Kalila wa Dimna
- Author died
- 142 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭbaʿah al-Amīrīyah bi-Būlāq
Kalila wa Dimna (Kalila and Dimna) is a classical collection of didactic animal fables and moral wisdom translated into Arabic from Middle Persian (Pahlavi) by Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa (d. 142 AH / 759 CE) . The work conveys political counsel, ethics, and practical philosophy through framed allegorical tales primarily told through the speech of animals and birds .
Origin and Transmission
The core material originated in India, where it was composed by the philosopher Bidpai for King Dabshalim, and was associated with the Sanskrit collection known as the Panchatantra . The book derives its name from two jackals, Karataka and Damanaka (rendered as Kalila and Dimna in Arabic) . During the Sasanian period, King Khusrow Anushirwan dispatched the Persian physician Burzoy to India to acquire and translate the book into Pahlavi .
In the early Abbasid period, Ibn al-Muqaffa translated the Pahlavi text into Arabic prose, adapting its style and contributing an introductory framework and additional narratives . While some figures posited that Ibn al-Muqaffa authored the book himself and ascribed it to ancient sages to gain authority, historical scholars such as al-Dhahabi affirmed that he rendered it from Persian . Ibn al-Nadim documented differing opinions regarding its origins, recording assertions that it was composed by Indians, by the Arsacids and attributed to India, by the Persians, or by the Persian sage Bozorgmehr .
Content and Structure
The book employs a frame-narrative technique where King Dabshalim poses questions on governance, social relations, and statecraft to the philosopher Bidpai, who responds with illustrative fables featuring animal protagonists . As noted by Ibn al-Muqaffa, the animal framing served a dual purpose: providing entertainment on its surface for general readers, while concealing deeper philosophical and ethical lessons for rulers and the elite .
In his bibliographical survey, Hajji Khalifa recorded that the book comprises fourteen chapters, addressing themes such as:
- Avoiding the words of slanderers and tale-bearers
- The perilous fate of the wicked
- The benefits of loyal companions and true friends
- The danger of trusting an enemy
- The harms of negligence
- The pitfalls of haste
- Prudence and strategic planning
- Avoiding reliance on rancorous individuals
- Pardon and forgiveness
- Retribution and reward
- The harm of excessive greed
- Forbearance and dignity
- Rulers abstaining from heeding traitors
- Resignation and reliance on God
Among its prominent individual narratives are the stories of the Lion and the Bull (Bab al-Asad wa-al-Thawr), the Ringdove (Bab al-Hamama al-Mutawwaqa), and the Owls and the Crows (Bab al-Bum wa-al-Ghirban) .
Adaptations, Versifications, and Influence
The Arabic text of Ibn al-Muqaffa became the fountainhead for subsequent literary adaptations and translations into Eastern and Western languages . Multiple Arabic translations and versifications were produced across various centuries:
- Abdullah ibn Hilal al-Ahwazi produced an Arabic translation for Yahya ibn Khalid al-Barmaki in 165 AH .
- Aban ibn Abd al-Hamid al-Lahiqi rendered the book into Arabic verse of roughly 14,000 lines for the Barmakids in the 2nd century AH .
- Sahl ibn Nawbakht versified it for Yahya al-Barmaki, receiving one thousand dinars .
- Later Arabic versifications were composed by Ali ibn Dawud, Bishr ibn al-Mu'tamir, Abu al-Makarim As'ad ibn Khatir, Ibn al-Habbariyya (under the title Nata'ij al-Fitna), Ibn Mammati for Saladin, Abd al-Mu'min ibn al-Hasan al-Saghani (Durar al-Hikam), and Jalal al-Din al-Naqqash .
- Sahl ibn Harun wrote a stylistic emulation for the Caliph al-Ma'mun titled Kitab Tha'la wa-Ifr .
In Persian literature, the Samanid ruler Nasr ibn Ahmad commissioned its translation from Arabic into Persian prose, after which the poet Rudaki rendered it into Persian verse . The work was translated into Syriac, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Old Spanish, and other European vernaculars . A French translation made in 1644 by David Sahid of Isfahan (Le Livre des Lumières) notably served as a declared source of inspiration for the fables of Jean de La Fontaine .
Print History
The Arabic text was first published in Europe by Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy in Paris in 1826, alongside the Mu'allaqa of Labid . Subsequent Eastern editions followed, including lithographs in Delhi (1850), and print editions in Bulaq, Mosul (1877), Beirut edited by Khalil al-Yaziji (1888), and Kazan (1889) . In the twentieth century, it was critically edited in Cairo by Abd al-Wahhab Azzam .
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