Meddah is a term used to describe a traditional Turkish story teller, who would perform in front of an audience of about ten people, such as the audience of a coffeehouse. In the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 16th century, this kind of performance became especially popular. It was common for the play to be focused on a single topic, with the actor playing different characters, and the play was usually introduced by emphasizing the moral of the story. As a meddah, the meddah used props such as umbrellas, handkerchiefs, and various headware to signal a change of character, as well as being skilled at manipulating his voice and imitating different dialects.
A Turkish theatre form called meddahlik is a form of storytelling performed by a single storyteller, called a meddah, throughout Turkey and the Turkishspeaking countries. Due to the interaction between the peoples of Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East within the context of this wide geographic area, similar narrative genres have flourished through the ages.
In the past, meddahs were expected to enlighten, educate, and entertain the audience. This group of storytellers guided a predominantly illiterate population through a diverse range of activities such as performance in caravanserais, markets, coffee houses, mosques and churches. In their social and political criticism, they regularly provoked lively discussions about contemporary issues. There is a term called meddah, which comes from the Arabic word maddah, which means "to praise", or "storyteller". A meddah selects songs and comic tales from a repertory of popular romances, legends, fables, and epics and adapts them to the specific venue and audience according to the needs. The quality of the storytelling performance relies in large part on the atmosphere created between the storyteller and the audience as well as on the storyteller's ability to incorporate imitations, jokes, and improvisations, often related to current events. In Turkey, this art is highly regarded because it places a great deal of value on a mastery of rhetoric.
Despite the fact that many meddahs are still performing in religious and secular celebrations and appearing on television, they have lost much of their original educational and social function. This loss is due mainly to the development of the mass media, but also to the appearance of TVs in cafes, which have played a significant role in this development.
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meddah https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arts-of-the-meddah-public-storytellers-00037