figure
Nasr-Eddin (Nasreddin Hodja)
Nasr-Eddin
also: Наср-Эддин, Nasreddin, Nasreddin Hodja, Hoca Nasreddin
The legendary Middle Eastern trickster / wise-fool figure of folk tradition (also transliterated Nasreddin, Nasreddin Hodja), invoked here purely as a byword for capricious, arbitrary favor -- promoting favorites one moment and destroying them the next -- in an ironic comparison about despotic 'love.' NOT a historical contemporary and NOT to be confused with (the actual nineteenth-century Persian ruler Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, invoked elsewhere in the corpus as a real foreign potentate); this letter's 'Nasr-Eddin' is the folkloric character, not the Shah.
Reading notes
- To Al. P. Chekhov, 2 January 1889. Moscow. §6 the love of a Nasr-Eddin
The legendary trickster/wise-fool folk figure Nasr-Eddin (Nasreddin Hodja), invoked here as a byword for capricious, arbitrary favor -- elevating favorites one moment, destroying them the next. This is the FOLKLORIC character, not a real contemporary person, and should not be confused with the historical Persian ruler Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, who appears elsewhere in this corpus as an actual foreign potentate of the period; the two are distinct entities despite the similar name.