Kalilah And Dimnah: Fables Of Virtue And Vice (library Of Arabic Literature Book 76)

Description

Timeless fables of loyalty and betrayal Like Aesopâ€™s Fables, Kalilah 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 â€œThe Man Who Found a Treasure But Could Not Keep It,â€ to â€œThe Raven Who Tried To Learn To Walk Like a Partridgeâ€ and â€œHow the Wolf, the Raven, and the Jackal Destroyed the Camel.â€ Kalilah and Dimnah is a â€œmirror for princes,â€ 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, Kalilah and Dimnah offers insight into the moral lessons Ibn al-Muqaffa? believed were important for rulers?and readers. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

About the Author

Ibn al-Muqaffa? (d. 139/757) was a Persian translator, author, thinker, and state official who wrote important treatises on rulership in Arabic. Michael Fishbein is Lecturer Emeritus in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. James E. Montgomery, author of Al-Ja?i?: In Praise of Books, is Sir Thomas Adamsâ€™s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall. His latest publications are Loss Sings, a collaboration with the celebrated Scottish artist Alison Watt, and Diwan ?Antarah ibn Shaddad: A Literary-Historical Study.