Comments on: Rumi: The Fable of the Lion’s Share

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:16:44 +0000

Thank you for your comment, Herry! I have just published a book of 1001 Latin fables which includes many of the fables that reached Europe via Eastern sources, via India and the Middle East – I don’t know if you do any Latin, but the book is available for free download here: Mille Fabulae et Una: 1001 Aesop’s Fables in Latin. Now I need to get to work on the English version of the book! The back-and-forth between Eastern and Western storytelling is one of my favorite subjects, and the Aesop’s fable tradition is great way to see that dynamic in action!

By: Herry Lawford

Herry Lawford — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 08:13:45 +0000

Love this post and the advaita message in Rumi’s version of this story

By: hakeem khan

hakeem khan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:25:21 +0000

I am sure you will post the Aesop fable about the frog who befriended a mouse and tied themseves to each other with a string causing both of them to perish at the hands of a raven.Rumi goes on to point out that the frog is the soul and the mouse the body.

By: Eilera Best

Eilera Best — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:37:25 +0000

A wonderful story fables are.

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:30:12 +0000

Thank you for your comment, Demetrius! There are lots of parallels between Luqman and Aesop, slaves who were very wise storytellers – although Aesop was not adopted by a religious tradition the way that Luqman was adopted and embraced by the Islamic tradition. There are even some incidents shared between the legendary lives of Luqman and Aesop so that sometimes it almost seems like they are the same person. For example, Luqman gets the gift of insight and understanding from an angel of Allah, but in the Life of Aesop, Aesop gets his gift of wisdom from the goddess Isis. Still, the stories are very similar!

By: demetrius

demetrius — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:57:59 +0000

Luqman an african was blessed by God with wisdom. Then was a slave but God never abandons the belivers. His master loved him as he was wise rememder the heart and the tongue. All relavent stories or fables derive from Luqman how glorious is Allah. A black slave who was raised from the lowest and placed on a high pedstal indeed such is the way of our Lord the wisest ofthe wise. Black youth need the history of Luqman to disspell the myth that he is his lineage are in anyway inferior even so Allah mentions him in the final testament to man kind the the book of all books the Quran

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:05:51 +0000

Yes indeed! The fables of Luqman are a wonderful topic! One of the most interesting things about the Aesopic tradition in Europe is that it is not limited to the old Greek and Roman stories attributed to Aesop. During the Middle Ages, Arabic texts were translated into Latin and into the vernacular languages, so stories that were circulating in Arabic (the fables of Luqman, stories from Kalila wa Dimna and related traditions) merged in with the Aesopic fables. One of my projects this summer was looking at the medieval Latin translations of the Arabic story traditions – thanks to GoogleBooks, those Latin texts are available online now! So exciting! I don’t know if/when/how I will ever find time for it all, but I would love to make a Latin reader for Latin students based on those wonderful stories that entered into the Latin tradition from Arabic sources. One of my favorites is this version, called the Liber Kalilae et Dimnae: aesopus.pbwiki.com/kalila (I am not sure if the links will work here in the comments; fingers crossed!)

By: BINJALIL

BINJALIL — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:34:53 +0000

Hello again Dr.Gibbs,

You had wondered "how did Aesop’s fables end up being part of the Islamic tradition? " Well it's probably like this.

The oldest Arab traditions -much before the advent of Islam -mentions a Sage named LUQMAN. Known to the Pre Islamic Arabs as Luqman Al Hakim (Luqman the wise ), stories of his wisdom had been in circulation for centuries before the Koran. In fact language historians now beleive that the earliest Arabic literature was based on stories of Luqman. Perhaps it may not be wrong to state that he kick-started Arabic Literature.!! Now, Luqman the Wise was a slave, later freed by his master who was impressed by his sagacity and wisdom. Compare that with Aesop who too is believed to have been a freed slave albeit a brilliant one.( In fact the name Aesop is presumed to be derived from "Ethiopian" a generic term for black slave.) Putting two and two together you come to the inclusion that Luqman of the Arabs and Aesop of the West were probably one and the same. Many modern Exegets hold this view. The Koran does mention him by name, in fact there is a chapter titled Luqman. Rumi does mention Luqman a couple of times in his Masnavi and asks us to be wise like him! So you see Aesop had a universal appeal much before the advent of The Internet or even the Printing Press :) I look forward to more of yours on Rumi. Best wishes

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:36:30 +0000

Thank you so much for your comment, Binjalil! Rumi’s version of the story of the frog and the mouse literally changed my life. A friend of mine, way back in 1990, had recommended to me that I read Rumi, and I had never heard of him before. Well, I started reading – and there was the fable of the frog and the mouse! It was the first of the Aesop’s fables I found in Rumi, and I was ASTOUNDED by this! I knew the fable from Aesop, but simply could not understand what a fable from Aesop was doing here in a medieval Sufi poet. Plus, it was such a beautiful version of the fable. So, that started me down the entire academic path I have followed in the past twenty years, just looking for the answer to that question: how did Aesop’s fables end up being part of the Islamic tradition? That question has led me to learn so much about Aesop and about wisdom literature in general – meanwhile, Rumi remains my favorite of all the writers I have met on this journey. I will see if Randy would be interested in a piece on that story about the frog and the mouse because it does have a very interesting history in the Western tradition too, where the Aesop’s fable about the frog and the mouse gets connected to the mock-epic poem (once attributed to Homer) called the “Batrachomyomachia,” “The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice.” Anyway, thanks so much for your comment, and I hope you will find some good materials to read here in the future. Next month I have another little article about Rumi again. :-)

By: BINJALIL

BINJALIL — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:30:09 +0000

That was a great post. It’s the first time that I’ve visited this blog and have come to know about your online resources. I am sure you will post the Aesop fable about the frog who befriended a mouse and tied themseves to each other with a string causing both of them to perish at the hands of a raven.Rumi goes on to point out that the frog is the soul and the mouse the body.Please do post more of the Aesop Rumi connection. I am here to stay.