Joking in Bukhara…

Welcome to my home away from home in Bukhara. This is the madressa in Uzbekistan where I like to stay and unwind when I’m working in Central Asia. Not far from this oasis of peace and relaxation (otherwise known as a bed and breakfast) is a statue of Nasreddin–a legendary comic figure from the Middle Ages whose stories use humor to impart a spiritual or moral lesson.

When I was teaching a seminar on Sufism in Central Asia at Columbia, my students loved these Sufi-inspired “koans” so much that some of them even chose to write their final papers on representations of Nasreddin in popular culture from Uzbekistan to Albania–and many places in between. Here is one of the many Nasreddin stories told frequently in Bukhara:

Nasreddin was walking in the bazaar with a large group of followers. Whatever Nasreddin did, his followers immediately copied. Every few steps Nasreddin would stop and shake his hands in the air, touch his feet and jump up yelling “Hu Hu Hu!” So his followers would also stop and do exactly the same thing.

One of the merchants, who knew Nasreddin, quietly asked him: “What are you doing my old friend? Why are these people imitating you?”

“I have become a Sufi Sheikh,” replied Nasreddin. “These are my murids (spiritual seekers); I am helping them reach enlightenment!”

“How do you know when they reach enlightenment?”

“That’s the easy part! Every morning I count them. The ones who have left – they have reached enlightenment!”