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Baghdad, 1300
Illustration from Kalilah wa Dimnah
KALILAH WA-DIMNAH
Book of Indian fables which has been translated into most of
the languages of the Old World. It appears to have been composed
in India, about 300 C.E., as a Brahmin rival to the Buddhist fable-books,
and includes variants of several of the jatakas, or Buddha birth-stories.
It was translated into Pahlavi about 570, and thence traveled
westward through Arabic sources. According to Abraham ibn Ezra,
quoted by Steinschneider ("Z. D. M. G." xxiv. 327),
it was translated directly from the Sanskrit into Arabic by the
Jew (Joseph?) who is said to have brought the Indian numerals
from India. Whether this be true or not, the passage from Arabic
into the European languages was, in each of the three chief channels,
conducted by Jewishscholars. The Greek version was done by Simeon
Seth, a Jewish physician at the Byzantine court in the eleventh
century (see, however, Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebers."
p. 873, No. 148), and from this were derived the Slavonic and
the Croat versions. The old Spanish version was probably translated
about 1250 by the Jewish translators of Alfonso the Good; this
led to a Latin version. But the chief source of the European versions
of Bidpai was a Hebrew one made by a certain Rabbi Joel, of which
a Latin rendering was made by John of Capua, a converted Jew,
under the title "Directorium Vite Humane"; from this
were derived Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, and English versions.
In addition to this of Rabbi Joel's, another Hebrew version exists—by
Rabbi Eleazar b. Jacob (1283); both these versions have been edited
by Joseph Derenbourg (Paris, 1881), who issued also an edition
of the "Directorium Vite Humane" (ib. 1887).
It has been claimed that nearly one-tenth of the most popular
European folk-tales are derived from one or other of these translations
of the "Kalilah wa-Dimnah," among them being the story
of Patty and her milk-pail ("La Perrette" in Lafontaine),
from which is derived the proverb, "Do not count your chickens
before they are hatched." Many of the popular beast-tales
and some of the elements of Reynard the Fox also occur in this
Indian book of tales. Much learning has been devoted to the investigation
of the distribution of these tales throughout European folk-literature,
especially by Jewish scholars: by T. Benfey, in the introduction
to his translation of the "Pantchatantra," a later Sanskrit
edition of the "Kalilah wa-Dimnah"; by M. Landau, in
his "Quellen des Decamerone"; by Derenbourg, in his
editions of the Latin and Hebrew texts; and by Steinschneider.
The Hebrew versions are quoted by Zerahiah ha-Yewani, Kalonymus
(in the "Eben Boḥan"), Abraham b.
Solomon, Abraham Bibago, and Isaac ibn Zahula (who wrote his "Meshal
ha-Ḳadmoni" to wean the Jewish public
away from "Kalilah wa-Dimnah").
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=44&letter=K#ixzz0coY4ylFd
Kalila Wa Dimna
Written by Paul Lunde
Illustrated by Don Thompson
One of the most popular books ever written is the book the Arabs
know as Kalila wa Dimna, a bestseller for almost two thousand
years, and a book still read with pleasure all over the Arab world.
Kalila and Dimna was originally written in Sanskrit, probably
in Kashmir, some time in the fourth century A.D. In Sanskrit it
was called the Panchatantra, or "Five Discourses." It
was written for three young princes who had driven their tutors
to despair and their father to distraction. Afraid to entrust
his kingdom to sons unable to master the most elementary lessons,
the king turned over the problem to his wise wazir, and the wazir
wrote the Panchatantra, which concealed great practical wisdom
in the easily digestible form of animal fables. Six months later
the princes were on the road to wisdom and later ruled judiciously.
Two hundred years after that, a Persian shah sent his personal
physician, Burzoe, to India to find a certain herb rumored to
bestow eternal life upon him who partook of it. Burzoe returned
with a copy of the Panchatantra instead, which he claimed was
just as good as the miraculous herb, for it would bestow great
wisdom on the reader. The shah had Burzoe translate it into Pehlavi,
a form of Old Persian, and liked it so much that he enshrined
the translation in a special room of his palace.
Three hundred years later, after the Muslim conquest of Persia
and the Near East, a Persian convert to Islam named Ibn al-Mukaffa'
chanced upon Burzoe's Pehlavi version and translated it into Arabic
in a style so lucid it is still considered a model of Arabic prose.
Called Kalila and Dimna, after the two jackals who are the main
characters, the book was written mainly for the instruction of
civil servants. It was so entertaining, however, that it proved
popular with all classes, entered the folklore of the Muslim world,
and was carried by the Arabs to Spain. There it was translated
into Old Spanish in the 13th century. In Italy it was one of the
first books to appear after the invention of printing.
Later it was also translated into Greek and then that version
into Latin, Old Church Slavic, German and other languages. The
Arabic version was translated into Ethiopic, Syriac, Persian,
Turkish, Malay, Javanese, Laotian and Siamese. In the 19th century
it was translated into Hindustani, thus completing the circle
begun 1,700 years before in Kashmir.
Not all versions were simple translations. The book was expanded,
abridged, versified, disfigured and enhanced by a seemingly endless
series of translators—to which I now add one more: me. The
story I have selected is not included in the original Sanskrit
version, nor in most Arabic manuscripts of Ibn al-Mukaffa', but
it is of interest because it has entered European folklore as
the story known as "Belling the Cats," which can be
found in the Brothers Grimm and many other places. The difference
is that the Arab mice solve their problem much more subtly than
their western cousins...
'There was once in the land of the Brahmins a swamp called Dawran
that extended in all directions for a distance of a thousand parsangs.
In the middle of the swamp was a city called Aydazinun. The city
enjoyed many natural advantages and its people were prosperous
and could afford to enjoy themselves however they liked. Now there
was a mouse in that city called Mahraz, and he ruled over all
the other mice in the city and in the surrounding countryside.
He had three wazirs to advise him in his affairs.
One day all the wazirs were gathered in the presence of the king
of the mice discussing various things, when the king said: "Do
you think it is possible for us to free ourselves of the hereditary
terror which we and our fathers before us have always felt for
cats? Although we have many comforts and good things in our lives,
our fear of the cats has taken the savor out of everything. I
wish all three of you would give me the benefit of your advice
about how to solve this problem. What do you think we ought to
do?" "My advice," said the first wazir, "is
to collect as many bells as you can, and hang a hell around the
neck of every cat so that we can hear them coming and have time
to hide in our holes."
Then the king turned to the second wazir and said, "What
do you think about your colleague's advice?"
"I think it's lousy," answered the second wazir. "After
we collect all the bells, who do you think is going to dare hang
one around the neck even of the smallest kitten, much less approach
a veteran tomcat? In my opinion, we should emigrate from the city
and dwell in the country for a year until the people of the city
think that they can dispense with the cats who are eating them
out of house and home. Then they'll kick them out, or kill them,
and the ones that escape will scatter in all directions into the
country and become wild and no longer suitable for house cats.
Then we can safely return to the city and live forever without
worrying about cats."
Then the king turned to the third and wisest wazir. "What
do you think about that idea?"
"It's pretty poor," replied the third wazir. "If
we leave the city and go live in the country, how do we know that
the cats will disappear in a single year? And what about the difficulties
we will experience? The wilderness is full of wild animals that
like to eat mice, and they will do us a lot more harm than do
the cats."
"You're right about that," said the king. "So
what do you think we should do?"
"I can think of only one possible plan. The king should
summon all the mice in the city and in the suburbs and order them
to construct a tunnel in the house of the richest man in the city,
and to store up enough food for ten days. Have them make doors
in the tunnel that lead to every room in the house. Then we will
all get inside the tunnel, but we will not touch any of the man's
food. Instead, we will concentrate on damaging his clothes, beds,
and carpets. When he sees the damage, he will say to himself,
`Obviously one cat can't handle all the mice around here! And
he will go get another cat. When he has done that, we will increase
the amount of damage that we do, really tearing his clothes to
pieces. Again he will decide to get another cat. And then we will
increase the damage threefold. That should make him stop and think.
He'll say to himself: "The damage was much less when I only
had one cat. The more cats I get, the more mice there seem to
he.''
So then he will try an experiment. He will get rid of one of
the cats. Immediately, we will lessen the amount of damage that
we do by a third. `That's strange,' the man will say. And he will
get rid of another cat. And we will again decrease the amount
of damage by a third. Then the light will dawn on him. When he
gets rid of the third cat, we will stop our destruction completely.
Then the man will think that he has made a great discovery. He'll
say: `It's not the mice that damage food and clothes, but cats.'
He will run to tell his neighbors, and because he is a rich and
respected man in the town, they will all believe him and throw
their cats out of doors, or kill them, and forever after, whenever
they see a cat, they will chase it and kill it."
So the king followed the advice of the third wazir and before
very long not a cat remained in the city. The people remained
so convinced that they were right about the cats that whenever
they saw a hole in their clothes, they would say, ``A cat must
have gotten into the house last night." And even when there
was an outbreak of disease among men or livestock, they would
say, "A cat must have walked through the town last night."
So by this strategem, the mice freed themselves forevermore from
their hereditary fear of cats.'
Paul Lunde grew up in Saudi Arabia, studied Arabic at the University
of London, and is now studying and free-lancing in Italy.
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197204/kalila.wa.dimna.htm
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