The goal of the Kalīla Reader app is to collect a range of published versions of the text of Kalīla and Dimna—and translations and adaptations thereof—within a simple framework that facilitates cross-referencing and comparative reading. (To make effective use of limited screen area, only one text is displayed at a time. But the user can open multiple instances of the app in separate browser tabs or windows and switch among them.) Rather than loading the full PDF of a given version of Kalīla and Dimna, which could become overwhelming, this utility is designed such that the user first chooses a chapter of the book, then the desired version.
As of June 2024, the following versions have been incorporated:
Five editions of the Arabic text attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d. ca. 139/757), by Silvestre de Sacy (1816), the Būlāq press (1869), Louis Cheikho (1905), ‘Abd al-Wahhāb ‘Azzām (1941), and Michael Fishbein (2022)
An English translation based on De Sacy’s edition of the Arabic, by Wyndham Knatchbull (1819); and another, by Michael Fishbein and James E. Montgomery (2022), based on and published alongside Fishbein’s edition
A German translation of the Arabic, also based on De Sacy’s edition, by Philipp Wolff (1837; ed. J. Christoph Bürgel, 1995)
A French translation of the Arabic, by André Miquel (1957), and a Russian translation by Betsy Shidfar (1986), both apparently based on the edition of Cheikho
A German translation of the chapter that presents the supposed autobiography of the physician Burzoy, based on Arabic manuscripts, by Theodor Nöldeke (1912)
A lithograph printing of the Arabic versification of Ibn al-Habbāriyya (d. ca. 509/1115), Natā’ij al-fiṭna, published in Bombay in 1899; and an edition of the same work, by al-Khūrī Ni‘mat Allāh al-Asmar (1900)
An edition of the later Arabic versification of ‘Abd al-Mu’min al-Ṣaghānī (fl. early seventh/thirteenth century), as well as a French translation, by Fawzia El-Rabī‘ī (1994)
Two editions of the Persian translation of Muḥammad al-Bukhārī (late 1140s CE), Dāstān-hā-yi Bīdpāy, by James N. Gehlhar (1976; incomplete) and Parvīz Nātil Khānlarī and Muḥammad Rawshan (1982)
An edition of the Persian Kalīla va Dimna of Naṣr Allāh Munshī (ca. 540/1145–46), by Mujtabā Mīnuvī (1964)
An English translation of Naṣr Allāh’s text, by Wheeler M. Thackston (2019); and a German translation by Seyfeddin Najmabadi and Siegfried Weber (1996)
An edition of the Persian versification (based on Naṣr Allāh) of Qāni‘ī Ṭūsī (d. after 672/1273–74), by Magali Todua (1979)
An edition of the Persian rewriting (based on Naṣr Allāh) of Ḥusayn Vā‘iẓ Kāshifī (d. 910/1504–05), Anvār-i suhaylī, by Muḥammad Rawshan (2009); and a lithograph printing of the same work, published in Cawnpore in 1880
An English translation of Kāshifī’s text, by Arthur N. Wollaston (1877)
An Ottoman Turkish translation of the Anvār-i suhaylī by ‘Alī Vāsi‘ Çelebī (d. 959/1543–44), Humāyūn-nāme, printed by the Būlāq press (1835)
An edition of the older Syriac version of Kalīla and Dimna (ca. 600 CE; based on the lost Middle Persian), as well as a German translation, by Friedrich Schulthess (1911)
An edition of the newer Syriac version (ca. fourth/tenth or fifth/eleventh century; based on the Arabic), by William Wright (1884); and an English translation of the same work, by I. G. N. Keith-Falconer (1885)
A German translation of the Sanskrit Pañcatantra, by Theodor Benfey (1859), and an English translation by Patrick Olivelle (1997)
Several editions and translations of Greek versions of Kalīla and Dimna, which came to be known by the title Stephanites kai Ichnelates. The earliest version is attributed to an author named Simeon Seth (d. ca. 1110 CE). A subsequent expansion of that text, attributed to one Eugenius of Palermo (d. ca. 1202), is often referred to as the “Eugenian version.” The latter work is what is found in most extant Greek manuscripts. So far, the Reader app offers one edition of Simeon Seth’s text, by Lars-Olof Sjöberg (1962); and four editions of the “Eugenian version,” three of which include translations: an edition and Latin translation by Sebastian Gottfried Starck (1697); an edition by Vittorio Puntoni (1889); an edition and German translation by Kai Brodersen (2021); and an edition and English translation by Alison Noble (with Alexander Alexakis and Richard P. H. Greenfield, 2022).
An edition of an early, anonymous Latin translation based on the “Eugenian” Greek, by Alfons Hilka (1928)
An edition of two manuscripts of the Old Castilian translation from the Arabic (1251 CE), by Hans-Jörg Döhla (2007)
An edition of the Hebrew version attributed to one Rabbi Joel (dating perhaps to the twelfth century CE), with a French translation, by Joseph Derenbourg (1881)
An edition of John of Capua’s Latin translation from the Hebrew (late thirteenth century CE), Directorium vitae humanae, also by Joseph Derenbourg (1889)
Another edition of John of Capua, this time with a German translation, by Friedmar Geissler (1960)
Two editions of Anton von Pforr’s (d. 1483) German translation from the Latin, Das Buch der Beispiele der alten Weisen, by Wilhelm Ludwig Holland (1860) and Friedmar Geissler (1964)
An edition of an anonymous fifteenth-century Spanish adaptation of Kalīla and Dimna, titled Exemplario contra los engaños y peligros del mundo, by Antonio Doñas, Héctor H. Gassó, and Diego Romero Lucas (2007)
Further texts will be added over time. This page will also be updated soon to share a few ancillary resources. With so many renderings of Kalīla and Dimna having been collected, it will be helpful to assemble spreadsheets that indicate which versions are available for each chapter, and the order in which the chapters occur in each version. (There is significant variation on the latter point…)
If you are reading this, you may have clicked on a warning indicator on the main page. There are certain older editions and translations of Kalīla and Dimna that present the text of the book in ways that could be confusing to a nonspecialist. For example, Louis Cheikho has added the chapters of “The Dove, the Fox, and the Heron” and “The King of the Mice” to his edition, although they are not found in his primary manuscript. It was rather out of a desire for comprehensiveness that Cheikho took the text of those chapters from other sources. He does explain this in notes—but again, it might not be clear to a reader who is not immersed in the world of Kalīla and Dimna.
I hope to add more detailed discussion of these issues in the future. For the time being, a simple warning indicator will appear when a potentially problematic edition or translation has been selected for reading.