The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin (Hardcover)

by Idries Shah (Author) "When Mulla Nasrudin arrived at the immigration barrier in London, the officer in charge asked: 'Where are you from?'..." (more)
Key Phrases: Mulla Nasrudin

Editorial Reviews

Review
"... a rare gift: healing laughter." -- New Society, November 10, 1966

"... a rare gift: healing laughter." -- New Society, November 10, 1966

"... the vitality of this figure is shown by his capacity to spawn new tales in whatever culture he finds himself." -- Critics' Choice, Observer, December 16, 1973

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

"Extremely useful in teaching students about management and computers." -- Thomas Malone, MIT

"It presents a blueprint of the human mental structure." -- Robert Ornstein, Ph.D.

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

"Shah provides the unique perspective that allows us to assess real motivations and social biases in a more accurate light." -- E. Neilsen, Attorney at Law EXCERPT: I MIGHT DO YOU A FAVOUR

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

Product Description
Today we find him in a high-level physics report, illustrating phenomena that can't be described in ordinary technical terms. He appears in psychology textbooks, illuminating the workings of the mind in a way no straightforward explanation can.

In three definitive volumes (The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin, The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin and The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin) Idries Shah takes us to the very heart of this mysterious mentor, the Mulla Nasrudin. Skillful contemporary retellings of hundreds of collected stories and sayings bring the unmistakable - often backhanded - wisdom, wit and charm of the timeless jokester to life.

The Mulla and his stories appear in literature and oral traditions from the Middle East to Greece, Russia, France - even China. Many nations claim Nasrudin as a native son, but nobody really knows who he was or where he came from.

According to a legend dating from at least the 13th century, Nasrudin was snatched as a schoolboy from the clutches of the "Old Villain" - the crude system of thought that ensnares man - to carry through the ages the message of how to escape. He was chosen because he could make people laugh, and humor has a way of slipping through the cracks of the most rigid thinking habits.

Acclaimed as humorous masterpieces, as collections of the finest jokes, as priceless gift books, and for hundreds "enchanted tales", this folklore figure's antics have also been divined as "mirroring the antics of the mind". The jokes are, as Idries Shah notes, "perfectly designed models for isolating and holding distortions of the mind which so often pass for reasonable behavior". Therefore they have a double use: when the jokes have been enjoyed, their psychological significance starts to sink in.

In fact, for many centuries they have been studied in Sufi circles for their hidden wisdom. They are used as teaching exercises, in part to momentarily "freeze" situations in which states of mind can be recognized. The key to the philosophic significance of the Nasrudin jokes is given in Idries Shah's book "The Sufis" and a complete system of mystical training based upon them was described in the Hibbert Journal.

In these delightful volumes, Shah not only gives the Mulla a proper vehicle for our times, he proves that the centuries-old stories and quips of Nasrudin are still some of the funniest jokes in the world.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 102 pages
• Publisher: Octagon Press, Limited (June 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0863040217
• ISBN-13: 978-0863040214
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,630,010 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than entertainment., August 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin / The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin (Paperback)

Each one of Idries Shah's three delightful Nasrudin books - The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin, the Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin and The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin - is not only the perfect gift for any thinking person with a sense of humor, but a fitting antidote to the stress, pressure and confusion of modern life. For beyond the laughter lie deeper levels of meaning that reveal themselves at their own pace and can help broaden our perception and increase our understanding. The bite-sized jokes center around Mulla Nasrudin, an age-old Middle Eastern teaching figure whose antics mirror those of the human mind as he juggles the roles of wise man, fool and our own self. Calling these jokes "perfectly designed models for isolating and holding distortions of the mind which so often pass for reasonable behavior," author Idries Shah notes that they have been used for centuries by the Sufis as teaching exercises. Other specialists - from physicists to psychologists - have employed them to illustrate concepts that defy more straightforward explanations. I've not seen anything like them anywhere else.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Antidote, October 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin / The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin (Paperback)

This book is the perfect antidote for a mind that is caught up in its own world, ignorant of the possibilities that lie beyond its confines. The delightful stories bring to light those antics of the mind that distort vision. Once these inadequate mentations are exposed, the process of thinking becomes clearer and less muddled with speculation and confusion. I think any one who is interested in discovering within oneself the method for sifting fact from fiction will find these stories invaluable. In addition, the reader, freed from the strictures that bind ordinary thought, gets a glimpse of a greater world with greater freedom and greater potential.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and Profound, January 26, 1998

By	L. Reed (Burlington, VT, USA) - See all my reviews

I'm just back from a trip to Turkey, where I discovered that Mulla Nasrudin is almost as popular as PEANUTS is in the United States. In addition to providing amusement, however, the Nasrudin stories are also used there as exercises for spiritual development with children and adults alike, since they externalize in joke form common patterns of human thought and behavior that need to be identified and understood in order for a human being to make progress. Thus, the Turks, and interested Western readers as well, can laugh and learn, both at once, from these ancient Middle Eastern anecdotes.