October 29, 2002

8:28 AM

In college, I had an Turkish Electrical Engineering professor who used to open every class period with a story about Hoja (or Hoca, spelled the Turkish way), the bumbling yet clever 'folk philosopher'. He is known throughout the middle east also as Mulla Nasrudin and people from Azerbaijan to North Africa claim him as their own. Here are a few collections of stories about this 'comic sage': The definitive Hoja resource, a geocities site, Turkish Trickster, This reminds me of a story..., turkish humor. Enjoy!
posted by jnthnjng (5 comments total)

Great post. Mulla Nasruddin Hodja is a very funny window into a world that few are familiar with. And you're right about everyone in the Muslim world claiming him as their own. He's like baklava.
posted by laz-e-boy at 8:46 AM on October 29, 2002

Wow. Street Racer. Um, wow.
posted by mikrophon at 9:09 AM on October 29, 2002

Okay, now try this'n.
posted by mikrophon at 9:10 AM on October 29, 2002

I saw comedian Omid Djalili performing this year, some of his material was Hoca stuff - still works today.
posted by asok at 9:52 AM on October 29, 2002

Several Hoja Nasrudin links and stories were contributed in this Metafilter thread a year ago.
posted by Zurishaddai at 12:04 PM on October 29, 2002