Aleppo: Puppeteers

Date: 1750s-1770s

Alexander Russell (d. 1768) provides a detailed description of the performances of shadow puppeteers (Turkish: Karagöz). He does not mention the materials used for making the puppets, though they were likely made of leather with small sections of coloured silk. See also: Tanner; Currier; Maker of Leather Slippers.

Citation: Russell, Alexander. The Natural History of Aleppo, containing a Description of the City, and the principal natural Productions in its Neighbourhood. Together with an Account of the Climate, Inhabitants, and Diseases; particularly of the Plague, Second edition, revised, enlarged and illustrated by Patrick Russell (London: G. G. and J. Robinson, Pater-noster Row, 1794), I: pp. 146-50.

See also: Milwright, Marcus, ‘On the Date of Paul Kahle’s Egyptian Shadow Puppets’, Muqarnas 28 (2011), pp. 43-68.