Juha or Mullah NasrEddin
Juha is a well-known historical comic character and there are hundreds of funny stories and jokes about him and his donkey, especially the stories which are linked to his stupidity and wisdom.
Juha is also popular in the West in addition to other more glamorous and charming Arab ‘personalities’ such as Sindbad and Ali Baba, whose stories have always inspired the imagination of the European children and the West in general.
The character of Juha appeared in literature in the ninth century AD, and may have existed earlier with the narrators, and by time has become part of the heritage of Arab Muslims wherever they are, with some modification.
The Turks know him as Gueva, and in Iran and Azerbaijan and their neighbors as well the Kurds the character is known as ‘Mullah NasrEddin’. The character of Juha and his donkey is believed to have inspired the great Spanish novelist Cervantes to create Don Quixote, the most famous novel in history.
Although a certain character lived with certain qualities during a certain period in an Islamic era, it is reasonable to say that it does not belong to a specific individual. It is said that he is Abu Ghosn Dujain Al Fizari, who lived in the Umayyad state, while others say he is Sheikh NasrEddin Khuja, Al-Rumi who lived in Konya during the Mongol rule of Anatolia, and the majority of Juha stories in Western literature are attributed to the latter.
Juha’s character is also attributed to Abu Nawas Al-Baghdadi, who was accompanied by Harun Al-Rashid who was his poet and his personal entertainer. Abu Nawas Al-Baghdadi was known for his humor and the power of his tricks. This character was later known as Juha in Mesopotamia, which in our opinion is a weak possibility. Juha’s character is often in the form of an old man who is poor and has no path in poetry.
Juha’s stories became famous because they were funny, cynical, with a smart satirical touch and were easy to prevail because they attributed them to a specific figure. We do not exaggerate when we say a majority of the countries have their own ‘Juha’, which is consistent with their circumstances and way of life.
What applies to the repetition of Juha’s stories and jokes in more than one form, style, and language applies to the modern funny stories and jokes that I have noted when I narrate some of these stories to the Europeans, Turks or Indians, for example, they say they have something similar, especially the funny ending, with a slight change in places, names or rulers.
Juha is mentioned in the books of Jalal Al-Suyuti, Aal-Zahabi and AlHafiz Ibn Al-Jawzi, who narrated stories about him that shows intelligence mixed with stupidity.
One of the funny stories about him is when he was preaching in a mosque one day and said: ‘Worshippers, do you know what I will say to you’? They replied: ‘No, we do not know’. He said: ‘If you do not know, what is the point of speaking’. He then climbed down from the pulpit, and returned to the same mosque another day and asked the same question. This time they replied: ‘Yes, we know.’ He said: ‘As long as you know, what is the benefit of what I am going to say?’ The worshippers were confused and agreed to answer differently next time, that is to say some will answer ‘No’, and some will say ‘Yes’.
When he came to them the third time, he asked the same question and their answers differed between: Yes and No, and he said: Very well, those who know tell it to the one who does not know.
One day Juha was riding his donkey and one of the passersby who tried to joke with him said: ‘O Juha I know your donkey but I did not know you.’ Juha said: ‘This is normal because donkeys know each other.’
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