The Tale of Hodja Nasreddin

This collection includes the wonderful, timeless dilogy "The Disturber of the Peace" and "The Enchanted Prince". It is hard to imagine a more popular folklore character in the East than Hodja Nasreddin (Mullah Nasreddin, Nasreddin Efendi). The cunning and undeterred... sage, embodying the best features of Sufi philosophy, has become a beloved hero of countless parables and anecdotes, plays, novellas, and tales, both folk and literary. Monuments to him stand throughout the East - Persian, Turkic, and Arab - a satirical magazine was named after him, and many countries vie for the honor of being considered his homeland (the question of Nasreddin's historical reality remains open). Time and again, Nasreddin humiliates fools and scoundrels, misers and hypocrites, helps people, and extricates himself from the most complicated situations with the help of a subtle, ironic Word.