Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

A book entitled "Molla Nasraddin anecdotes" was published in English language and presented in Baku, Trend Life reported.

The literary heritage of Turkic peoples was translated into English by Canadian translator Allen Hossini, who lived in Azerbaijan for long years.

The book with specific illustrations by renowned artist Vugar Ali was published by the “Efendi” Publishing House. Soon, the book will be available for Azerbaijani readers at public libraries, while the book will also be presented to world readers at international book fairs.

Hundreds and thousands of stories about Molla Nasreddin are known throughout the world, not just among Turkish- speakers where the anecdotes originated. The character was popular among the tribes of the Turkic world and could penetrate into Persian, Arabian, African and Indian cultures.

Azerbaijanis and Iranians know this comic sage as "Molla Nasreddin" , while Turks call him "Hoja Nasreddin", Kazakhs say "Koja Nasreddin", Arabs - "Juha;" and Tajiks - "Mushfiqi."

Molla Nasreddin stories deal with social issues which are fundamental to human nature-social injustice, class privilege, selfishness, cowardliness, laziness, incompetence, ignorance, narrow-mindedness and all kinds of fraud. Though most of the stories are set in 13th century teahouses, caravansarai and market places, Molla's observations about human nature are so insightful and told so cleverly that they have the power to entertain and mesmerize centuries later.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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