Timeless fables of loyalty and betrayal Like Aesop'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 "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." Kalilah 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, Kalilah and Dimnah offers insight into the moral lessons Ibn al-Muqaffa' wished to impart to rulers-and readers. An English-only edition.

Timeless fables of loyalty and betrayal Like Aesop'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 "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." Kalilah 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, Kalilah and Dimnah offers insight into the moral lessons Ibn al-Muqaffa' believed were important for rulers-and readers. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Kalila wa Dimna is the classic Arabic translation of the Panchatantra collection of animal tales. There are recorded over two hundred different versions known to exist in more than fifty languages. After the Arab invasion of Persia, Ibn al-Muqaffa's version (two languages removed from the pre-Islamic Sanskrit original) emerged as the pivotal surviving text that enriched world literature. Ibn al-Muqqaffa's work is considered a model of the finest Arabic prose style, and "is considered the first masterpiece of Arabic literary prose."

Qu'est-ce que la fable, pour nous, Francais ? Reponse attendue: La Fontaine. Mais d'ou vient l'heritage ? Reponse: Esope, Phedre. Mais aussi l'Orient, l'Inde, Bidpai, l'Iran et le monde arabo-musulman du VIIIe siecle, qui nous donna un des chefs-d'uvre de la litterature universelle: le Kalila et Dimna, ou le lecteur francais retrouvera, a n'en pas douter, des lecons eternelles et bien des personnages familiers de la fable. L'ouvrage est la reedition de la traduction parue en 1957 et effectuee par Andre Miquel, professeur honoraire au College de France.