By Karlota Jasinkiewicz Herrador
In a repressive society, satire serves as a safety valve that allows for the relief of pressure, said UCSB Religious Studies professor Janet Afary, in a recent talk on her latest book Mollā Nasreddin: The Making of a Modern Trickster, 1906-1911.
Afary discussed her book with department colleague Dwight Reynolds as part of the series “Humanities Decanted,” an Interdisciplinary Humanities Center program in which UCSB scholars present their newest works in a relaxed environment.
In the book, Afary explores the first era of the 20th century Middle Eastern journal Mollā Nasreddin and its use of visual art, folklore, and satire to transmit social democratic ideas in Transcaucasia and Iran.
“It is a remarkable book, because it brings us into a region that most of us know very little about,” said Reynolds.
Dwight Reynolds, left, and Janet Afary, right, both faculty members in UCSB’s Religious Studies department, discussed Afary’s latest book during an IHC Humanities Decanted event.
The journal, which was published in Azerbaijan, was named after the folkloric figure Mollā Nasreddin, which according to Afary was a key factor in its success. Nasreddin appears in tales in many countries in the Middle East and fulfills the archetype of the wise trickster who criticizes the status quo and those in power. He was a very transgressive figure who would speak on matters such as kings, the clergy, or sexual relations.
The journal not only adopted Nasreddin’s name, but also his character. In the spirit of their namesake, editors spoke out on a variety of topics including gender roles, colonialism, and religion, all the while hiding behind images and satire to avoid the harsh censorship of the Russian Empire.
“The editors skillfully recreated the trickster trope for their time and place,” Afary said. Mollā Nasreddin soon became a champion of issues such as women’s rights, and gained a wide readership across the Middle East due to its accessibility.
During her talk, Afary highlighted the role of the Mollā Nasreddin journal in the fight for gender equality in Transcaucasia.
That accessibility was in part due to the journal’s widespread use of visual art. It relied heavily on comic images, often influenced by artists such as Spain’s Goya or France’s Daumier. Another significant factor was the use of the Azerbaijani language, which up until that point was seldom written, as Persian and Turkish were the favored languages of the time for writing. “[The editors] were very concerned with the fact that the Azerbaijani people could not write in the language that they spoke,” explained Afary.
Although the journal helped create an Azerbaijani sense of nation, it did not focus solely on Azerbaijani issues. Afary described the journal as “the product of a transnational diasporic society.”
The periodical had three phases of publication between 1906 and 1931. The journal was first based in Tiflis (renamed Tbilisi in 1936), which at the time was a great cultural center. The editorial board included people of multiple nationalities, ethnicities, and religions, united by their common belief in a more progressive society. “There is a deliberate decision on the part of the editor to not represent just the issues of the Tiflis Muslim community,” Afary said.
In her book she explores not only the journal’s role in Azerbaijan, but in the whole Transcaucasian region and Iran.
The cover of Janet Afary’s book Mollā Nasreddin: The Making of a Modern Trickster, 1906-1911
Afary cited a call for greater dialogue among ethnic and religious communities as part of the journal’s legacy, for which it “will forever be considered a true literary gem of the 20th century.”
It also exposed the colonial and imperialist policies of powers such as Great Britain, the United States and Japan, acted as a mouthpiece for the impoverished rural and urban classes, and initiated a radical discourse on gender reforms, calling attention to the plight of women and children. Perhaps particularly interesting for today’s media landscape is how Mollā Nasreddin encouraged the establishment of other satirical journals and the art of caricature in the region.
Satire played two main roles in Mollā Nasreddin, Afary said. Firstly, it allowed the editors to express radical ideas that would have otherwise been censored. Secondly, it presented comic relief for people suffering under an unjust system, acting as a safety valve that avoided built-up pressure in society.
“Satire gives you a glimpse into an alternative reality,” Afary said. Through satire it is possible to remember that mighty figures such as kings are regular human beings who “eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, and have sex,” thus breaking through the aura that surrounds them.
Afary's book shows that Mollā Nasreddin exemplified the timeless power of satire to navigate oppressive regimes and advocate for social change. She said progressive movements across the world still employ satire to this day, such as feminists dressing up as maids from the Handmaid’s Tale to protest restrictions on reproductive rights. As to the escapist role of satire, Afary suggests we tune in to Saturday Night Live if the upcoming elections already have us in a state of despair or frustration.
Karlota Jasinkiewicz Herrador is a second-year exchange student at UCSB majoring in Political Science and Law, and minoring in Data Science. They wrote this article for their Digital Journalism course.