A close reading of the first six years of the journal Mollå Nasreddin demonstrates that the title of the periodical was no simple appropriation of the trickster Mollå Nasreddin’s name. Rather, in addition to reproducing some original Nasreddinia, the editors skilfully recreated the trickster trope for their time and place. The weekly periodical imitated the plots of the classic folk tales, presented an updated version of the characters and situations previously discussed, and created new tales addressing modern concerns. Sometimes the connections between the original tales and the periodical’s recreations were obvious, as in tales that revolved around the folk Mollå and his wife. At other times, the relationship to the trickster was subtler, but the stories or columns performed a type of ‘dirt-work’, where Mollå exposed the hypocrisy and corruption of his social milieu. There were also occasions when the stories were far more explosive than a typical trickster tale, such as when Mollå Nasreddin revealed the actions and the names of some highly influential living people in South Caucasus and Iran.

This chapter will look at the recreation of some of the tropes utilised and addressed in the periodical. We will see how Mollå Nasreddin called attention to the suffering of migrant workers, pleaded for the reform of Shi'i/ Muslim rituals and practices, criticised more traditional women who turned to charms and incantations to achieve their goals, and revealed the pervasive sexual abuse of boys. In recreating these trickster tales, the periodical used a variety of literary forms. A common device utilised was the fictional epistolary exchange, usually in the form of ‘Letters to the Editor’. Others were humorous journalistic investigative pieces, mock interviews, fake advertisements, gossip columns and non-political news pieces, including reports of the latest fashion, literary works and witty epigrams, as well as cartoons. Thus, the journal used a variety of genres, from the seemingly respectable text and poetry to the inferior cartoons and caricatures, giving the form, as well as the content of the journal, an intertextual and hybrid identity.

Migrant workers and poverty

The harsh lives of the impoverished, especially those of Iranian migrant workers who were at the bottom of the social hierarchy, was a regular concern of the journal.