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| Capture vidéo du film Nasreddine à Boukhara (1943) du réalisateur russe Yakov Protazanov où l'on voit Nasreddine installé sur le tapchane d'une chaïkhana de Boukhara. |
Fell into the pond after going out of the mosque and not knowing how to swim, the emir of Bukhara called for help. Known as a cruel, niggardly and wretched man, nobody saw fit to help him and they all just sit there on the chaïkhana's tapshans. The emir promised half his fortune in exchange for his rescue. But realizing the impact of the commitment, he concentrated on repeling all those who came to his help. That is when Nasreddine appeared on his donkey. Taking out of his pocket a small coin, he shouted to the emir : "This coin belongs to you if you come and take it." The dignitary could miraculously join the dry land to claim his meager booty. The man on donkey retorted : "Here it is. But as I saved you the life, it's up to you to give me half your fortune according to your word." The emir had to run and Nasreddine playing a dervish, he distributed all the money to the neediest.
I quote this story from memory without being sure that the presence of tapshans was evoked in the original text. In any event, it is one of the most famous pranks of Nasreddine Khodja, the one who makes that he is so liked in Bukhara and that his statue was erected not far from the pond. The author would have been born in 1209 and died in 1284 in Akshédir in Turkey where you can see his mausoleum. Popular storyteller, specialist of jokes and facetious stories of which the reputation goes from Balkans to Mongolia, he left to the Turkish and Persian literatures hundreds of moralizing stories full of humor where the nonsense is ceaselessly present. Some of this stories became so famous that people do not tell them in full and just say : "Be wary of this case, it looks like the story of Nasreddine's nail."
The main character of the tales is drawn into burlesque situations which make a mockery of him. Stingy, hypocritical, vain, voracious, vaguely sexual pervert, he has all the defects to which everyone can relate. According to Jean-Claude Carrière, he is the man of the tricky truck, where trick is the supreme quality of mind. As the brave soldier Schweik, Till Eulenspiegel and Robin Hood, he is a member of heroes's family with a devastating humor which denounces the small-mindedness of powerful people and the stupidity of better-off. Several of this stories have Bukhara for scenery. The movie Nasreddine in Bukhara, directed by Yakov Protazanov in 1943, put in images some of this stories. Despite the black and white, the movie lets guess the colorful side of the city. We see a crowd of people and crowded chaïkhani, every where a bazaar atmosphere, some passionate discussions, some fights worthy of Cendrars in Rotterdam, hands dipping into pots to devour handfuls of plof, opium smokers. And a stupid emir who struggles in the pond of Liab-i-Haouz.
I quote this story from memory without being sure that the presence of tapshans was evoked in the original text. In any event, it is one of the most famous pranks of Nasreddine Khodja, the one who makes that he is so liked in Bukhara and that his statue was erected not far from the pond. The author would have been born in 1209 and died in 1284 in Akshédir in Turkey where you can see his mausoleum. Popular storyteller, specialist of jokes and facetious stories of which the reputation goes from Balkans to Mongolia, he left to the Turkish and Persian literatures hundreds of moralizing stories full of humor where the nonsense is ceaselessly present. Some of this stories became so famous that people do not tell them in full and just say : "Be wary of this case, it looks like the story of Nasreddine's nail."
The main character of the tales is drawn into burlesque situations which make a mockery of him. Stingy, hypocritical, vain, voracious, vaguely sexual pervert, he has all the defects to which everyone can relate. According to Jean-Claude Carrière, he is the man of the tricky truck, where trick is the supreme quality of mind. As the brave soldier Schweik, Till Eulenspiegel and Robin Hood, he is a member of heroes's family with a devastating humor which denounces the small-mindedness of powerful people and the stupidity of better-off. Several of this stories have Bukhara for scenery. The movie Nasreddine in Bukhara, directed by Yakov Protazanov in 1943, put in images some of this stories. Despite the black and white, the movie lets guess the colorful side of the city. We see a crowd of people and crowded chaïkhani, every where a bazaar atmosphere, some passionate discussions, some fights worthy of Cendrars in Rotterdam, hands dipping into pots to devour handfuls of plof, opium smokers. And a stupid emir who struggles in the pond of Liab-i-Haouz.
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