The Immortal Mullah Nasruddin Turns 800

THE IMMORTAL MULLAH NASRUDDIN TURNS 800
by Ron Jackson Suresha

from Hearsay, the Connecticut Storytelling Center newsletter, Winter 2009

Mullah Nasruddin on his donkeyWhen the wise old fool Mullah Nasruddin was a child, he had the habit of distracting his classmates with antics, jokes, and stories, much to the dismay of his teacher. Once, when the young Nasruddin was being particularly troublesome, his irate teacher uttered a curse: “Wherever you go, people will laugh at you.”

Now, eight centuries later, people everywhere are still laughing at Nasruddin, one of the world’s most beloved folk characters. Mullah (teacher, learned man) Nasruddin (“MULL-ah nas-rrh-DEEN”), whose hundreds of tales, anecdotes, and jokes are often told in the tradition of wisdom stories, may or may not be an actual historical figure born in the town of Ak-sehir, Turkey, but some sources allege Nasruddin’s birth year as 1208, which would make 2008 his 800th birthday.

Regardless of origin, Nasruddin is known throughout the Middle East, indeed throughout the world, as a comic figure of endless exploits and a sage fool who always has some pearl of wisdom to teach everyone — even if the lesson is not to act like Nasruddin.

While many countries lay claim to Nasruddin, few go as far as the city of Ak-sehir in south-central Turkey, which boasts his gravesite and holds an annual Nasruddin festival in July, where folks dress in costumes and reenact the many exploits of the character. This year the town plans a Nasruddin symposium and many other events to celebrate his 800th birthday.

The oldest Nasruddin manuscript dates from 1571 CE. While Nasruddin is known mostly as a character through pithy anecdotes, whole novels and stories have been written about him, and an animated feature film in Turkish was almost made. In the 1980s, Sufi writer, Idries Shah, published three collections of Nasruddin stories by Octagon Press (now out of print), which have proved the most popular English-language editions.

The themes in Nasruddin anecdotes are woven into the oral tradition and folklore of a number of nations and express the national imaginations of a variety of cultures. While there are dozens of published collections of the many jokes attributed to him, today most people encounter his tales in the context of their daily lives. In many regions across the Far and Middle East and the Turkish diaspora, the tales of Nasruddin are told and retold endlessly in the teahouses and caravanserais, can be heard in every home and on the radio, and are still quoted or alluded to frequently in daily conversation, whenever a quick injection of humor and/or wisdom is necessary.

In Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel of modern Afghani life, The Kite Runner, we find two allusions to Nasruddin. “There wasn’t an Afghan in the world who didn’t know a few jokes about the bumbling mullah,” the main character observes. Then a tale is told:

Did you hear about the time the Mullah had placed a heavy bag on his shoulders and was riding his donkey? Someone on the street said, “Why don’t you put the bag on the donkey?” And he said, “That would be cruel, I’m heavy enough already for the poor thing.”

Although most Nasruddin stories depict an early small-village setting, the tales (like Aesop’s Fables) deal with timeless concepts of the human condition. They purvey a pithy folk wisdom that triumphs over all trials and tribulations. The anecdotes attributed to Nasruddin reveal a satirical personality with a sharp tongue that spared no one, not even the most tyrannical Sultan of his time. He is the symbol of Middle-Eastern satirical comedy and the rebellious feelings of people against the dynasties that once ruled that part of the world.

Superficially, many Nasruddin tales are presented as jokes or humorous anecdotes told by one party when another party makes the kind of boneheaded error that Nasruddin parodies. Inherent in a Nasruddin story, however, is its purpose of pointing out the way not to act, the way not to think and behave and treat others. Its moral, played out in literary form, could be portrayed as a man riding his little gray donkey only facing his donkey’s rear end, literally ass-backwards. One should, of course, know better than to ride backwards, or to do the many foolish things that Nasruddin does, but in real life often one does not always “know better.”

While it is true that most people who tell Nasruddin stories in bazaars and around dinner tables use them for the pleasure of an enjoyable tale, many Nasruddin jokes and anecdotes are also used as teaching stories in the Sufi, Hindu, Buddhist and other Eastern and Western mystic traditions. Often the humor of a Nasruddin tale contains a paradox or conundrum whose illogic occupies the rational mind with its surface meaning while more spiritual concepts – the intuitive, gestalt mentality that the mystic is attempting to engage – are awakened in the subconscious. Contemplation of the enigma propels the consciousness of the student, and the mystic, a little further along the long, dusty road to spiritual realization. And by opening the listener’s heart with laughter, the tales create a space for a wise thought to enter.

Because of his teacher’s “curse,” tradition dictates that at least seven Nasruddin tales be told at one sitting so that his humor can infect one properly, thus allowing the listeners enough time to relax and see the humor even in an otherwise extremely stressful situation. Thus paradox, unexpectedness, and unconventional wisdom are all expressed in the irrepressible humor and inspirational humanity of the immortal Mullah Nasruddin, who at the venerable age of 800, proves himself a timeless literary character.

Ron Suresha, author or editor of seven books, is a new member of the CSC, and lives in New London. www.suresha.com