Rituals in the Ottoman Court: Orta Ouyunu and Karagoz

There are a lot of documents and various evidence for festive rituals in Ottoman court, which performed for different purposes, including demonstrating the power and grandeur of the empire. These extravagant festivals were held in variety of occasions like birth of princes, circumcisions, courtier marriages and so on. They took several days to finish and the sultan and High-ranking officials as well as ordinary people attended in the festivals. Among the old types of performing in Ottoman festivals, Orta Ouyunu and Karagoz had comic content and characters that made the audiences laugh a lot. Having examined the existing documents of Ottoman period, especially the visual evidence, including Ottoman miniatures, the authors of the article try to present a critical description of the subject.