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Molla Nasr al-Din in Persia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ulrich Marzolph
Ulrich Marzolph*
Affiliation:
Enzyklopädie des Märchens, Göttingen
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Extract

In 1911, The CZECH Folklorist Albert Wesselski Published His Two volume compilation Der Hodscha Nasreddin, still considered one of the most comprehensive and reliable collections of anecdotes on Khwaja Nasr al-Din (Turkish: Nasreddin Hoca), the most widely known protagonist of humorous prose narrative in the Near East. Wesselski chose to subtitle his work “Turkish, Arabic, Berber, Maltese, Sicilian, Calabrian, Croatian, Serbian and Greek tales and anecdotes,” thus indicating the main geographical region in which tales on Nasr al-Din are in circulation. On the other hand, the geographical outline does not suggest a lack of awareness on Wesselski's part of the fact that the Mediterranean cannot be said to monopolize the famous jester. Being familiar with problems touching on the dissemination and spread of popular tales and their protagonists, Wesselski consciously profited from a large number of publications accessible to him in various European languages.

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Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 3-4 , Summer Fall 1995 , pp. 157 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1995

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Footnotes

*

This is a revised and considerably enlarged version of a paper originally presented at the First International Hoca Nasreddin Conference in Ankara in 1989 and published in the proceedings, I. Milletlerarast Nasrettin Hoca Sempozyumu Bildirileri (Ankara, 1990), 239–47. I would like to thank Abbas Amanat for his valuable comments and suggestions in the preparation of the revised version.

References

1. Wesselski, Albert, Der Hodscha Nasreddin (Weimar: Duncker, 1911)Google Scholar contains 555 items, including several anecdotes not belonging to the Nasr al-Din stock. Recent comprehensive collections include Kharitonov, M. S., Dvattsat’ chetyre Nasreddina (Moscow: Nauka, 1986)Google Scholar, containing 1238 items. Nasreddin Hodscha (Munich: Beck, forthcoming in 1996), compiled by the present author, contains 666 items presented as a critical edition in a combined chronological-geographical survey encompassing written and oral traditions from more than 25 different indigenous tradition areas.

2. The present study focuses on Persian-language compilations in Iran. For literary and oral tradition in other Iranian languages or other languages of the sphere of Iranian cultural influence s.v. Enzyklopädie des Märchens (Berlin-New York: De Gruyter, 1975- ): “Hodscha Nasreddin” (Ulrich Marzolph and Ingeborg Baldauf), hereafter EM. A large corpus of Molla Nasr al-Din texts in the Mandaean language was recently published in Macuch, Rudolf (ed.), Neuaramdische Texte im Dialekt von Ahwāz (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993), 330–59Google Scholar.

3. See especially the numerous publications on “popular” narrative literature by Mohammad Ja'far Mahjub and the critique as summarized in Marzolph, Ulrich, Dāstānhāye šīrīn, Fünfzig persische Volksbüchlein aus der zweiten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1994), 6–11Google Scholar.

4. Katirai, M., “Mollā Naṣr al-Dīn va taḥqīqī dar bāra-ye shakhṣīyat va khoṣūṣīyat-e u,” Khūsha 10, no. 14 (1343 Sh./1964): 16–17Google Scholar, cited in Fehrest-e mdjallāt-e mardomshenāsī 1, no. 2003 (Tehran, 2536 Imp./1977); Mahjubi, Manuchehr, “Janāb-e Mollā Naṣr al-Dīn, to ahl-e kojā hastī?” Sepīd va sīyāh 17, no. 42 (1349 Sh.?/1970?)Google Scholar, cited in Nurbakhsh, Hosayn, Dalqakhā-ye mashhūr-e darbārī (Tehran, 4th impr., 1371 Sh./1992), 276Google Scholar, note 4. The two short essays are not indexed in Afshar, Iraj, Fehrest-e maqālāt-e Fārsī dar zamīna-ye taḥqīqāt-e Īrānī 2 (Tehran, 1348 Sh./1969), 3Google Scholar (Tehran, 2535 Imp./1976). Neither was available to the present author, nor was the edition of Molla Nasr al-Din stories in the Ketāb-e tawfīq series, containing a critical introduction by Mohammad Ja'far Mahjub (personal communication from Mahjub, who did not recollect the booklet's exact date of publication, probably 1968–71).

5. Christensen, Arthur, “Júhí in the Persian Literature,” A Volume of Oriental Studies, Festschrift Edward Granville Browne (Cambridge, 1922), 129–36Google Scholar; idem, “Les sots dans la tradition populaire des Persans,” Acta Orientalia 1 (1923): 43–75; idem, “Les facéties de ‘Ubaïd-i-Zākānī,” Acta Orientalia 3 (1924): 1–37.

6. Horn, Paul, “Zu Hodża Nasreddins Schwänken,” Keleti Szemle 1 (1900): 66–72Google Scholar.

7. Wesselski, Der Hodscha Nasreddin 1 (nos 207, 210, 214, 235, 244, 248) and 2 (nos 185, 217), esp. 1:246, no. 160.

8. Cf. Marzolph, Ulrich, “Zur Überlieferung der Nasreddin Hoca-Schwänke auβerhalb des türkischen Sprachraumes,” in Baldauf, Ingeborg, Kreiser, Klaus and Tezcan, Semih, eds., Türkische Sprachen und Kulturen. Materialien der 1. Deutschen Turkologen-Konferenz (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1991), 275–85Google Scholar.

9. See, for example, Scott, Jonathan, Tales, Anecdotes and Letters (Shrewsbury, 1800), 308–313Google Scholar.

10. Basset, René, Les fourberies de Si Djeh'a (Paris, 1892)Google Scholar.

11. Christensen, “Júhí in the Persian Literature,” 131.

12. ‘Abd al-Wahhab ‘Azzam, “Juḥā fi'1-adab al-Fārisī,” al-Risāla 1, no. 20.

13. ‘AH Akbar Dehkhoda, Loghatnāma 16:233–34; idem, Amṣāl va ḥekam, 4 vols. (Tehran 1352 Sh./1973), see under “Joḥi” and “Naṣr al-Dīn.“

14. Dīvān-e Manūchehrī, ed. Mohammad Dabir-Siyaqi (Tehran, 1326 Sh./1947), 113.

15. Razavi, Mohammad Taqi Modarres, Ta'līqāt-e ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqa (Tehran, 1344 Sh./1965), 514Google Scholar.

16. See Marzolph, Ulrich, “Cuha, the Arab Nasreddin in Mediaeval Arabic Literature,” III. Milletlerarasi Türk Folklor Kongresi Bildirileri. 2: Halk Edebiyati (Ankara, 1986), 251–58Google Scholar. For analogues see idem, Arabia ridens, die humoristische Kurzprosa der frühen adab-Literatur im internationalen Traditionsgeflecht, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1992), vol. 2, no. 197.

17. For Juha as a Shi'ite traditionist s.v. Enyclopaedia of Islam2 (London-Leiden, 1960- ): “Djuḥā” (Charles Pellat).

18. For Bohlul see Marzolph, Ulrich, Der Weise Narr Buhlūl (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1983)Google Scholar; idem, “Der Weise Narr Buhlūl in den modernen Volksliteraturen der islamischen Länder,” Fabula 28 (1987): 72–89.

19. Dīvān-e Anvarī, ed. Mohammad Taqi Modarres Razavi (Tehran, 1340 Sh./1961), 572; Dīvān-e Anvarī, ed. Sa'id Nafisi (Tehran, 1337 Sh./1958), 362. See also Hosayni, Abu al-Hasan Farahani, Sharḥ-e moshkelāt-e dīvān-e Anvarī, ed. Razavi, Mohammad Taqi Modarres (Tehran, 1340 Sh./1961), 73–74Google Scholar; Shahidi, Ja'far, Sharḥ-e loghāt va moshkelāt-e dīvān-e Anvarī Abīvardī (Tehran, 1357 Sh./1978), 196–97Google Scholar.

20. Christensen, “Juhf in the Persian Literature,” 131.

21. Browne, E. G. and Qazvini, Mohammad, eds., Part 1 of the Lubábu'l-albáb of Muḥammad Awfí (London-Leiden, 1906), 55Google Scholar.

22. Cf. Thompson, Stith, Motif-Index of Folk Literature, 6 vols. (Copenhagen, 1955-58)Google Scholar, J 2483. See also Marzolph, Ulrich, “Das Haus ohne Essen und Trinken. Arabische und persische Belege zu Mot. J 2483,” Fabula 24 (1983): 215–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. Cf. Aarne, Antti, The Types of the Folktales, trans, and rev. Thompson, Stith (Helsinki, 1961)Google Scholar, 1358 B.

24. Maqālāt-e Shams-e Tabrīzī, ed. Mohammad ‘AH Movahhed, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1369 Sh./1990), 1:121.

25. Wesselski, Der Hodscha Nasreddin 2:231, no. 497; Thompson, Motif-Index, J 1353.

26. Aarne, Types of the Folktales, 1525 sqq. For the parallel with Frederick the Great see Kuka, Meherjibhai Noosheerwanji, The Wit and Humour of the Persians (Bombay, 1894), 220Google Scholar, no. 171; idem. Wit, Humour and Fancy of Persia (Bombay, 1937), 259, no. 102; Kabbani, Sam, Altarabische Eseleien (Herrenalb, 1965)Google Scholar, no. 306.

27. Kolleyāt-e Shams yā dīvān-e kabīr, ed. Badi’ al-Zaman Foruzanfar (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1363 Sh./1984), 1:54, line 925; cf. Maqālāt-e Shams-e Tabrīzī 1:155, 474 f.

28. Ed. P. Atabaki (Tehran, 1331 Sh./1952).

29. Cf. Aarne, Types of the Folktales, 830 C; Marzolph, Arabia ridens, vol. 2, no. 481. Also s.v. EM: “Gottes Segen” (Uku Masing); Omidsalar, Mahmoud, “Molāḥaẓātī dar bāra-ye ‘Obayd-e Zākānī,” Iran Nameh 6, no. 2 (1988): 228–47Google Scholar, esp. 232.

30. Cf. Thompson, Motif-Index, J 1605; Marzolph, Arabia ridens, 2, no. 92.

31. Cf. Aarne, Types of the Folktales, 1313.

32. Cf. ibid., 1420 A; Marzolph, Arabia ridens, vol. 2, no. 1166; idem, Der Weise Narr Buhlūl, 50, no. 87. Juha was already appearing as protagonist in the 12th-century Arabic paroemiological work Nuzhat al-anfus. See Sellheim, Rudolf, “Eine unbeachtet gebliebene Sprichwörtersammlung,” Oriens 31 (1988): 82–94Google Scholar.

33. Cf. Marzolph, Arabia ridens, vol. 2, no. 1217.

34. Cf. Aarne, Types of the Folktales, 1567 C; Marzolph, Arabia ridens, vol. 2, no. 401; Rosenthal, Franz, Humor in Early Islam (Leiden, 1956), 121Google Scholar, no. 134; s.v. EM: “Fisch: Den groβen F. befragen” (Elfriede Moser-Rath).

35. See Scott, Tales, Anecdotes and Letters, 312–13

36. Ibid., 308–312.

37. Marzolph, Arabia ridens, vol. 2, no. 577.

38. Decourdemanche, Jean-Adolphe, Sottisier de Nasr-Eddin-Hodja, bouffon de Tamerlan, suivi d'autres facéties turques (Brussells, 1878)Google Scholar; Ramazani, Mohammad, Mollā Naṣr al-Dīn (Tehran, 1315 Sh./1936)Google Scholar, nos 104 (308), 355, 359, 364, 365, 371. See also Wesselski, Der Hodscha Nasreddin, vol. 1, nos. 154, 155, 158, 160.

39. Christensen, “Júhí in the Persian Literature,” 136, note 1.

40. Jami, ‘Abd al-Rahman, Bahārestān, ed. Hakemi, Esma'il (Tehran, 1367 Sh./ 1988), 84Google Scholar.

41. Safi, Fakhr al-Din ‘Ali, Laṭā'ef al-ṭavā'ef, ed. Golchin-Ma'ani, Ahmad (Tehran, 1336 Sh./1957), 153Google Scholar, 299, 300, 324, 327–28, 337, 390.

42. Cf. Marzolph, Arabia ridens, vol. 2, no. 302.

43. Cf. Thompson, Motif-Index, J 2566.

44. Cf. Marzolph, Arabia ridens, vol. 2, no. 770.

45. Cf. ibid., no. 828.

46. Cf. ibid., no. 1133.

47. Cf. ibid., no. 581.

48. Cf. ibid., no. 899.

49. Cf. ibid., no. 340; Thompson, Motif-Index, J 2483.

50. Burill, Kathleen R. F., “The Nasreddin Hoca Stories. 1: An Early Ottoman Manuscript at the University of Groningen,” Archivum Ottomanicum 2 (1970): 7–114Google Scholar, esp. 38, no. .32. See also Kut, Günay, “Nasreddin Hoca hikȃyeleri yazmalannm kollan üzerine bir deneme,” IV. Milletlerarasi Türk Halk Kültürü Kongresi Bildirileri. 2: Halk Edebiyati (Ankara 1992), 147–200Google Scholar, esp. no. 14.

51. See Hablerudi, Mohammad ‘Ali, Majma’ al-amāl, ed. Kiya, Sadeq (Tehran, 1344 Sh./1965), 231Google Scholar, no. 1611; cf. 52, no. 572.

52. Christensen, “Júhí in the Persian Literature,” quotes from an early edition (Tehran, 1317/1899). A modern printed edition (Tehran: ‘Elmi, 1333 Sh./1954)Google Scholar includes the relevant chapter, pp. 129–40: no. 1 = Safi, Laṭā'ef, no. 7; no. 2 = Safi, no. 2; no. 3 = Safi, no. 3; no. 4 = Safi, no. 1.

53. Christensen, “Júhí in the Persian Literature,” quotes from an early edition (Tehran, 1295/1878), 23, 25–26. The text appears to be identical in an available litho graph edition dated 1298/1880, though no exact page references are possible, since an unidentified number of leaves is missing at the beginning: p. 23, no. 1 = Safi, Laṭā'ef, no. 1; p. 25, no. 2 = Safi, no. 2; p. 26, no. 3 = Safi, no. 4.

54. Mostafa, Mohammad, Laṭā'ef-e ‘ajība (Lucknow, 1258/1842), 31Google Scholar = (Lucknow, 1262/1846), 21, no. 101 = Safi, Laṭā'ef, no. 10. On the earliest specimen of Persian “chapbooks” see Ulrich Marzolph, “Pleasant Stories in an Easy Style: Francis Gladwin's Grammar of the Persian Language as an Intermediary between Classical and Popular Literature,” in Proceedings of the 2nd Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europaea, Bamberg, 1991 (forthcoming).

55. See Bozyiğit, A. Esat, Nasreddin Hoca Bibliografyasi Üterine Bir Deneme (Ankara, 1987), 20–21Google Scholar, nos. 128–44, which lists 17 Ottoman Turkish lithograph editions between 1253/1837 and 1342/1926.

56. A copy of Laṭā'if Khwāja Naṣr al-Dīn can be found in Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen, Germany, shelfmark Ci IX 582; the British Library possesses a copy dated 1280/1864, shelfmark 14582.C.26 (see Ellis, A. G., Arabic Books in the British Museum, 3 vols. [London, 1894-1935], 2:426Google Scholar).

57. This and the following statements are based partly on Biniakowski, Kerstin and Schünemann, Betina, “Die Schwanksammlungen um Hoca Nasrettin bzw. Juha in den jeweils ersten Druckausgaben auf Osmanisch, Arabisch und Persisch” (unpublished MS, Cologne, 1986)Google Scholar.

58. Hāḍihī nawādir al-Khujah Naṣr al-Dīn Afandi Juḥa al-Rūmī (Cairo, 1280/1864), 2 (British Museum 14582.C.26).

59. S.v. EM: “Hodscha Nasreddin” (Marzolph and Baldauf).

60. Marzolph, Dāstānhā-ye šīrīn, Introduction,

61. Robinson, Basil W., “The Tehran Nizami of 1848 & Other Qajar Lithographed Books,” in Scarce, J. M., ed., Islam in the Balkans: Persian Art and Culture in the 18th and 19th Centuries (Edinburgh: The Royal Scottish Museum, 1979)Google Scholar.

62. Marzolph, Ulrich, Die Vierzig Papageien, Cehel Tuti, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Papageienbuches (Walldorf: Vorndran, 1979), 13–15Google Scholar.

63. The British Library possesses a dated edition of 1299/1881 (shelfmark 14783.a.6; see Edwards, Edward, A Catalogue of Persian Printed Books in the British Library [London, 1922]Google Scholar). This is not identical with another edition dated the same year in the author's private possession, which according to external evidence predates the former. See also Shcheglova, O. P., Katalog litografirovannykh knig na persidskom jazyke v sobranii Leningradskogo otdelenija Instituta vostokovedenija AN SSSR (Moscow, 1975), 2Google Scholar: no. 1687 (published Bombay, 1298/1880).

64. It is mentioned in passing in Agha Bozorg al-Tehrani, al-Ḏarī'a ilā taṣānīf alshī'a (Najaf-Tehran, 1392/1972), 21:147, no. 4354. However, no mention of the publication is found in the entry for Molla Nasr al-Din in Modarres, Mohammad ‘Ali, Rayḥānat al-adab fl tarājim al-ma'rūfīn bi'l-kunya aw al-laqab (Tabriz, 2nd impr., 1349 Sh./1970), 6:189–91Google Scholar.

65. Copy dated 1299 in the author's private possession, first page of text.

66. Kamal al-din al-Damiri, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā (Beirut, ca. 1975; repr. of Bulaq ed., 13137/1895?), 1:325', lines 12 ff.

67. al-Jawzi, Ibn, Akhbār al-ḥamqā wa'l-mughaffalīn, ed. al-Muzaffar, Kazim (Najaf, 1386/1966), 30Google Scholar.

68. See the recent publication of Nasr al-Din texts in Doerfer, Gerhard and Tezcan, Semih, Folklore-Texte der Chaladsch (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994)Google Scholar.

69. For the various editions see Shcheglova, Katalog litografirovannykh knig, nos 1688 f.; Ellis, Arabic Books in the British Museum. A pre-1313/1896 Tehran edition which makes reference to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar is in the author's private possession.

70. See, for example, the entries under Molla Nasr al-Din in Shahri, Ja'far, Qand va namak: żarb al-maalhā-ye Tehrānī be zabān-e moḥāvera (Tehran, 1370 Sh./1991)Google Scholar and Shokurzada, Ebrahim, Dah hezār mesal-e Fārsī (Mashhad, 1372 Sh./1993)Google Scholar.

71. See Hedayat, Sadeq, Neyrangestān (Tehran, 1312 Sh./1933;Google Scholar 1334 Sh./1956; 1342 Sh./1963); idem, “Folklor yā farhang-e tūda (1323–24 Sh./l 944–45),” Majmū'a-ye neveshtahā-ye parākanda (Tehran, 1344 Sh./1966), 447–83.

72. Kharitonov, Dvattsat’ chetyre Nasreddina.

73. Cf. Marzolph, Ulrich, Typologie des persischen Volksmarchens (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1984), 4Google Scholar. On Sobhi see Rahgozar, Reza, Fażl[Allāh] Mohtadī (Ṣobḥī) (Tehran, 1373 Sh./1994)Google Scholar.

74. In addition to Kharitonov, Dvattsat’ chetyre Nasreddina, see, for example, Permjakov, G. L., Prodelki khitretsov (Moscow, 1972), 554Google Scholar, no. 94. The Russian translation, Molla Nasreddin, was by Nuri Osmanov (Moscow, 1970).

75. Eilers, Wilhelm, Die Mundart von Gäz (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1979), 2:306Google Scholar, no. 13.

76. Lame'a, Manuchehr, Farhang-e ‘āmmīyāna-ye ‘ashāyer-e Boyer Aḥmadī va Kohgīlūya (Tehran, 1349 Sh./1970), 125–27Google Scholar.

77. Tamīl va meāl, vol. 1, ed. Abu al-Qasem Enjavi Shirazi (Tehran, 2537 Imp./ 1978), 68–69, 133* 147–18; vol. 2, ed. Ahmad Vakiliyan (Tehran, 1366 Sh./1987), 210.

78. Marzolph, Ulrich, “Seyyid Abolqāsem Enğavī Šīrāzī (1921–1993) und das iranische Volkskundearchiv,” Fabula 35 (1994): 118–24Google Scholar; idem, “Enjavī Shīrāzī va ganjīna-ye farhang-e mardom-e Īrān,” Kelk 54 (1373 Sh./1994): 305–311.

79. Khamena, ‘Abd al-Karim Manzuri, trans., Laṭīfahā-ye Bohlūl-e dānanda (Tehran, 1363 Sh./1984)Google Scholar, translation of Sayyidzada, Nur al-Din, Behlül dananda letifeleri (Tehran, 1362 Sh./1983)Google Scholar; Khanlu, Mansur, Bohlūl mīkhandad (Tabriz, 1363 Sh./1984)Google Scholar; Motadayyen, Mahmud, Majmū'a-ye dāstānhā-ye Bohlūl-e ‘āqel (Tehran, 1342 Sh./ 1953; 1364 Sh./1985)Google Scholar; Ma'sumi, Reza, Bohlūl-e ‘āqel (Tehran, ca. 1993)Google Scholar; Shabzendadar, Mohammad, Qeṣṣahā-ye Bohlūl (Tehran, ca. 1993)Google Scholar.

80. Marzolph, Dāstānhā-ye šīrīn, 12–13.