Kalīlah and Dimnah

Fables of Virtue and Vice

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

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781479825776
• eBook ISBN: 9781479825783
• Edition: 0
• 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? wished to impart to rulers—and readers.An English-only edition.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Letter from the General Editor
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Map: Principal Translations of the Arabic Kalīlah wa-Dimnah
• Note on the Text
• Notes to the Introduction
• How Anūsharwān Sent Barzawayh to India to Transcribe Kalīlah and Dimnah
• The Book of Kalīlah and Dimnah
• The Chapter of Barzawayh the Physician
• The Lion and the Ox
• The Investigation of Dimnah
• The Ring Dove
• The Crows and the Owls
• The Turtle and the Monkey
• The Holy Man and the Mongoose
• The Cat and the Rat
• The King and the Bird Finzah
• The Lion and the Jackal
• King Haylār and His Minister Baylār
• The Mendicant and the Goldsmith
• The King’s Son and His Companions
• The Horseman, the Lioness, and the Jackal
• The Ascetic and His Guest
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Further Reading
• Index of Proper Names
• About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
• About the Translators
• The Library of Arabic Literature