[2][3][5] Thousands of stories have been written around this folk character since his purported birth in the 13th century in what is now modern Turkey.

[5] Masters in the Sufi mystical tradition have used these anecdotes and jokes as teaching stories, as part of their pupils' training in wisdom.

Williams lost the rights to the character of Nasrudin before the film was completed; he later used some of the animation to create The Thief and the Cobbler.

[3] In an article in the Los Angeles Review of Books, writer John Zada uses the Sufi materials, including some of the Nasrudin tales, to explain developments in the contemporary world, such as the rise of Islamist fundamentalism under ISIS and the rise of Donald Trump.

Zada is of the opinion that we need the Sufis' moderate and flexible thinking to counter polemics and fanaticism in all its forms.