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THE FABLES OF
KALILAH AND DIMNAH
Translated from the Arabic by
Saleh Sa'adeh Jallad
The Fables of Kalilah and Dimnah were written in Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffac
in the middle of the eighth century AD. The tales were originally
Sanskrit and then translated into Middle Persian.
The work of Ibn al-Muqaffac quickly
achieved a popularity which has been maintained until the present
day and his style has become one of the benchmarks of classical
Arabic literature. Such was the popularity of the tales that they
were translated and transposed into many different languages and
later became a source of inspiration for European writers such as
La Fontaine.
Saleh Sacadeh Jallad explains in his
Foreword how the political and intellectual environment of the original
composition is reflected in the fables, which echo one of the perennial
themes of human intellectual endeavour-the potential conflict between
faith and reason.
The fables reveal through their human
and animal characters universal aspects of human wisdom and behaviour
which have an enduring appeal.
This is a completely new English translation
of Kalilah wa Dimnah which presents to an ever-widening audience
these delightful and significant stories.

216 x 135 mm, 247 pages with line drawings,
hardback, £14.95
ISBN 1 901764 14 1
2002
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