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    Melikian Collection > Collections > Artworks > Religious > Persian Animal Fables Manuscript


ORIGINAL TITLE: Kalila Wa Dimna
MATERIAL: Hand-Written/Painted
TYPE: Manuscript
DIMENSIONS: 19 x 12.5 cm
COMPONENTS: Paper, ink and leather with 61 painted miniatures in the early Kashmiri/Persian style; 453 leaves, 12 lines to the page.
NOTES: Formally in the collection of Princess Soraya Esfandiyari, Empress of Iran from 1951 to 1958. The layout of the text and illustrations have been done with particular care, and the inclusion of a date is unusual in Kashmiri-style manuscripts of the period, indicating that this was probably a special commission.
LANGUAGE
Persian
ITEM ID: 410
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Persian Animal Fables Manuscript

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DATE
Year: 1800
Decade: 1800s
Century: 19th (1801-1900)
Notes: September 11th, 1800 (11 Rabi' al-Thani 1215).

Known as Kalila Wa Dimna, this book was originally written in Sanskrit in Kashmir around the forth century AD. It was composed by a wise advisor to a king who had three sons who failed to learn the most elementary lessons. The advisor concealed wisdom in the form of animal fables, and the princes later came to rule judiciously. The text then found its way to Persia when a shah sent his personal physician to seek herbal elixirs of immortality in India. The doctor brought back this book of practical wisdom instead and translated it into Old Persian. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, it was translated into Arabic and became a book primarily for the instruction of civil servants. It was so entertaining that it became part of Islamic folklore.