Nasreddin Hodja
He was born in the village of Hortu in Sivrihisar in 1208 and died in Akşehir in 1284. His tomb is in Akşehir.
He was first educated by his father Abdullah Effendi, who was the imam of the village he was born in. Then he studied at Sivrihisar and Konya madrasahs. After he finished his education, he became an imam in his village. Besides that he worked as an assistant cadi (judge) and a madrasah teacher, and learnt theosophy from Seyyid Mohammed Hayrani.
Nasreddin Hodja was a saint who devoted his life to showing people the right path and advising them to avoid evil-doing. When he was doing this, he used a method of his own. He used to tell what was right and in order to amend the corrupt sides of society, he used to explain the matter briefly making allusive jokes and using a language and a style that everyone could understand easily.
Each of his jokes is like a proverb which has wisdom and morality in it. In this respect, it is obvious that some jokes that are far from being decent and witty, but are assumed to be Nasreddin Hodja’s jokes are not in fact his jokes. It is clear that a person who is both a scholar and a saint does not tell such simple ordinary jokes.
Researches prove that Nasreddin Hodja is not a legendary figure, but a devout muslim, who lived in the Seljukian times in the 13 th century.