Yoones Dehghani Farsani

This article provides the first translation into a European language of a barely-studied Chinese version (i.e., Yijing’s version) of a story found in Kalīla wa-Dimna known as “The King and His Dreams.” The article then compares the story with three versions from the Arabic textual tradition. Moreover, discussing the structure and content of this story, yet another unstudied Chinese version (i.e., Kinkara’s version) of the story is introduced. Both Chinese texts belong to the Chinese Buddhist canon (Taishō Tripiṭaka). Our study shows that of the two Chinese texts, Kinkara’s version bears less similarity to the three Arabic versions in terms of structure and content. Yijing’s text and the three Arabic versions are very close, but display in a number of scenes discrepancies in the general plot as well as in details, thereby creating different morals for the story in the two traditions. While the Arabic versions can be regarded as belonging to political advice literature, Yijing’s version remains a story with a religious moral. The variances between Yijing’s text and the three Arabic texts could partly be ascribed to possible adjustment of the original Sanskrit text of the story by the compiler-author of the Middle Persian Kalīla wa-Dimna in order to make the story adaptable to the agenda and the context of his book. Yijing’s text shows distinct similarities to the Tibetan version of the story.

Historians of the Arab Muslim conquests of the Middle East in first/seventh century have ignored for a long period the Futūḥ al-Shām ascribed to al-Wāqidī (d. 207/822) as a potential source of historical survey. This has been largely due to the question regarding the identity of this work, which is still at debate. This paper compares four passages from this book with parallel passages from the Futūḥ al-Shām of al-Azdī (fl. second half of the 2nd/8th century) and the Kitāb al-futūḥ of Ibn Aʿtham al-Kūfī (d. at the first quarter of the 4th/10th century), in order to shed more light on the form and the content of this book. This study suggests that in terms of content, the narrative of the Futūḥ al-Shām ascribed to al-Wāqidī contains more details that are mostly of religious and eschatological nature. In terms of form, the narrative of this book tends to relate a more complete, self-contained and less interrupted narration of events than that of the other two parallel narratives.

Im Jahr 1797 kehrte John Mac Gregor Murray, General der Britischen Ostindien Kompanie, von Bengalen nach Großbritannien zurück und brachte dabei seine Privatbibliothek mit sich. Diese umfasste über dreihundert Handschriften und gedruckte Bücher, die er in über mehr als 25 Jahren auf dem indischen Subkontinent gesammelt hatte. Unter den Handschriften befindet sich eine Reihe von indischen und persischen Originaltexten, die einzigartig sind. Denn sie liefern Einzelheiten zur Geschichte, Religion und Kultur des indischen Subkontinents des späten 18. Jahrhunderts, wie man sie sonst nirgends findet.