dc.contributor.author
Stephan, Johannes
dc.date.accessioned
2022-01-06T10:38:29Z
dc.date.available
2022-01-06T10:38:29Z
dc.identifier.uri
https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/33229
dc.identifier.uri
http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-32951
dc.description.abstract
Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s seminal version of Kalīla wa-Dimna from the eighth century CE has traditionally been read as one of the oldest prose texts in Arabic. Scholarship often overlooked the fact that a great many copies of the book date to the early modern period (sixteenth to nineteenth centuries). When considering the vast amount of variation among the seventy (at minimum) extant copies of the book that were produced during that period, one can assume that Kalīla wa-Dimna had a place in court culture, in learned circles, among amateur readers, and in popular storytelling. The focus of this chapter is to investigate the book’s variation from a linguistic and stylistic angle, with particular regard to the often-used category of Middle Arabic. Placing under scrutiny the use of Middle Arabic in three different manuscript copies from the early modern period, I shall argue that its use cannot be explained solely by some sort of deficiency, nor by simply resorting to scribal conventions, but rather by the artful practice of relating the written tradition to oral storytelling. Hence, changes in orthography and grammar are mostly to be considered deliberate choices, as they reflect practical functions and the artistic use of the texts.
In a first step, this chapter shall shed light on different approaches to Middle Arabic as a historical idiom. Second, I will categorize the linguistic features apparent in three manuscripts of the Kalīla wa-Dimna tradition—from the Vatican Apostolic Library (Sbath 267, seventeenth century), the British Library (BL 3900, eighteenth century), and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Wetzstein II 672, nineteenth century). After highlighting the conspicuous features of these manuscript texts, such as the use of vocalization, shifts in agreement, and the orthographic system, I will finally show how the variation in a textual tradition bears concrete didactic and performative dimensions. Elaborating on this hypothesis, I will, therefore, propose a reading in terms of the early formalist approach developed by Viktor Shklovsky (1893–1984). Since Middle Arabic functions as a fusion of standard classical (fuṣḥā) and dialect features, I shall demonstrate how Kalīla wa-Dimna copyists adopt some linguistic proximity to everyday prose while still maintaining a transmitted written standard. I will call the dynamic between these two poles: the poetic moment.
en
dc.rights.uri
http://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/refubium/rechtliches/Nutzungsbedingungen
dc.subject
Kalila and Dimna
en
dc.subject
Kalila wa-Dimna
ar
dc.subject
Fürstenspiegel
de
dc.subject
specula principum
la
dc.subject
mirrors of princes
en
dc.subject
AnonymClassic publication
en
dc.subject.ddc
800 Literatur::890 Andere Literaturen::892 Afroasiatische Literaturen, semitische Literaturen
dc.title
Poetic Moments: The Literary Significance of Middle Arabic in Kalīla wa-Dimna Manuscripts from the Early Modern Period
dc.contributor.institution
AnonymClassic project
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.booktitle
An Unruly Classic: Kalīla and Dimna and Its Syriac, Arabic, and Early Persian Versions
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.editor
Beatrice Gruendler
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.editor
Isabel Toral
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.originalpublishername
Brill
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.originalpublisherplace
Leiden
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.pagestart
188
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.pagestart
210
refubium.affiliation
Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften
refubium.affiliation.other
Seminar für Semitistik und Arabistik, Arabistik
refubium.funding
European Research Council (ERC)
refubium.funding.projectId
742635
refubium.note.author
This article is part of the collective volume of the AnonymClassic research project: “An Unruly Classic: Kalīla and Dimna and Its Syriac, Arabic, and Early Persian Versions”, edited by B. Gruendler and I. Toral. Brill publishers, 2022.
Authors: Beatrice Gruendler, Isabel Toral, Khouloud Khalfallah, Rima Redwan, Jan J. van Ginkel, Theodore S. Beers, Johannes Stephan, Mahmoud Kozae.
For full PDF version, pls see Gruendler/Toral “An Unruly Classic: Kalīla and Dimna and Its Syriac, Arabic, and Early Persian Versions” also available via refubium at http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-32958.
en
refubium.resourceType.isindependentpub
no
dcterms.accessRights.openaire
restricted access
refubium.funding.stream
European Union’s H2020-EXCELLENT SCIENCE programme