Kalilah and Dimnah: Stories for Young Adults

Title

en_US Kalilah and Dimnah: Stories for Young Adults

en_US Islamic Classics for Young Adults

Description

en_US Translated and Adapted from the Persian by Muhammad Nur Abdus Salam

Creator

en_US Abdus Salam, Muhammad Nur

Contributor

en_US Bakhtiar, Rose Ghajar

Date

2016-01-25T19:28:56Z

en_US 2002-08

en_US 2000

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:28:56Z

Date Issued

en_US 2000

Abstract

en_US Twenty-five stories on 171 pages. Each story has a full-page black-and-white illustration, and there are a few additional abstract designs inserted along the way. There is no overarching narrative; all are independent stories. The book has unusually large print and large top margins between the headers and the top of the text. Some features are slightly different from those of other versions of Kalila and Dimnah. In The Clever Rabbit, the same rabbit has the original idea of rationing victims for the lion and then of outwitting him (17). He tells the lion that his brother, the intended victim, was captured by the other lion. He stands between the lion's legs at the well, so that the lion can see both his competitor and the captured brother. The World Traveling Pigeon (25) presents La Fontaine's two birds, but the traveler and the stay-at-home are here brothers. The heron supposedly transporting fish to a new lake carries them in a watermelon rind (83). La Fontaine's fable of the solitary man and the bear is also here, complete with the rock employed by the foolish bear to try to get rid of bothersome flies (163). Several stories here are new to me, like The Useful Lesson (9). A poor but clever fisherman uses something he learned from two students--that there is neuter besides masculine and feminine--to outwit a rapacious government official who is trying to cheat him. In The Friendship of the Partridge and the Falcon (55), the unnatural friendship finally yields to the law of predator and prey. In The Impatient Pigeon (103), stored grain dries out and takes up less space in the pigeon-couple's storeroom. The male accuses the female of stealing from their grain and drives her from the nest. When the wet season returns, the grain expands and he knows too late that he has been wrong. In The Avenging Birds (109), a victim dervish calls on the sparrows to avenge his death at the hands of thieves. A year later, the birds dung on the picnicking thieves while people of the victim's town happen to picnic nearby. The result is that the thieves, making light of the respected victim, are overheard and turned over to the police. In The Old Woman's Cat (127), a starving old cat believes that it is best to sneak into the sultan's kitchen and eat fine food. It learns at the cost of an injury that that kind of crime does not pay! In The Scorpion's Sting (133), a scorpion riding across water on his friend the turtle's back prepares to sting him, with the explanation that it is his nature to sting. The turtle rolls him off into the water to let him drown. There are many typos in this book, like when it is customary to remained on 112.

Identifier

en_US 1930637071 (pbk.)

en_US 5104 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/80692

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US ABC International Group, Inc.

en_US Chicago, IL

Subject

en_US PN989.I5 B4 2000b

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole