ABSTRACT
The traditional space most commonly called al-ḥalqa الحلقة (the circle) is as central to Arab performance traditions as the storyteller themself and is similarly layered with cultural echoes and references. Al-Ḥalqa is a term used both for the performance space created when audiences cluster in a circle around a performer(s) (al-ḥlāyqiyya/al-ḥlāyqī الحلايقي/الحلايقية) and also for the performance created there. It is the most overtly theatrical amongst artistic spaces in traditional marketplaces and fairs all over the Arab world, as well as in other public spheres such as the gates of ancient medinas. As a site of community’s carnivalistic mood and performative agency, al-ḥalqa hovers between the so-called high culture and low or mass culture, sacred and profane, literacy and orality. Its varied repertoire combines fantastical, mythical and historical narratives from Alf Layla wa Layla ألف ليلة وليلة, known in English as the Arabian Nights or One Thousand and One Nights, and Sīrat Banī Hilāl سيرة بني هلال, stories from the Holy Qurʾān القرآن الكريم (Quran, also transliterated as Qur’an or Koran) and the as-Sunna an-Nabawiyya السنة النبوية (Sunna) of the prophet Muḥammad النبي محمد and witty folktales. The techniques employed in al-ḥalqa also vary: from storytelling to acrobatic dancing, snake charming, fortune-telling, boxing, herbal vending, healing and singing in different languages. Al-Ḥalqa still remains today the most significant cadre for performance styles throughout the Arab world; an array of other artistic practices is in fact framed within the framework of al-ḥalqa. In the Middle Eastern parts of the Arab world, the storyteller, generally known as →al-ḥakawātī الحكواتي, may perform in both circular and semicircular arrangements in open public places and coffeehouses, while the Maghreb ḥalqa is almost invariably a floating ring.
