The paper focuses on the social debates in the Ottoman Empire of the mid-16th century regarding the role of the Turkish shadow play (Karagöz). Karagöz - the Turkish shadow play which is rightly considered to be a national and cultural asset of Turkey - presumably originated in the 16th century and reached the height of its fame and popularity in the 18th century having become a preferred kind of entertaining performance given mainly in coffeehouses, meyhanes and private homes. Since the puppets of the characters portrayed humans and cast shadows, Karagöz performances suffered criticism and disapproval on the part of Muslims. A number of requests to denounce and ban such performances were addressed to the shaykh al-Islam. On the contrary, the shaykh al-Islam Ebussuud el-İmadî supported the metaphorical approach to works of art and, therefore, issued fatwas justifying Karagöz plays. His main arguments in favor of Karagöz plays were the following: the characters represented exceptionally standardized social types, while the plays themselves were highly edifying.