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

By: Jozette

Jozette — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:22:17 +0000

Wow! I rarely read long blogs all the way through but this was incredible! I thoroughly enjoyed your explanations and comparison…i love learning new things and this was delightfully informative! =) Thank you for sharing.

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 14:26:27 +0000

Hello Fayaz! I wish that I knew; the same calligraphy also appears on the cover Coleman Barks’ Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion: Poetry and Teaching Stories of Rumi, which is where I first became acquainted with the image, but there is not a transcription or a translation of the contents of the calligraphy there. If you find the answer to this, please let me know too! Because of the Coleman Barks’ book, the image has become very well-known and I think it would be great to know the calligraphy. I have asked my friends who speak Arabic but the art of the calligraphy is so ornate that they were not able to help me!

By: fayaz

fayaz — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 08:35:29 +0000

what is the translation for the Ahmad Hilmi lion at the top of this website

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!)