Nasreddin Hodja is a typical narrative hero who gets his fame from the thousands of anecdotes produced in his name. This type of anecdote produced by the Turkish common mentality is a form of Turkish folk wisdom shaped in flesh and bone. The fame of Nasreddin Hodja, whose anecdotes are told wherever Turkish is spoken, is not limited to the Turkish world. In this study, the text titled Letâ'if-i Hoca Nasreddin Efendi, in which 23 anecdotes are recorded in the name of Nasreddin Hodja, was introduced and transferred to new letters and an evaluation was made about the anecdotes. The cönk, in which the anecdotes are registered, is in the Turkish Manuscripts Collection of the University of California. One of the remarkable things is that so many Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes are recorded within a cönk. Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes are extremely important in terms of exemplifying the richness, diversity, prevalence and continuity of Turkish folk humor. Nasreddin Hodja, the protagonist of the anecdotes, is not only a certain character of anecdote, but also the inheritor of a humorous tradition attached to his name. Although in which period of history, in which geography of Turkishness this protagonist lived and discussions such as the suitability-inappropriateness of the anecdotes produced on his behalf with the presumed historical personality can be the indicators of a scientific effort to some extent, the main thing is to consider Nasreddin Hodja as a purely Turkish humorous character and to perceive each anecdote produced based on his name as an expression of the Turkish common mentality. In this study, a text that will contribute to the entire Nasreddin Hodja anecdote corpus has been brought to light, and it has also been found interesting that a Nasreddin Hodja anecdote is included in a cönk with a richness that we are not accustomed to seeing in cönks. The decisive effects of the copyists on the spread and diversification of Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes are presented as an approach proposition, albeit with limited examples.
Nasreddin Hodja, Cönk, Anecdote.