Folktales of Joha, Jewish Trickster

Introduction

5 Introduction Joha is a well-known character in oriental folktales and especially in Sephardic folktales. Stories about him are told in Sephardic communities all over the world.1 The origin of his name is unclear, but we do know that he is first mentioned in Arabic stories dating from the ninth century. A similar character, Nasr-a-din Hodja, appears in medieval Turkish stories. According to the Turkish literary tradition, such a man really existed and is buried in the town of Akshehir. Eventually, the two characters ’ names merged, to become Nas al-din Hodja (or, in modern Turkish, Nasreddin). During the seventeenth century, Turkish migrants brought this literary tradition to North Africa, where it became intermingled with similar local traditions. On the eastern coast of Africa and in Iraq, parallel stories refer to Abû Nuwâs. Parallel stories also exist beyond the Islamic world, for example, in Sicily, where the popular fool is named Giufà. The unique shapes this character assumes in each culture reflect the particular context and circumstances in which the tales are created. Joha has Janus’s double face: On the one hand, he is innocent and stupid; on the other, a trickster. He is a cheater and is cheated. He sets traps for others and himself falls into traps; he is simpleton and liar, victimizer and victim. But as a literary figure, he never dies. He continues to live on in jokes told by the very young as well as the old. In traditional stories he is the king’s or the sultan’s fool, yet he also moves through time and meets real people, such as Baron Rothschild and even Hitler. He is very F o l k t a l e s o f J o h a 6 familiar with Jewish religious practices (halakhah), and some stories about him can only be understood in a Jewish context. The Book and Its Tales This translated English compilation of traditional and contemporary tales is Matilda Koén-Sarano’s second book about Joha. The first was published in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and Hebrew.2 The close to 300 new or renewed stories in this volume are a representative sample of Sephardic oral literature and ethnic culture, organized by chapter according to life cycle. The stories range from Joha’s childhood (chapter 1), to his relationships with his mother and his teachers at school (chapter 2), through marriage and his relationship with his wife (chapters 5 and 6), to fatherhood (chapter 7), the elderly years and death (chapter 15). Other chapters are dedicated to his prominent traits, such as “Joha the Glutton” (chapter 13), or different life situations, as in “Joha in the Hospital” (chapter 14) and “Joha and the Law” (chapter 12), or his roles in society, as in “Joha and Work” (chapter 3) and “Joha and the King” (chapter 8). Each chapter opens with a Judeo-Spanish proverb concerning him. The stories were told to Matilda Koén-Sarano in their original ethnic language, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), and documented over a period of 21 years. Thirty-one of the narrators are male and 51 are female, spread among 17 countries, representing the traditional geographic distribution of the Sephardic communities. These countries include Turkey, Egypt, the island of Rhodes, Morocco, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Yugoslavia, Israel, Italy, and France. Relatively new places of settlement like Argentina and the United States are represented as well. Most of the narrators are from Turkey (28) and Israel (25). Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Spain are represented by one narrator. The age span I n t r o d u c t i o n 7 of the narrators ranges from Koén-Sarano’s grandchildren, born in 1992 and 1993, to narrators born in 1898, 1902, and 1904. The relationships between the narrators and the collector also vary. Members of Koén-Sarano’s family, her husband, grandchildren , and sisters, contributed several tales. She has worked for many years with some of the narrators, who meet regularly to tell stories. Others she met only once or sent her stories by mail. The 40 stories contributed by Koén-Sarano come from her cultural heritage or are re-creations of tales she has heard performed on various stages. The second prominent narrator (after Koén-Sarano herself) is Beki Bardavid, with 27 stories, who is from Turkey and is herself a collector. Eliezer Papo, from Sarajevo , provided...