The Misadventures of the Mystifying Nasrudin: Nasrudin

By Tahir Shah

The first book in Tahir Shah's trilogy of Nasrudin stories, The Misadventures of the Mystifying Nasrudin builds on his highly acclaimed travelogue - Travels With Nasrudin.

 

Having been raised in a household in which the wise fool of Oriental folklore was regarded both as an honorary member of the family, and as a problem solver par excellence, Shah was encouraged from an early age to regard the world around him through the lens of Nasrudin's humour.

 

This collection of hilarious original stories - charting the globetrotting travels of Nasrudin from Seattle to Samarkand, and from Cairo to Bangkok - turns the world inside out and upside down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Secretum Mundi Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Sep 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781914960277

Book preview

By Tahir Shah:

Travel

Trail of Feathers

Travels With Myself

Beyond the Devil’s Teeth

In Search of King Solomon’s Mines

House of the Tiger King

In Arabian Nights

The Caliph’s House

Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Journey Through Namibia

Novels

Jinn Hunter: Book One – The Prism

Jinn Hunter: Book Two – The Jinnslayer

Jinn Hunter: Book Three – The Perplexity

Hannibal Fogg and the Supreme Secret of Man

Hannibal Fogg and the Codex Cartographica

Casablanca Blues

Eye Spy

Godman

Paris Syndrome

Timbuctoo

Midas

Zigzagzone

Nasrudin

Travels With Nasrudin

The Misadventures of the Mystifying Nasrudin

The Peregrinations of the Perplexing Nasrudin

The Voyages and Vicissitudes of Nasrudin

Nasrudin in the Land of Fools

Stories

The Arabian Nights Adventures

Scorpion Soup

Tales Told to a Melon

The Afghan Notebook

The Caravanserai Stories

Ghoul Brothers

Hourglass

Imaginist

Jinn’s Treasure

Jinnlore

Mellified Man

Skeleton Island

Wellspring

When the Sun Forgot to Rise

Outrunning the Reaper

The Cap of Invisibility

On Backgammon Time

The Wondrous Seed

The Paradise Tree

Mouse House

The Hoopoe’s Flight

The Old Wind

A Treasury of Tales

Daydreams of an Octopus & Other Stories

Miscellaneous

The Reason to Write

Zigzag Think

Being Myself

Research

Cultural Research

The Middle East Bedside Book

Three Essays

Anthologies

The Anthologies

The Clockmaker’s Box

The Tahir Shah Fiction Reader

The Tahir Shah Travel Reader

Edited by

Congress With a Crocodile

A Son of a Son, Volume I

A Son of a Son, Volume II

Screenplays

Casablanca Blues: The Screenplay

Timbuctoo: The Screenplay

Secretum Mundi Publishing Ltd

Kemp House

City Road

London

EC1V 2NX

United Kingdom

www.secretum-mundi.com

[e-mail]

First published by Secretum Mundi Publishing Ltd, 2021

VERSION [03042021]

THE MISADVENTURES OF THE MYSTIFYING NASRUDIN

© TAHIR SHAH

Tahir Shah asserts the right to be identified as the Author of the Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Visit the author’s website at:

Tahirshah.com

ISBN 978-1-914960-27-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

For Peter,

With love and sincerest thanks

CONTENTS

Shadowman

Camouflage

Cat Currency

Reverse Alchemy

Brevity

Clockwork Donkey

Single Answer, Multiple Questions

Master Reset

God Complex

When Fraud is Not Fraud

The Bluebottle

Right Lessons, Wrong Birds

Fake News

Arrogance of Ignorance

Sleepwalking

All in the Name

Hide-and-Seek

Just Warming Up

Mixed Up

Club of Nonsensical Rules

Comedic Constipation

Bear Talk

Miming Full Volume

Adulation Wanted

The Perfect Time

Over-prepared

Self-duping

Out-of-Sync-Mania

Gradual Improvement

The Pink-toed Tarantula

The Secret of Success

The Taste of Freedom

Ready, Steady

The Cloak of Wisdom

Solar Remote

How We Play

Easy Questions, Please

Mission to Mars

A Question of Tense

Making the Weather

The Influencer

Non-Human Language

Old Tech Rules

Different Minds

Waves of Perfidy

The Voice of Folly

Cowboy Comedian

Sharing is Caring

First, Examine Your Doctor

Freeing the Trees

The Rat

The Pageantry of Death

Human Sloth

Enlisted Alien

Given an Inch

King of the Bees

Jack of All Trades

Medicine for Disappointment

Pendulum Judgment

Shrine of the Selfless Cat

Reliability

Faster by Donkey

Wrong Way Round

On the Fence

The Gorilla Queen

Swelled Exaggeration

Shaggy Dog Shipwreck

New News

Humiliation

Flip a Coin

The Mongoose

Convenient Outcome

Inside Out

Discourteous

Spaces in Between

The Name of Things

Off-piste

Perfect Ending

Box of Surprises

Drastic Action

Nasrudin-mania

Rub, Shake, Bow

Placebo Magic

Waiter Alert

Manifestation of Irony

Questions for the Birds

Random Sameness

Knowing Who Counts

Eyes for Optimism

Cloud Maps 2.0

Blue-Ringed Octopus

Dropping Out

Guns Not Bullets

Danger Warning

Twenty Again

Updated Brain

Power Over Me

Most Evil Knife in the World

Empty Threats

Awkward Questions

Face in the Mirror

ISTANBUL

TURKEY

Shadowman

Nasrudin went for a haircut in a side street near the Galata Tower.

Having left his suitcase just inside the door, he sat down on the chair. Within a minute or two, the barber had got down to work with his scissors. He cocked his head over to the luggage.

‘So, are you travelling alone?’

‘Oh no,’ Nasrudin responded, ‘Anwar’s with me.’

‘Who’s Anwar… your son?’

‘No, my shadow.’

The barber frowned.

‘But a shadow isn’t a person… so it can’t have a name.’

The wise fool shrugged.

‘Who says a shadow can’t have a name?’

‘They just don’t.’

‘Yes, they do. In my homeland all the shadows have names.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

After lifetime of cutting hair, the barber had heard all kinds of tall tales, but never anything so strange as shadows having names.

Silence prevailed for a while.

Then, rekindling the conversation, the barber sniffed.

‘So, tell me, what’s the population of people in your country?’

Nasrudin narrowed his eyes.

‘With or without shadows?’ he asked.

SHANGHAI

CHINA

Camouflage

Although doing his best to blend in with local culture, Nasrudin managed to offend one of the most powerful Triad families in China.

Terrified out of his wits, he spent weeks hiding from the gang members.

But whenever he slipped out of his hiding place to buy food, he would spot more of them – each one dressed in baggy black clothes, every inch of their skin tattooed.

Suddenly, an idea slipped onto the stage of his mind.

He bought a black outfit, and hurried into the tattoo parlour across the street.

‘What would you like tattooed?’ the artist asked, taking in the unlikely customer.

Nasrudin glanced at the walls, which were covered with Triad tattoos.

He pointed to the most elaborate full-body tattoo he could see.

‘That,’ he said.

As he prepared his equipment and the inks, the artist cocked his head at the picture on the walls.

‘If you don’t mind me asking, why would a man like you want a Triad tattoo like that?’

Nasrudin smiled wryly as though he were about to outwit his pursuers.

‘Camouflage,’ he said.

SAN SEBASTIÁN

SPAIN

Cat Currency

Yet another financial meltdown had rocked the world’s global markets, leaving Nasrudin with little confidence in established currencies.

So, he went to a butcher and spent all his money on sausages. From that day on he paid for everything in them, bartering on a system he had drawn up that was fair.

Those he met thought it was a little eccentric, but they expected nothing less from the wise fool, who had turned up in the city a month or so before. In any case, the sausages were