Description
The Kalila wa Dimna, animal tales known within the West through Les Fables of La Fontaine, may also be traced to 4th-century India. Written for the edification and amusement of princes and magistrates, they were second in popularity only to the Koran. The witty dialogue of the animal characters, led by two scheming jackals known as Kalila and Dimna, reveal a Machiavellian code of behavior and mirror a real world of intrigue, diplomacy, and statecraft. Though the tales have been illustrated a lot of times, it used to be within the 14th-century Mongol court of Persia that they inspired one of the crucial remarkable works of Persian art–a narrative cycle of paintings now within the collections of the Istanbul University Library. The paintings, which match the text in wit, spirit, and drama, are unsurpassed in their beauty and energetic style. This book, a full of life translation of the tales and a study of fifty paintings from the original manuscript, explores the ways during which the artists enriched and expanded the content of the fables, revealing a uniquely personal and mystical interpretation. Beautifully illustrated in full color and black-and-white, the book will interest quite a lot of readers interested in art history and Middle Eastern and East Asian studies.