What the Chapter of “The King and His Dreams” reveals about the Variety of Versions of Kalīla wa-Dimna

Abstract

For a better understanding of the textual evolution of Kalīla wa-Dimna, based on the roughly 95 manuscripts that we have collected so far, the classification of witnesses becomes essential to trace the process of development of different versions. In my contribution, I plan to focus on “The King and His Dreams” tale. The chapter of “The King and His Dreams” has an old Sanskrit origin and has been found so far in all Arabic versions. With regard to its position in the book, however, it is quite variable. Therefore, I have chosen to analyze the extent to which this order, as well as certain peculiar narrative elements, could help to classify the Arabic versions of Kalīla wa- Dimna. Based on our analysis of this chapter, several groups of manuscripts have been recognized, which have helped to identify characteristic narrative and structural elements that are proving useful in our classification work. The comparison of different groups leads us to another important result, which is the uncovering of higher-level connections among them. Throughout this process, we have been able to describe the evolution of some versions of the text, see which have been reproduced more than others, identify how copyists experimented with the combination of different Vorlagen, and uncover how certain Kalīla wa-Dimna versions changed over time. It remains to be seen, however, to what extent these findings are applicable for the remainder of the book.