2023

In the early twentieth century, a group of Azerbaijani and Georgian artists and intellectuals reinterpreted the Middle Eastern trickster figure Nasreddin in their periodical Mollā Nasreddin. They used folklore, visual art and satire to disseminate a consciously radical and social democratic discourse on religion, gender, sexuality and power in South Caucasus and Iran. The periodical reached tens of thousands of people in the Muslim world, impacting the thinking of a generation.

This highly-illustrated book explores the milieu in which Mollā Nasreddin was born, the way the periodical recreated the trickster trope, and the influence of European graphic artists, especially Francisco Goya, on the journal. It focuses on the most creative period, 1906-11, when the journal reflected the social and political concerns of three major upheavals: the 1905 Russian Revolution, the 1906–1911 Iranian Constitutional Revolution, and the 1908 Young Turk Movement.

‘This book is an excellent study of its under-studied subject, with special reference to the above-mentioned journal of that name. It has been well-researched, well-written and well-presented and deserves a round of applause from the committee.’
Anonymous reviewer

Janet Afary holds the Mellichamp Chair in Global Religion & Modernity at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is a Professor of Religious Studies. She is a historian of modern Iran with a PhD in History and Near East Studies from the University of Michigan, where her dissertation received the Distinguished Rackham Dissertation Award. Previously she taught at the Department of History and the Program in Women’s Studies at Purdue University, where she was appointed a University Faculty Scholar.

Kamran Afary (PhD in performance studies, Northwestern 2007) is associate professor of communication studies and a registered drama therapist (RDT). He is author and/or editor of several books. In addition to teaching courses on campus and at Lancaster Prison and providing supervision on research and practice, he offers continuing education trauma-informed workshops for mental health professionals on Narradrama.