Nasreddin Hodja in Romanian folklore: a Journey of Historical and Cultural

Transgression

It is a certain fact that, in the past seven hundred years or so, it is hard to find such a

versatile yet homogeneous character as Nasreddin Hodja, with such an international profile and

such a prolific source of universal wit and humor. In the opening speech of the Symposium held

in his honor in December 1996 at Izmir1, Fahir Iksz stated that btn dunya aslnda Nasreddin

Hocaya sahip kt, from Hungary and Southern Siberia to Morocco, Tunis, Algeria, to

Kirghizstan, Georgia, and even Israel (1997).

While the magnitude of Nasreddin Hodja stories popularity reaches half of the globe, my

aim is to study how did this character and his jokes pass from the Turkish culture into the

Romanian one. Insofar the historical background is somewhat clear, based on the premises of

Ottoman sovereignty over the space inhabited by Romanian people, but the process of this

transfer from the source culture into the target one, realized during centuries and partly through

oral communication, carries deeper insights and shows how the input that is, Nasreddin Hodja

suffered alterations and became an output that doesnt renegade its roots nor it is completely

absorbed into the target culture. I hope that this study will prove itself useful in expanding the

concept of cultural translation.

Being at the very beginning of the research process, the main topic and its theoretical

approach splits into several segments. As I have only researched the character of Nasreddin

Hodja on a preliminary basis, related to its origins and evolution in Turkey and Romania, the

1
Nasreddin Hoca Bilgi oleni, 24-26 December, Izmir Turkey; 1996 was declared by UNESCO the International
Nasreddin Year (Wikipedia)
concepts I am going to work with are so far only roughly outlined and more at the level of an idea

or a guess; still, I suppose that the main terms that will form the basis of my theoretical approach

are humor, cultural translation and appropriation, respectively. How was humor perceived during

Middle Ages in Ottoman Empire and in Romanian principalities? How does the concept

transcend time and space? How were the jokes perceive in those times and how are they now, and

more over, did the target culture retain the same wit spirit during the transfer process, or did it

change and become acculturalized in the adoptive space? My hypothesis is that these jokes are

ageless, that the main aim is to provoke laughter, not to be taken seriously, and at occasion to

teach a lesson about social or moral codes; being so, they are received in a similar manner, they

fundamentally speak of universal behavioral manners that were available five hundred years ago

as they are now. Nonetheless, the cultural nuances these stories gained by traveling from one

culture to another for generations are worth given a closer look, especially when cultural agents

like religion, social norms, family values, ideology intervene.

As such, one of my aims is to conduct a synchronic and diachronic comparison between

the Turkish and the Romanian stories of Nasreddin Hodja, to try to identify the translation

modality and to follow the course of its process.

Nasreddin Hodja in Turkey

During the past decades, extensive studies had been conducted in Turkey in order to bring

light upon the origins and the existence of Nasreddin Hodja, as well as the evolution of his stories

throughout time. Some of the most preeminent names that took a close interest in this case are

Pertev Naili Boratav and Ilhan Bagz. Even though most of the research was made in Turkey,

there are academicians that worked on this case from outside of the Turkish borders. One of the
most recent studies is a doctorate thesis that examined Nasreddin Hodja as a person as well as a

fictional character. When it comes to how far the stories go back in time, Hakki Gurkas states in

this work that the earliest known collections of Hodja stories belong to the sixteenth century: a

manuscript in Oxfords Bodleien Library is dated to 1571. This manuscript includes 43 stories.

(2008:116).

The origin of Nasreddin Hoca is uncertain and, likewise, it is hard to separate the real

person from the fictional character. There are two main approaches with this respect: the first one

comes from the writings of Evliya elebi, who mentions that Nasreddin Hoca met Tamerlane and

saved Akehir from being ruined by his forces (ibid.). Based on these writings, modern French

and German orientalists, such as Decourdemanche, Cantemir (sic!) and Goethe, attribute the rise

of Nasreddin Hoca folklore to the late 14th and early 15th centuries (ibid.). The second approach

dates the origins of Nasreddin Hoca folklore to 13th century, based on evidences provided by

literary sources such as Saltukname and Letaif, along with historical sources as Nasreddin

Hodjas tomb, that shows he died in 683 (A.D. 1284/1285) (Boratav 1996:10). However none of

these claims offer valid evidences.

As of where did Nasreddin Hodja come from, again there are two main arguments that

support two different locations: one is that, according to French folklorist Rene Basset, Nasreddin

Hodja is a variety of the Arab figure Djouha (Gurkas 2008:128), whose fame traveled through

oral stories to Turkey, the other one is that Nasreddin Hodja was an actual person that lived in

Anatolia, theory supported by Turkish scholars such as Ismail Hakk Konyal and Fuat Kprl.

Gurkas, on the other hand, comes up with his own theory that Nasreddin Hodja folklore rose

about the same time when the 400 Turkic families, founders of the Ottoman Turks, emigrated

from Central Asia to Anatolia (2008:134), and thus brought through oral culture the stories into

the Turkish space.

 Nasreddin Hodja is at times portrayed as a saint, breaking a chronic drought, granting

wishes, healing eye-diseases and protecting people during long journeys (Gurkas 2008: 138)

although these attributes seem to be given only in Akehir and its surroundings or as a trickster,

a forgetful and incompetent religious figure who falls out of trees, forgets to count the donkey

that he rides, and other similar silly things (149).

More insightful descriptions about Nasreddin Hodja as a character are provided by lhan

Bagz, who describes him as the imam of a small town, no different than a village or the social

and economic life of a village (1999:19). As an imam he has the social responsibility of

fulfilling three tasks: that of a preacher at the mosque, that of a teacher for the children of the

town, and that of a judge when a kad is not present. But in the same time Hodja is portrayed as a

villager, having a barn with animals to feed and a land to harvest crops, riding the monkey to

collect woods from the forest, or selling pickles in the villages.

Much more details about his persona and social behavior are collected from his stories. It

has to be mentioned at this point that earlier versions of the jokes contained language and events

that are now considered to be inappropriate or licentious, and are nowhere to be found in the

printed editions from the market nowadays. According to six manuscripts dated in the 16th

century, there are a total of 409 stories, from which a third are retellings (Bagz 1999:20).

Among the rest, 30% are about religion (religious beliefs, rituals, places of worship, Hodjas,

death and resurrection), 29% about Hodjas family, 19% about his relation with the donkey, 7%

about tricks he played to fill in the gaps of his income, 5% about his behavior toward authority

figures, and 4% about the law system. From this, total, 87 stories (that is 21 percent), are

considered to be obscene (ibid.).

Leaving aside the colorful language that constitutes an endless debate among scholars

nowadays, from these stories it comes out that Nasreddin Hodja symbolizes the optimism of the
peasant which has to struggle poverty, corruption and tyranny. Furthermore, main themes like

religion and womans social status are examined by Bagz, who notices some changes in the

course of history. As such, he argues that until the 17 th century the jokes, sometimes using

indecent language, involved hints to Gods injustice, superstitions, or events mocking religious

figures and sermon rituals. After the 17th century however all these features against religion have

been removed or replaced with something considered more appropriate to the Hodjas real person

(1999:33). According to Bagz, this change is due to the Turkish peoples graduate loss of faith

in esoteric religion along with switching from a nomad to a sedentary culture. Likewise, changes

intervene in the stories involving Hodjas family and neighbors: before the 16 th century, themes

about adultery, bestiality and women physical desires as well as their claiming of equal rights in

ruling a home are present, which signifies a more relaxed approach to womens social behavior

and sexual needs, whereas starting with the 17th century, signs of womans independence are cut

off and the hegemony of man is reinforced. One typical example of removing inappropriate

language is the way Hodja addresses his wife in earlier stories, where he often swears at her, as

opposed to latter stories where he calls her dear wife, or bac sultan (44).

Insofar as how the jokes had evolved throughout time in Turkey, as a general conclusion

of the research made by the Turkish scholars, it appears that whatever was deemed as

inappropriate, obscene or rude to an educated reader was removed or replaced: () 17.

yzyldan sonra Nasreddin Hoca hikayelerinin dilinde ve yapsnda da grlr. Kaba saba,

mstehcen dil, medresede eitilmi katibin ve kentli dinleyecinin etkisi ile temizlenmeye,

incelmeye balar. Hikaye, szgelimi, gtnz demez, knz der; sardnz demez,

pislerdiniz der. (Bagz 1999:115). Likewise, the jokes expanded from short texts consisting of

a question and an answer to stories that started to incorporate information about the characters

marital or social status, education and profession. Nasreddin Hodjas character as well gains some
changes, as it is shown in the stories published by Bahai (Velet elebi zbudak) in 1926. As such,

stories included in this book show Nasreddin Hodja as a role model of moral behavior as opposed

to the rude villager that laid everything out in the open(1999:119).

Nasreddin Hodja in Romania

As defined by the Romanian Encyclopedic Dictionary, Nasreddin Hodja (Rom. Nastratin

Hogea) is a legendary character, the hero of a series of Turkish jokes and popular stories, [of

Arabian and Persian origin]. His stories had passed from the Oriental Literature into the Balkan

folklore ()

As mentioned before, the presence of this Turkish character in another culture is not an

isolated case. As Gurkas states, the people of Central Asia, The Middle East, and the Balkans

have known the Nasreddin Hodja figure and the stories attributed to this character for centuries.

People of these regions have known him by several names (...). This people consider him one of

their own and integrated him into their local folklore. (2008:106)

Nasreddin Hodja is a well known character in the Romanian folklore. On the way of

being integrated in our popular literature, while preserving the humor and some original

characteristics like his name, provenience, religion, profession, appearance (the quilted cap, the

beard, the donkey he rides), it appears that he encountered some changes and gained some new

social dimensions. He has come to represent ...the symbol of the commoner; a sharp, witty

owner of a millenary wisdom, who, ridiculing the rich mens greediness and avarice, and the

rulers injustice and lack of wit, stands up for the poor and the doomed. (...) Nastratin Hogea

builds up the wisdom and the humor of the humble, hard working man, apparently naive, who

fights against the boyar2, the warden, the priest. That is why Nastratin has become the nickname

2
A member of a former privileged class in Romania
given to tricksters or those with sharp tongues (Oprea). While some features like being sharp,

witty and wise are part of his original fictional persona, others like fighting against the boyars and

the priests are clearly signs of appropriation into the adoptive culture. It is therefore, I believe, an

interesting case where the source and target texts are collective, the translator(s) unknown, and

the resulting product - the main character that is - becomes a mixture between the two cultures

involved. Upon this premises, one of the questions this ongoing study will attempt to answer is:

How far did the metamorphosis of Nasreddin Hodja go in the target culture, and what role did

translation play in this process?

It is still uncertain when and how did Nasreddin Hodjas figure and stories pass into the

Romanian culture. According to orientalist Mihail Gubolu, the first jokes spread from mouth to

mouth, from generation to generation, on the upper side of the Danube that is, Wallachia and

Moldavia - during the 14th-15th centuries, together with the rise of the Ottoman Empire and the

settlement in Dobruca of the Gagauz. He even presumes that the jokes might have been spread

earlier, during the 13th century, when some of the Seljuk Turks groups had emigrated from Konya

and Anatolia to Babadag and Dobruca 3(1996:173). Furthermore, the scholar argues that the

stories had been translated and spread in the Romanian principalities about one hundred year

before the oldest known manuscript of Nasreddin Hodjas jokes was written (London, Bodleian

Library Oxford 1571).

Being granted that Nasreddin Hodja had first become known in the Romanian space

around the 14th century, his popularity increased throughout time, and it appears to have reached

the target culture through three different channels: due to the Turks that came to Wallachia and

Moldavia, the Romanians that lived and received education in Istanbul, and the Greeks and

Armenians that came later on to Romania (1996:174). Two historical figures attested Hodjas

3
Romanian regions situated by the Black Sea
presence in the Romanian space during the Early Modern Era: Evliya elebi, who had lived in

Dobruca for a few years during the 17th century and had written about the Romanians, and

Dimitrie Cantemir (Kantemirolu Demetrius).

In Romanian culture, the first written mention about Nastratin Hogea appears in Dimitrie

Cantemirs treaty Incrementa atque descrementa Aulae Othomanicae (The Rise and Fall of the

Ottoman Empire), written at the beginning of the 17th century (Gubolu 1990:174). Through his

writings he has made the popular Turkish hero known not only in the Romanian principalities,

but abroad as well; moreover, he is the first to have brought evidence in Russia and Western

Europe that Hodja was a historical figure (ibid.).

The jokes had continued to spread throughout the 18 th century along with the investiture

of the Phanariot rulers in Wallachia and Moldavia, and by 1840 Nasreddin Hodja passed into the

target language through some proverbs, and in written literature through some plays. Two famous

proverbs had remained in the language ever since: Not even (Nasreddin) Hodja would be able to

solve this, used for highly complicated, unsolvable situations, and I am not (Nasreddin) Hodja,

to show that someone didnt understand or know the situation in case (ibid.).

Likewise, remained from the 19th century in the Romanian folkloric heritage is the

collection of Nasreddin Hodja jokes selected and printed out by a famous local folklorist and

writer, Anton Pann. According to Gubolu, Pann selected 40 stories from the oral literature,

versified and printed them out in 1853. Most probably they were already translated into

Romanian, but it would be interesting to find out whether he had done any interlingual translation

as well.

After Anton Panns release, a few more Romanian authors had written Nasreddin Hodja

stories, however, according to Gubolu these are not original jokes, but funny stories which

resemble those that circulate in the Russian, German, Bulgarian and Romanian popular literature
and have as central character comic heroes such as Till Eulenspiegel, Balakirev, Petar Hitrev and

Pacala, respectively. To put it Gubolus words, these stories had been Nasreddin-fied

(1996:176).

To sum up, in the Romanian culture Nasreddin Hodja is a character much loved, and

starting with Anton Panns first print release up until the 70s, his stories have been printed out in

30 editions (ibid.). As for the contemporary approach of the Romanian reader towards Nasreddin

Hodjas stories, it appears nowadays to have been reduced to children literature. All the research I

have been doing on internet comes up with he same result: childrens books (see Appendix). I

would argue that, while Nasreddin Hodja remains an important part of the Romanian folklore,

regarded as a rich source of wisdom and wit, when it comes to being actively present in the

contemporary literature, he can be found mostly as recommended lecture for primary and

secondary school. It would be interesting to find out whether the case is similar in Turkey, and

what may have been the cause to such an outcome.

At the present stage it was impossible for me to find an example of a Nasreddin Hodja

joke that emerged within the Romanian cultural space. However, one of the most recent and

extensive studies in this subject matter, Nasreddin Hoca ve 1555 fkras, released in 2008 by Dr.

Mustafa Duman, mentions one joke (see Appendix). For as far as the Turkish scholars research

goes in respect with Nasreddin Hodja and his fame, it appears to be mainly focused on the

historical and geographical origins and the evolution of the stories within the Turkish culture

rather than on an international scale; nonetheless I hope it will be of much use for the present

study.
 After this brief insight into the world of Nasreddin Hodja, my aim is, therefore, to follow

the evolution of this character throughout time by making a parallel between Nasreddin Hoca and

Nastratin Hogea, and to examine the changes occurred during the process in order to show what

role translation played throughout the transformation. Furthermore, it appears that in Turkish

contemporary literature as well as Romanian and others (English, French), Nasreddin Hodjas

stories are mainly presented as children literature. As it wasnt originally meant to educate young

minds, I wonder whether the main reason would be that the stories were initially introduced in

primary school curricula as excerpts of popular wisdom with educational values, and were

perpetuated this way throughout the 20th century.

References:

Bagz, Ilhan, Gemiten Gnmze Nasreddin Hoca, Istanbul: Pan Yaynclk 1999;

Boratav, Pertev Naili, Nasreddin Hoca, Ankara: Edebiyatlar Dernei 1996;

Duman, Mustafa, Nasreddin Hoca ve 1555 Fkras, Istanbul: ATT Basm Yayn Ltd 2008;

Gubolu, Mihail, Romen Edebiyatnda Nasreddin Hoca, Nasreddin Hocann Dnyas,

Istanbul: Trkiye Bankas Kltr Yaynlar 1996;

Gurkas, Hakki, Nasreddin Hoca and the Akehir Festival: Invention of a

Festive Tradition and Transfigurations of a Trickster, From Buhara to Brussels,

West Lafayette Indiana: Purdue University 2008

Iksz, Fahir, A Konumas, Nasreddin Hoca Bilgi leni (Sempozyumu) Bildirileri,

Ankara: Gn Ofset Ltd 1997;

 Oprea, Maria, Eroul national al umorului romnesc: Pacala, un critic htru al vietii,

http://www.alar.ro/n38/ethnos-

c146/eroul_national_al_umorului_rom_nesc_pacala_un_critic_h_tru_al_vietii-s287.html

Appendix

Mustafa Duman, Nasreddin Hoca ve 1555 fkras: Romanyada Nasreddin Hoca

orba Souktur: Nasreddin Hocann bir gn karn ackm ve bir cobra imek iin

yaknndaki a dkkanna girmi. orbay istedikten sonra beklemeye balam. A orbay

getirirken Hoca onu grnce: stemem, istemem, geriye gtr, ben scak orba imek

istiyorum, demi. Bunu duyan a akn baknarak: Hocam, henz orbay tatmadn bile.

Souk olduunu nereden anladn? diye sormu. Hoca da: Senin parmandan anladm. Eer

orba scak olsayd, parman iine sokabilir miydin? diyerek oradan kalkp baka bir a

dkkanna gitmi.