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The Arab Other in Turkish Political Cartoons, 1908—1939
present and also in those illustrations in which the cartoonist employed images that
provide the viewer with a glimpse of the unpleasant past. In cartoons that include
historical imagery, whether as a reference in a current event’s depiction or as full
portrayal of a historical event, all three sorts of images work in concert to orches¬
trate the audience's perception of and reaction to the Arab stereotype.
Arab characters in their capacity as the Other were present in Ottoman visual
rhetoric. The 400-year-old Karagéz shadow plays demonstrated the multi-ethnic
makeup of the Ottoman Empire. Exhibiting powerful images set against assumed
and often stereotypical backgrounds, Karagéz figures constituted probably the first
visual illustrations of the various archetypes within the Ottoman public. Employ¬
ing a wide range of characters, Karagéz was an artistic space in which contradic¬
tions, differences, and relations typical of an extremely diverse society found vivid
expression (And 1975: 51). Arab characters were among these characters. Their
cartoon representations and the humour they contained served as perception
builders for their audience. The attributes and qualities of these characters, which
were used repeatedly in Karagéz plays, created a set of almost standard generaliza¬
tions about the ethnic traits of Arabs. Ethnic stereotypes were fixed firmly through
this popular artistic genre.
In the prerepublican Ottoman imagination, there were two distinct charac¬
ters referred to as Arabs. One was the ak Arap (“white” Arab’) and the other was
the kara Arap (“black” Arab’) or simply zenci (Figs 2 and 3). They represented
two different stereotypes that were almost opposed to each other. One was pale
skinned, long-nosed, smart but cunning, wily, and untrustworthy; the other was
dark skinned, curly haired, loyal, and honest but sometimes stupid. While the
ak Arab represented merchants or beggars with heavy accents, the darker-skinned
counterpart, the kara Arab, was often a representation of local household slaves and
servants (Fig. 4). These two stereotypes of Arabs in Karagéz plays not only contrib¬
uted to the newly developing cartoon industry in the Ottoman print by providing
typecasts, but also established the basis for building another Other constructed
through ridicule in contrast to the emerging image of the Turk.
With the arrival of print media in the late nineteenth century in the Ottoman
capital, Karagôz characters were adapted for the page. They became instrumental
in the context of the passage into modernity. Echoing European Orientalist prac¬
tices, Ottoman caricaturists imagined the modern “self” by contrasting it with an
assumed backwardness within their realm. They associated the notion of “premod¬
ern” or “backward” with the Arab provinces of the empire, which signified the
ultimate backwardness.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, nationalism was a fuzzy concept,
meaning quite different things for different groups and individuals in the empire.
As yet lacking clear definitions of nation and homeland, cartoonists found them¬
selves in a quandary: how to portray those who were outsiders and insiders at
the same time—part of the empire but not quite part of the nation. Cartoons in
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