We all grew up hearing stories about Mullah Nasreddin — the man on a donkey, armed with wit sharper than any sword, who used humour to reveal deeper truths. This very character once became the face of a bold magazine. A magazine that dared to question everything.
He’s a familiar figure across the Muslim world. Nasreddin appears in countless stories across the Muslim world — sometimes clever, sometimes foolish, always memorable. His tales are rich in subtle humour and gentle wisdom.
Many of us might also recall Mullah Nasruddin, the beloved TV show on Doordarshan in 1990. Raghubir Yadav played the iconic role, with the legendary Zohra Sehgal as the narrator. The stories made us laugh — and think.
But what many of us don’t know is that, over a hundred years ago, this very character inspired something radical — a magazine that used his name to poke fun at everything about conservative Muslim society.
Let us tell you about Molla Nasraddin — the forgotten magazine that walked so many could run. They named it after Mullah Nasreddin because that legendary character, over centuries, had become the safest way to say dangerous things.
You could hide a bitter truth inside a joke, and people would listen. That’s exactly what this magazine did. It printed cartoons, poems, and essays. The language was simple. The humour was biting. But the message was always serious.
The magazine was launched in 1906 by Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and Omar Faig Nemanzadeh, two reformist minds from Azerbaijan. They lived in Tiflis, then part of the Russian Empire. The world around them was changing fast.
The Ottoman Empire was struggling. Persia was restless. Russia was tightening its grip. In this moment of tension, they created something sharp, something brave, and something very funny.
Molla Nasreddin didn’t just entertain — it challenged. It criticised the religious leaders who sold blessings and issued fatwas for a fee. It mocked the landowners who kept villagers in poverty. It was unafraid and unapologetic.
But it also imagined a better world. The magazine spoke up for women at a time when girls were married off before puberty and denied education. It published illustrations of women crying behind closed doors. It showed girls in classrooms, outsmarting the boys.
It questioned polygamy, forced marriage, and the silence surrounding domestic violence. These weren’t common topics in early 20th-century Muslim societies — and yet here was a magazine raising them boldly, publicly, and with humour.
The magazine was printed in Azeri Turkish — the language of the people, not of the courts or the colonisers. It spread across cities and villages. As mentioned in Molla Nasreddin by Slavs and Tatars, the magazine was an instant success.
Within months, it reached a record-breaking circulation of around 5,000, becoming the most influential publication of its kind to be read across the Muslim world — from Morocco to India.
It was loved, hence it was hated.
The backlash came quickly. Clerics denounced it from the pulpit. A fatwa was issued against its founder. Shops were attacked for selling it. Protesters stormed the office.
Jalil Mammadguluzadeh had to flee more than once. But they kept printing. For nearly 25 years, they kept publishing stories that made people laugh, think, and sometimes squirm.
It was one of the rare satirical publications in the Muslim world that questioned religion, power and gender norms — all at once, and from within the culture itself. It wasn’t meant to humiliate Muslims. It was satire by Muslims, for Muslims , but dreaming of something better.
Despite its Western stance on women’s rights, religion, and education, Molla Nasreddin didn’t spare European colonial powers. It boldly criticized their interference from the Middle East to India. This cartoon highlighted India’s struggle against British rule. A magazine far ahead of its time.
In 2015, the world was shaken when Islamist extremists attacked the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. What many don’t realize is that, long before our time, Molla Nasreddin had already dared to challenge power with wit, art, and unflinching honesty. The risks they took were unimaginable.
Molla Nasreddin never punched down. It didn’t ridicule the powerless. It punched up — at the ones who misused faith and power. That’s why, even today, the ideas raised in Molla Nasreddin feel fresh.
We still see debates around women’s rights in the world. We still witness the tension between religion and state. We still face societies where humour is controlled, and satire is seen as a threat. That’s why this story matters.
The magazine ran for 25 years before it was shut down by Soviet authorities in 1931. But in that short time, it did something extraordinary — it proved that you could be devout and critical. That you could love your culture and still question its flaws.
A century ago, Muslim writers themselves were leading the charge. They didn’t wait for outside voices to reform their societies. They used their own language, their own humor, and their own heroes — like Mullah Nasruddin — to do it.
We need that spirit again.
Because the questions Molla Nasreddin raised — about power, justice, gender, and freedom — are still with us. Still unresolved. Still worth asking.
And sometimes, the only way to ask them… is with a joke that hits a little too close to home.
Sources:
Absolutely grateful to Tatars, S. A. (2011). Molla Nasreddin. Jrp Ringier.
Minkel, E. (2011, May 26). The Magazine that Almost Changed the World. The New Yorker. newyorker.com/books/page-tur
Visions of Azerbaijan Magazine ::: Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and Molla Nasreddin – Political satire comes East -. (n.d.). Visions of Azerbaijan Magazine. visions.az/en/news/353/dd
Special Thanks to Wikimedia Commons and Internet Archive
