Anthologizing Kalīla wa-Dimna: The Incipit of the First Risāla
The article is devoted to a lengthy incipit, here in the meaning of a copyist’s addition preceding the main text, which constitutes the longest and most substantial later addition to Kalīla wa-Dimna. The incipit, it is argued, makes Kalīla wa-Dimna usable as an anthology of ethical and practical adv...
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| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Journal of Abbasid Studies
Year: 2022, Volume: 9, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 105-160 |
| Further subjects: | B
Incipit
B copyist-redactor B cross-copying B Advice literature B Anthology B Kalīla wa-Dimna B textual tradition B manuscript groups |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The article is devoted to a lengthy incipit, here in the meaning of a copyist’s addition preceding the main text, which constitutes the longest and most substantial later addition to Kalīla wa-Dimna. The incipit, it is argued, makes Kalīla wa-Dimna usable as an anthology of ethical and practical advice geared to a wide audience. The incipit evinces a scholastic structure, whose parts are analyzed and placed in relation to similar elements within the book’s other prefaces and the introductions and conclusions of chapters, supported with charts and a synoptic edition of representative witnesses out of the twenty-seven manuscripts containing it. These can be identified as a structural group, cutting across other text-based groupings of the textual tradition of Kalīla wa-Dimna so far identified. The shared occurrence of the incipit in manuscripts whose main texts belong to different groups, or are idiosyncratic, suggests that copyists were combining multiple sources to produce their versions. This hypothesis is supported by the high degree of cross-copying in the main texts of the manuscripts bearing the incipit relative to other manuscripts. |
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| ISSN: | 2214-2371 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Abbasid Studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22142371-00802009 |