Kalīlah and Dimnah

Fables of Virtue and Vice

Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, Michael Fishbein, Michael Fishbein, James E. Montgomery

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781479806539
• eBook ISBN: 9781479806546
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Timeless fables of loyalty and betrayal

Like Aesop's Fables, Kal?lah and Dimnah is a collection designed not only for moral instruction, but also for the entertainment of readers. The stories, which originated in the Sanskrit Panchatantra and Mahabharata, were adapted, augmented, and translated into Arabic by the scholar and state official Ibn al-Muqaffa? in the second/eighth century. The stories are engaging, entertaining, and often funny, from "The Man Who Found a Treasure But Could Not Keep It," to "The Raven Who Tried To Learn To Walk Like a Partridge" and "How the Wolf, the Raven, and the Jackal Destroyed the Camel."

Kal?lah and Dimnah is a "mirror for princes," a book meant to inculcate virtues and discernment in rulers and warn against flattery and deception. Many of the animals who populate the book represent ministers counseling kings, friends advising friends, or wives admonishing husbands. Throughout, Kal?lah and Dimnah offers insight into the moral lessons Ibn al-Muqaffa? believed were important for rulers—and readers.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Table of contents

• Letter from the General Editor
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Map: Principal Translations of the Arabic Kalilah wa-Dimnah
• Note on the Text
• Notes to the Introduction
• Kalīlah and Dimnah
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Further Reading
• Index of Proper Names
• About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
• About this E-book
• Titles Published by the Library of Arabic Literature
• About the Editor–Translators