NASREDDİN HOCA �(1208-1284)

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About Nasreddin Hoca

• He was born in the district of Hortu, in Sivrihisar, and died in Akşehir. His father was the village imam in Hortu, Abdullah Efendi, and his mother Sıdıka from the same village. He was first educated at the religious school in Sivrihisar, and on his father’s death returned to Hortu to take up the post of imam. In 1237, he moved to Akşehir, and attended lessons given by Seyyid Mahmud Hayrani and Seyyid Haci Ibrahim, continuing his study of Islam. According to one account, he gave lessons in the school, and served as a judge. That is how he came to be given the name Nasuriddin Hace, which then turned into the more familiar Nasreddin Hoca.

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A popular scholar, He was famously considered the foremost protagonist of comical tales with an emotional content or other message.

Definite facts about his life have become mixed up with fictitious anecdotes because of the peoples’ great affection for him, and he has even been ascribed extraordinary powers.

In all his humorous stories, Nasreddin Hoca emerges not as a concrete being, but rather as a link between a links to an event.

About His Anecdotes

• The anecdotes about him focus particularly on love, satire, praise and gentle mockery. He preferred to oppose the stricter elements of Islamic law with laughter, even self-mockery, and a desire to avoid using harsh words. His words are a contradictory combination of the wise, ignorant, cunning, harmonious, insensitive, bashful, surprised, timorous and dashing.
• One particular feature of anecdotes concerning him is his delight in perplexing others. These reflect the attitude of the people of Anatolia to particular situations, and are actually the products of their thoughts. Nasreddin Hoca therefore emerges as a focus of humorous stories that reflect the feelings of the people.

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Another important element in Nasreddin Hoca stories is the donkey. It is impossible to imagine Nasreddin Hoca without his donkey, which is itself a vehicle of satire. The donkey, with its suffering and pain, the blows that are inflicted on it, is the most widespread symbol.

His anecdotes which are verbally transmitted at everywhere where Turkish is spoken is popular among all classes and levels of people. They also were transmitted to the everyday language of countries which are neighbors of Turkey.

THAT’S DIFFERENT

A man came to Nasreddin Hoca when he was serving as governor.

‘I want to ask you something,’ he said.

‘Go ahead,’ Nasreddin Hoca replied.

‘The other day, a cow that your neighbours said belonged to you kiled one of my cows. What should I do?’

Nasreddin Hoca pulled at his beard and thought for a bit. ‘You’re not going to bring charges against the animal, are you? And it’s not his owner’s fault. There is no way he could have known what was going to happen.

The man smiled, and replied. ‘Excuse me, I made a mistake. It was not my cow that died, but yours.’

Nasreddin Hoca jumped up. ‘That’s different,’ he said. ‘In that case, hand me down that legal book and let’s have a look!’

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WHERE IS THE CAT?

One day Nasreddin brings home three paunds of meet, expecting his wife to cook it for dinner.

At dinner-time, Nasreddin finds no meat on the table. He asks his wife,

‘What happened to the meat?’

His wife replies, ‘The cat ate it.’

Nasreddin breezes into the kitchen, puts the cat on the scales, and discovers the cat to be weighing three pounds. Nasreddin quizziaclly questions the result,

‘If the meat I brought home weighed three pounds, then, where is the cat? And, if this happens to be the cat, then what happened to the meat?’

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