ABSTRACT
Stories that link Islamic teachers and puppet genres mark Southeast Asian wayang and Middle Eastern puppetry. Legends of antinomian puppeteers are paralleled in the mythos and practice of clowning in Muslim Southeast Asian, Indo-Persian, and Ottoman cultures. Roots of such stories and rules-breaking clowns find support in Sufi mystical traditions including the Malamatiyya and Qalandariyya tarikat (“path,” [religious orders]).
