One of the first and most influential writers of
prose fiction in Arabic, Ibn al-Muqaffa’ was of Persian descent and devoted much of his energies to
translating important Persian texts into Arabic in
the years following the Muslim conquest of Persia.
His best-known work, Kalilah wa-Dimnah, is a
collection of instructive animal fables that is still
used throughout the Middle East as a model of exemplary prose.
Ibn al-Muqaffa’s father was tortured by the despot Hajjaj, and his hand shriveled up as a result,
hence his son was called Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (or “son
of the shriveled”). Originally a Zoroastrian, Ibn
al-Muqaffa’ converted to Islam, though his enemies always questioned the sincerity of his conversion, and he was, at one point, accused of heresy
because one of his texts imitates a part of the
KORAN.
Ibn al-Muqaffa’ worked in Basra (a major port
city in what is modern-day Iraq) as a government
secretary, part of a middle class of scribes and bureaucrats. He also worked as a translator, rendering
into Arabic the history of the kings of Persia. In addition he wrote Kitab Adab al-Kabir (The grand
book of conduct), with advice on statesmanship
including the importance of generosity and the
danger of flattery, and Risala al Sahaba (A letter on
the entourage), which was a political text discussing the caliph and segments of his court.
But Ibn al-Muqaffa’s most important contribution to Arabic literature was his Kalilah waDimnah. Originally a collection of Indian fables
for princes, the text had been translated in the
sixth century from Sanskrit into Old Persian, and
Ibn al-Muqaffa’ reworked the Persian collection
into Arabic and changed it enough to make it a
new creation. He wrote his own prologue and a
section expressing religious skepticism, and he set
the collection in a frame narrative in which a preIslamic sage called Burzoe travels to India in
search of a famous book of wisdom that he
copies. The fables themselves contain a good deal
of practical wisdom—advising appropriate conduct for government bureaucrats more than for
the princes for whom the Indian collection was
originally intended—and also display a common
theme of storytelling as a way of getting out of
life-threatening situations. In addition the text is
structured in a way that embeds tales within tales,
so that in telling one story as a way out of a difficult situation, a narrator may have a character
within his tale begin telling a tale of his own. Both
of these motifs—the life-ransoming stories and
the embedded stories—appear later in the more
famous Arabic collection, The THOUSAND AND
ONE NIGHTS.
The intent of Ibn al-Muqaffa’s work seems to
have been largely didactic. In part he wanted to introduce the refined pursuits and sensibilities of the
dihqan (the traditional Persian country gentleman) to the new Muslim Abbasid court in Basra.
In addition he wanted his Kalilah wa-Dimnah to
be a model for Arabic grammar and literary style,
and wrote it simply enough so that schoolchildren
or nonnative speakers of Arabic could use it as a
model. He hoped they would commit the text to
memory.
These concerns helped Ibn al-Muqaffa’ become instrumental in helping to develop the concept of adab—a social and ethical code and
cultural refinement expected of the genteel or of
one who wanted to advance in society, later applied especially to literary style.
Ibn al-Muqaffa’ died young—he was apparently
murdered (possibly in a fire) by political enemies
before he was 40. But his animal fables remained
extremely popular throughout the Middle Ages,
and were translated into Persian, Turkish, Latin,
and Hebrew. They continue to be popular today,
and still serve as a model of refined Arabic prose.
No definitive edition of the Kalilah wa-Dimnah exists, however, and versions of the text differ.
Bibliography
Irwin, Robert, ed. Night and Horses and the Desert: An
Anthology of classical Arabic Literature. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000.
Younes, Munther Abduffatif. Tales from Kalila wa
Dimna: An Arabic Reader. New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1989.