hikaayaat kaliila wa-dimna li-tulaab
al-lughat al-carabiyya (Tales from Kalila wa Dimna

for Students of Arabic [retold])
Munther A Younes

Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, 2001.
206 pages, 3 audio CDs.

The title Kalila wa Dimna first came to my attention long ago in my sec-
ond year of Arabic language study. Ahmad Amin mentions Kalila wa
Dimna in passing in his autobiography, Hayati (Cairo: 1952), an excerpt of
which I read in Farhat Ziadeh’s Reader in Modern Literary Arabic. Over
the years, I tried occasionally to read a bit of the original and found the clas-
sical Arabic intimidating. The task of reviewing Munther Younes’s retelling
of these stories represented the opportunity to taste the stories’ flavor with-
out the drudgery of dictionary look-up. Among other accomplishments,
Younes simplifies the grammar and lexicon to the point where intermediate
students of Arabic will understand what they read without excessive strug-
gle. This review will touch upon the structure and substance of Kalila wa
Dimna itself and Younes’ approach to retelling the stories and their utiliza-
tion as an Arabic language teaching tool.

In the West, most of us hear and then read Aesop’s Fables as children.
These stories, which date back as far as 620 BCE, feature anthropomorphic
animals who play out their dramas and conflicts in order to teach a moral.
Kalila wa Dimna, attributed to the Indian author Bidpai and written in
Sanskrit during the third century, does much the same, but also includes a
smattering of human characters. As Younes tells us, the Sassanid King
Khosro Anoushrawan sent his physician Burzuwayh to India to collect and
translate Bidpai’s fables into Persian. In the process, Burzuwayh added sto-
ries by other authors. What had now become a book was then translated
into Syriac in 570; 200 years later, Abdullah ibn al-Muqafac translated it
into Arabic. Since its Arabization some 12 centuries ago, Kalila wa Dimna

160 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 20:1



has held a place of honor in the Arab world among those who read the writ-
ten word and those who enjoy literature in its oral traditions.

Kalila and Dimna are two jackals who populate one of the book’s many
continuing and interrelated stories. Dimna uses his wiles to ingratiate himself
with King Lion, and deceives him into killing his (the king’s) own best friend
(the bull) so that he (Dimna) might assume the bull’s place of honor. Soon,
however, Dimna’s plot is exposed and the king orders his execution. Dimna’s
death is too much to bear, and his loyal friend Kalila, who had warned Dimna
not to get involved with such risky machinations, dies of a broken heart. Lest
we form an unfair bias against jackals, however, in a subsequent story
another jackal plays the part of a humble, ascetic, vegetarian who seeks to
avoid the limelight but is nevertheless drafted into the service of King Lion.
Ibn Awa (the jackal) falls victim to conspirators who envy his exalted status
as King Lion’s friend. To his rescue comes King Lion’s mother, who per-
suades her son of Ibn Awa’s innocence. Innocence, guilt, self-sacrifice,
avarice, honor, and betrayal: not a single human trait, whether virtue nor a
vice, is left out of Kalila wa Dimna. That all-inclusiveness notwithstanding,
certain characteristics seem to appear more frequently. In well over half of the
stories, deception rules the day and these beasts, like the humans they por-
trary, do not have much compunction about violence as a means to an end.

In “Al-boum wa-l’ghurbaan” (The Owls and the Crows), the owls
attack the crows, killing many and imprisoning many more. One of King
Crow’s ministers recommends appeasement, another suggests retaliation,
and a third counsels retreat and emigration. The cleverest one calls for a
ruse: in full view of the owls, and at his own insistence, the crows peck the
clever one, pluck his feathers, and leave him injured in front of the owls’
cave. When the owls interrogate him, he tells them that he had pushed for
peace but that the rest of the flock had rejected his overtures for reconcili-
ation and punished him for treason. The owls believe him, adopt him, nurse
him back to health, and reveal their secrets to him. At the first opportunity,
he flies back to his flock and leads them in a massacre of the owls.

While the baser instincts triumph far too often in this literature, as in life
sometimes a noble character uplifts us. In “Al-Ghurab wa-asHabuhu” (The
Crow and his Friends), four animals – a rat, a turtle, a crow, and a gazelle –
join together in the bonds of friendship and come to each other’s rescue in
time of need, for as the turtle reminds us at the end of the story, “Wa-maa
faa’idat al-caysh bi-doun al-asHaab?” (What good is living without friends?).

As a reteller of tales, Younes has done more than merely simplify the
grammar and lexicon, though these two processes contribute the most to

Book Reviews 161



this book’s accessibility to intermediate students. Younes also has enlisted
the artistic talents of Anees Rabie to illustrate each of the 45 stories includ-
ed in this volume. The results are occasionally hilarious, but they always fit,
for Rabie successfully sums up each story with a single sketch. The only
problem is that his mice, rats, and rabbits look more like toads.

The author, having intermediate students in mind, has composed level-
appropriate exercises at the end of each story: factual who-what-when-
where-why-how questions, along with fill-in-the-blanks, grammatical prob-
lem solving, and open-ended questions for classroom debate. Each story
teaches a moral or illustrates a human characteristic, thereby opening up an
expansive field for discussion. Nevertheless, in his introduction,Younes cau-
tions us that he does not intend his Retelling to replace an ordinary Arabic
language textbook; rather, it should serve as a supplementary reader. The
exercises, therefore, may be assigned or jettisoned as the teacher sees fit.

Tales ... Retold also features a nine-page Arabic-English glossary, as
well as short lists following each story, with the new vocabulary and
English translations. Younes has inserted four excerpts of the original
Arabic rendering of Kalila wa Dimna; he then asks the student to read the
classical Arabic and compare it with the simplified Modern Standard
Arabic version. As a second-year Arabic student may find it difficult to
make much headway through these classical Arabic texts, perhaps these
readings might be saved for more advanced students. Students at all levels
will benefit from the three audio CDs, which cover all 45 stories. The CD
label does not mention the reader’s name; perhaps we can presume the
voice to be that of Munther Younes himself. Whatever the case may be, the
reader pronounces Arabic eloquently and accurately. He speaks with a clear
and pleasing voice at a moderate tempo. Listening to these recordings in the
car during my weekly commute between Princeton University and my
home in Maryland transformed 3.5 hours of tedium into an enjoyable
escape into the fantasy world of talking animals!

Teachers of second- and third-year Arabic should consider supple-
menting their curriculum with Younes’ retelling of Tales from Kalila wa-
Dimna. Not only do these stories offer a much needed break from the con-
stant grammatical hammering of a typical university Arabic course, but
they provide a glimpse into the fables that have enchanted and enthralled
Arabs of all ages for more than 1,200 years.

Paul Roochnik
The Defense Language Institute

Monterey, Califiornia

162 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 20:1