Summary View

Country

Germany

City

Gotha

Institution

Herzoglichen Bibliothek

Shelfmark

189

Contents

Kelīle ve Dimne (Anonymous)

Author

Anonymous

Show other names

Anonymous (authorised)

Title

Kelīle ve Dimne

كلىلة و دمنة

Notes

This anonymous mathnawī in the ramal meter is a versified Turkish translation/adaptation of the Persian prose work by the same name composed by the Ghaznavid poet, Abū’l-Maʾālī Naṣrullāh and produced for Murad I's (1359-1389) grand vizier Ḫayreddīn (fl. 1368-86). An entertaining collection of moralising animal fables illustrating the art of governance, Kalīla wa Dimna, also known as the Fables of Bidpai, was originally composed in Middle Persian, or Pahlawi by for the Sasanian ruler Khusraw Anushirwan (531-579) by his court physician Burzōe, who drew on the Sanskrit work Pancatantra as his main source. According to Milan Adamović, this Turkish version is an independent translation of Abū’l-Maʾālī Naṣrullāh's work, and is not based on Ḳul Mesʿūd b. Aḥmed (قول مسعود ابن احمد)'s version as Zehra Toska claims. The work exists in a unique manuscript, and has a complicated textual history. Although we don’t know the original author, the work was redacted with additions and modifications by a certain İlyās in ca. 1400 [1400 CE], and then recopied in 1479 [1479 CE] by Süleymān b. Türbedār, the son of the supervisor of Bayezid I’s türbe. It consists of seven chapters (bāb). Throughout the manuscript there are empty spaces presumably reserved for illustrations. The place of composition is Ottoman realm, possibly Edirne (the capital of the Ottomans under Murad I) or somewhere in Rumelia or Anatolia.

Main language of text

Turkish

Bibliography

Editions

Adamović, Milan. Kelile ü Dimne. Hildesheim, Zürich and New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 1994.

Studies

Pertsch, Wilhelm. "Die orientalischen Handschriften." In Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Gotha. Vienna: Kais. Kön. Hof- Und Staatsdruckerei, 1864.

Toska, Zehra. "Türk edebiyatında Kelile ve Dimne çevirileri ve Kul Mesud çevirisi." Ph.D. Dissertation, İstanbul Üniversitesi, 1989.

Toska, Zehra. "Kelile ve Dimne’nin Türkçe Çevirileri." Journal of Turkish Studies=Türklü Bilgisi Araştırmaları Fahir İz Armağanı II. 15 1991: 355-380.

Zajaczkowski, A.. Études sur la langue vieille-osmanlie, 1. Morceaux choicis de la traduction turque-anatolienne de Calila et Dimna. Cracow: 1934.

Physical Description

Number of folios

167 ff.

Columns

1

Ruled lines

13

Hand

Copyist: (سليمان بن تربدار)

History

Date of copy

NaNth. century