Once Upon The Time

Every night, in a small café of “al Nawfara” in the shadow of the eastern wall of Umayyad Mosque, a storyteller known by “Hakawati” keeps the art of public storytelling alive. Seated on a chair elevated above the others, he begins with a half-sung introduction, switching his voice into accents, using layers of different Arabic: slang, old colloquial and formal forms, depending on the character he is reading. Holding a book in one hand, while the other is full of vivid gestures then at one point in the story he grips a sword swings it once or twice, then BANG!! He strikes it down onto a metal tabletop in front of him. His stories might take a week, a month or a year! It is usually about very well known Islamic or heroic epics from early Arab history, such as Antara Ibn Shaddad, Abu Zaid al-Hilali, al-Zaher Baybars and many other famous ones. It was a very common craft in the past, but now it is no more than a folkloric performance or a museum piece, even some people go that he will be the last ever Hakawati, I hope not.