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| A 17th century miniature of Nasreddin, currently in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library. |
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| Molla Nasraddin cover (1910, #22) "Wikipedia" |
When one has heard several Nasrudin tales,
the can have a compelling effect. There is a tradition, often recorded in the
Middle East, which secks to explain this.
It is related that Nasrudin, when a boy, had the strange power of keeping his schoolfellows attention upon his stories. Their academic work suffered. The teacher, unable to prevent Nasrudins magnetism working, was himself a sage who managed to modify it. He put this spell on the young man:
From now, however wise you become, people will always laugh at you. From now, whenever one Nasrudin tale is told, people will feel compelled to tell them until at least seven have been recited.
It is quite curious how some people who are not immediately attracted to the Mulla can become addicts. The United States, the Soviet Union and Communist China are at this moment equally involved with Nasrudin, if with nothing else. The Coral Gables High-Energy Physics Conference report uses Mulla tales to illustrate scientific phenomena which cannot be put in the limitations of ordinary technical terms. In Soviet Central Asia a new Nasrudin film is in active production, as a cultural undertaking. Peking has published, in English as well as in Chinese, a folklore book containing stories about –Mulla Nasrudin.
Consistently with the Mullas history, the widespread welcome of our version of The Exploits found a dissenter in –Punch. But if this could have been predicted from the Mullas teachings, he would himself perhaps have been more diverted by the reaction of the academic experts. In Britain, orientalists have been saying that Nasrudin is not a Sufi teaching-figure. In Beirut and Karachi, the specialist, opinion to the contrary seems equally strong.
All this, of course, only serves to show that our Mulla does not fit into the current categories-and that there is nevertheless still a place for him.
According to the Sayings of Mulla Nasrudin:
Enjoy yourself, or try to learn-you will annoy someone. If you do not-you will annoy someone.
The Reason
It is related that Nasrudin, when a boy, had the strange power of keeping his schoolfellows attention upon his stories. Their academic work suffered. The teacher, unable to prevent Nasrudins magnetism working, was himself a sage who managed to modify it. He put this spell on the young man:
From now, however wise you become, people will always laugh at you. From now, whenever one Nasrudin tale is told, people will feel compelled to tell them until at least seven have been recited.
It is quite curious how some people who are not immediately attracted to the Mulla can become addicts. The United States, the Soviet Union and Communist China are at this moment equally involved with Nasrudin, if with nothing else. The Coral Gables High-Energy Physics Conference report uses Mulla tales to illustrate scientific phenomena which cannot be put in the limitations of ordinary technical terms. In Soviet Central Asia a new Nasrudin film is in active production, as a cultural undertaking. Peking has published, in English as well as in Chinese, a folklore book containing stories about –Mulla Nasrudin.
Consistently with the Mullas history, the widespread welcome of our version of The Exploits found a dissenter in –Punch. But if this could have been predicted from the Mullas teachings, he would himself perhaps have been more diverted by the reaction of the academic experts. In Britain, orientalists have been saying that Nasrudin is not a Sufi teaching-figure. In Beirut and Karachi, the specialist, opinion to the contrary seems equally strong.
All this, of course, only serves to show that our Mulla does not fit into the current categories-and that there is nevertheless still a place for him.
According to the Sayings of Mulla Nasrudin:
Enjoy yourself, or try to learn-you will annoy someone. If you do not-you will annoy someone.
The Reason
The Mulla went to see a rich man.
Give me some money;
Why?
I went to buy…an elephant;
If you have no money, you can’t afford to keep an elephant;
I came here, said Nasrudin, to get money, not advice;
Eating his money
Mulla Nasrudin, as everyone knows, comes from a country where fruit is fruit, and meat is meat, and curry is never eaten.
One day he was plodding along a dusty Indian read, having newly descended from the high mountains of Kafiristan, when a great thirst overtook him. “Soon”, he said to himself; I must come across somewhere that good fruit is to be had;
No sooner were the words formed in his brain than he rounded a corner and saw sitting in the shade of a tree a benevolent-looking man, with a basket in front of him.
Piled high in the basket were huge, shiny red fruits. This is what I need; said Nasrudin. Taking two tiny coppers from the knot at the end of his turban, he handed them to the fruit-seller.
Without a word the man handed him the whole basket, for this kind of fruit is cheap in India, and people usually buy it in smaller amounts.
Nasrudin sat down in the place vacated by the fruiterer, and started to munch the fruits. Within a few seconds, his mouth was burning. Tears streamed down his cheeks, fire was in his throat.
The Mulla went on eating.
An hour or two passed, and then an Afghan Hillman came past.
Nasrudin hailed him. “Brother” these infidel fruits must come from the very mouth of Sheitan!
Fool! Said the Hillman. “Hast thou never heard of the chill’s of Hindustan? Stop eating them at once or death will surely claim a victim before the sun is down.”
I cannot move from here, gasped the Mulla, until I have finished the whole basketful.
Madman! Those fruits belong in curry! Throw them away at once.
I am not eating fruit any more, croaked Nasrudin, I am eating my money.
Fixed ideas
Give me some money;
Why?
I went to buy…an elephant;
If you have no money, you can’t afford to keep an elephant;
I came here, said Nasrudin, to get money, not advice;
Eating his money
Mulla Nasrudin, as everyone knows, comes from a country where fruit is fruit, and meat is meat, and curry is never eaten.
One day he was plodding along a dusty Indian read, having newly descended from the high mountains of Kafiristan, when a great thirst overtook him. “Soon”, he said to himself; I must come across somewhere that good fruit is to be had;
No sooner were the words formed in his brain than he rounded a corner and saw sitting in the shade of a tree a benevolent-looking man, with a basket in front of him.
Piled high in the basket were huge, shiny red fruits. This is what I need; said Nasrudin. Taking two tiny coppers from the knot at the end of his turban, he handed them to the fruit-seller.
Without a word the man handed him the whole basket, for this kind of fruit is cheap in India, and people usually buy it in smaller amounts.
Nasrudin sat down in the place vacated by the fruiterer, and started to munch the fruits. Within a few seconds, his mouth was burning. Tears streamed down his cheeks, fire was in his throat.
The Mulla went on eating.
An hour or two passed, and then an Afghan Hillman came past.
Nasrudin hailed him. “Brother” these infidel fruits must come from the very mouth of Sheitan!
Fool! Said the Hillman. “Hast thou never heard of the chill’s of Hindustan? Stop eating them at once or death will surely claim a victim before the sun is down.”
I cannot move from here, gasped the Mulla, until I have finished the whole basketful.
Madman! Those fruits belong in curry! Throw them away at once.
I am not eating fruit any more, croaked Nasrudin, I am eating my money.
Fixed ideas
How old are you, Mulla?
Forty,
But you said the same last time I asked you, two years ago!
Yes, I always stand by what I have said.
More useful
Nasrodin entered the teahouse and declaimed:
The Moon is more useful than the Sun;
Why, Mulla?
“We need the light more during the night than during the day”
Congratulations
“Congratulate me!” shouted Nasrudin to a neighbor. “I am a father.”
“Congratulations! Is it a boy or girl?”
“Yes! But how did you know?”
What is real evidence?
A neighbor called on Nasrudin.
“Mulla, I want to borrow your donkey.”
“I am sorry, said the Mulla, “but I have already lent it out.”
As soon as he had spoken, the donkey brayed. The sound came from Nasrudins stable.
“But Mulla, I can hear the donkey, in there!”
As he shut the door in the man’s face, Nasrudin said, with dignity: “A man who believes the word of a donkey in preference to my word does not deserve to be lent anything.”
Nobody complains…
Hamza, the homespun philosopher who peddled truisms in the teahouse, was droning on: “How strange is humanity! To think that man is never satisfied! When it is winter, it is too cold for him. In summer, he complains of the heat!”
The others present nodded their heads sagely, for they believed that by so doing they partook of the essence of this wisdom.
Nasrudin looked up from his abstraction. “Have you not noticed that nobody ever complains about the spring?
I believe you are right!
The Mulla was made a magistrate. During his first case the plaintiff argued so persuasively that he exclaimed:
“I believe that you are right!
The clerk of the Court begged him to restrain himself, for the defendant had not been heard yet.
Nasrudin was so carried away by the eloquence of the defendant that he cried ort as soon as the man had finished his evidence:
“I believe you are right!”
The clerk of the court could not allow this.
“Your honour, they cannot both be right.”
“I believe you are right!” said Nasrudin.
The high cost of learning
Nasrudin decided that he could benefit by learning something new.
He went to see a master musician. “How much do you charge to teach lute-playing?”
“Three silver pieces for the first month; after that, one silver piece am month.”
“Excellent!” said Nasrudin. “I shall begin with the second month.”
Aren’t we all?
Nasrudin was trotting his donkey in all directions one day.
Someone asked him, “Where are you going, Nasrudin?”
He said, “I am looking for my donkey!”
Good news
In the East, people who bring good news are always rewarded, and this is considered a very important custom, never broken.
One day Mulla Nasrudin, delighted at the birth of a son, arrived in the market-place and started shouting: “Gather around! Good news!”
“What is it, Mulla?”
Nasrudin waited until everyone was present, then cried:
“O, people! Make a collection for the bringer of good news, news for every single one of you! This is the news! Your Mulla has been blessed with a son!”
Incomplete
At last, after one shortcoming after another had been righted, the mason came for his money.
“It is not right yet, builder.”
“Whatever more can be done with it?”
“We still have to supply the body.”
By IDRIES SHAH / The Octagon Press London 1968
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