Author(s): UPTON/ALI

Sufism

Mulla Nasrudin, called Hodja Nasrudin in India and Turkey, is the major comic figure in Islamic folklore. Both 'mulla' and 'hodja' mean master, with the connotation teacher; Nasrudin, if he ever existed, was an educated man. The tales of Nasrudin were never told by any great Sufi masters, but somehow the common man began to identify with him. And as various modern writers have pointed out, the tales contain both spiritual symbolism and the sort of paradoxical narrative that can break down our habitual view of reality (rather like the Zen koan) and re-form it on a higher level. This work is aimed at using a collection of what superficially can be considered jokes for education and development of insight, and at the same time bringing two vastly different Eastern and Western cultures to a better mutual understanding.