The influence of Molière, whose plays were translated and performed in different languages spoken in the Ottoman Empire, extends to shadow theatre. The focus of this article is on the plays inspired by Molière’s Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in Spite of Himself), which are included in the karagöz repertoire under the title Hekimlik (Doctor) and in the karagiozis repertoire under the title Ο Καραγκιόζης γιατρός (Karagiozis Doctor). Despite the existence of other Molière-inspired shadow theatre plays being documented, Le Médecin malgré lui is the sole common play in the repertoires of karagöz and karagiozis. This article will explore the aspects that were chosen to be preserved under the banner of “tradition,” the elements that were “softened,” and the manner in which modernization is reflected in the shadow play, using Molière as a case study.

Peri Efe completed an MA in 2007 in Byzantine and New Greek Studies, Turcology, University of Vienna with Ein Bürokrat und Gelehrter aus Millet-i Rum im Osmanischen Reich des 19. Jahrhunderts: Alexandros Karatheodoris (A Bureaucrat and Scholar from Millet-i Rum in the Ninteenth Century Ottoman Empire: Alexandros Karatheodoris) and, in 2017, a PhD in New Greek Studies, University of Vienna with Karagiozis—Schattenspiel und Politik: Der griechische Karagiozisspieler Sotiris Spatharis (Karagiozis—Shadow Play and Politics: The Greek Karagiozis Player Sotiris Spatharis). Efe’s main research areas are shadow theatre, karagiozis, karagöz, Phanariots, Karamanlidika (Turkish texts in Greek script), Minorities in Ottoman Empire, and Nationalism.

---

Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in Spite of Himself, premiere, 1666; published, 1667) is the only one of Molière’s plays that has been—with some additions and omissions—introduced into both the Ottoman/Turkish karagöz and Greek karagiozis shadow puppet theatre repertoires in its entirety. Like Molière’s other plays, this farce was inspired by folk tales, improvised performances and especially the commedia dell’arte. Therefore, the path it follows is interesting: it has been transformed from the actor’s theatre stage back into a traditional show.

This study aims to analyze how and where karagöz and karagiozis differ from Molière’s play and how this seventeenth-century comedy was adapted into the structure of twentieth-century shadow theatre.

The Plot of Le Médecin malgré lui

The plot involves a fake-doctor, factitious illness, and impersonation intrigues. The opening scene is a quarrel wherein Sganarelle beats his wife Martine, who takes her revenge. Overhearing two men who are looking for a doctor to cure the muteness of their master’s daughter, Martine tells them that Sganarelle is a good doctor but does not admit being a physician unless he is beaten. Forced into the doctor role by the men, Sganarelle soon meets Master Géronte’s sick daughter Lucinde, and he meanwhile engages with Jacqueline, the wetnurse, the spouse of one of the men. Lucinde malingers to escape a marriage imposed by her father, and longs for her impoverished beau, Léandre. Sganarelle helps the lovers meet by helping her lover pass as an apocathery and Lucinde begins to speak but soon elopes with her beloved. Sganarelle is sent to jail for assisting the lovers. However, Léandre soon receives an inheritance, and the father is reconciled to the marriage and the imprisoned Sganarelle is thus saved from jail.

The utilization of quack doctor narratives as a humorous element and a subject of criticism is a phenomenon that has been observed across various cultural and historical periods. Between the years 1658 and 1673, Molière wrote a total of seven plays centering on doctors. According to Aimé Richardt, Molière made fun of doctors extensively from the beginning to the end of his career, often targeting them with malice or even a certain maliciousness (Richardt 2007, 190). In Le Médecin malgré lui, it is not only the doctor and the patient who are false, but also the pharmacist.

Le Médecin malgré lui in Turkish Translations

Le Médecin malgré lui, according to the common—although poorly documented—opinion, was first translated into Turkish in 1813 in Armenian letters by Arisdages Antimosyan (the manuscript is most likely still held by the Library of the Convent of San Lazzaro in Venice) (And 1972, 66).[1] Yervant Baret Manok (2013, 59) gives the performance date of Antimosyan’s translation as February 28, 1813. The Turkish title of the play was Zoraki Hekim (Forced Doctor), but the characters listed in Manok’s book do not correspond well to Molière’s cast list, casting doubt on whether this was truly a translation of Molière. The same holds true of a second play of the same title by Mikael Zemberekjian, which premiered in 1837, and which, like the previous one, was performed at the Mekhitaris Monastery of San Lazzaro in Venice (Manok 2013, 63–64).

The year 1849 witnessed the printing—again in Armenian script—of Kaspar Tüysüzyan’s translation, Zorıla Hekim (Doctor by Force) (Stephanyan 2005, 87),[2] and in 1869 Ahmed Vefik’s (1823–1891)[3] translation, Zoraki Tabip (Forced Doctor), appeared, printed in Arabic letters.[4]

Le Médecin malgré lui in Greek Translations

The first translation of Molière’s play into Greek was done by Theodoros Alkaios (1780–1834) at the beginning of the nineteenth century but only printed in 1841; a second translation, most probably by Theodoros Orfanidis (1817–1866), followed in 1863 under the title Ακούσιος Γιατρός (Involuntary Doctor) (Stavrokopoulou 2004, 283).[5] It should be noted that Molière was first translated into Greek not from French, but from an Italian version by the Phanariots (elite Greeks from merchant families).[6]

In some of Molière translations—both Greek and Turkish—the plot was transferred to the country and the period of the reader/audience. Besides the language, the cultural atmosphere was localized, as well. For example, Konstantinos Oikonomikos (1780–1857) in his Greek adaptation of L’Avare (The Miser, printed in 1816 in Vienna) employed the İzmir dialect, and Isidoridis Skylissis (1819–1890) in his Greek adaptation of Tartuffe (published 1851 in İzmir) set the plot in the Fener district in Istanbul (Hatzipantazis 2003, 71).[7] It should be mentioned that, especially the Turkish adaptations by Ahmed Vefik (1869)[8] and Teodor Kasap (1835–1897) in the 1870s,[9] in terms of language and humor are very close to ortaoyunu[10] and shadow theatre karagöz, a fact that may well have facilitated the entry of Molière’s plays into the corpus of traditional theatre.

Here I should also note that in his quite faithful Greek translation of Ακούσιος Γιατρός Theodoros Orfanidis uses “karagiozis” as the Greek equivalent for “bouffon,” which in the Molière original occurs twice, referring to the protagonist (see Orfanidis, tr. [Molière] 1863, 16–17). The Turkish equivalent of the same term in both Ahmed Vefik’s and Kaspar Tüysüzyan’s translations is “maskaralık” (charade/joke around).

Molière in Shadow Theatre

That we can follow the traces of Molière in karagöz due to the report of Adolphe Thalasso, who, watching karagöz in various parts of Istanbul in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, recognized in those shadow plays episodes from Tartuffe, Le Fourbouries de Scapin (Scapin the Schemer), and L’Avare (Thalasso 1888, 21–26). When Thalasso interviewed the karagöz masters about plots of these plays, all of them pointed to a certain player, Hasan Karagöz. Hasan was the grandfather of one of the puppet masters Thalasso talked to, and by the time Ahmed Vefik came to translate Molière’s plays in 1869, Hasan had already passed away. So, Thalasso surmised, Hasan Karagöz himself must have had access to a freely translated Turkish language version of the Molière plays, and the fact that these plays were still being performed in the 1880s when Thalasso saw them obviously attested to their popularity.[11] In addition, parts from Molière’s plays like L’Avare and Le Médecin malgré lui were identified by Cevdet Kudret in the shadow play Cincilik (Demonic) (Kudret 1992, 409).

As a karagiozis play, Le Médecin malgré lui was first performed under the title Ιατρός ανευ επιστήμης (Doctor without Knowledge) by shadow master Mimaros (Dimitrios Sardounis) in Athens on July 16, 1902 (Stavrokopoulou 2004, 284).[12] Apart from this play, karagiozis repertoires included other comedies by Molière such as the Monsieur de Porceaugnac (1669), titled Don Ilias Kolokythas in Greek.

Hekimlik (Doctor) and Ο Καραγκιόζης διά της βίας γιατρός (Karagiozis, The Forced Doctor)

The karagöz play I will focus on here is Hekimlik (Doctor)[13] from the repertoire of Hayali Küçük Ali (1886–1974),[14] a play he adapted from Ahmed Vefik’s 1869 translation.[15]

For the karagiozis repertoire, I used the play texts by Giannis Moustakas,[16] Evgenios Spatharis (1924–2009), and Markos Ksanthos (1905–1931),[17] as well as summaries of texts by Louis Roussel (Ieronymidis 2003, 272–273) and Tzoulio Kaimi (Kaimi 1990, 58–59) from  a play by Andonis Mollas (1878–1948), as well as  the pieces recorded by Giorgos Papanikolaou,[18] and Avraam (1921–1998).[19]

Among the plays I have studied, Moustakas’ play O Karagiozis dia tis vias giatros (Karagiozis, The Forced Doctor) and Hayali Küçük Ali’s Turkish play Hekimlik (1902) are close both to each other and to Le Médecin malgré lui, although Molière’s plot is always molded into the karagiozis frame in all Greek adaptations I reviewed. While in almost all karagiozis plays two elements of the original story—pseudo-illness of a rich man’s daughter and the protagonist (Karagiozis) being set up as a doctor in revenge for his former abusive behavior—are retained, other parts bear little resemblance to the original. For example, there is no altercation between husband and wife or indication of the woman’s determination to take revenge on her abusive husband as at the beginning of Le Médecin malgré lui. In five of the karagiozis plays I analyzed revenge is a matter not between husband and wife but between Karagiozis and Haciavatis (Karagiozis’ perennial interlocutor).

The Wife

The plays by Moustakas and Hayali Küçük Ali both do see Karagiozis and Karagöz respectively squabbling with their wives, but unlike in the Molière—where the wife complains about her husband’s moodiness and his passions for gambling and alcohol—this fighting is mostly about lack of food. Also in contrast to Molière—where the couple’s trading of insults leads to Sganarelle beating up his wife, in Moustakas’ play Karagiozis only threatens to do so. Within the karagöz repertoire, Hekimlik is the only play in which Karagöz actually attacks his wife physically (when she wants to leave home because of her plight); other plays have the couple trading barbs and fighting, with the wife being quite capable of asserting herself against Karagöz.

In Moustakas’ play, Aglaia, the wife, after the quarrel, leaves the screen to never show up again. There may be various reasons for the appearance of Aglaia being shorter than that of the wife Martine in Molière’s play, such as the concern to maintain the traditional Karagiozis-Haciavatis balance. In Hayali Küçük Ali’s karagöz, however, the traditional Karagöz-Hacivat balance has changed or even collapsed when, in line with Ahmed Vefik’s translation, Hacivat appears only as the neighbor witnessing the quarrel between husband and wife before he will disappear for good.

A feature common to Le Médecin malgré lui, Hekimlik, and all the karagiozis plays—except that by Ksanthos’ O Karagiozis Karvouniaris (Karagiozis Coalman)—is a character interfering in the quarrel,[20] namely a neighbor, Hacivat in the karagöz and Haciavatis in most of the karagiozis plays. Karagöz’s wife reacts to Hacivat’s intervention by saying, “Belki benim canım dayak yemesini istiyordur” (What if my soul wants to be beaten?), whereupon Karagöz and his wife both turn on Hacivat (Kudret 1969, 247). This scene fits in with the Molière play and indeed with the absurdity of karagöz. In karagiozis, this part clearly deviates from Molière’s play in that it is only Karagiozis who, angered by Haciavatis’ intervention, starts beating Hacivat. In Hekimlik, Karagöz proposes reconciliation to his wife; he heads for the forest to cut shrubs, which he will make into brooms for sale in the market to buy his wife gifts such as shoes, a ring, cloth, a pendant. Molière’s Sganarelle, by contrast, seeks to overcome his tiredness by having a drink in the forest and reading a poem about the drink and the bottle,[21] rather than thinking about returning home, let alone buying gifts for his wife. It is interesting that Karagöz regrets his behavior towards his wife, while the relationship between Sganarelle and Martine, as becomes evident at the end of the Molière play, remains tense.

Looking for a Doctor and the Revenge of the Wife

In Molière’s play, Martine’s anger is very pronounced. The anger expressed by Karagöz’s wife in Hekimlik almost matches that of Martine. In both Molière’s play and in Hekimlik an opportunity for revenge occurs when the respective wives overhear a conversation between men passing on the street. In Hekimlik, it is Bayram and Mestan—both of Rumelian origin— who knock at Karagöz’s door, in search of a doctor who can cure their master’s mute daughter. In karagöz, where dialect and ethnic sterotyping is an important component of the comedy type, the Rumelian dialect of these two men functions as the focal point of the dialect comedy in this play.

The wife in Hekimlik tells the two Rumelians that she knows a very good doctor, but this he will not admit unless he is soundly thrashed. This part is faithful to Molière’s play, perhaps even more lively and funny, and is very successfully adapted to the shadow play features of karagöz.

In karagiozis this scene develops differently: thus in Moustakas’ play it is Haciavatis who learns from the Vizier’s men that the latter’s daughter, Fatme (as she is called in all karagiozis plays except that by Papanikolaou’s play O Karagiozis dia tis vias giatros in which her name is Leyla), has suddenly become mute and they are looking for a doctor. Set to take revenge on Karagiozis for being beaten, Haciavatis goes to the Vizier to tell him that Karagiozis is a very good doctor, but he must be heavily beaten to admit this fact. This part is the same in all karagiozis plays. And the oath of revenge uttered by Karagöz’s wife in Hekimlik (“Eğer ben de senden bu intikamı almazsam bana da kadın demesinler!” [If I do not take revenge on you for this, let me not be called a woman!], Kudret 1969, 248) finds its equivalent in Ksanthos’ play where Haciavatis swears: “…και αμα δεν πληρώσης το ξύλο ποὺ μοῦ ἔδωσε μὲ το αἴμα σου νά μήν μὲ λένε Χατζηαβάτη!” (Let me not be called Haciavatis, if you do not pay with your blood for having beaten me! Ksanthos n.d., 19).

Hamza Ağa/Vizier

In contrast to Ahmed Vefik’s adaptation where the rich man Géronte becomes Hamza Ağa, in Hekimlik he is called only by his title, Ağa, which means landowner. Similarly, in karagiozis the rich man does not have a name but bears the title Vizier or Pasha. Hence, it is the daughter of the Vizier who the Greek karagiozis is supposed to be healed.

The equivalents of Ağa’s servants in Hekimlik are the soldiers of the Vizier in karagiozis. The Pasha or Vizier is one of the main standard figures in karagiozis. His palace stands in all its splendor on the right side of the screen, and on the opposite side sits Karagiozis’ dilapidated shack. Power is ethnicized. With Le Médecin malgré lui having been adapted in this fixed structure, Karagiozis and Haciavatis are confronted with the state, which cannot be explained only with class difference. In the plays by Moustakas and Avraam, the Vizier gives Karagiozis and Haciavatis two or three days to heal his daughter, in case of failure they will be hanged. This brings into the play an element of fear, but not without a mockery of power. And the story told takes on yet another dimension. In Moustakas’ play, for example, Karagiozis is chopping trees in the forest when he is taken by the Vizier’s servants and brought before the Vizier. Karagiozis thinks he has been caught because of illegal logging—after all, the Vizier is the law maker. The relationship between Karagöz and the Ağa does not have such a dimension. It is characterised by class distinctions, yet is not marked by the presence of state authority. Like Karagöz, Karagiozis, too, has to succumb to the role that he has been beaten into. In Moustakas’ play, Karagiozis is taken to the Vizier by Albanian soldiers, or in other Greek plays by the figure Dervenağa.[22] Contrary to serving men, Mestan and Bayram’s Rumelian sterotype in Hekimlik’s karagöz, there are no Albanian soldiers whose conversations in the local dialect would make audiences laugh.

Interestingly, in Moustakas’ play neither the Vizier nor Selim, the girl’s lover, seem to be surprised when they hear that the expected doctor is Karagiozis, who is known as a very poor and always hungry man. Selim warns Fatme, “Keep your eyes open, Karagiozis is very cunning and one of the greatest men in the east” (Moustakas 1973, 132). Obviously, the pupeteer wanted to make a point of having this figure say that Karagiozis belongs to the Orient.

The Wet Nurse

An important character of Molière’s play, the wet nurse Jacqueline, does not exist in karagöz or karagiozis. In the shadow play, Sganarelle’s courtship, his desire towards Jacqueline, and her role in the resolution of the storyline are completely omitted. Without this character of Molière’s and the related dialogues, Karagöz or Karagiozis had to develop different solutions to end the storyline. The scene omitted in karagöz and karagiozis does exist in Ahmed Vefik’s adaptation, the offensive language of the protagonist was not censored in 1869 nor in the earlier 1863 Greek translation by Orfanidis.[23]

Examination of the “Doctor”

Bénédicte Louvat points out that Molière entrusts the consultation scenes, and especially the examinations, to fake doctors instead of real ones. This is because these fake consultation scenes, in which a fake doctor examines and tries to cure a fake patient, immediately create a reservoir of extremely comic situations and devices (Louvat 2023, 7). In this play, too, there is a scene of fake consultation, which has also been transferred to the shadow theatre.

Once having made his confession, Sganarelle dresses like a doctor and puts on a pointed hat, and so does Karagiozis in some versions. However, in one play Karagiozis turns his clothes inside out, in another play he puts on a bowler hat and carries a bag. As for Karagöz, there is no indication that he has changed his clothes when he takes up doctoring.

Similar to Ağa’s daughter Nuridil, who answers all the questions asked during the examination by the pseudo-doctor Karagöz in Hekimlik with nonsense syllables—“han, hin, hun”—, Fatme in the plays by Mollas, Papanikoalou, and Ksanthos, too, utters sounds like “ham, him hum” and in other plays “a, e, i, o.”

Sganarelle’s indecent behavior toward the daughter is echoed in both Hekimlik and the karagiozis plays. In the same way that Sganarelle lusts for his beautiful patient, in Moustakas’ play Karagiozis pinches the girl’s cheek, and in Papanikolaou’s play Karagiozis, in his long conversation with the girl, strikes a salacious tone. Checking the girl’s pulse, he raves about the softness of her arm—as does Karagöz in Hekimlik: “Aman da ne yumuşak kolu varmış!” (Oh, what a soft arm she has!, Kudret 1969, 257).

The medical explanations for the girl’s illness given by Sganarelle in Latin are almost non-existent in karagöz and karagiozis. While Ahmed Vefik rendered these Latin phrases into Turkish by making the pseudo-doctor Ivaz talk gibberish that is supposed to sound Arabic, Hayali Küçük Ali decided to omit them in Hekimlik where this scene is rather unsophisticated and much shorter than in both Molière’s play and Vefik’s adaptation. In the play by Papanikolaou, Karagiozis combines two Greek terms, asthénia and arróstia, both meaning disease, to create a new word sounding like a diagnostic term: arostasthénia. In Spatharis’ play, Karagiozis tries to convince people by sputtering the names of instruments completely unrelated to medicine, such as “radar” or “projector.” In the same play he speaks with Haciavatis in Greek imitating French, for example, Θα φάμε ξυλαριεν (we will eat wood, i.e. be beaten). In so doing, he adds the French suffix –rien to the the word ‘ξύλο’ (beating). In Avraam’s play O Karagiozis epistomonas o giatros (Karagiozis, Master Doctor), when Haciavatis and Karagiozis have to talk about disease in order to make their speech sound like Latin they pronounce words adding the pseudo-Latin suffix –voros, as in γιατροβόρος (doctor). Nevertheless, this scene is shorter than the corresponding scene in Le Médecin malgré lui; this aspect of Molière’s humor has not been transferred to the shadow play. The underrepresentation of this theme of obscure learned language in both karagöz and karagiozis performances can be explained by the fact that Molière’s joking involves medical jargon rather than the parody of regional dialects which is nearer the core humor of the shadow traditions. While regional imitation is the most important feature of the shadow theatre, imitation of a learned knowledge associated with the higher strata must have discouraged the less educated shadow masters with little linguistic knowledge.

The fashion in which the disease is treated in Hekimlik is similar to that in Molière’s play: the girl is told to lie down and eat bread dipped in wine.[24] Karagiozis, on the other hand, pretends to make medicine, but to do so he needs a pharmacist—and this is Haciavatis who knows all the herbs, which he will not admit to unless he is beaten up. Having learned that it was Haciavatis who spread the rumor about him being a doctor, Karagiozis seeks to take revenge on Haciavatis. This revenge on Haciavatis is the same in all karagiozis plays I have reviewed.

Different ways are employed to reveal the daughter’s malingering. Hekimlik’s Karagöz learns about the girl’s trick from her lover Daniş who has come to talk to him. Daniş and Nuridil love each other, but Ağa wants his daughter to marry a rich man, which the girl seeks to avoid by pretending to be mute. As in Le Médecin malgré lui, Daniş asks Karagöz for help, but the dialogue between the two flows according to karagöz style and humor. Unlike in the Molière original, here the daughter’s lover does not pay the would-be doctor, and instead Karagöz believes that the story told by Daniş has saved him from his predicament. Karagiozis, by contrast, learns the truth either by eavesdropping on the conversations of Fatme with her lover Selim (whose name is Muhtar in Papanikolaou’s play and Kamil in Ksanthos’ play) or from Karagiozis’ son Kollitiris.

The Resolution

Once the truth about the daughter’s sickness has come to light, the storylines of karagöz and karagiozis flow differently. In Moustakas’ play, Karagiozis on the last day of the period granted tells Fatme that he has identified the cause of her sickness and wants to help her. And to the Vizier he gives a warning: his daughter will not recover unless she gets married. Then Karagiozis, in front of the Vizier, relates to Selim the words that the great prophet has told him in his dream: that Selim must marry Fatme, otherwise Selim will be shot in the square. In Papanikolaou’s play, the dream prophet is replaced with a professor whom Karagiozis asks who would be appropriate for the girl to marry. The professor answers, “She should marry the man she loves,”[25] and when the Vizier objects, Karagiozis admonishes him to meet the requirements of science.[26]

In Hekimlik, Karagöz helps Nuridil recover her voice by telling her that he knows about her plot. Ağa is very pleased to hear his daughter speak, but all Nuridil talks about are the problems with her marriage. The Molière version of the final scene featuring the girl and her father Géronte is longer and more artistic. In Hekimlik, Ağa accepts his daughter’s will and allows her to marry Daniş and, in contrast to the Molière, there is no word about an inheritance received by the lover. In fact, money is mentioned much less than it is in Le Médecin malgré lui. When, at the end, Ağa hands Karagöz a considerable sum the puppet antihero starts with the wedding preparations, calling in the dancers and the musicians.

The wedding ceremony is not part of Molière’s play, and in karagiozis the only play featuring a wedding is that by Moustakas. Here, Karagiozis also acts as the organizer of the wedding; he invites a drummer and a gaida (Balkan bagpipe) player. The end of the play by Moustakas differs from karagöz adaptationto some extent: Kollitiris, Karagiozis’ son, who has come to the palace for the wedding, steals the Vizier’s watch. And the military figure Dervenağa, enraged by another character Barbagiorgos’ offer to dance, starts a fight, which soon turns into a mass brawl. In Papanikolaou’s play, the end of the banquet scene sees an inebriated Karagiozis being pulled away by Haciavatis. Mayhem trumps the wedding joy in the karagiozis versions.

Conclusion

Finally, three aspects of karagöz and karagiozis adaptations deserve being mentioned. The first point is that hunger, which is a constant theme of karagiozis shadow theatre, also prevails in the plays examined here. This contrasts with the Turkish script. In Hekimlik, Karagöz is not invited to dinner by Ağa, his hunger does not occur as a theme at all, whereas Karagiozis generally does mention his hunger and eats twice. In the palace, Karagiozis heads for the kitchen shouting names of various dishes one after another. The banquet scenes have him burying his head in the full plate, smearing tomato paste and oil all over his face. At the end of Spatharis’ play O Karagiozis dia tis vias giatros (Karagiozis, The Forced Doctor), all go to the palace and when Karagiozis excitedly calls his children to the kitchen the children rush in shouting, “Come on let’s eat!” (Spatharis n.d.).[27] In the final scene of Avraam’s play, Pasha appoints Karagiozis the palace physician and decides to give a banquet. The impatient Karagiozis shouts: “Cauldron on fire, quick!” and again buries his face in the full plate as he does in other plays.[28] In Ksanthos’ play, the Vizier wants to entertain Karagiozis with dessert and water, but Karagiozis asks for a variety of dishes, which he would all gulp down. To the Vizier’s astonished remark—“You are going to drown!”—Karagiozis replies, “I will not drown in water but in food!” (Ksanthos n.d., 33–34).

The second point is that the basic humorous feature in karagöz is ethnic imitation, with accents and dialects alluding to the figures’ communities and regions of origin. Obviously building on this feature, Hayali Küçük Ali lets Ağa’s men speak with a Rumelian accent, thus making dialect humor an integral part of the play. In karagiozis, on the other hand, this feature is used in two ways. Firstly, it serves to introduce to the screen the cast of figures of various types. As is the case, for example, in Moustakas’ play, where the bridesman Nionios is from the Ionian island of Zakynthos and the Vlah[29] character Barbagiorgos who appears at the wedding—each speak in their own dialect (as they do in the other karagiozis plays where they appear). Secondly, the play was expanded to include a section in which characters from different regions or ethnic groups took turns on stage. This episode originates from a genre of play known as the ‘craftsman play’, which is also present in the classical Ottoman Karagöz repertoire. In these plays, Karagöz/Karagiozis is a cook, doctor, pharmacist or clerk etc., and characters from various regions speaking different dialects appear on stage to converse with him. Thus, in Papanikolaou’s play, the main story is completed with the appearance of five characters from the repertory of karagiozis who come to Karagiozis’ house one after another. What has led them there—these patients, each of whom speaks in their respective dialect—was the now widespread rumor that he is a doctor. The Molière episode with the two men of Geronte (Thibaud and Perrin), who force Sganerelle to impersonate a doctor, is included in karagiozis adaptations but where it is longer than the original. The episode does not occur in either the Turkish translation by Tüysüzyan nor in the radio performance by Hayali Küçük Ali. But, given that the Papanikolau version was recorded from a live performance, it can be assumed that other masters may also have included this part in their own live shows. And one cannot dismiss the possibility that even Hayali Küçük Ali added this episode in order to extend the play when he performed before an audience instead of on the radio. The ethnic humor is part of the shadow traditions, but not germane to Molière.

A third point concerns the different ways Molière’s original plot was adopted in karagöz and karagiozis versions. While in Hekimlik the original plot undergoes relatively unimportant changes, successfully blending with karagöz humor, karagiozis prefers to mold Molière’s plot into its framework. Karagiozis subordinates Molière’s play to shadow theatre while using the basic elements of the original plot.

There is one more point I would like to add before I conclude. In her analysis of the interaction between karagöz and karagiozis, theatre scholar Anna Stavrakopoulou (2012) suggests that some of the new plays (nev icad) in the karagöz repertoire may have been taken from the karagiozis repertoire, giving Hekimlik as an example. The same play, Stavrakopoulou argues, was first staged in Athens in 1900 under the title Ακούσιος Γιατρός (The Unvoluntary Doctor) and it is known that the wealthy and large Greek community of Istanbul regularly watched plays performed by touring Greek actor troupes;[30] there happened to be karagiozis masters from Greece as well. According to Stavrakopoulu, these successful Greek-language comedies are likely to have influenced karagöz. She supports her thesis by stating that the performances of Hekimlik are not reported before the twentieth century (Stavrakopoulou 2012, 156). In another article, Stavrakopoulou, again dwelling on the same possibility of Greek precedence, states that Cevdet Kudret quotes master Hayali Küçük Ali as using the 1930 edition of Ahmed Vefik’s translation of Molière for his play Hekimlik (Stavrakopoulou 2004: 282, note 4). Her argument however overlooks the fact that Ahmed Vefik’s Turkish translations date back to 1869, nor is it certain that Hayali Küçük Ali was the first puppeteer to stage this play in Turkish.

Ahmed Vefik’s translation was possibly one of karagöz’s sources. The first edition of his translation was printed in 1869, followed by another in 1881. And his version of Le Médecin malgré lui/Zoraki Tabip, was staged many times by actors, for example in the Ottoman Theatre in 1871 and the 1874–75 seasons (And 1974, 52). Karagöz players could have seen it. In addition, Zoraki Tabip ran besides other Molière plays between 1879 and 1882 in the actors’ theatre founded by Ahmed Vefik himself in Bursa. The play was later staged in Istanbul in 1912 at Ahmed Fehim’s (1856–1930) theatre (And 1974, 56) and again in 1938 at Naşid’s (Naşit Özcan 1886–1943) theatre (And 1974, 58). To summarise, the translation of Ahmet Vefik was performed on different actor stages over a considerable period of years.

At the same time, Ahmed Vefik’s translation may not have been the only source for Hekimlik. The first Turkish translation of Le Médecin malgré lui was printed in Armenian letters. In his preface to the 1849 translation, Kaspar Tüysüzyan writes, without giving the date, that Le Médecin malgré lui was translated, printed, and performed as a mime adaptation somewhere in Istanbul’s Langa Bostanı (Vlanga Garden) as an acknowledged play by Molière (And 1983, 153). It is well known that Armenian actors were very active in the Turkish-language theatre. Between 1862–64, the repertoire of the İzmir-based Armenian Vaspuragan Theatre consisted of many Molière plays, including Zoraki Tabip. The plays were performed in different languages including Armenian and Turkish. Translations by Ahmed Vefik were also staged in Vartovyan Theatre in Istanbul, founded by Hagop Vartovyan (1840–1902). Turning back to Stavrakopoulou’s hypothesis that Hekimlik borrowed from the karagiozis repertoire, it is indeed conceivable that the translation of Le Médecine malgré lui made its way from stage to shadow screen particularly via Armenian theatres and Armenian karagöz players. The vivid Greek-speaking theatre life in Istanbul and İzmir notwithstanding, it was Armenian actors and playwrights who prevailed in Turcophone theatre. As such, they may well have served as yet another possible source for the karagöz masters in adapting Molière’s works.

THE CAST OF THE ORIGINAL FRENCH VERSION, TRANSLATIONS AND SHADOW PLAYS

Le Médecin malgré lui/The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Molière 1667)	Zoraki Hekim /Forced Doctor (Turkish tr. Ahmed Vefik 1869)	Ακούσιος Γιατρός/Involutary Doctor (Greek tr. Th. Orfanidis 1863)	Hekimlik/Doctor (Hayali Küçük Ali, n.d.)	O Karagiozis dia tis Vias Giatros/ Karagiozis, A Doctor by Force (Giannis Moustakas, 1973)
Géronte	Hamza Ağa	Gerontios	Ağa	Vizier[31]
Lucinde – Géronte’s daughter	Nurdil	Fotini (Lucinde)	Nurîdil	Fatme[32]
Léandre – Lucinde’s lover	Daniş Bey	Leandros	Dâniş	Selim[33]
Sganarelle	Oduncu İvaz	Sganarellos	Karagöz	Karagiozis
				Kollitiris (Karagiozis and Aglea’s son)[34]
Martine – Sganarelle’s wife	Selime	Martina	Karagöz’ün Karısı	Aglea
M. Robert –  Martine and Sganarelle’s neighbor	Müstecip Efendi	K. Robertos	Hacivat	Hatziavatis
Valére – Géronte’s servant	Korkut	Valerios	Mestan Ağa (Lucas or Valére)	Veligekas (Lucas or Valére)[35]
Lucas – Jacqueline’s husband	Himmet	Loukas	Bayram Ağa (Lucas or Valére)	Tsaousis (Lucas or Valére)
Jacqueline – wet nurse	Halime	Tzakelina	–	–
Thibaud – Perrin’s father	Budak	Giannis	–	–
Perrin	Rifat	Petros	–	–
–	–	–	Seymenler	–
–	–	–	–	Dionysios
–	–	–	–	Barbagiorgos

[30] According to the list presented by Stathis Georgiadis (2010, 564–565), the play Akousios Giatros (a version of The Doctor in Spite of Himself) was performed in 1861, 1866, 1868, 1870, and 1872 in venues such as the Naum Theatre and the theatre hall of the Μnymosini Association. I am grateful to Manolis Seiragakis for providing me access to this text.

[31] Pasha in Avraam and Ksanthos.

[32] Leyla in Papanikolaou.

[33] Muhtar Bey in Papanikolaou, Kamil in Ksanthos.

[34] He also appears in the plays by Papanikoloau, Ksanthos, and Avraam.

[35] Dervenağa in Papanikolaou and by Avraam.

REFERENCES

MOLIÈRE TRANSLATIONS

Ahmed Vefik (tr.). 1869. Zoraki Tabîb Oyunu (Forced Doctor Play), Istanbul: Matbaa-i Âmire.

Ahmet Vefik Paşa (tr.). 1940. Zoraki Tabip (Forced Doctor), ed. Mustafa Nihat Özön). Istanbul: Remzi Kitabevi.

Orfanidis, Theodoros (tr.).1863. Ὁ ἀκούσιος ἰατρός (Forced Doctor). Athens: Ν. G. Passari & Α. G. Κanariotou.

Tüysüzyan, Kaspar (tr.) 1983 [1849]. Medsen Malgre Lüi yağhod Agama Pıjişk yaniya Zorıla Hekim (Forced Doctor). In Şair Evlenmesi’nden Önceki İlk Türkçe Oyunlar (The First Turkish Plays Before The Wedding of a Poet), ed. Metin And, 151–179. Istanbul: İnkılâp & Aka.

SHADOW PLAYS

Avraam. 1969. O Karagiozis epistomonas o giatros (Karagiozis, Master Doctor) [Recording]. July 5. Cambridge: Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. https://mps.lib.harvard.edu/sds/audio/459560669, accessed July 13, 2025.

Hayali Küçük Ali. 1969. Hekimlik (Doctor). In Karagöz, vol. 2, ed. Kudret Cevdet, 233–263. Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi.

Ksanthos, Markos (n.d.). O Karagiozis Karvouniaris (Karagiozis Coalman). Athens: Saravanos & Vouniseas.

Moustakas, Ioannis. 1973. O Karagiozis dia tis vias giatros (Karagiozis, A Doctor by Force). In Ό Καραγκιόζης (Karagoiozis), 12: 125–149. Athens: Tsepis Agkyras.

Papanikolaou, Giorgos. 1962. O Karagiozis dia tis vias giatros (Forced Doctor). [Recording] February 27. Cambridge: Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. https://mps.lib.harvard.edu/sds/audio/459560523, accessed July 13, 2025.

Secondary Sources

“32 Seneden Beri Perde Arkasında, Hayali Küçük Ali Ef. Neler Anlatıyor?” (Behind the Scenes for Thirty-two Years, What does Hayali Ali Ef. Say?). 14 December 1932. Son Posta Gazetesi (Son Posta Newspaper), 6.

And, Metin. 1972. Tanzimat ve İstibdat Döneminde Türk Tiyatrosu 1839-1908 (Turkish Theatre in the Tanzimat and Autocracy Period 1839–1908). Ankara: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.

———. 1974. “Türkiye’de Molière” (Molière in Turkey). Tiyatro Araştırmaları Dergisi (Journal of Theatre Studies) 5, 5: 51–64.

———. 1983. Şair Evlenmesi’nden Önceki İlk Türkçe Oyunlar (The First Turkish Plays Before The Wedding of a Poet). Istanbul: İnkılâp & Aka.

Apostolopoulos, Dimitris G. 2003. Για τους Φαναριώτες: Δοκιμές ερμηνείας & μικρά αναλυτικά (About the Phaniotes: Attempts at Interpretation and Short Analysis). Athens: KNE/EIE.

de Meynard, Barbier. 1874. « Variétés ». Revue critique d’histoire et de littérature (Critical Review of History and Literature) 5, 31 (January): 74.

Georgiadis, Stathis. 2010. “Ελληνικές Παραστάσης μολιερικών έργων στο σταυροδρόμι Ανατολής και Δύσης” (Greek Performances of Molière’s Works at the Crossroads of East and West). In Παράδοση και εκσυγχρονισμός στο νεοελληνικό θέατρο: από τις απαρχές ως τη μεταπολεμική εποχή (Tradition and Modernization in Modern Greek Theater: From the Beginnings to the Post-War Era), eds. Antonis Glitzouris, Konstanina Georgiadi, and Tasoula M. Markomihalaki. Irakleio: University of Crete Press.

Hatzipantazis, Thodoros. 2003. Η Ελληνική Κωμωδία και τα πρότυπά της στο 19^ο αιώνα (Greek Comedy and its Models in the NinteenthCentury). Irakleio: Panepistimiakes Ekdoseis Kritis.

Kaimi, Tzoulio. 1990. Καραγκιόζης. Ή η αρχαία κωμωδία στην ψυχή του θεάτρου σκιών (Karagiozis Or the Ancient Comedy in the Soul of the Shadow Theatre), trans. Kostas Mekkas-Takis Milias). Athens: Gavrilidis.

Kudret, Cevdet. 1973. Ortaoyunu 1. Ankara: Türkiye İş bankası Kültür Yayınları.

———. 1992. Karagöz. vol. 1. Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi.

Louvat, Bénédicte. 2023. “La Scène de médecine chez Molière: essai de typologie dramatique” (The Medical Scenes in Molière: An Essay on Dramatic Typology). Arrêt sur scène/Scene Focus (Stop on Stage/Scene Focus) 12. https://doi.org/10.4000/asf.6915, accessed July 1, 2025.

Manok, Yervant Baret. 2013. Doğu ile Batı arasında San Lazzaro Sahnesi. Ermeni Mıkhitarist Manastırı ve İlk Türkçe Tiyatro Oyunları (San Lazzaro Stage between East and West. Armenian Mekhitarist Monastery and First Turkish Theatre Plays). Istanbul: bgst Yayınları.

Menzel, Theodor. 1941. Meddâh, Schattentheater und Orta Ojunu (Meddah Storytelling, Shadow Theatre, and Orta Oyuna). Prague: Orientalisches Institut.

Molla, Dimitri. 2002. Ο Καραγκιόζης μας (Our Karagiozis). Athens. Sighroni Epohi.

Puchner, Walter, and Hotzakoglou, Anthi. 2022. Χίλια χρόνια θέατρο σκιων στηνανατοική Μεσόγειοκαι στηχερσόνησο του Αίμου (A Thousand Years of Shadow Theatre in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkan Peninsula). Athens: Irodotos.

Richardt, Aimé. 2007. “Molière et les médecins” (Molière and Doctors). Histoire des Sciences Médicales (History of Medical Science) 41, 2. https://numerabilis.u-paris.fr/ressources/pdf/sfhm/hsm/HSMx2007x041x002/HSMx2007x041x002x0189.pdf, accessed June 13, 2025.

Roussel, Louis. 2003. “Καραγκιόζης ή ενα θεάτρο των σκιών στην Αθήνα” (Karagiozis or a Shadow Theatre in Athens). In Ο Aθηναїκός Καραγκιόζης του Αντώνη Μόλλα (The Athenian Karagiozis by Antonis Mollas), ed. Mihalis Ieronimidis, 259–353. Athens: Hristos E. Dardanos.

Stavrokopoulou, Anna. 2004. “Μολιέρος και Καραγκιόζης: Ο γιατρός με το στανιό και η τύχη του στο ελληνικό θέατρο σκιών” (Molière and Karagiozis: The Doctor with the Tin Can and his Fate in Greek Shadow Theatre). In Παράβασις—Μελετήματα (Parabasis Studies) 3: 281–289. Athens: Ergo.

———. 2012. “Ottoman Karagöz and Greek Shadow Theater: Communicational Shifts and Variants in a Multi-Ethnic and Ethnic Context.” In Ruse and Wit, The Humorous in Arabic, Persian and Turkish Narrative, ed. Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, 146–157. Boston, MA: Ilex Foundation.

Stepanyan, Hasmik A. 2005. Հայատառ թուրքերեն գրքերի եւ հայատառ թուրքերեն պարբերական մամուլի մատենագիտութիւն (1727-1968) – Ermeni Harfli Türkçe Kitaplar ve Süreli Yayınlar ve Bibliyografyası (1727-1968) – Bibliographie des Livres et de la Presse Armeno-Turque (1727-1968) (Bibliography of Armenian-script Turkish Books and Armenian-script Turkish Periodicals [1727–1968]). Istanbul: Turkuaz.

Tambaki, Anna. 1988. “Ὁ Μολιέρος στὴ φαναριώτικη παιδεία. Τρεῖς Χειρόγραφες μεταφράσεις”(Molière in Phanariot Education. Three Manuscript Translations). Τετράδια Εργασἰας (Workbooks) 14. Athens: KNE/EIE.

Thalasso, Adolphe. 1888. Molière en Turquie. Étude sur le Théatre de Karagueuz (Molière in Turkey: Study of Karagoz Theater). Paris: Tresse & Stock.

Tolun, Atila. 2007. Ahmet Vefik Paşa’nın Molière Çevirileri (Ahmet Vefik Pasha’s Molière Translations). Istanbul: Mitos-Boyut.

Yıldız, Bayram. 2007. “Adaptasyon Meselesi, Ahmet Vefik Paşa ve Zoraki Tabib Örneği” (The Problem of Adaptation, Ahmet Vefik Pasha, and the Example of the Forced Doctor). Türkoloji Araştırmaları (Turkish Studies) 2, 3: 638–659. https://turkishstudies.net/DergiTamDetay.aspx?ID=154, accessed July 1, 2025.

---