Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/28

xviii “In olden times there was neither science nor religion among the sons of Ishmael that dwell in tents till the [author of the] Koran arose and gave them a new code of religion after his desire … till the great king in Ishmael, by name Es’Saffa’h [fl. 750 ], arose, who heard that there were many sciences to be found in India … and there came men saying that there was in India a very mighty book on the secrets of government, in the form of a Fable placed in the mouths of dumb beasts, and in it many illustrations, for the book was greatly honoured in the eyes of the reader, and the name of the book was Kalila and Dimna, that is, the Lion and the Ox, because the story in the first chapter of the book is about them. The aforesaid king fasted therefore forty days, so that he might perchance see the Angel of dreams, who might allow him to have the book translated in the Ishmaelitish tongue. And he saw in his dream according to his wish. Thereupon he sent for a Jew who knew both languages, and ordered him to translate this book, for he feared that if an Ishmaelite versed in both tongues were to translate it he might die. And when he saw that the contents of the book were extraordinary—as indeed they are—he desired to know the