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On World Storytelling Day, the Idries Shah Foundation is celebrating the eternal appeal and exploits of the incomparable, incredible and inimitable folk legend, Mulla Nasrudin.

We’ve been in Turkey where Nasrudin remains a cultural phenomenon loved by Turks of all walks of life and known affectionately as Nasreddin Hodja (or Hoca).

On the streets of Istanbul, we found that pretty much everyone, regardless of age or status, has a favourite Nasreddin Hodja story — and many of them were only too willing to share them with us.

This included workmen, businessmen, housewives and children, and even a master puppeteer whose amazing studio we chanced upon in a narrow, back street on the European side.

Hodja’s enduring popularity amongst the Turks — and indeed many peoples around the world — surely goes to prove Idries Shah’s assertion in The Sufis that Mulla Nasrudin, is ‘indestructible’.

So this World Storytelling Day - bend to the inevitable!  Embrace the wonder that is Nasrudin.  And if you are already an adherent, expand your repertoire of his thought-provoking antics. At the very least, you may enjoy a laugh — and perhaps help someone else do so as well.

 

World Storytelling Day is an opportunity to celebrate and share diverse stories from around the world.
World Storytelling Day is an annual event celebrated on March 20th that encourages people from all walks of life to share stories, tales, and folklore from around the world. It is a day that celebrates the diversity of humanity through the art of storytelling.