Nasreddin was thought to have lived in the 13th century, with many stories about him. He was thought to have been born in the Eskişehir Province in Seljuq controlled Anatolia. He is a satirical figure, being a Sufi wise man and the butt of many jokes.
The famous story of Nasreddin and his donkey-
One day Nasreddin Hodja got on his donkey the wrong way, facing towards the back.
– “Hodja,” the people said, “You are sitting on your donkey backwards!”
– “No,” he replied. “It’s not that I am sitting on the donkey backwards, the donkey is facing the wrong way.”
Many stories have been amalgamated into stories of Juha, a 9th century Arabic trickster, so much that the names have been swapped around. There are many quotes attributed to Nasreddin on Wikiquote and there are many stories available to read retold by D. L. Ashliman.
Bibliography
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales by Donald Haase. Via Google Books.
Tales of Juha:
classic Arab folk humor by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Matthew R. Sorenson, Faisal Khadra. I recommend borrowing this one from a library.
Tales of the Hoja by John Noonan. From Saudi Aramco World.
A Man of Many Names by Paul Lunde. From Saudi Aramco World.
Miriam's Middle Eastern Research Blog 