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Kalīla wa-Dimna online

Online Workshops on July 20 and 27, 2020 – In cooperation between the Columbia Global Center, Amman, Columbia University, New York, and Freie Universität Berlin

№ 126/2020 from Jul 20, 2020

Two online workshops on July 20 and 27, 2020, will deal with the adaptation and translation of Kalīla wa-Dimna and the Arabic versions of the work. The workshops are being carried out in cooperation between the Columbia Global Center, Amman, Columbia University, New York, and Freie Universität Berlin via Zoom. They are public and free of charge. Registration in advance is required. The workshop language is English.

Kalīla wa-Dimna is a text that is central to both Arabic and world literature. A collection of stories teaching political wisdom, it transcended languages, cultures, and religions. Throughout the centuries, the book traveled from India via the Middle East to Europe. In its course, it was translated from Sanskrit via Middle Persian and Arabic to Hebrew, Latin (under the title Directorium vitae humanae) and most European vernaculars, as well as Near Eastern, South Asian, and South-East Asian languages. Its religious and social context changed from Hinduism via Zoroastrianism to Islam, and from there to Christianity.

The work’s multilingual history involving circa forty languages has never been systematically studied. Prof. Dr. Beatrice Gründler, who in 2019 was awarded the Berliner Wissenschaftspreis for her services to Arabic, and her team are working on a digital edition of the early versions as part of the AnonymClassic project at Freie Universität Berlin. The AnonymClassic project is being funded by the European Research Council. The workshops are part of a series in which the project and the findings at mid-term are presented to a wider audience. Recordings of previous lectures are available here online.

The series is being moderated by Matthew L. Keegan, formerly a research fellow in the AnonymClassic project and now Moinian Assistant Professor at Barnard College (Columbia University, NYC).

Program of Workshops 2 and 3

Monday, July 20, 4 p.m., Berlin | Registration
The Adaptations and Translations of Kalīla wa-Dimna
Moderated by Matthew L. Keegan

  • What Makes a Good Friend? Analysis of the Two Syriac Translations of “The Cat and the Mouse”
    Lecture by Jan J. van Ginkel, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Naṣr Allāh Munshī’s preface to a Persian Kalīla wa-Dimna
    Lecture by Theodore S. Beers, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin
  • “The Book of the Panther and the Fox” and other siblings of Kalīla wa-Dimna
    Lecture by Isabel Toral, Senior Postdoc Researcher, Deputy Head of the ERC project, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Discussion with Lara Harb, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Princeton University

Monday, July 27, (4:00 p.m. Berlin, 5:00 p.m. Amman, 10:00 a.m. New York) | Registration
The Arabic Versions of Kalīla wa-Dimna
Moderated by Matthew L. Keegan

  • Manuscripts of Kalīla wa-Dimna: Their Relation and Redaction
    Lecture by Beatrice Gründer, Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Freie Universität Berlin
  • An Overview of the Variety of Versions of Kalīla wa-Dimna
    Lecture by Khouloud Khalfallah, Researcher, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Poetic Moments. The Literary Significance of Middle Arabic in Kalīla wa-Dimna Manuscripts from the Early Modern Period
    Lecture by Johannes Stephan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Discussion with Devin Stewart, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies and MESAS Chair, Emory College of Arts and Scienes, Emory University

The Series on YouTube

Recordings of the events are available on the Columbia Global Center, Amman website (webinars) via a YouTube link: https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/content/amman-webinars


Further Information

Prof. Dr. Beatrice Gründler, Seminar for Semitic and Arabic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 838-60489, Email: beatrice.gruendler@fu-berlin.de

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