The Fables of Kalilah and Dimnah: Adapted and translated from the Sanskrit through the Pahlavi into Arabic by Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa AD 750
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Authors
Ibn al-Muqaffaʻ
Jallad, Saleh Saʻadeh
Issue Date
2002
Type
Book, Whole
Language
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Abstract
Seventeen chapters on 247 pages are preceded by four important elements that are part of the story itself: The Introduction to the Book, Dabshalim the King and Baydaba [Bidpai] the Philosopher, The Mission of Barzawayh the Physician to India, and Barzawayh. Three of these have a number of fables within them. The first chapter is then the traditional The Fable of the Lion and the Bull. There is an opening T of C, with mention of each of the fables in each chapter. The illustrations for each book and selected stories, in black and white and gray with Islamic script, are rather primitive. The illustrations for The Monkey and the Carpenter (82) and The Drake and the Crab (92) certainly get the fables' situations wrong. The book actually starts with a translator's foreword that begins from Arabic culture and Islamic faith and their contributions to the world. In this setting, the life of ibn al-Muqaffa is presented. K&D was long the second most popular book in Islam, after the Quran. Ibn's Arabic has survived; the Sanskrit and Pahlavi have not. The work stresses classic themes but highlights the positive role of the scholar in government and society. Some of the individual fables in the work are probably Ibn's creations. This is the fullest version I have seen of K&D. It includes al-Muqaffa's introduction, including the key statement: The book thus infuses wisdom with amusement. The chapters include stories I have not read before, including several that La Fontaine picked up. It was worth studying this book in some detail.
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Publisher
Melisende