Story-telling in Iran

Story-telling has always existed through time in different lands. However, it so appears that it has not undergone much of a development in Iran. Before the emergence of Islam in Iran, the Parthian Gossans and Sassanind musicians made use of music, dance, songs, probably a number of actors and actresses. In the course of change of religion from Zoroastrianism to Islam, story-telling preserved its nature, though it lost its characteristics such as dance and music, mainly relying on the artistic features of the narrator. Due to restraints existing in the Islamic period which followed the interpretations of the religious teaching concerning arts and drama, story-telling was somehow limited to the narration of merely one person called "Tazieh" (passion play). The very same constraint, however, reinforced drama and became the source of development for Tazieh.