The story collection ‘Kalila wa Dimna’ rewritten for children by author Mehdi Kamoos has been published for the first time in North Africa.
The collection, comprising 4 volumes, published in Algeria, has two versions, Persian for Iranian and Arabic for Algerian readership, MNA reported.
Kamoos’s work was unveiled during a ceremony at the recently-concluded 28th Tehran International Book Fair in the presence of Algerian publisher Feras Aljohman and Kamoos. The book is released by Monadi Publishing house.
Aljohmai said he was eager to publish special books for Algerian children. He expressed hope that his interaction with Iranian authors would continue in future. “I’m honored to publish the first Iranian children’s book in my country.”
Kamoos has attended other Arab book fairs in Tunisia, Algeria, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi and is familiar with their literature and publications.
Frame Story
The original ‘Kalile and Demni’, or Panchatantra (‘Five Principles or Techniques’) is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.
The original work in Sanskrit was believed to be composed around the 3rd century BC. It is based on older oral traditions, including animal fables that are as old as one can imagine.
It is “certainly the most frequently translated literary work of India,” and the stories are among the most widely known in the world.
In India, it had at least 25 revised editions. It was translated into Middle Persian or Sassanian of southwestern Iran during the Sassanid era in 570 CE. It became the basis for a Syriac translation as ‘Kalilag and Damnag’ and a translation into Arabic in 750 CE by Persian scholar Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa as ‘Kalilah wa Dimnah.’
The book will be exhibited in all the Arab world book fairs which include 54 countries. It has universal appeal and greatly contributes to children’s moral and social education.
