The Fables of Kalilah and Dimnah: Adapted and translated from the Sanskrit through the Pahlavi into Arabic by Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa AD 750

Title

en_US The Fables of Kalilah and Dimnah: Adapted and translated from the Sanskrit through the Pahlavi into Arabic by Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa AD 750

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US Signed by the author

en_US Translated from the Arabic by Saleh Saadeh Jallad

Creator

en_US Jallad, Saleh Saadeh See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Saikaly, Myriam Misk

Date

2016-12-01T20:16:38Z

en_US 2016-07

en_US 2004

Date Available

2016-12-01T20:16:38Z

Date Issued

en_US 2004

Abstract

en_US I already had this book in the catalogue under its original copyright date of 2002. The copyright has been renewed in 2004. This copy is also inscribed by the author on its title page. The only other change I can notice in the book is that the back of the dust-jacket is now not blank but rather includes a set of testimonies, one from my old colleague at Holy Cross, John Esposito. As I wrote of the 2002 book, one finds here seventeen chapters on 247 pages 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.

Identifier

en_US 10980 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/107710

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Melisende

en_US London

Subject

en_US PN989.I5B4 2004 See all items with this value

en_US K&D See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole