Translated from the Turkish text by Henry D. Barnham, C.M.G. ; with a foreword by Sir Valentine Chirol.
London : Nisbet, 1923. 255 [1] p., [8] leaves of plates : ill.Hodja Nasreddin is a humorous witty character that goes by different names in different cultures. Iranians, Arabs and Turks still bicker about who he was and where he was from. Although he is very likely Turkic in ancestry, claims about his origin are made by many ethnic groups. Nasreddin stories are told in a wide variety of regions, especially across the Muslim world and have been translated into many languages. Popularity of his stories is such that they have traveled and settled down in places as diverse as China, Russia, Sweden, India, Malaysia, the Balkans and Portugal.What can be said is that the Hodja is a universal character on which are framed various humorous, philosophical, moral or pedagogic anecdotes. The main players of these whimsical vignettes are the Hodja, his donkey and his wife. A Hodja Nasreddin anecdote is often used to emphasize a point. Most may read a funny story. However, in the same tale, a Sufi may see multiple strands of mystic meaning and a revolutionary will see the idea of resistance to authority. Depending on the reader and the time, Nasreddin may be more of a wise man, a jester, a rebel or a philosopher.The stories of the Hodja have passed by word of mouth from generation to generation for centuries, during which they have been added to, polished or changed with the period and circumstances.
