Nasreddin

Nasreddin (, , , , ,  / : ,  / , , ) or Nasreddin Hodja or Mulla Nasruddin (1208–1284) is a person in the folklore of the Islamic world. According to many sources, he was born in 1208 in the city of Sivrihisar, Province of Eskişehir, Turkey and died in 1275 or 1284 CE in Konya under the Seljuq rule. He is seen as a hero of satirical short interesting stories and funny small stories.

He is known for his stories as a wise man with humour. Nasreddin studied from a school in Sivrihisar and after his basic education, he took up the duty of imam at a village in his hometown. After his father's death, Nasreddin became a member of a Muslim religious group that has an energetic dance as part of its worship of Mahmoud al-Hirani by going to Aq Shahir, one of the centers of Sufism in that period. Nasreddin, who took civil duties in Akşehir, died in 1284 or 1285 and was buried there.
One of his famous anecdotes
One day he sat to give religious lecture to people in a mosque. He said: O believers, do you know what I am going to tell you? They said: No! He said: As long as you do not know, what is the use of talking? He got up and left them.

Then he came back a few days later and repeated the same question to the people, and the people responded, saying: Yes, we know! He said: As long as you know, what is the use of talking? And he left the mosque.

People were confused about him, and they agreed among themselves that if he asked them the same question again, some would answer him with a "yes" and some would answer with a "no."

When he repeated the question for the third time, the people did as they had agreed, but Nasruddin again tricked them and said to them: "So, it is necessary on the one who knows, to teach the one who does not know!!"

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

1996–1997 was declared International Nasreddin Year by UNESCO.

The International Nasreddin Hodja festival is celebrated between 5 and 10 July every year in Akşehir, a district in Konya.

In 2020, an application to include "Joke-Telling tradition of Nasreddin Khoja" in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list was jointly submitted by the governments of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan.

References

Other websites

Category:1208 births
Category:1285 deaths
Category:Folklore