The Story Teller

Every evening, in al Nawfara Café in Old Damascus, he sits at a high place and starts telling the legendary tales of Antara Bin Shaddad,

AlZir Salem, Abou Zaid Al Hilali, Seif Bin Zi Yazan, Al Zaher Baibars…..etc, stories that belong to the traditional heritage of Arab literature composed in different periods of history. He is the Story Teller who attracts the eyes and ears of the café visitors, regardless of their age and gender. They lend him their ears and senses, and soar with their inspirations to imagine the heroic battles, love stories ,conspiracies, deceits, rivalry, chivalric ideals and tragic events of heroes of the past. The story teller is, usually ,a man in his sixties, with thick lense eye glasses fixed over the bone of his nose.

He speaks classical Arabic mixed with traditional slang phrases of past time, imitates the characters of his stories by movements of his body, expressions of his face and the tone of his voice, which he raises it boldly when the hero advances to a fight, and lowers it tenderly if the hero is courting his beloved. Generally he is a talented person who can tell stories using the intonation that fits the plot and events of the theme, who can create a realistic atmosphere of the events in order to attract the attention of the spectators who are ,usually, keen not to miss any part of the tale and sometimes are moved in a way that they interfere vigorously to either change the track of the story or to end it happily. Once ,it was too late in a cold winter night, and the café had to close , the story teller kept Antara, the hero, in prison, promising to end the story next night. A group of young men couldn’t bear the idea of the hero  being kept in captivity this long time, they went to the story teller’s home after midnight, and asked him to release Antara immediately, that is to complete the story for them until Antara regains his freedom. An old profession challenged by TV.

began to lose its magnitude. After the emergence of TV and space channels, story telling gradually The number of story tellers began to shrink in Damascene cafes and their desks started to be replaced by television sets. Very few of them, scattered around Old Damascus could maintain their career, which became something of the past. Al Nawfara café’s story teller is one of them. Some people still care for visiting him for a change while others prefer to listen to folk tales as true human experiences presented to them by a live man rather than by a solid state monitor. The story teller should be an artist who feels the words and events of his stories and offers them to people in a an attractive way. TV today is the main rival of story tellers .It can enter every house and place with no permission. But, to see the story teller you have to leave your home ,take a ride ,and pay money in a café. Therefore this profession receded gradually to become a tradition of the holy month of Ramadan ,when people, especially

young ones who have heard of the story teller, and those who had fed up with TV, look for novelty, go to see the story teller and relive the nights their grand fathers used to live when they were their age. Add to that ,many tourists from all over the world ,especially those interested in folklore, go to see the story teller and enjoy his movements and sketches although they do not understand what he says.. Theater and folklore specialist Khairi al Dahabi believes that story telling is an old fashion on its way to diminish, while historian Suheil Zakkar says that Abou Shadi, the story teller of al Nawfara Café is a faithful person who takes his job seriously like an artist who tries to diversify his methods of narration to attract and to please the clients of the café, as much as he can. Stories of the past attract 21st. century generations. Zakkar says that Abou Shadi tells heroic stories of Arab legends like that of the Yemenite King Seif Bin Zi Yazan who could repel the Abyssinian invaders, and the story of the Hilal Dynasty which is a story of the migration of the Hilal tribe from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa. The story of Antara Bin Sahddad is an example of the romantic Arab literature of the pre Islamic period, when desert tribal ideals;bravery, devotion and sacrifice, ruled the destiny of a knight, Antara, who falls in love with his cousin ,Abla, and fights for most of his life to get married to her ,but tribal traditions deprived them that merit.. These stories represent the mythologies of Arab heritage presented in different ways. They were mostly influenced by stories of Greek mythology and that of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. To live moments of the past of the Orient you have to see Abou Shadi, the story teller of like the hundreds of Damascenes and tourists who visit al Nawfara Café especially in the nights of Ramadan.

Haifaa Mafalani