Nasiruddin Hojja in retrospect

Nasruddin K Hodja was a philosopher, wise, witty man with a good sense of humour.His stories have been told almost everywhere in the world.Nasiruddin Hojja also known as Mullah Nasiruddin Hojja (1208-1285) was a Central Asian hero of humorous short stories and satirical anecdotes.His tomb is in the city of Aksehir, Turkey.

Known for subtle humour, Nasruddin was a philosopher, wise, witty man. His stories have been told almost everywhere in the world.
 
In 2020, an application was presented jointly by the governments of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan to include "Telling tradition of Nasiruddin Hojja in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.*

The Arabic version of the character is known as "Juha".The oldest manuscript of Nasiruddin Hojja dates to 1571.Today, Nasreddin stories are told across the world in many languages.

Some regions independently developed a character similar to Nasiruddin Hojja and the stories have become part of a larger whole.Nasiruddin Hojja's stories fit almost any occasion.

He often appears as a whimsical character in Turkish, Persian, Adyghe, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Greek, Gujrati, Hindi, Juedeo-Spanish, Kurdish , Romanian, Serbian, Russian, Ubykh and Urdu languages.1996-1997 was declared International Nasiruddin Hojja Year by UNESCO.In Sicily and Southern Italy he is known as "Giufa", derived from the Arabic character Juha.

In China, he is known by the various transliteration from his Uyghur name, Afanti and Afangti. The Uyghurs believe that he was from Xinjiang, while the Uzbeks believe he was from Bukhara. Shanghai Animation Film Studio produced a 13-episode Nasiruddin related animation called The Story of Afanti' in 1979, which became one of the most influential animations in China's history.

In Central Asia, he is commonly known as "Afandi".Afandi or Afanti originates from "Efendi" - Turkish for "Sir".Nasirddin stories have touched cultures around the world. They are told in the teahouses and caravanserais of Asia and in homes and on the radio.

'MollaNasiruddinerGolpo' (MollaNasiruddin's stories) by Satyajit Ray is popular among not only children but also people of different age groups. A neighbour came to the gate of Hojja Nasiuddin's yard. Nasiruddin went to meet him outside.

"Would you mind, Hojja," the neighbour asked, "can you lend me your donkey today? I have some goods to transport to the next town."

The Hojja didn't feel inclined to lend out the animal to that particular man, however. So, not to seem rude, he answered:"I'm sorry, but I've already lent him to somebody else."

All of a sudden the donkey could be heard braying loudly behind the wall of the yard.

"But Hojja," the neighbour exclaimed. "I can hear it behind that wall!""Whom do you believe," Hojja replied indignantly, "the donkey or your Hojja?"

Some children saw Nasiruddin coming from the vineyard with two baskets full of grapes loaded on his donkey. They gathered around him and asked him to give them a taste.Nasiuddin picked up a bunch of grapes and gave each child a grape.

"You have so much, but you gave us so little," the children whined.

"There is no difference whether you have a basketful or a small piece. They all taste the same," Nasiruddin answered, and continued on his way.

Mullah had lost his ring in the living room. He searched for it for a while, but since he could not find it, he went out into the yard and began to look there. His wife, who saw what he was doing, asked: "Mullah, you lost your ring in the room, why are you looking for it in the yard?" Mullah stroked his beard and said: "The room is too dark and I can't see very well. I came out to the courtyard to look for my ring because there is much more light out here".

Uzbeks consider Nasiruddin an Uzbek who was bom and lived in Bukhara, and stories about him are called latifa or afandi. There are at least two collections of Uzbek stories related to NasriuddinAfandi:

Nasreddin was the main character in a magazine, called simply Molla Nasiruddin, published in Azerbaijan and "read across the world from Morocco to Iran". The eight-page Azerbaijani Satirical periodical was published in Tiflis from 1906 to 1917, Tabriz in 1921 and Baku from 1922 to 1931 in the Azeri and occasionally Russian languages. Founded by Jalil, it depicted inequality, cultural assimilation, and corroptrion and ridiculed the backward lifestyles and values of clergy and religious fanatics. The magazine was frequently banned but had a lasting influence on Azerbaijani and Iranian literature.

He is known as Mullah Nasiruddin in South Asian children's books. A TV serial on him was aired in India as Mulla Nasiruddin and was widely watched in India and Pakistan.

Some Nasiruddin tales also appear in collections of Aesop's fables, The Miller, his son and donkey. Others are "The Ass with a Burden of Salt" and "The Satyr and the Traveller."

In some Bulgarian folk tales that originated during the Ottoman period, the name appears as an antagonist to a local wise man, named Sly Peter. In Sicily the same tales involve a man named Giufa. In Sephardic culture, spread throughout the Ottoman Empire, a character that appears in many folk tales is named Djoha.

In Romanian, the existing stories come from an 1853 verse compilation edited by Anton Pann, a philologist and poet renowned for authoring the current Romanian anthem.

Nasiruddin is mostly known as a character from short tales.In Russia, Nasirueddin is known mostly because of the Russian work by Leonid Solovyyov English translations.

The composer Shostakovich celebrated Nasiruddin, in the second movement (Yumor, "Humor") of his Symphony No. 13.

The Graeco-Armenian mystic G I Gurdjieff often referred to "our own dear Mullah Nasr Eddin", calls him an "incomparable teacher", particularly in his book Beelzebub's.

Sufi philosopher Idries Shah published several collections of Nasiruddin stories in English.

In 1943, the Soviet film Nasreddin in Bukhara was directed by YakovProtazanov based on Solovyov's book, followed in 1947 by a film called The Adventures of Nasreddin, directed by NabiGaniyev and also set in Uzbekistan.

In 1964, Richard Williams, a Canadian-British animator, began work on Nasrudin, an animated film based on the character. The film was produced with the help of Idries Shah, for whom Williams had illustrated books about the character.
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