Fiction. Middle-Eastern Studies. Translated from the Turkish by Henry D. Barnham. Here is a collection of 181 of the funniest and best-known Mulla Nasreddin stories. Mulla Nasreddin, as he is known in the Persian-speaking world, 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. What can be said is that Mulla is a universal character on which are framed various humorous, philosophical, moral or pedagogic anecdotes. A Mulla Nasreddin anecdote is often used to emphasize a point. Most 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.
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