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Mulla Nasrudin
The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
LARGE PRINT EDITION - when you pop, you can’t stop!
Like a famous brand of crisps, these stories are addictive.
Read one, the saying goes, and you’ll be stuck reading seven.
In fact, Mulla Nasrudin jokes function like memes � working their way into the fabric of society, subtly influencing thought.
They have no calories, so indulge without guilt!
Like a famous brand of crisps, these stories are addictive.
Read one, the saying goes, and you’ll be stuck reading seven.
In fact, Mulla Nasrudin jokes function like memes � working their way into the fabric of society, subtly influencing thought.
They have no calories, so indulge without guilt!
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
39 people are currently reading
488 people want to read
About the author
Idries Shah
447books416followersIdries Shah (Persian: ادریس شاه), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي), was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.
Born in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own. His most seminal work was The Sufis, which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1965, Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research, a London-based educational charity devoted to the study of human behaviour and culture. A similar organisation, the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), exists in the United States, under the directorship of Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein, whom Shah appointed as his deputy in the U.S.
In his writings, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. Emphasising that Sufism was not static but always adapted itself to the current time, place and people, he framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. Shah made extensive use of traditional teaching stories and parables, texts that contained multiple layers of meaning designed to trigger insight and self-reflection in the reader. He is perhaps best known for his collections of humorous Mulla Nasrudin stories.
Shah was at times criticised by orientalists who questioned his credentials and background. His role in the controversy surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by his friend Robert Graves and his older brother Omar Ali-Shah, came in for particular scrutiny. However, he also had many notable defenders, chief among them the novelist Doris Lessing. Shah came to be recognised as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. His works have played a significant part in presenting Sufism as a secular, individualistic form of spiritual wisdom.
Idries Shah's books on Sufism achieved considerable critical acclaim. He was the subject of a BBC documentary ("One Pair of Eyes") in 1969, and two of his works (The Way of the Sufi and Reflections) were chosen as "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the BBC's "The Critics" programme. Among other honours, Shah won six first prizes at the UNESCO World Book Year in 1973, and the Islamic scholar James Kritzeck, commenting on Shah's Tales of the Dervishes, said that it was "beautifully translated".
The reception of Shah's movement was also marked by much controversy. Some orientalists were hostile, in part because Shah presented classical Sufi writings as tools for self-development to be used by contemporary people, rather than as objects of historical study. L. P. Elwell-Sutton from Edinburgh University, Shah's fiercest critic, described his books as "trivial", replete with errors of fact, slovenly and inaccurate translations and even misspellings of Oriental names and words � "a muddle of platitudes, irrelevancies and plain mumbo-jumbo", adding for good measure that Shah had "a remarkable opinion of his own importance". Expressing amusement and amazement at the "sycophantic manner" of Shah's interlocutors in a BBC radio interview, Elwell-Sutton concluded that some Western intellectuals were "so desperate to find answers to the questions that baffle them, that, confronted with wisdom from 'the mysterious East,' they abandon their critical faculties and submit to brainwashing of the crudest kind". To Elwell-Sutton, Shah's Sufism belonged to the realm of "Pseudo-Sufism", "centred not on God but on man."
Doris Lessing, one of Shah's greatest defenders,stated in a 1981 interview: "I found Sufism as taught by Idries Shah, which claim
Born in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own. His most seminal work was The Sufis, which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1965, Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research, a London-based educational charity devoted to the study of human behaviour and culture. A similar organisation, the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), exists in the United States, under the directorship of Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein, whom Shah appointed as his deputy in the U.S.
In his writings, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. Emphasising that Sufism was not static but always adapted itself to the current time, place and people, he framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. Shah made extensive use of traditional teaching stories and parables, texts that contained multiple layers of meaning designed to trigger insight and self-reflection in the reader. He is perhaps best known for his collections of humorous Mulla Nasrudin stories.
Shah was at times criticised by orientalists who questioned his credentials and background. His role in the controversy surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by his friend Robert Graves and his older brother Omar Ali-Shah, came in for particular scrutiny. However, he also had many notable defenders, chief among them the novelist Doris Lessing. Shah came to be recognised as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. His works have played a significant part in presenting Sufism as a secular, individualistic form of spiritual wisdom.
Idries Shah's books on Sufism achieved considerable critical acclaim. He was the subject of a BBC documentary ("One Pair of Eyes") in 1969, and two of his works (The Way of the Sufi and Reflections) were chosen as "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the BBC's "The Critics" programme. Among other honours, Shah won six first prizes at the UNESCO World Book Year in 1973, and the Islamic scholar James Kritzeck, commenting on Shah's Tales of the Dervishes, said that it was "beautifully translated".
The reception of Shah's movement was also marked by much controversy. Some orientalists were hostile, in part because Shah presented classical Sufi writings as tools for self-development to be used by contemporary people, rather than as objects of historical study. L. P. Elwell-Sutton from Edinburgh University, Shah's fiercest critic, described his books as "trivial", replete with errors of fact, slovenly and inaccurate translations and even misspellings of Oriental names and words � "a muddle of platitudes, irrelevancies and plain mumbo-jumbo", adding for good measure that Shah had "a remarkable opinion of his own importance". Expressing amusement and amazement at the "sycophantic manner" of Shah's interlocutors in a BBC radio interview, Elwell-Sutton concluded that some Western intellectuals were "so desperate to find answers to the questions that baffle them, that, confronted with wisdom from 'the mysterious East,' they abandon their critical faculties and submit to brainwashing of the crudest kind". To Elwell-Sutton, Shah's Sufism belonged to the realm of "Pseudo-Sufism", "centred not on God but on man."
Doris Lessing, one of Shah's greatest defenders,stated in a 1981 interview: "I found Sufism as taught by Idries Shah, which claim
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
February 28, 2019
As a child both the Bible and Mad Magazine shook me up. Both moved me to reflect on my life, my world and beyond. When I read Idries Shah’s The Sufis as an adult, I met an outlandish character that did something similar, maybe more: The Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin. I felt like I’d been waiting for this idiotic sage my whole life. Who was this mad Mulla? Did he even exist? Nobody knows. However we are blessed with a vast treasury of his multi-dimensional jokes retold for centuries in countries around the Mediterranean and beyond. Idries Shah spent decades collecting these delicious, outlandish and eminently practical instruments of human development. Provocative and puzzling, these literary “swiss army knives� have many uses. They’ve been called “an addendum to language�. As mirrors, Nasrudin’s antics and our reactions to them help reveal underrecognized aspects of ourselves. The imagery, plot, characters and movements in these tales create dynamic blueprints of our elusive minds. Physicists have employed them to model realities that can’t be encompassed by mathematical formulae or technical language. Rereading these bottomless jokes over time, people often gain fresh insights into them and themselves. They awaken a taste for new ways of thinking and seeing, maybe even nurturing our incipient intuitive faculties. Remarkable! I can’t recommend this book enough.
June 17, 2008
"Nasrudin was in a patent office, trying to patent a magic wand.
""I'm sorry," said the clerk, "but we don't patent impossible inventions.'
So Nasrudin waved his magic wand, and the clerk disappeared."
Whatever could I say that could top that? And it came from a book that turns upside down in the middle. These Sufi teaching stories are funny, thought-provoking, and real. So real, in fact, that I expect the Mullah and his magic wand and his tattered coat, and the goat, and his wife to appear at any moment.
""I'm sorry," said the clerk, "but we don't patent impossible inventions.'
So Nasrudin waved his magic wand, and the clerk disappeared."
Whatever could I say that could top that? And it came from a book that turns upside down in the middle. These Sufi teaching stories are funny, thought-provoking, and real. So real, in fact, that I expect the Mullah and his magic wand and his tattered coat, and the goat, and his wife to appear at any moment.
May 22, 2020
Gets an extra star for deriving from age-old aural folk humour
June 2, 2015
The first volume of the Mulla Nasrudin Corpus, retold by Afghan author Idries Shah, is a great introduction to the use of humour by the Middle Eastern and Central Asian sages called the Sufis. Nasrudin is a "wise fool" teaching-figure: sometimes acting as a guide, sometimes exhibiting shortcomings in the mind by his hilariously "brain-dead" behaviour. Nasrudin stories have been told and enjoyed across Asia, North Africa, and Southeastern Europe for centuries (and at least one collection was published in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century). The Sufis reportedly use the tales almost as exercises. "They ask people to choose a few which especially appeal to them, and to turn them over in the mind, making them their own. Teaching masters of the dervishes say that in this way a breakthrough into a higher wisdom can be effected." In addition, the stories are vividly and beautifully told. The delightful tale "His Excellency" is alone worth the price of admission.
EXTENDED REVIEW:
Reissued on May 1, 2015 by ISF Publishing, this book presents many comic illustrations to help us see how the mind works, and how it can potentially work.
As with other books of Idries Shah's, a review can at best give only a slight indication of the volume's content. Nothing can replace the piquant experience of "tasting" these jokes and tales for yourself.
Here are a few:
"See what I mean?"
Nasrudin was throwing handfuls of crumbs around his house.
'What are you doing?' someone asked him.
'Keeping the tigers away.'
'But there are no tigers in these parts.'
'That's right. Effective, isn't it?'
"There is more Light here"
Someone saw Nasrudin searching for something on the ground.
'What have you lost, Mulla?' he asked. 'My key,' said the Mulla. So they both went down on their knees and looked for it.
After a time the other man asked: 'Where exactly did you drop it?'
'In my own house.'
'Then why are you looking here?'
'There is more light here than inside my own house.'
"Only one thing wrong with it"
Walking with a disciple one day, Mulla Nasrudin saw for the first time in his life a beautiful lakeland scene.
'What a delight!' he exclaimed. 'But if only, if only...'
'If only what, Master?'
'If only they had not put water into it!'
Some of the anecdotes are sidesplittingly funny: like "The Robe," or certain passages in "His Excellency," or "Cut down on your Harness Intake." Each of the stories appear to have a number of dimensions -- different dimensions seem to become clearer with thought, time, experience, and repeated re-readings.
The book, by using this type of tale, seems to communicate its content in a minimally indoctrinational manner. We are not conditioned to be somehow like Nasrudin; but we are given many perspectives that can help us in different situations, as well as being given, almost by the way, a great deal of information (rather than persuasion).
"First Things first" is well worth spending some time reflecting upon. Its content seems to include important lessons about how to learn. "Letter of the Law" beautifully illustrates the rationalizing mind at work (among other things). "Every little helps" points up the ridiculous (and potentially harmful) situations that ensue when we miss essential elements in a happening.
A secondary point, but one perhaps worth mentioning, is Shah's sheer skill as a word-artist. Like an adept cartoonist, he can evoke a whole scene with great economy:
"What has gone before..."
In a dark alleyway an agile pickpocket tried to snatch Nasrudin's purse. The Mulla was too quick for him, and there was a violent struggle. Eventually Nasrudin got his man down on the ground.
At this moment a charitable woman passing called out:
'You bully! Let that little man get up, and give him a chance.'
'Madam,' panted Nasrudin, ''you ignore the trouble which I have had getting him down.'
This would appear to be the product of a long, well-honed storytelling tradition.
Repeatedly, Nasrudin emphasizes the value of RELEVANT learning:
"Never know when it might come in useful"
Nasrudin sometimes took people for trips in his boat. One day a fussy pedagogue hired him to ferry him across a very wide river.
As soon as they were afloat the scholar asked whether it was going to be rough.
'Don't ask me nothing about it,' said Nasrudin.
'Have you never studied grammar?'
'No,' said the Mulla.
'In that case, half your life has been wasted.'
The Mulla said nothing.
Soon a terrible storm blew up. The Mulla's crazy cockleshell was filling with water.
He leaned over towards his companion.
'Have you ever learnt to swim?'
'No,' said the pedant.
'In that case, schoolmaster, ALL your life is lost, for we are sinking.'
Nasrudin seems to provide glimpses of another plane of existence (which nonetheless seems intimately interwoven with our familiar one). The tales seem to help us to learn something about it. But if the Mulla does so, he does it in a way that keeps us usefully tied to our ordinary life, which we are not allowed to forget. Indeed there seems a very adult awareness of the world that goes along with the comedy, as in "Cooking by Candle," or
"Salt is not Wool"
One day the Mulla was taking a donkey-load of salt to market, and drove the ass through a stream. The salt was dissolved. The Mulla was angry at the loss of his load. The ass was frisky with relief.
Next time he passed that way he had a load of wool. After the animal had passed through the stream, the wool was thoroughly soaked, and very heavy. The donkey staggered under the soggy load.
'Ha!' shouted the Mulla, 'you thought you would get off lightly every[italicized] time you went through the water, didn't you?'
A clear awareness of our sometimes harsh ordinary life seems to be one of the things exhibited in such tales as "Fear" or "The Pace of Life."
So in this sense Nasrudin is not fantasy, certainly not escapism -- unless it is to escape from the ridiculousness of what we take to be life. Sometimes the ridiculousness of our conventional approaches is shown up (as in "How Nasrudin created Truth," "The Rope and the Sky," or "Every little helps," already mentioned); sometimes the Mulla, operating on this other plane, seems ridiculous to the conventionally-minded (as in "Back to Front" or "I know her best").
We often see Nasrudin taking advantage of unfamiliar patterns and relationships:
"Sleep is an Activity"
Nasrudin wanted to steal some fruit from a stall, but the stallholder had a fox which kept watch. He overheard the man say to his fox[,] 'Foxes are craftier than dogs, and I want you to guard the stall with cunning. There are always thieves about. When you see anyone doing anything, ask yourself why he is doing it, and whether it can be related to the security of the stall.'
When the man had gone away, the fox came to the front of the stall and looked at Nasrudin lurking on a lawn opposite. Nasrudin at once lay down and closed his eyes. The fox thought, 'Sleeping is not doing [ital.] anything.'
As he watched Nasrudin he too began to feel tired. He lay down and went to sleep.
Then Nasrudin crept past him and stole some fruit.
Read and enjoy this book, for a taste of the incomparable Mulla Nasrudin.
EXTENDED REVIEW:
Reissued on May 1, 2015 by ISF Publishing, this book presents many comic illustrations to help us see how the mind works, and how it can potentially work.
As with other books of Idries Shah's, a review can at best give only a slight indication of the volume's content. Nothing can replace the piquant experience of "tasting" these jokes and tales for yourself.
Here are a few:
"See what I mean?"
Nasrudin was throwing handfuls of crumbs around his house.
'What are you doing?' someone asked him.
'Keeping the tigers away.'
'But there are no tigers in these parts.'
'That's right. Effective, isn't it?'
"There is more Light here"
Someone saw Nasrudin searching for something on the ground.
'What have you lost, Mulla?' he asked. 'My key,' said the Mulla. So they both went down on their knees and looked for it.
After a time the other man asked: 'Where exactly did you drop it?'
'In my own house.'
'Then why are you looking here?'
'There is more light here than inside my own house.'
"Only one thing wrong with it"
Walking with a disciple one day, Mulla Nasrudin saw for the first time in his life a beautiful lakeland scene.
'What a delight!' he exclaimed. 'But if only, if only...'
'If only what, Master?'
'If only they had not put water into it!'
Some of the anecdotes are sidesplittingly funny: like "The Robe," or certain passages in "His Excellency," or "Cut down on your Harness Intake." Each of the stories appear to have a number of dimensions -- different dimensions seem to become clearer with thought, time, experience, and repeated re-readings.
The book, by using this type of tale, seems to communicate its content in a minimally indoctrinational manner. We are not conditioned to be somehow like Nasrudin; but we are given many perspectives that can help us in different situations, as well as being given, almost by the way, a great deal of information (rather than persuasion).
"First Things first" is well worth spending some time reflecting upon. Its content seems to include important lessons about how to learn. "Letter of the Law" beautifully illustrates the rationalizing mind at work (among other things). "Every little helps" points up the ridiculous (and potentially harmful) situations that ensue when we miss essential elements in a happening.
A secondary point, but one perhaps worth mentioning, is Shah's sheer skill as a word-artist. Like an adept cartoonist, he can evoke a whole scene with great economy:
"What has gone before..."
In a dark alleyway an agile pickpocket tried to snatch Nasrudin's purse. The Mulla was too quick for him, and there was a violent struggle. Eventually Nasrudin got his man down on the ground.
At this moment a charitable woman passing called out:
'You bully! Let that little man get up, and give him a chance.'
'Madam,' panted Nasrudin, ''you ignore the trouble which I have had getting him down.'
This would appear to be the product of a long, well-honed storytelling tradition.
Repeatedly, Nasrudin emphasizes the value of RELEVANT learning:
"Never know when it might come in useful"
Nasrudin sometimes took people for trips in his boat. One day a fussy pedagogue hired him to ferry him across a very wide river.
As soon as they were afloat the scholar asked whether it was going to be rough.
'Don't ask me nothing about it,' said Nasrudin.
'Have you never studied grammar?'
'No,' said the Mulla.
'In that case, half your life has been wasted.'
The Mulla said nothing.
Soon a terrible storm blew up. The Mulla's crazy cockleshell was filling with water.
He leaned over towards his companion.
'Have you ever learnt to swim?'
'No,' said the pedant.
'In that case, schoolmaster, ALL your life is lost, for we are sinking.'
Nasrudin seems to provide glimpses of another plane of existence (which nonetheless seems intimately interwoven with our familiar one). The tales seem to help us to learn something about it. But if the Mulla does so, he does it in a way that keeps us usefully tied to our ordinary life, which we are not allowed to forget. Indeed there seems a very adult awareness of the world that goes along with the comedy, as in "Cooking by Candle," or
"Salt is not Wool"
One day the Mulla was taking a donkey-load of salt to market, and drove the ass through a stream. The salt was dissolved. The Mulla was angry at the loss of his load. The ass was frisky with relief.
Next time he passed that way he had a load of wool. After the animal had passed through the stream, the wool was thoroughly soaked, and very heavy. The donkey staggered under the soggy load.
'Ha!' shouted the Mulla, 'you thought you would get off lightly every[italicized] time you went through the water, didn't you?'
A clear awareness of our sometimes harsh ordinary life seems to be one of the things exhibited in such tales as "Fear" or "The Pace of Life."
So in this sense Nasrudin is not fantasy, certainly not escapism -- unless it is to escape from the ridiculousness of what we take to be life. Sometimes the ridiculousness of our conventional approaches is shown up (as in "How Nasrudin created Truth," "The Rope and the Sky," or "Every little helps," already mentioned); sometimes the Mulla, operating on this other plane, seems ridiculous to the conventionally-minded (as in "Back to Front" or "I know her best").
We often see Nasrudin taking advantage of unfamiliar patterns and relationships:
"Sleep is an Activity"
Nasrudin wanted to steal some fruit from a stall, but the stallholder had a fox which kept watch. He overheard the man say to his fox[,] 'Foxes are craftier than dogs, and I want you to guard the stall with cunning. There are always thieves about. When you see anyone doing anything, ask yourself why he is doing it, and whether it can be related to the security of the stall.'
When the man had gone away, the fox came to the front of the stall and looked at Nasrudin lurking on a lawn opposite. Nasrudin at once lay down and closed his eyes. The fox thought, 'Sleeping is not doing [ital.] anything.'
As he watched Nasrudin he too began to feel tired. He lay down and went to sleep.
Then Nasrudin crept past him and stole some fruit.
Read and enjoy this book, for a taste of the incomparable Mulla Nasrudin.
Want to read
December 5, 2012Doris Lessing's strong advocacy of Shah and the tales of Nasrudin has me convinced. I will add a few of the tales to help convince anyone else.
Nasrudin is with his cronies drinking coffee:
They are discussing death, "When you are in your casket and friends and family are mourning upon you, what would you like to hear them say about you?"
The first crony says, "I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time, and a great family man."
The second says, " I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher which made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow."
Nasrudin says, " I would like to hear them say... LOOK!! HE'S MOVING!!!"
and
Once a renowned philosopher and moralist was traveling through Nasruddin's village and asked Nasruddin where there was a good place to eat. Nasruddin suggested a place and the scholar, hungry for conversation, invited Mullah Nasruddin to join him. Much obliged, Mullah Nasruddin accompanied the scholar to a nearby restaurant, where they asked the waiter about the special of the day.
"Fish! Fresh Fish!" replied the waiter.
"Bring us two," they requested.
A few minutes later, the waiter brought out a large platter with two cooked fish on it, one of which was quite a bit smaller than the other. Without hesitating, Mullah Nasruddin took the larger of the fish and put in on his plate. The scholar, giving Mullah Nasruddin a look of intense disbelief, proceed to tell him that what he did was not only flagrantly selfish, but that it violated the principles of almost every known moral, religious, and ethical system. Mullah Nasruddin listened to the philosopher's extempore lecture patiently, and when he had finally exhausted his resources, Mullah Nasruddin said,
"Well, Sir, what would you have done?"
"I, being a conscientious human, would have taken the smaller fish for myself." said the scholar.
"And here you are," Mullah Nasrudin said, and placed the smaller fish on the gentleman's plate.
and
"Thief, thief! Someone has stolen my camel!" cried Nasrudin.
Finally after the commotion was quietened someone observed, "But Nasrudin, you have no camel."
"Shhh..." said Nasrudin, "I am hoping the thief is unaware of this and the camel will be returned."
and last of all
The Sultan of a great city was annoyed by the cheats and liars who entered his gates and caused trouble. He therefore set soldiers at all entrances. The soldiers were under orders to hang those who lied about their purpose for wishing to enter.
The Mullah Nasreddin saddled his donkey and rode to the city.
At the gate a guard stopped him and asked his purpose in wishing to enter and warned him that a lie would result in his being hanged.
"This is good for I have come to be hanged." Said Nasreddin.
"You are a liar and will certainly hang!" Said the guard
"Then you know I have spoken the truth and should not be hanged." said Nasreddin.
Nasrudin is with his cronies drinking coffee:
They are discussing death, "When you are in your casket and friends and family are mourning upon you, what would you like to hear them say about you?"
The first crony says, "I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time, and a great family man."
The second says, " I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher which made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow."
Nasrudin says, " I would like to hear them say... LOOK!! HE'S MOVING!!!"
and
Once a renowned philosopher and moralist was traveling through Nasruddin's village and asked Nasruddin where there was a good place to eat. Nasruddin suggested a place and the scholar, hungry for conversation, invited Mullah Nasruddin to join him. Much obliged, Mullah Nasruddin accompanied the scholar to a nearby restaurant, where they asked the waiter about the special of the day.
"Fish! Fresh Fish!" replied the waiter.
"Bring us two," they requested.
A few minutes later, the waiter brought out a large platter with two cooked fish on it, one of which was quite a bit smaller than the other. Without hesitating, Mullah Nasruddin took the larger of the fish and put in on his plate. The scholar, giving Mullah Nasruddin a look of intense disbelief, proceed to tell him that what he did was not only flagrantly selfish, but that it violated the principles of almost every known moral, religious, and ethical system. Mullah Nasruddin listened to the philosopher's extempore lecture patiently, and when he had finally exhausted his resources, Mullah Nasruddin said,
"Well, Sir, what would you have done?"
"I, being a conscientious human, would have taken the smaller fish for myself." said the scholar.
"And here you are," Mullah Nasrudin said, and placed the smaller fish on the gentleman's plate.
and
"Thief, thief! Someone has stolen my camel!" cried Nasrudin.
Finally after the commotion was quietened someone observed, "But Nasrudin, you have no camel."
"Shhh..." said Nasrudin, "I am hoping the thief is unaware of this and the camel will be returned."
and last of all
The Sultan of a great city was annoyed by the cheats and liars who entered his gates and caused trouble. He therefore set soldiers at all entrances. The soldiers were under orders to hang those who lied about their purpose for wishing to enter.
The Mullah Nasreddin saddled his donkey and rode to the city.
At the gate a guard stopped him and asked his purpose in wishing to enter and warned him that a lie would result in his being hanged.
"This is good for I have come to be hanged." Said Nasreddin.
"You are a liar and will certainly hang!" Said the guard
"Then you know I have spoken the truth and should not be hanged." said Nasreddin.
August 28, 2018
'I am here because of you and you are here because of me...'
That is something to think about.
These stories assist the mind to make sense of itself: templates. At the moment 'Learning The Hard Way' and 'The Value Of The Past' particularly appeal..
Learning the Hard Way.
If you tell somebody something in so many words it will like as not slide off him and not be absorbed. Practical methods are essential.
A fakir called Nasrudin down from the roof of his house on which he was working. When the Mulla got to the ground the man said:
`Give me alms.'
`Why did you not call up to me?' asked the Mulla.
'I was ashamed,' said the man.
'Don't have false pride,' said Nasrudin, 'come up to the roof.'
As soon as they got to the top of the house and Nasrudin had started his work again, he said to the man, 'No I have no alms for you.'
The Value of The Past.
Nasrudin was sent by the king to investigate the lore of various kinds of Eastern mystical teachers. They all recounted to him tales of the miracles and the sayings of the founders and great teachers, all long dead, of their schools.
When he returned home he submitted his report, which contained the single word `Carrots.'
He was called upon to explain himself. Nasrudin told the King: `The best part is buried; few know-except the farmer- by the green that there is orange underground; if you don't work for it, it will deteriorate; there are a great many donkeys associated with it.'
And one more... at random.
The Omen.
The king was in a bad mood. As he left the palace to go hunting he saw Nasrudin.
`It is bad luck to see a Mulla on the way to a hunt,' he shouted to his guards. 'Don't let him stare at me-whip him out of the way!'
They did so.
As it happened the chase was successful.
The King sent for Nasrudin.
`I am sorry Mulla. I thought you were a bad omen. You were not, it transpires.'
`YOU thought I was a bad omen! 'said Nasrudin. YOU look at me and get a full game bag. I look at YOU, and I get a whipping. Who is a bad omen for whom?'
That is something to think about.
These stories assist the mind to make sense of itself: templates. At the moment 'Learning The Hard Way' and 'The Value Of The Past' particularly appeal..
Learning the Hard Way.
If you tell somebody something in so many words it will like as not slide off him and not be absorbed. Practical methods are essential.
A fakir called Nasrudin down from the roof of his house on which he was working. When the Mulla got to the ground the man said:
`Give me alms.'
`Why did you not call up to me?' asked the Mulla.
'I was ashamed,' said the man.
'Don't have false pride,' said Nasrudin, 'come up to the roof.'
As soon as they got to the top of the house and Nasrudin had started his work again, he said to the man, 'No I have no alms for you.'
The Value of The Past.
Nasrudin was sent by the king to investigate the lore of various kinds of Eastern mystical teachers. They all recounted to him tales of the miracles and the sayings of the founders and great teachers, all long dead, of their schools.
When he returned home he submitted his report, which contained the single word `Carrots.'
He was called upon to explain himself. Nasrudin told the King: `The best part is buried; few know-except the farmer- by the green that there is orange underground; if you don't work for it, it will deteriorate; there are a great many donkeys associated with it.'
And one more... at random.
The Omen.
The king was in a bad mood. As he left the palace to go hunting he saw Nasrudin.
`It is bad luck to see a Mulla on the way to a hunt,' he shouted to his guards. 'Don't let him stare at me-whip him out of the way!'
They did so.
As it happened the chase was successful.
The King sent for Nasrudin.
`I am sorry Mulla. I thought you were a bad omen. You were not, it transpires.'
`YOU thought I was a bad omen! 'said Nasrudin. YOU look at me and get a full game bag. I look at YOU, and I get a whipping. Who is a bad omen for whom?'
August 12, 2020
Mulla Nasrudin, beloved Sufi mystic of folklore, argues and teaches and inspires and amuses in this wonderful, quick-read collection of stories. Except for one story (in which the Mulla goes to Delhi as the emissary of the King of Persia), which is a couple of pages long, all the other stories in this collection are mostly no more than a few paragraphs—many not even that, dismissed quickly in one short, swift, juicy punchline.
Here is Mulla Nasruddin extricating himself from embarrassing situations, crossing paths with thieves and kings (even Timur himself), quarrelling with his wife and his neighbour, and teaching students come to him for guidance. Each story is a single anecdote, quickly told, and often amusing. Sometimes, it serves to highlight Mulla Nasrudin’s stupidity; at other times, his wisdom. And, more often than not, his wit.
I loved the way Idries Shah writes: his choice of words is half the wit in these stories. The rest, the stories themselves do: they’re so delightful. Delightful as well as insightful, because after a while you realize that the Mulla’s stupidity is the stupidity of wise men and his wisdom the wisdom of fools.
Highly entertaining.
Here is Mulla Nasruddin extricating himself from embarrassing situations, crossing paths with thieves and kings (even Timur himself), quarrelling with his wife and his neighbour, and teaching students come to him for guidance. Each story is a single anecdote, quickly told, and often amusing. Sometimes, it serves to highlight Mulla Nasrudin’s stupidity; at other times, his wisdom. And, more often than not, his wit.
I loved the way Idries Shah writes: his choice of words is half the wit in these stories. The rest, the stories themselves do: they’re so delightful. Delightful as well as insightful, because after a while you realize that the Mulla’s stupidity is the stupidity of wise men and his wisdom the wisdom of fools.
Highly entertaining.
March 21, 2019
Mulla Nasrudin is a joke figure of the Middle East found primarily in Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan � and whose spinoffs, known by other names, can be found across the Arab and Islamic world.
Nasrudin is a “wise fool� whose thinking and behaviour, meant to mirror our own and, runs the gamut between sublime wisdom and utter stupidity. Because the purpose of the Nasrudin yarns is to demonstrate, through the Mulla, the various ways in which our minds work, these comedic stories don’t utilize strong punch-lines or inculcate morals in a conventional sense. So the anecdotes sometimes feel like they end on a lighter note in comparison with harder edged jokes that are primarily meant to titillate. But the stories in fact operate on another level completely, while still managing to entertain.
Nasrudin is a “wise fool� whose thinking and behaviour, meant to mirror our own and, runs the gamut between sublime wisdom and utter stupidity. Because the purpose of the Nasrudin yarns is to demonstrate, through the Mulla, the various ways in which our minds work, these comedic stories don’t utilize strong punch-lines or inculcate morals in a conventional sense. So the anecdotes sometimes feel like they end on a lighter note in comparison with harder edged jokes that are primarily meant to titillate. But the stories in fact operate on another level completely, while still managing to entertain.
Read
October 27, 2017I chose to read this book because my Dad would always tell my sister and I stories from it to teach us morals, and once I was older I read the full book of tales.
I enjoyed the simple, but humorous stories in the book, and the morals it taught.
I learnt many important lessons and morals from this book, and I still use some of the morals taught by Mulla Nasrudin, especially the tale in which Mulla Nasrudin goes to a bath house and teaches that you should treat all customers the same.
I was interested by the change in setting from Turkey to London, yet Mulla Nasrudin's tales remained similar.
I enjoyed the simple, but humorous stories in the book, and the morals it taught.
I learnt many important lessons and morals from this book, and I still use some of the morals taught by Mulla Nasrudin, especially the tale in which Mulla Nasrudin goes to a bath house and teaches that you should treat all customers the same.
I was interested by the change in setting from Turkey to London, yet Mulla Nasrudin's tales remained similar.
December 10, 2015
The first volume of the Mulla Nasrudin Corpus, retold by Afghan author Idries Shah, is a great introduction to the use of humour by the Middle Eastern and Central Asian sages called the Sufis. Nasrudin is a "wise fool" teaching-figure: sometimes acting as a guide, sometimes exhibiting shortcomings in the mind by his hilariously "brain-dead" behaviour. Nasrudin stories have been told and enjoyed across Asia, North Africa, and Southeastern Europe for centuries (and at least one collection was published in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century). The Sufis reportedly use the tales almost as exercises. "They ask people to choose a few which especially appeal to them, and to turn them over in the mind, making them their own. Teaching masters of the dervishes say that in this way a breakthrough into a higher wisdom can be effected." In addition, the stories are vividly and beautifully told. The delightful tale "His Excellency" is alone worth the price of admission.
EXTENDED REVIEW:
Reissued on May 1, 2015 by ISF Publishing, this book presents many comic illustrations to help us see how the mind works, and how it can potentially work.
As with other books of Idries Shah's, a review can at best give only a slight indication of the volume's content. Nothing can replace the piquant experience of "tasting" these jokes and tales for yourself.
Here are a few:
"See what I mean?"
Nasrudin was throwing handfuls of crumbs around his house.
'What are you doing?' someone asked him.
'Keeping the tigers away.'
'But there are no tigers in these parts.'
'That's right. Effective, isn't it?'
"There is more Light here"
Someone saw Nasrudin searching for something on the ground.
'What have you lost, Mulla?' he asked. 'My key,' said the Mulla. So they both went down on their knees and looked for it.
After a time the other man asked: 'Where exactly did you drop it?'
'In my own house.'
'Then why are you looking here?'
'There is more light here than inside my own house.'
"Only one thing wrong with it"
Walking with a disciple one day, Mulla Nasrudin saw for the first time in his life a beautiful lakeland scene.
'What a delight!' he exclaimed. 'But if only, if only...'
'If only what, Master?'
'If only they had not put water into it!'
Some of the anecdotes are sidesplittingly funny: like "The Robe," or certain passages in "His Excellency," or "Cut down on your Harness Intake." Each of the stories appear to have a number of dimensions -- different dimensions seem to become clearer with thought, time, experience, and repeated re-readings.
The book, by using this type of tale, seems to communicate its content in a minimally indoctrinational manner. We are not conditioned to be somehow like Nasrudin; but we are given many perspectives that can help us in different situations, as well as being given, almost by the way, a great deal of information (rather than persuasion).
"First Things first" is well worth spending some time reflecting upon. Its content seems to include important lessons about how to learn. "Letter of the Law" beautifully illustrates the rationalizing mind at work (among other things). "Every little helps" points up the ridiculous (and potentially harmful) situations that ensue when we miss essential elements in a happening.
A secondary point, but one perhaps worth mentioning, is Shah's sheer skill as a word-artist. Like an adept cartoonist, he can evoke a whole scene with great economy:
"What has gone before..."
In a dark alleyway an agile pickpocket tried to snatch Nasrudin's purse. The Mulla was too quick for him, and there was a violent struggle. Eventually Nasrudin got his man down on the ground.
At this moment a charitable woman passing called out:
'You bully! Let that little man get up, and give him a chance.'
'Madam,' panted Nasrudin, ''you ignore the trouble which I have had getting him down.'
This would appear to be the product of a long, well-honed storytelling tradition.
Repeatedly, Nasrudin emphasizes the value of RELEVANT learning:
"Never know when it might come in useful"
Nasrudin sometimes took people for trips in his boat. One day a fussy pedagogue hired him to ferry him across a very wide river.
As soon as they were afloat the scholar asked whether it was going to be rough.
'Don't ask me nothing about it,' said Nasrudin.
'Have you never studied grammar?'
'No,' said the Mulla.
'In that case, half your life has been wasted.'
The Mulla said nothing.
Soon a terrible storm blew up. The Mulla's crazy cockleshell was filling with water.
He leaned over towards his companion.
'Have you ever learnt to swim?'
'No,' said the pedant.
'In that case, schoolmaster, ALL your life is lost, for we are sinking.'
Nasrudin seems to provide glimpses of another plane of existence (which nonetheless seems intimately interwoven with our familiar one). The tales seem to help us to learn something about it. But if the Mulla does so, he does it in a way that keeps us usefully tied to our ordinary life, which we are not allowed to forget. Indeed there seems a very adult awareness of the world that goes along with the comedy, as in "Cooking by Candle," or
"Salt is not Wool"
One day the Mulla was taking a donkey-load of salt to market, and drove the ass through a stream. The salt was dissolved. The Mulla was angry at the loss of his load. The ass was frisky with relief.
Next time he passed that way he had a load of wool. After the animal had passed through the stream, the wool was thoroughly soaked, and very heavy. The donkey staggered under the soggy load.
'Ha!' shouted the Mulla, 'you thought you would get off lightly every[italicized] time you went through the water, didn't you?'
A clear awareness of our sometimes harsh ordinary life seems to be one of the things exhibited in such tales as "Fear" or "The Pace of Life."
So in this sense Nasrudin is not fantasy, certainly not escapism -- unless it is to escape from the ridiculousness of what we take to be life. Sometimes the ridiculousness of our conventional approaches is shown up (as in "How Nasrudin created Truth," "The Rope and the Sky," or "Every little helps," already mentioned); sometimes the Mulla, operating on this other plane, seems ridiculous to the conventionally-minded (as in "Back to Front" or "I know her best").
We often see Nasrudin taking advantage of unfamiliar patterns and relationships:
"Sleep is an Activity"
Nasrudin wanted to steal some fruit from a stall, but the stallholder had a fox which kept watch. He overheard the man say to his fox[,] 'Foxes are craftier than dogs, and I want you to guard the stall with cunning. There are always thieves about. When you see anyone doing anything, ask yourself why he is doing it, and whether it can be related to the security of the stall.'
When the man had gone away, the fox came to the front of the stall and looked at Nasrudin lurking on a lawn opposite. Nasrudin at once lay down and closed his eyes. The fox thought, 'Sleeping is not doing [ital.] anything.'
As he watched Nasrudin he too began to feel tired. He lay down and went to sleep.
Then Nasrudin crept past him and stole some fruit.
Read and enjoy this book, for a taste of the incomparable Mulla Nasrudin.
For more information about Mulla Nasrudin, you can visit and .
EXTENDED REVIEW:
Reissued on May 1, 2015 by ISF Publishing, this book presents many comic illustrations to help us see how the mind works, and how it can potentially work.
As with other books of Idries Shah's, a review can at best give only a slight indication of the volume's content. Nothing can replace the piquant experience of "tasting" these jokes and tales for yourself.
Here are a few:
"See what I mean?"
Nasrudin was throwing handfuls of crumbs around his house.
'What are you doing?' someone asked him.
'Keeping the tigers away.'
'But there are no tigers in these parts.'
'That's right. Effective, isn't it?'
"There is more Light here"
Someone saw Nasrudin searching for something on the ground.
'What have you lost, Mulla?' he asked. 'My key,' said the Mulla. So they both went down on their knees and looked for it.
After a time the other man asked: 'Where exactly did you drop it?'
'In my own house.'
'Then why are you looking here?'
'There is more light here than inside my own house.'
"Only one thing wrong with it"
Walking with a disciple one day, Mulla Nasrudin saw for the first time in his life a beautiful lakeland scene.
'What a delight!' he exclaimed. 'But if only, if only...'
'If only what, Master?'
'If only they had not put water into it!'
Some of the anecdotes are sidesplittingly funny: like "The Robe," or certain passages in "His Excellency," or "Cut down on your Harness Intake." Each of the stories appear to have a number of dimensions -- different dimensions seem to become clearer with thought, time, experience, and repeated re-readings.
The book, by using this type of tale, seems to communicate its content in a minimally indoctrinational manner. We are not conditioned to be somehow like Nasrudin; but we are given many perspectives that can help us in different situations, as well as being given, almost by the way, a great deal of information (rather than persuasion).
"First Things first" is well worth spending some time reflecting upon. Its content seems to include important lessons about how to learn. "Letter of the Law" beautifully illustrates the rationalizing mind at work (among other things). "Every little helps" points up the ridiculous (and potentially harmful) situations that ensue when we miss essential elements in a happening.
A secondary point, but one perhaps worth mentioning, is Shah's sheer skill as a word-artist. Like an adept cartoonist, he can evoke a whole scene with great economy:
"What has gone before..."
In a dark alleyway an agile pickpocket tried to snatch Nasrudin's purse. The Mulla was too quick for him, and there was a violent struggle. Eventually Nasrudin got his man down on the ground.
At this moment a charitable woman passing called out:
'You bully! Let that little man get up, and give him a chance.'
'Madam,' panted Nasrudin, ''you ignore the trouble which I have had getting him down.'
This would appear to be the product of a long, well-honed storytelling tradition.
Repeatedly, Nasrudin emphasizes the value of RELEVANT learning:
"Never know when it might come in useful"
Nasrudin sometimes took people for trips in his boat. One day a fussy pedagogue hired him to ferry him across a very wide river.
As soon as they were afloat the scholar asked whether it was going to be rough.
'Don't ask me nothing about it,' said Nasrudin.
'Have you never studied grammar?'
'No,' said the Mulla.
'In that case, half your life has been wasted.'
The Mulla said nothing.
Soon a terrible storm blew up. The Mulla's crazy cockleshell was filling with water.
He leaned over towards his companion.
'Have you ever learnt to swim?'
'No,' said the pedant.
'In that case, schoolmaster, ALL your life is lost, for we are sinking.'
Nasrudin seems to provide glimpses of another plane of existence (which nonetheless seems intimately interwoven with our familiar one). The tales seem to help us to learn something about it. But if the Mulla does so, he does it in a way that keeps us usefully tied to our ordinary life, which we are not allowed to forget. Indeed there seems a very adult awareness of the world that goes along with the comedy, as in "Cooking by Candle," or
"Salt is not Wool"
One day the Mulla was taking a donkey-load of salt to market, and drove the ass through a stream. The salt was dissolved. The Mulla was angry at the loss of his load. The ass was frisky with relief.
Next time he passed that way he had a load of wool. After the animal had passed through the stream, the wool was thoroughly soaked, and very heavy. The donkey staggered under the soggy load.
'Ha!' shouted the Mulla, 'you thought you would get off lightly every[italicized] time you went through the water, didn't you?'
A clear awareness of our sometimes harsh ordinary life seems to be one of the things exhibited in such tales as "Fear" or "The Pace of Life."
So in this sense Nasrudin is not fantasy, certainly not escapism -- unless it is to escape from the ridiculousness of what we take to be life. Sometimes the ridiculousness of our conventional approaches is shown up (as in "How Nasrudin created Truth," "The Rope and the Sky," or "Every little helps," already mentioned); sometimes the Mulla, operating on this other plane, seems ridiculous to the conventionally-minded (as in "Back to Front" or "I know her best").
We often see Nasrudin taking advantage of unfamiliar patterns and relationships:
"Sleep is an Activity"
Nasrudin wanted to steal some fruit from a stall, but the stallholder had a fox which kept watch. He overheard the man say to his fox[,] 'Foxes are craftier than dogs, and I want you to guard the stall with cunning. There are always thieves about. When you see anyone doing anything, ask yourself why he is doing it, and whether it can be related to the security of the stall.'
When the man had gone away, the fox came to the front of the stall and looked at Nasrudin lurking on a lawn opposite. Nasrudin at once lay down and closed his eyes. The fox thought, 'Sleeping is not doing [ital.] anything.'
As he watched Nasrudin he too began to feel tired. He lay down and went to sleep.
Then Nasrudin crept past him and stole some fruit.
Read and enjoy this book, for a taste of the incomparable Mulla Nasrudin.
For more information about Mulla Nasrudin, you can visit and .
February 6, 2021
I've read this book (and most of the others in the short series) many times in my life. Each time I read it, I get more out of it. The stories are often funny; and often mind-twisters as well: they show us how to view situations that seem inevitable, cut-and-dried, no-hope-scenarios, in new, innovative ways. Most of the enjoyment and use I get from the stories comes from these two sources. But occasionally, if I try hard to think in a way that is a bit uncomfortable and personally unflattering, I get a bit more from one story or another. One that affected me today in that third way is called "The Fool." It's on printed page 10 or, if you're reading it online for free at the IdriesShahFoundation website, it's on electronic page 24.
But you don't have to go there. I'm going to reproduce it here, so it's easier to discuss.
===========================
The Fool
"A philosopher, having made an appointment to dispute with Nasrudin, called and found him away from home.
Infuriated, he picked up a piece of chalk and wrote 'Stupid Oaf' on Nasrudin's gate.
As soon as he got home and saw this, the Mulla rushed to the philosopher's house.
'I had forgotten,' he said, 'that you were to call. And I apologize for not having been at home. Of course, I remembered the appointment as soon as I saw that you had left your name on my door."
===========================
In this story I see three things. Two are the things I usually see when I read a story like this, the third is new. The first thing I experience is the humor from the unexpected ending. Nasrudin completely turns the tables on the self-righteous philosopher. The unexpectedness of the ending makes one chuckle.
The unexpected ending also made me think, "Hmm... This is a brilliant way of handling angry, contentious people who make others' lives a living hell. I will try to remember this if I ever encounter someone like that philosopher...and teach him a lesson!" I made me wonder about how many other life opportunities or "life saves" have I missed out on because I could only see one inevitable outcome to a situation, when actually there might be many. This is a very cool effect of these stories: they help one learn to think "outside the box," although, at least for me, when I'm in the heat of the immediate moment, these useful lessons tend to fly out window as I panic and respond in a more conventional way, that is often not optimal.
The third way of looking at these stories, which I've only recently been trying, is to see myself as worst character in the story and then think about how that individual's behavior resembles my own. In this simple tale, the worst character is obvious: the philosopher. He is so egotistical, so full of himself and proud of his brilliant mind and all of his great learning, that he see a common human incident (someone not being at an appointment at the right time) as a personal affront, and becoming engorged with self-justified rage at this "clearly rude insult."
I don't know about you, dear reader, but I have done this very thing a great may times in my life. I didn't respect other people's own, equally valid consciousness and existence. I treated them badly because I saw them as outside objects or extensions of myself, there to serve me or make me feel good, not as separate consciousnesses just like myself. And I have become enraged, with people like CSR's, who were just doing their jobs the best way they could, and, being pawns in a large corporate machine, didn't have control over the things that were enraging me. When I see this story in the light of my own huge ego and bad behavior toward others, I look at what Nasrudin did and think "he nailed it." Stupid Oaf is exactly the right tag for this sort of egotistical, self-centered behavior. I wish I were less of a stupid oaf. :-(
I'm not saying any of the above to get sympathy or "You're not that bad, Randy" pats on the back. I'm saying it to demonstrate a little bit of the vast, immensely valuable treasures inside a book like this...if you read it in the right way. There are likely many many "right" ways to read it, but for me personally, that "right way" is currently to look at the worst or most stupid character in the story and ask, "How is this like me?" Not "Am I like that?" But rather, "How I am like the most appalling or stupid characters in this tale?
There are many layers of wisdom in these tales, and this reviewer is still mostly at the surface admiration stage (with sometimes noticing there is something more under that surface--if I view the tale in the rather uncomfortable manner I've described above). And you know what? I feel so stupid! The Nasrudin stories have always baffled me. I could almost never see their point, other than entertainment. And in all these years of bemusement, there has been a shovel right next to me, a tool I could use to uncover more, but I failed to avail myself of it or even see it clearly—and not entirely because of ignorance. The other Sufi books of Shah's give plenty of hints as to what needs to be done but I didn't connect the dots. I ignored using the shovel (a.k.a. seeing the worst features of my personality) on these tales because it was heavy, uncomfortable, unflattering, didn't make me feel smart or superior. I was my own worst enemy, in other words, while shouting to the universe that I sought knowledge and was ready to receive it. What foolish arrogance, eh? But definitely something a "Stupid Oaf" would do!
To use another analogy, some people lift up the cover of a volume like this and see in its contents just a big boring, pile of dull, ugly pebbles that only a child would want to play with, even though a few, if looked at closely, might have interesting patterns or may make one laugh because they're shaped like ducks. That's been me, for years and years.
Others lift the cover and see a jewel or two or maybe, if they're further along the road, see a big pile of "precious, luminous gems." I think I've seen one or two jewels in my many years of reading Nasrudin books. But I haven't done much with them, including look for more of them, because they way you look (comparing the tale to your own worst thoughts or behavior) is not the most comfortable or enjoyable thing to do. The "seeking pleasure at all times" principle is very strong in people. But I am hoping I can find some use for this one. Maybe I can become more human by treating everyone, in my secret thoughts as well as in my outward behavior, as equally human, another consciousness, just like me...perhaps even, unknown to this Stupid Oaf who so often thinks he's the brightest bulb in the chandelier, a precious, luminous gem.
But you don't have to go there. I'm going to reproduce it here, so it's easier to discuss.
===========================
The Fool
"A philosopher, having made an appointment to dispute with Nasrudin, called and found him away from home.
Infuriated, he picked up a piece of chalk and wrote 'Stupid Oaf' on Nasrudin's gate.
As soon as he got home and saw this, the Mulla rushed to the philosopher's house.
'I had forgotten,' he said, 'that you were to call. And I apologize for not having been at home. Of course, I remembered the appointment as soon as I saw that you had left your name on my door."
===========================
In this story I see three things. Two are the things I usually see when I read a story like this, the third is new. The first thing I experience is the humor from the unexpected ending. Nasrudin completely turns the tables on the self-righteous philosopher. The unexpectedness of the ending makes one chuckle.
The unexpected ending also made me think, "Hmm... This is a brilliant way of handling angry, contentious people who make others' lives a living hell. I will try to remember this if I ever encounter someone like that philosopher...and teach him a lesson!" I made me wonder about how many other life opportunities or "life saves" have I missed out on because I could only see one inevitable outcome to a situation, when actually there might be many. This is a very cool effect of these stories: they help one learn to think "outside the box," although, at least for me, when I'm in the heat of the immediate moment, these useful lessons tend to fly out window as I panic and respond in a more conventional way, that is often not optimal.
The third way of looking at these stories, which I've only recently been trying, is to see myself as worst character in the story and then think about how that individual's behavior resembles my own. In this simple tale, the worst character is obvious: the philosopher. He is so egotistical, so full of himself and proud of his brilliant mind and all of his great learning, that he see a common human incident (someone not being at an appointment at the right time) as a personal affront, and becoming engorged with self-justified rage at this "clearly rude insult."
I don't know about you, dear reader, but I have done this very thing a great may times in my life. I didn't respect other people's own, equally valid consciousness and existence. I treated them badly because I saw them as outside objects or extensions of myself, there to serve me or make me feel good, not as separate consciousnesses just like myself. And I have become enraged, with people like CSR's, who were just doing their jobs the best way they could, and, being pawns in a large corporate machine, didn't have control over the things that were enraging me. When I see this story in the light of my own huge ego and bad behavior toward others, I look at what Nasrudin did and think "he nailed it." Stupid Oaf is exactly the right tag for this sort of egotistical, self-centered behavior. I wish I were less of a stupid oaf. :-(
I'm not saying any of the above to get sympathy or "You're not that bad, Randy" pats on the back. I'm saying it to demonstrate a little bit of the vast, immensely valuable treasures inside a book like this...if you read it in the right way. There are likely many many "right" ways to read it, but for me personally, that "right way" is currently to look at the worst or most stupid character in the story and ask, "How is this like me?" Not "Am I like that?" But rather, "How I am like the most appalling or stupid characters in this tale?
There are many layers of wisdom in these tales, and this reviewer is still mostly at the surface admiration stage (with sometimes noticing there is something more under that surface--if I view the tale in the rather uncomfortable manner I've described above). And you know what? I feel so stupid! The Nasrudin stories have always baffled me. I could almost never see their point, other than entertainment. And in all these years of bemusement, there has been a shovel right next to me, a tool I could use to uncover more, but I failed to avail myself of it or even see it clearly—and not entirely because of ignorance. The other Sufi books of Shah's give plenty of hints as to what needs to be done but I didn't connect the dots. I ignored using the shovel (a.k.a. seeing the worst features of my personality) on these tales because it was heavy, uncomfortable, unflattering, didn't make me feel smart or superior. I was my own worst enemy, in other words, while shouting to the universe that I sought knowledge and was ready to receive it. What foolish arrogance, eh? But definitely something a "Stupid Oaf" would do!
To use another analogy, some people lift up the cover of a volume like this and see in its contents just a big boring, pile of dull, ugly pebbles that only a child would want to play with, even though a few, if looked at closely, might have interesting patterns or may make one laugh because they're shaped like ducks. That's been me, for years and years.
Others lift the cover and see a jewel or two or maybe, if they're further along the road, see a big pile of "precious, luminous gems." I think I've seen one or two jewels in my many years of reading Nasrudin books. But I haven't done much with them, including look for more of them, because they way you look (comparing the tale to your own worst thoughts or behavior) is not the most comfortable or enjoyable thing to do. The "seeking pleasure at all times" principle is very strong in people. But I am hoping I can find some use for this one. Maybe I can become more human by treating everyone, in my secret thoughts as well as in my outward behavior, as equally human, another consciousness, just like me...perhaps even, unknown to this Stupid Oaf who so often thinks he's the brightest bulb in the chandelier, a precious, luminous gem.
June 13, 2014
Characteristic for sufism is the emphasis on humor and they assert that it is a healthy sign in a group when there is place for humor in it. Should it feel misplaced, something is not right. Esoteric groups are no exception and consequently you find the silly, foolish, funny, philosophical Mulla Nasrudin in the same company as Rumi, Ghazzali, Khayyam and others. Dervishes use the stories as exercises in their teaching
Pick out some of the stories you like extra much and let them be your own, recommends Idries Shah in the introduction. Ponder them, turn them around in your head � they can lead to a breakthrough to higher knowledge. Or just enjoy their fun.
Here is one I like:
Mulla Nasrudin bought a parrot at the bazaar and found that it could speak very well. He went in to the closest teahouse to show his amazing, talking bird. But as the parrot didn´t say a word the people didn´t believe him no matter how much he insisted. So they made a bet, ten to one that the bird couldn´t talk, which Nasrudin lost as the parrot uttered no sound whatsoever. On the way home it got a scolding: “You fool, look how much money I have lost because of you�
”It is you who are the fool�, answered the parrot. “Take me back to the teahouse tomorrow, and you´ll get a hundred to one and win.�
The first Nasrudin-story I heard was told to me by a Turkish friend 45years ago. I remember I thought it immensely fun.
Nasrudin has fallen asleep in the shadow under an olive tree and wakes up when an olive falls down on his head. Then he looks out over the melon fields in front of him and says, thoughtfully: “God is wise not to let melons grow in trees�
Pick out some of the stories you like extra much and let them be your own, recommends Idries Shah in the introduction. Ponder them, turn them around in your head � they can lead to a breakthrough to higher knowledge. Or just enjoy their fun.
Here is one I like:
Mulla Nasrudin bought a parrot at the bazaar and found that it could speak very well. He went in to the closest teahouse to show his amazing, talking bird. But as the parrot didn´t say a word the people didn´t believe him no matter how much he insisted. So they made a bet, ten to one that the bird couldn´t talk, which Nasrudin lost as the parrot uttered no sound whatsoever. On the way home it got a scolding: “You fool, look how much money I have lost because of you�
”It is you who are the fool�, answered the parrot. “Take me back to the teahouse tomorrow, and you´ll get a hundred to one and win.�
The first Nasrudin-story I heard was told to me by a Turkish friend 45years ago. I remember I thought it immensely fun.
Nasrudin has fallen asleep in the shadow under an olive tree and wakes up when an olive falls down on his head. Then he looks out over the melon fields in front of him and says, thoughtfully: “God is wise not to let melons grow in trees�
April 7, 2015
The first volume of the Mulla Nasrudin Corpus, retold by Afghan author Idries Shah, is a great introduction to the use of humour by the Middle Eastern and Central Asian sages called the Sufis. Nasrudin is a 'wise fool' teaching-figure: sometimes acting as a guide, sometimes exhibiting shortcomings in the mind by his hilariously 'brain-dead' behaviour. Nasrudin stories have been told and enjoyed across Asia, North Africa, and Southeastern Europe for centuries (and at least one collection was published in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century). The Sufis reportedly use the tales almost as exercises. "They ask people to choose a few which especially appeal to them, and to turn them over in the mind, making them their own. Teaching masters of the dervishes say that in this way a breakthrough into a higher wisdom can be effected." In addition, the stories are vividly and beautifully told. The delightful tale 'His Excellency' is alone worth the price of admission.
September 15, 2018
I have been reading Mulla Nasruddin's tales and anecdotes all my life. The Urdu magazines in India, reserve a few corners of the page for tiny tales, most of them being Mulla's.
However, finding it all in one place was like finding a treasure. And who would be unhappy about unexpected treasure?
The tiny tales range from being cute to funny to wise. I just love the words. One line that stuck with me even after finishing the book.
‘Just because you can ask a question does not mean that there is a straightforward answer to it,� said the Mulla, who now realised what had happened. ‘It all depends upon your viewpoint. If you must know, however: I am here because of you, and you are here because of me.�
Beautiful, isn't it?
However, finding it all in one place was like finding a treasure. And who would be unhappy about unexpected treasure?
The tiny tales range from being cute to funny to wise. I just love the words. One line that stuck with me even after finishing the book.
‘Just because you can ask a question does not mean that there is a straightforward answer to it,� said the Mulla, who now realised what had happened. ‘It all depends upon your viewpoint. If you must know, however: I am here because of you, and you are here because of me.�
Beautiful, isn't it?
July 9, 2015
Nasrudin, our mirror; the man who perhaps never existed but who reflects our soul like anyone else. A challenging book for our psyche, our ego, and many other concealed aspects of ourselves. If you cannot laugh with Nasrudin, you need to find what is stopping you from laughing of yourself.
April 16, 2019
Idries Shah has done us a great service by making available the 'wisdom of ages' found in the Nasruddin stories. They will make you laugh and cry and beyond that gain new perceptions of the interwoven nature of reality. An enjoyable and useful read.
March 9, 2011
The stories are quick enough to read between rail-stops, but the lessons have a pleasant aftertaste.
March 30, 2019
Are you being exploited by your minds attributes or are you exploiting them, and which is which? Nasrudin might help, and indeed he might not, assist in learning something about such a conundrum.
December 31, 2024
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.
Each story has so much depth and trying to map each story and its unique foolishness to the respective fallacy bias or error in thinking is extremely eye opening.
What is amazing is that none of the stories have an overlap in stupidity i.e. each story demonstrates a unique stupidness and it is very difficult to do so.
I am not sure if the author did this deliberately or if the author got very lucky but whatever be the case Idries Shah has compiled a great collection of stupidity or teaching future generations about how to learn from stupidity.
The best thing about Idries Shah is that his foundation allows you to read this book and all this other books for free from this website -
Each story has so much depth and trying to map each story and its unique foolishness to the respective fallacy bias or error in thinking is extremely eye opening.
What is amazing is that none of the stories have an overlap in stupidity i.e. each story demonstrates a unique stupidness and it is very difficult to do so.
I am not sure if the author did this deliberately or if the author got very lucky but whatever be the case Idries Shah has compiled a great collection of stupidity or teaching future generations about how to learn from stupidity.
The best thing about Idries Shah is that his foundation allows you to read this book and all this other books for free from this website -
March 20, 2019
Another installment in the Nasrudin series: a compilation of "jokes" featuring the enigmatic figure of Mulla Nasrudin. As always when Nasrudin is involved, be prepared to be surprised, bemused, and even to laugh out loud. And again, as always, don't bother trying to "puzzle out" the meaning of the stories, rather let yourself experience them and turn them over in your mind. Like all the Nasrudin books, you'll want to dip into this one again and again over the years.
January 2, 2025
The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin
&
The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
(Two Volumes in One)
By: Idries Shah
Here is a collection of some funny, witty and moral stories of the famous Mulla Nasrudin, from the East.
Some stories I've heard or read about in my mother tongue Siraiki and our national language Urdu.
I have really enjoyed this compendium of aweful tales.
I would comment in Urdu about it;
ملاں نصرالدین؛ نام ہی کافی ہے۔
(Mulla Nasrudin, Name is a brand.)
The writer wrote these stories in such an easy way that they could be enjoyed by all.
&
The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
(Two Volumes in One)
By: Idries Shah
Here is a collection of some funny, witty and moral stories of the famous Mulla Nasrudin, from the East.
Some stories I've heard or read about in my mother tongue Siraiki and our national language Urdu.
I have really enjoyed this compendium of aweful tales.
I would comment in Urdu about it;
ملاں نصرالدین؛ نام ہی کافی ہے۔
(Mulla Nasrudin, Name is a brand.)
The writer wrote these stories in such an easy way that they could be enjoyed by all.
April 9, 2019
A series of short parables featuring Nasrudin, a Seljuk (?) holy fool character. There is a variety to be found: some of the stories appear to be simple jokes, while others apparently work on multiple levels. It seems the intent is to use humor to shock the mind out of its ordinary patterns and habits as a means toward some spiritual or psychological insight. Short and sweet.
"It's not true unless it makes you laugh"- Robert Anton Wilson
"It's not true unless it makes you laugh"- Robert Anton Wilson
September 4, 2018
Discovered Shahs books back in the 70's while living in England for five years. Have read and reread all of them. It is simply an astounding body of work. The most insightful and thoughtful corpus that brings me back and back. A graduate level impact on life itself.
December 26, 2019
This book is proof that wit can make life a lot easier. It’s all about perspective and taking the time to stop and “form� your perspective instead of full on panicking. So in a way, this book is like a fun “stop worrying� collection of tales of Nasrudin.
November 3, 2017
Great timeless short tales. An original thought-provoking fool.
August 5, 2019
Ingenioso en unas partes y muy bobo en otras, pero ligero e inocente, como para lectura Infantil.
August 31, 2022
Fun time pass read. Many stories i recognize from my childhood books of mullah nasiruddin hojja.
November 27, 2022
If you have not read the tales of the Mulla Nasrudin, you have not yet begun to live!
July 25, 2019
i should probably give it 3 stars because the whole book is just one idea. But the impact it has created on me is 5 stars. Must read.
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