Kalilah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice

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.