In the central Anatolian town of Aksehir, where dusty plains meet the distant shimmer of Mount Sultan, laughter hangs in the air over stories told and retold over centuries. Somewhere between them drifts the echo of a man in a turban, riding his donkey backwards. Konya celebrates the legendary Nasreddin Hodja.

The 66th edition of the International Nasreddin Hodja Festival is in full swing in Aksehir, Hodja’s hometown. The festival commenced on July 5 with the traditional town crier’s call, inviting the public to the festivities. 

There will be ten days of music, theatre, humour, and cultural events. At the opening ceremony, actor Altan Erkekli, who portrayed Nasreddin Hodja with great success, received the prestigious "Golden Turban" award. 

The Nasreddin Hodja Festival kicked off with traditional fanfare and feasts of local music, storytelling, and folk performances. Among the festival’s highlights are charming open-air theatrical episodes featuring Nasreddin’s legendary wit, puppet shows for children, and interactive cultural workshops celebrating his legacy. 

Notably, the festival is now an official member of the European Association of Folklore Festivals, enhancing its international reach and fostering cross-cultural exchanges rooted in shared tales and traditions.

No ordinary commemoration

This year’s festival is also a declaration: that the wit of Nasreddin Hodja is just not a relic of Turkish folklore, but a living, breathing compass for navigating modern life with humour, empathy, and critical thinking.

Nasreddin Hodja, a thirteenth-century satirist, is a man of elusive biography and abundant afterlife. His tales, comedic yet subversive, challenge convention with wit and irony.

For centuries, his tales have travelled across the Middle East, where his name has become shorthand for a certain kind of paradoxical wisdom: the jester who speaks the truth no one else dares voice. 

Whether man or myth, he lives on as the wise fool of the Muslim world. Nasreddin Hodja’s legacy is at once local and vast. The earliest written record of his tales appears in the Saltukname of 1485, but he had long since entered oral tradition by then.

Today, he is UNESCO-certified, officially recognised as part of the Cultural Heritage since 2022. In 1996, UNESCO had already named it the International Year of Nasreddin Hodja.

Still, he persists by the everyday recognition of something larger.

“Nasreddin Hodja is not just a historical character; he is a cultural phenomenon who belongs to all of us,” says Associate Professor Ebru Senocak, a Turkish literature scholar at Firat University. “He represents the conscience of the people. He didn’t lecture or command, but he laughed with us. And through that, he made us think,” she tells TRT World.

In Turkish, “Hodja” (or “Hoca”) is a word of reverence, meaning teacher, sage, or religious guide, someone whose authority lies not in force but in wisdom. In Hodja’s case, that wisdom wears the mask of humour.

“Nasreddin Hodja stands as a timeless symbol of universal love, tolerance, ideal human virtues, and the wit, character, culture, and spoken wisdom of the Turkish people,” Senocak adds.

“Echoing Hippocrates’ sentiment of ‘Don’t fight, laugh,’ Hodja emerges as a guide who harnesses the transformative power of humour as a profound force for reflection and social healing.”

Nasreddin Hodja has become a cherished symbol of folk wisdom, satirical anecdotes, and timeless short stories. “What made him universal is his capacity to hold a mirror to human behaviour without judgment,” Senocak adds. 

“Whether you’re a farmer in Anatolia or a merchant in Samarkand, the Hodja speaks your language. His tales offer gentle but piercing social critique, anecdotes that reveal hypocrisy, pride, greed, and folly, but always with empathy.”

His universality transcends language and borders, leaving an indelible mark on the cultural heritage of countless societies, and securing his place as a beacon of both laughter and wisdom for generations.

“He arrives as a neighbour, not a foreigner”

Nasreddin Hodja’s legacy transcends borders, taking on different names and forms across cultures.

Through centuries, the Hodja has borne many names: Molla Nasreddin in Azerbaijan, Nasirdin Ependi among Uighur Turks in China, Kojanasir in Kazakhstan, Apendi in Kyrgyzstan.

In the Arab world, he’s better known as Juha or Goha. In South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, he morphs again, sharing traits with Sheikh Chilli, Molla Do-Piyaze.

In Bulgaria, he is often confused with Hitar Petar, a mistake that, as one scholar notes, is more revealing than wrong.

“That confusion is not accidental,” says Pof Dr Zekerya Batur, a cultural historian at Usak University. “It’s a sign of Hodja’s reach. In every region he enters, he becomes part of that culture’s own self-reflection. He doesn’t arrive as a foreigner, he arrives as a neighbour.”

Batur views Hodja not merely as a humourist, but as a profound thinker shaped by the spiritual and political currents of the 13th century, a time when Anatolia was recovering from the Mongol invasions and witnessing the rise of luminaries like Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi and Yunus Emre.

But where Rumi offered ecstatic poetry, Hodja wielded subversive common sense. Among his many observations, Professor Batur points to tales where Hodja rides his donkey backwards, feeds soup to his coat, or solves a neighbourhood dispute with absurd logic.

“He was using the absurd to illuminate reality. That’s why we still remember him. He wasn’t just mocking others, but calling us to examine ourselves.” Professor Batur adds.

In his tales, Hodja feeds soup to his coat to prove a point about superficial respect; he rides his donkey backwards to show that perspectives matter; he settles disputes with logic that cuts deeper than common sense, according to Batur.

“The purpose of his short tales is not only to elicit laughter but to provoke thought. This dual aim should be the starting point when interpreting his stories. 

While the structure of his anecdotes often hinges on irony, Hodja’s ultimate goal is to lead people to recognise their own mistakes through witty observations. He encourages personal growth and self-awareness.”

“Nasreddin Hodja contributed to the Turkish enlightenment, not in the academic sense, but in the social sense,” Batur adds. 

“He criticised the status quo without bitterness. He used irony, paradox, and dark humour to challenge power, resist dogma, and awaken the mind.”

 Universality in Hodja’s wit

A new generation of storytellers is working to adapt Nasreddin Hodja for the modern world and has written about the famous icon for the present and future generations.

Faculty member and lecturer at Ibn Haldun university Dr Melike Gunyuz, a literary expert, children’s author and publisher, whose book “Nasreddin Hodja and the Miserly Neighbor” relates the Hodja’s most famous fikras (anecdotes) into a cohesive narrative for young readers.

“Children interpret stories differently,” Gunyuz tells TRT World. 

“As adults, we’re used to extracting the moral message. Children need to feel the story first. That’s why I wove several classic tales together, to keep the humour intact, but bring out the deeper wisdom in a language they can access.”

Her book, which has already been translated into French, Arabic, Mongolian, Persian, and Japanese, reflects Hodja’s borderless appeal.

“Hodja was a joyful man of the people, but also a scholar, deeply integrated with the society around him,” Gunyuz says. 

“His anecdotes are rich with insights into the sociocultural dynamics of his time. His relationships along with his rulings as a learned man, his outlook on life, and the tools, animals, markets, debts, and trades of the day, all provide a vivid picture of daily life in that era. In this way, his tales serve as both sociological documentation and historical record.”

Still, for Gunyuz, the real power lies in transmission.

“He belongs to Anatolia, yes. But in essence, he belongs to humanity. Every culture has their wise man, Hodja is ours.” 

When she gives talks and begins with “Just like Nasreddin Hodja…,” she says, “there’s an immediate sense of connection. These stories are more than entertainment, they are a bridge to shared values and a collective way of thinking.”

Even the Turkish language carries traces of him. Idioms such as ipe un sermek (“to stall”), Yorgan gitti, kavga bitti (“The quilt is gone, the fight is over”), Ye kurkum ye (“Eat, my coat, eat!”), or Dostlar alisveriste gorsun (“Let the friends see us shopping”) all spring from Hodja tales—miniature philosophies tucked into colloquial speech.

As the festival rolls on in Aksehir, Nasreddin Hodja remains remarkably contemporary. In a polarised world, he reminds us that we are all slightly ridiculous. And that laughter, particularly when pointed inward, is perhaps our most serious tool.

“Through his anecdotes, Nasreddin Hodja offers vivid snapshots of social life, cross sections of a world where wisdom is veiled in humour, issues are resolved and laughter serves as a bridge to deeper understanding,” says Professor Batur.

“Nasreddin Hodja’s genius lies in his ability to turn laughter into light,” Senocak adds. “He was never merely entertaining us, he was teaching us to live together, to think for ourselves, and to laugh at our own illusions.”

And so the donkey trots on, backwards and forward at once: bearing the message that sometimes, it’s not the traveller who’s turned around, but the world.