The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, and the Japan Office of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies are pleased to co-host Tobunken Symposium: “Actors/Performers, Audience, and Narrative Strategies in Naqqāli: New Approaches,” an online workshop on naqqāli that gathers together three papers by young naqqāli scholars across the globe. This workshop explores the vast, almost uncharted terrain of naqqāli, Persian professional storytelling in terms of performance, audience, and narrative. It also offers a Shāhnāma-khvāni performance by Mohammadali Mirzaee Jadideslam who is a naqqāl.
Pre-registration is required for the participation.

Date and Time: Thursday, November 27, 2025, 15:00 (JST)

Venue: Online via Zoom

Language: English

Pre-registration: Please complete the registration form at <https://forms.gle/YFENy7uJwiqWMix67>  by November 24, 24:00 (JST). A Zoom link will be sent to all registrants by the end of the following day.

Co-organized by: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo (Tobunken Symposium); Japan Office, Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS Virtual Event Series XV).

Contact: Naoki Nishiyama (nishiyama@ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp)

Program

Chair: Kazuo Morimoto (IASA, UTokyo; ASPS Japan Office)

Abstracts:
Mohammdali Mirzaee Jadideslam, “Naqqāli, Narrating or Acting?”
Bahram Beyzaei identifies the naqqāl as an actor who embodies every character of a story alone. In line with Eric Bentley’s definition of theatre—“A impersonates B while C looks on”—naqqāli itself can be considered theatre, and the naqqāl’s performance, a form of acting. Still, a fundamental question emerges: can the naqqāl’s actions be aligned with principles established by major theatre figures such as Stanislavski, Michael Chekhov, or Grotowski? And if alignment exists, does this justify calling the practice “acting”? To answer, a precise analysis is necessary. First, naqqāli must be examined in its earlier form, when it was closer to the act of narrating. Second, recent elements—innovations within the tradition—must be identified in order to trace their sources, evaluate their impact, and measure their integration. Only then can one assess whether this transformed version of naqqāli has merged with theatrical models, or instead taken an alternative path requiring a new classification.
In 20th-century Iran, Western theatre significantly influenced naqqāli. These influences shaped performance length, rhythm, suspense, vocal expression, and character building. Singing, costume design, and modern literature also contributed to its development. This study therefore positions naqqāli between narrating and acting, aiming to define the skills essential for the naqqāli.

Sara Mashayekh, “Audience, Performer, Venue: The Role of Spectators and the Space in Shaping Naqqāli Performances”
The relationship between the performer and the audience of a performance has long been the subject of scholarly discussions. However, the nature of the group we call “the audience” changes dramatically depending on time, place and the style of performance; naqqāli is no exception. This paper explores the nature of the relationship between the spectators of a naqqāli performance and the naqqāl who is telling the tale, as well as the influential role that the venue plays in shaping this relationship. By looking at the text of tumārs that have been left to us, as well as firsthand observations from those who have witnessed live naqqāli performances, this paper is attempting to make a series of inquiries into the power dynamic between the performers and their spectators, the level of audience’s involvement in altering the story being narrated, as well as the effect of the coffeehouse in shaping the performance.

Radman Rasooli Mehrabani “Negotiating Myth and Reality: Naqqāls’ Strategies for Constructing Narrative Credibility”
Naqqāli, a vibrant and influential performance tradition during the Safavid period, gradually declined from the late Qajar era, and its stories came under increasing criticism in the modern period, especially during the Pahlavi era. In response to these critiques, storytellers (naqqāls) sought to defend their art and enhance its credibility. To counter this, naqqāls sometimes reduced the hyperbolic elements of the stories to render the narratives more “realistic” and believable. Their responses were sometimes expressed explicitly—through interpreting and explaining the stories and by emphasizing that Ferdowsi’s poetry embodied wisdom, reason, and intellect—and at other times implicitly, through modifications within the narratives themselves. Another strategy was the modernization of the stories. Modernization not only made the tales more engaging for contemporary audiences but also functioned as a means of granting credibility. For instance, one storyteller narrated the revolt of Kāveh against Ẓaḥḥāk in a manner resembling modern political revolutions, while another claimed that the American story of Tarzan had been stolen from the tale of Goudarz’s son, yielding millions of dollars in profit abroad. A further strategy was the historicization of the Shahnameh: naqqāls sometimes turned to historical works to compare competing versions and occasionally to critique Ferdowsi’s account. One of them even claimed to be narrating the “real” history. Finally, embedding moral lessons and ethical reflections into the narratives was another strategy, widely regarded as one of the enduring values of the naqqāli tradition.

Bios:
Sara Mashayekh
A PhD candidate in the department of Theater and Dance in the University of California, Santa Barbara where she is writing a dissertation about the performative aspect of naqqāli. She is interested in the practice of naqqāli during its formative years, the Safavid Period. She has previously earned an MA in history from University of California, Irvine, and a second MA from Central School of Speech and Drama in Advanced Theater Practice. She has also translated several books from English to Persian including, “Defenders and Enemies of the True Cross” (Yuri Stoyanov) and “King of the Seven Climes” (Touraj Daryaee)

Radman Rasooli Mehrabani
Received his PhD in Persian Language and Literature from the University of Tehran. He has published several works on the Shahnameh’s oral traditions and their contemporary transformations, the reception of the Shahnameh in the Persianate world, Persianate literary and cultural movements in the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate, and literary connections across Persian, Arabic, and Turkish contexts. He also practices and performs naqqāli and shāhnāma-khvāni in both traditional settings and on social platforms.

Mohammdali Mirzaee Jadideslam
Born in 1991, Iran, Mohammadali started his theatrical career in 2008 as an actor and director. In 2011, he began training in naqqāli. Since 2017, he has been secretary of Mehr-e Shahnameh, a Shahnameh study association. He studied Ancient Iranian Culture and Languages at the University of Tehran, and at the University of Bologna (2020), and since 2022, has been pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Hamburg. His naqqāli repertoire includes Haftkhan-e Rostam, Akvan-e Div, Rostam va Sohrab, Rostam va Esfandiyar, and Sohrab va Gordafarid, performed in both Iran and Germany.

Kumiko Yamamoto
Yamamoto received her PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (2000). She authored the Oral Background of Persian Epics: Storytelling and Poetry (Brill, 2003), which has been translated into Persian. She has written extensively on naqqāli, contributing to Encyclopaedia Iranica Online (naqqāli), A History of Persian Literature (Companion Volume II), Shahnama Studies (III), etc.