Nasreddin Hodja
The wise fool on a donkey, whose jokes are told from the Balkans to Central Asia, and whose tomb has a padlocked gate but no walls.
Every child in Turkey knows him: an old man in a huge turban, riding a donkey, ready with a joke that turns out to be wisdom. His name is Nasreddin Hodja, and his stories are told from the Balkans to Central Asia. In the town of Akşehir, his tomb has a padlocked gate, even though its walls are open on every side.
Who Was Nasreddin Hodja?
In truth, nobody knows for sure. He was probably born in the 13th century in the village of Hortu, near Sivrihisar in today’s Eskişehir Province. Later, he settled in Akşehir, in the time of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, and died there in the 1280s. However, other traditions place him in Central Asia, and some scholars even link him to Juha, a joke-teller of the Arab world.
In any case, the first stories about him in Turkish appear in books of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the oldest known manuscript of his tales dates from 1571. Since then, people have told thousands of his stories in dozens of languages.
Nasreddin Hodja in numbers
- 13th c.traditional birth near Sivrihisar
- 2022UNESCO lists the tradition of his tales
Nasreddin Hodja, the Wise Fool
Typically, in his stories, the Hodja is sometimes clever, sometimes foolish and often both at once. Most of all, he turns the logic of the powerful upside down. So a Nasreddin story usually ends with a laugh, and then with a second thought.
Riding backward
One famous tale, written on a plaque at his statue in Akşehir, explains why he rode his donkey facing backward. On the way to the mosque with his students, he said that if he rode forward, he would turn his back on them, and if they walked ahead, they would turn their backs on him. So the only polite way was to sit backward.
A tradition shared by many nations
In 2022, UNESCO added the tradition of telling comic tales about Nasreddin to its list of intangible cultural heritage. Fittingly, seven countries applied together: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan.
Nasreddin Hodja in Akşehir
The tomb with a padlocked gate
As for his tomb in Akşehir, it probably dates from the 14th century. Later, a pyramid roof on columns was added over it. Its four sides are open, yet one side has a gate with a padlock, a joke in stone that fits the Hodja perfectly. Also, in front of the tomb, a platform marks the “center of the world”, after one of his most famous answers.
The same tomb also holds the grave of Habibe, a daughter of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed I. In the past, the Hodja’s descendants looked after the tomb, free of taxes and with a salary.
The festival
Every summer, Akşehir holds the International Nasreddin Hodja Festival in his honor.
Following Nasreddin Hodja
Akşehir lies in Konya Province, so combine it with Konya, the city of Rumi, whose tomb you can visit at the Mevlana Museum. For another great storyteller of Anatolia, read about the poet Yunus Emre, and for a traveler with tales just as tall, meet Evliya Çelebi.
Also, look for Hodja statues across the country, from town squares to parks.
Would you like to go looking for him in Sivrihisar? Our Eskişehir tour stops there on the way from Odunpazarı. Tell us your dates, and we plan the drive.
