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The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin Kindle Edition

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 143 ratings

A collection of anecdotes and jokes drawn from Middle Eastern folklore and the Sufi mystical tradition, which feature the wise fool, Mulla Nasrudin.

The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin is a compendium of tales in which Nasrudin, the village bumpkin and wiseacre, reveals the antics characteristic of the human mind. In each story, the Mulla can manifest great wisdom, or supreme folly. Often enough he reveals layers of both.

Nasrudin and his stories appear in literature and oral traditions from the Arab world to China. Many nations claim Nasrudin as a native son, but nobody knows his real origins or who he was. The Sufis, who believe that deep intuition is the only real guide to knowledge, use the humorous stories of Nasrudin’s adventures to trigger breakthroughs into higher wisdom.

Since Idries Shah made Nasrudin’s genius available to mainstream Western readers, people from every walk of life have laughed at and learned from this wise fool’s memorable escapades.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A major psychological and cultural event of our time." -- Psychology Today

"All will welcome the telling by Idries Shah." --
Times Educational Supplement

"... far superior to Aesop ..." --
The Times, November 29, 1973

"One is immediately forced to use one's mind in a new way." --
New York Times

"... jokes that arouse laughter in the simple and contemplation in the illuminated." --
The Listener, December 15, 1966

"A humorous masterpiece ... an outstanding book ..." --
Birmingham Post, November 26, 1966

"One can pick up this astonishing book again and again, finding each time new insights ..." --
BBC's Bookcase, February 14, 1974

"The most interesting books in the English language." --
Saturday Review

"Nasrudin, forced to review this book, might ask where folly ended and wisdom began." --
Brian W. Aldiss, Oxford Mail, November 3, 1966

"... completely captivating ... a book for children of all and every age." --
The Irish Times, December 17, 1966

"The humour is there for all to appreciate. There is wisdom to be detected, too." --
West Lancashire Evening Gazette, January 9, 1974

About the Author

As the urgency of our global situation becomes apparent, more and more readers are turning to the books of Idries Shah (1924-1996) as a way to train new capacities and new ways of thinking.

Shah has been described as "the most significant worker adapting classical spiritual thought to the modern world." His lively, contemporary books have sold over 15 million copies in 12 languages worldwide and have been awarded many prizes. They have been reviewed by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Times, The Tribune, The Telegraph, and numerous other international journals and newspapers.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08CMSPJLT
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ ISF Publishing (July 7, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 7, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1425 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1784790060
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 143 ratings

About the author

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Idries Shah
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Idries Shah was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition and is considered one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century. He devoted his life to collecting, translating and adapting key works of Sufi classical literature for the needs of the contemporary West. These works represent centuries of thought – some call it “practical philosophy” – aimed at developing human potential. Shah’s literary output – more than three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and cultural studies – includes uniquely instrumental teaching stories, some of which he retold for children. His work is regarded as forming an important bridge between the cultures of East and West. It has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold millions of copies around the world. In his writings for adults, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predates Islam. Emphasizing that Sufism is not static but always adapts to the current time, place and people, he often framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. For more than 40 years, Shah sifted through oriental literature and oral Sufi tradition to bring his contemporary audience narratives, poetry, aphorisms and an enormous range of teaching stories that are appropriate for our time and culture. He pointed out that this work “connects with a part of the individual which cannot be reached by any other convention, and ... establishes in him or in her a means of communication with a non-verbalized truth beyond the customary limitations of our familiar dimensions.”

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4.6 out of 5 stars
143 global ratings

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5 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
First time through, this collection will simply appear as a series of jokes and funny stories. But then, the second time through, reflect on what is actually occurring in the story. Read it as you would read a Zen koan. There is wonderful stuff in these pages. Enjoy!
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2015
    It's great to see Shah's incredible work showing up as Kindle books. The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin demonstrates the power of the Sufi teaching story. If you resist the temptation to rush through and read a bunch of these stories in one sitting, but instead take one or two at a time and look at them from various perspectives, you'll find a treasure chest of very useful material. In a variety of ways, the stories illustrate how we subtly - and not so subtly - deceive ourselves, much of the time through our well-hidden self-esteem and greed. A good companion volume to this is "The Commanding Self", which is not yet available on Kindle. In that book, Shah approaches our self-deceptions in a more direct way. Highly, highly recommended!
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2016
    This is my first time reading a large collection of Nasiruddin stories. Actually I can't say of this is better than other similar collections of Nasiruddin stories. But I found it enjoyable and well written. I can't comment on the deeper meanings of the stories because I haven't understood most of them beyond the level of being stories or jokes. I'm hoping I will catch something more in a second reading later on.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2018
    First time through, this collection will simply appear as a series of jokes and funny stories. But then, the second time through, reflect on what is actually occurring in the story. Read it as you would read a Zen koan. There is wonderful stuff in these pages. Enjoy!
    Customer image
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Brilliant

    Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2018
    First time through, this collection will simply appear as a series of jokes and funny stories. But then, the second time through, reflect on what is actually occurring in the story. Read it as you would read a Zen koan. There is wonderful stuff in these pages. Enjoy!
    Images in this review
    Customer image
    4 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2014
    Some philosophy and some humour. A good read. The book is in good condition and will look nice on my bookshelf. If you haven't read any stories of the Mulla, look him up and enjoy.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2016
    Ibid, The Pleasantries.
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2006
    The exploits of Mulla Nasrudin are supposed to demonstrate issues of sufism in practice, and it may well do, i don't know much about sufism, but this is quite a nice little book nevertheless.

    These are very short tales - not much longer than Aesop's fables and they demonstrate human falibility and strength on a number of different levels inspiring great thought.

    This is a nice edition, well illustrated by Richard Williams.

    For instance the tale of Nasrudin becoming scared when seeing riders on the rode, imagining he would be captured by them and sold into slavery he flees over a nearby wall. the good Travellers who cannot understand the action pursue him to make sure he is all right and find him cowering in a grave. Nasrudin observes he fled there because of them and they came to the grave because of him. On the surface a strange tale and yet the deeper meaning of motivations unravels a whole new set of concepts to consider.

    This reminds me of some of the sayings of yogi berra, they are shorter but in fact same appealing levels of meaning to them that question our understanding of events.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2015
    Excellent source of wisdom and enlightenment.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2016
    I just read another person's review of this book. I thought it was great, even though they gave it one star I give this book five stars. The reviewer wrote a very insightful (and funny!) piece about how the humor works. As you read these stories, you go through phases: First you laugh at silly Nasrudin. Then you start chuckling over all the friends, family, associates, and public figures you know who are just like silly Nasrudin. Then, a bit later you start realizing that you, yourself, are just like Silly Nasrudin. As the reviewer legitimately asks, "...what's so funny about that?" Well I personally find this situation hilarious but it's hard to describe why. I may just be weird, but I suspect that's an answer everyone has to come to on their own.

    Anyway, I am so glad I read that other review, but I should get on to writing my own piece. So here goes. Besides being deeply entertaining, these joke tales are very interesting because they can seem to have half a dozen different meanings depending upon how you look at them, what your background and experience is, or even what your current mood is like (hint: don't read anything when you are grumpy and hungry). Here is one story I picked by opening the book at random. I meant to open it to page 92 or 95, because the contents shows an interesting story title there, but because the electronic pages don't match the printed pages I ended up 20 or so pages back. And here's what I saw:

    "A ship, on which the Mulla was the only passenger, was caught in a typhoon. The captain and crew, having done all they could to save the ship, fell on their knees and started to pray for deliverance.

    The Mulla stood calmly by.

    The captain opened his eyes, saw the Mulla standing there, jumped up and cried: 'Get down on your knees! You, a devout man, you should be praying with us.'

    Nasrudin did not move. 'I am only a passenger. Everything pertaining to the safety of this ship is your concern, not mine.' "

    With this story, I am at the stage of laughing at others who are just like the silly Nasrudin. The story reminds me of how utterly dependent we've become upon specialists of all kinds, to the point where we feel paralyzed if are faced with doing something unfamiliar on our own. It also makes me think of the way people, in general, drop the ball, point fingers, always insisting a mess or disaster is someone else's fault. But I know, however much I don't like to go there, that there is a lazy finger-pointing sloth inside myself who loves to pass the buck and uses the rationale that Nasrudin used: it's not my field, not my duty, not my responsibility, not in my job description, not my family, not my... not my... etc.. This rationale allows me to skate through my life not doing the things I don't want to do but personally need to do in order to grow up or help out. I use the "it's not my job" excuse all the time.

    What I've just described is another level of the story that I'd greatly prefer not to explore although I find that sometimes when certain things happen to me in life, a story like this might pop into my head and I experience a "Doh! I'm just like Nasrudin" moment. It would be easy to brush such thoughts aside or ignore them. So why do I go there? No, it's not because I like to beat myself up. I just prefer not to lie and oversell myself to myself and live in one of those foggy "I am a superhero" illusion that our current culture encourages us to live it. I find that all disgustingly dishonest.

    Even more, however, I am deeply curious about all the other levels in this story that may crop up when I move beyond the "I am just like Nasrudin!" phase. That they exist, I have no doubt. I've seen glimmerings, here and there. But I don't think I'm realistic enough yet to face more profound truths. So I continue with this book of exercises in self-honesty, hoping that if I can learn enough about what I am really like, I will then be prepared for deeper revelations.

    By the way, there's three of these books or four, if you count the one that's _really_ not funny, so if you like the feel of these tales you can always get more. And... They can be read online for free! The read online interface is a little strange, but if an overly literal plodder like myself can figure it out, anyone can. It's at the IdriesShahFoundation dot org website. Go there, click on the books, find this book, then click Read Online. Easy-peasy! (Well, if you don't count figuring out that strange interface!)
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • massimo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Libro
    Reviewed in Italy on January 17, 2025
    Libro e consegna ok
  • Husain
    5.0 out of 5 stars Legend of Mullah Nasruddin
    Reviewed in India on September 5, 2024
    Great anecdotes. Some of them we might have heard or read somewhere else but that doesn't take away anything from this book.
  • Hoopoe999
    5.0 out of 5 stars Forward-reaching
    Reviewed in France on September 11, 2019
    A pearl of understanding
  • Dissatisfied customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Literary "Swiss Army Knife"
    Reviewed in Canada on January 8, 2016
    As a child both the Bible and Mad Magazine shook me up. Both moved me to reflect on my life, my world and beyond. When I read Idries Shah’s The Sufis as an adult, I met an outlandish character that did something similar, maybe more: The Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin. I felt like I’d been waiting for this idiotic sage my whole life. Who was this mad Mulla? Did he even exist? Nobody knows. However we are blessed with a vast treasury of his multi-dimensional jokes retold for centuries in countries around the Mediterranean and beyond. Idries Shah spent decades collecting these delicious, outlandish and eminently practical instruments of human development. Provocative and puzzling, these literary “swiss army knives” have many uses. They’ve been called “an addendum to language”. As mirrors, Nasrudin’s antics and our reactions to them help reveal underrecognized aspects of ourselves. The imagery, plot, characters and movements in these tales create dynamic blueprints of our elusive minds. Physicists have employed them to model realities that can’t be encompassed by mathematical formulae or technical language. Rereading these bottomless jokes over time, people often gain fresh insights into them and themselves. They awaken a taste for new ways of thinking and seeing, maybe even nurturing our incipient intuitive faculties. Remarkable! I can’t recommend this book enough.
  • Mark Hill
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great new edition!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2015
    Very happy with this new edition of the book and also the kindle edition.

    As the book mentions: 'The wise fool of Eastern folklore, Nasrudin teaches us to look at what we think we know and understand from the inside-out.'

    For more context on the Nasrudin corpus it's worth reading the chapter about Nasrudin in 'The Sufis' (also by Idries Shah).

    Below is a story from the book. According to folklore when one Nasrudin story is told, seven more follow... so please feel free to leave another story in the comments below!

    Here goes:

    Adventures in the Desert

    'When I was in the desert,' said Nasrudin one day, 'I caused an entire tribe of horrible bloodthirsty bedouins to run.'

    'However did you do it?'

    'Easy, I just ran, and they ran after me.'

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