. In this category the prohibition is comprehensive regardless of
the subject, style, context (e.g. religious/secular), and the purpose of
the representation. The question at this point is how this prohibition
spread all over the different forms of representation including the
dramatic arts.

It was once explained by a single hadith which reports: a man known

as Alhakam ibn al-Aas used to imitate the walk and the gestures of the
prophet Mohammad who once turned back and saw him, the prophet then
cursed and exiled him to al-Taif, and the prophet never cursed a man
unless he committed a great sin. The circumstances of this particular
event are obviously individual; it is a provocative mockery of the prophet
of Islam certainly considered as a personal insult rather than an artistic
imitation.

Many theologians made extreme approaches to the subject, they were

convinced that acting in drama is an act typical of al-Kuffar (unbelievers),
others take the view that the most of the hadith concerning the
27
- Al-Nawawi, Illustration of Muslim 81.14.
28
- Ibn Taymeyya, Majmo’a Alfatawa 462.17.

16
prohibition of paintings are meant to discourage Muslims from following
the examples of non-Muslims who not only kept the paintings as sacred
objects but worshipped them (e.g. icons) and so the angels are
discouraged from entering places with pictures.

Pioneering theological research by Ahmed ibn al-sadiq (published in

1953 under the title Setting out the Evidence on Forbidding Acting)
concluded that acting in performance (e.g. theatre, cinema …etc.) is
strictly prohibited. In this study Ibn al-Sadiq collected many allegations
against acting including:

1- Acting is bid’a (innovation) of the unbelievers which was brought to

Muslim countries by the colonizers.
2- The concept of acting belongs to lahw (distraction) and laghw
(idleness) which are condemned by Islam as frivolous play.
3- Acting could possibly include a forbidden representation (prophets,
religious figures) who would be misrepresented, such occasions may
give the enemies of Islam the chance to degrade Islamic symbols.
4- Women should not be participating in acting with/for men.
5- Men should not allow themselves to be degraded by taking
inappropriate roles (e.g. animals, dissolute figures, thieves ... etc.)
6- Acting in its very concept includes pretending, which is a form of
lying.
7- If a male actor is assigned to a female character role he would be in
danger of effeminacy.
8- From a social approach acting would corrupt the young Muslims and
tech them lying, to deceive, mockery, and so on.

All these allegations are not supported by direct evidence from Islamic
sources. It reflects a great reluctance to western ideas in which social and
political attitudes are dominant. It also lacks awareness of artistic norms;
the writer made no distinction between conditional pretending and the
morally condemned act of lying.

17
 This prohibition was by no means rational. As mentioned before, it
lacks strong ground from al-Quran, and it is striking how extremely
fanatical this interpretation is if we compare it with other cases of more
direct condemnation. In Surat Ash-Shu`arā’ (Poets) the words of god
condemn the poet for hypocrisy:

(Slide-24)

‘And the poets - [only] the deviators follow them (224) Do you
not see that in every valley they roam (225) And that they say
what they do not do’ (226) Surat Ash-Shu`arā' 26: 224-6

Even though poetry was through the history of Islam a respected art,
and Prophet Muhammad had his own poet called Hussan ibn Thabit.

2 -The second category might be described as a designated prohibition

which takes account of the function of the representation, such as the
purpose of the painting, statue... etc. it is from this category that we find
exceptions made by later theologians, for example the permission of
making/using incomplete statues (semi-body, headless … etc.) or even
despised objects (toys, Tapestries? Rugs?… etc.). In the course of the
eleventh century AD the famous Islamic theologist al-Ghazali attempted
to theorize this confusing prohibition, he concluded that walls and hanging
fabric materials (e.g. curtains, rugs) must not be decorated with shapes
of living creatures. The same prohibition is applied for children’s toys, he
decided; it should not be in the form of a living creature. Non-religious
books, potteries, cups… and rugs are exempted. This division is likely to
be influenced by the pre-Islamic tradition of worship.

Yet there is a case for argument against the whole concept of a

prohibition on representations. Many contemporary theologians argue that
such prohibition must be temporary, and entirely determined by the
circumstances of the early periods of the Islamic era.

18
 It is known that the pre-Islam Arabs worshipped idols in and around the
holy house of al-Ka’aba. An ancient source states that when the prophet
Mohammad conquered the city of Mecca he found 360 idols around the
holy Ka’aba29. Another source describes different forms of idols which
were kept inside al-Ka’aba including statues, paintings (walls, portable
pieces), attributes (e.g. divine arrows). Al-Azraqi describes al-Ka’aba
around the time of the Isam conquest, ‘… and they put on its columns
pictures of the Prophets, pictures of trees, and pictures of the angels, and
there was a picture of the Prophet Ibrahim Khalil al-Rahman with divining
arrows, and a picture of Isa b. Maryam and his mother [i.e., Jesus and
Mary], and a picture of the angels, upon them be peace, all of them. And
when it was the day of the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet (peace be
upon him) entered, and he sent off al-Fadl b. al-Abbas b. Abd al-Muttalib
(his cousin) to come with water from [the well of] Zamzam. Then he
called for a cloth, and he ordered [them] to rub off these pictures, and
they were obliterated’30.

But al_Azraqi mentioned also another interesting passage that reported

that ‘Sulayman [b. Musa al-Shami] said to [Ata b. Abi Rabah]: “The
pictures of the representations of devils that were in the House [i.e., the
Ka’aba], who obliterated them?” He said: “I do not know, other than that
they were obliterated, with the exception of those two pictures [Isa b.
Maryam and Maryam]. I saw them [i.e., the rest] and their obliteration” 31.
This suggests that the prophet when ordering the Muslims to destroy
idols, actually made an exception for the painting of Jesus and the Virgin
Mary. It is perhaps the practice (e.g. worship) associated with the objects
which concerned the prophet rather than the paintings, statues ...etc.
themselves. We are told in the Quran that the prophet Ibrahim went to
destroy the idols of his father.

(Slide-25)
29
- Al-Baukhari 2346; Muslim 969.
30
- Al-Azraqi, Akhbar Mecca. Vol.1: 165; c.f.: King (2004) 220.
31
- Ibid 167.

19
 ‘And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham said to his father
Azar, "Do you take idols as deities? Indeed, I see you and your
people to be in manifest error." Surat Al-'An`ām 6.74

(Slide-26)

‘And [I swear] by Allah, I will surely plan against your idols after
you have turned and gone away * So he made them into
fragments, except a large one among them, that they might return
to it [and question] * They said, "Who has done this to our gods?
Indeed, he is of the wrongdoers * They said, "We heard a young
man mention them who is called Abraham * They said, "Then
bring him before the eyes of the people that they may testify *
They said, "Have you done this to our gods, O Abraham? * He
said, "Rather, this - the largest of them - did it, so ask them, if
they should [be able to] speak * So they returned to [blaming]
themselves and said [to each other], "Indeed, you are the
wrongdoers’ Surat Al-'Anbyā' (The Prophets) 21.57-64

He left one of them untouched and told his tribe that it is this one who
destroyed the other idols and they can try to ask then if he can even reply
or defend himself. Ibrahim thus wanted to prove that they are only stone
without any divinity, they don’t harm nor do they bring benefit for anyone
who worships them. This clearly suggests that the purpose of destroying
idols is not the object itself nor it is the idea of representation, its purpose
was to destroy the tradition of worshipping idols. This is to say that the
early periods of Islam history have evidently prohibited the imitation of
living creatures. The main reason behind such prohibition lies in the pre-
Islamic tradition of worshipping idols. Thus Islam aimed to uproot the
idea of worshipping idols from Islamic society and to make sure that Arab
Muslims do not relapse into this tradition. Applying this prohibition for all
kinds of representation today is hardly justifiable since Islam today is a

20
firmly established faith which is beyond the threat of the external shape
of idolatry.

Many Arab-Muslim countries have made significant contributions in

theatre activities over the last century or so, it is hard to list all these
contributions in this paper 32 but it worth at least to point out some of the
regular theatrical festivals held each year in various regions around the
Arab-Muslim world which reflect the consciousness of Arab-Muslims in
theatrical arts. Starting from the western Arab world, we find Carthage
theatrical Days; an international theatrical festival organized by the
Ministry of Culture in Tunisia. In Morocco the Marrakesh Theatrical
Festival had been founded in the late sixties. In Cairo the Cairo
international festival for experimental theatre is a significant cultural
phenomenon which attracts not only Arab theatrical groups but also
introduced many international theatrical groups to an Arab audience. And
I should not forget to mention the Damascus International theatrical
festival which also played a leading role in improving the theatrical
traditions in the Arab world. As we move further to the east, into more
conservative territories, we find many local festivals in most of the
Arabian Gulf countries. There are also two remarkable regional festivals in
this part of the Arab world; these are the Kuwait Theatrical Festival and
the theatrical Festival of Mono-drama of Sharjah in UAE.

As theatre became a major element in the contemporary Muslim culture

it is quite important to rethink the contemporary view of Islam concerning
theatre and arts in general, taking into account the role, nature, and aims
of the contemporary arts and theatre.

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- See for example: Al-Raai (1978); Botintshiva (1981) especially 289-307.

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