DEAR SON, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? IOIon wisdom in Arabic, including Adab al-Kabir (The Comprehensive
Book of the Rules of Conduct) and A'in Nameh (The Book of Proper
Conduct)-created one of the most powerful and influential examples
of advice literature in Arabic and Persian literary and political cultures.
It spread widely through Islamic courts and was commented upon, re-
inscribed, and rewritten numerous times.
A prominent example of the development of Kalila wa Dimna's
stature as advice literature is in the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren
of Purity). In this text that was compiled in the late tenth century, the
jinn, alongside animals and humans, enter into a ferocious debate about
morality, ethics, faith, and governance. Kalila wa Dimna also influ-
enced Persianate literary forms, from Firdawsi's Shahnamah, to Abu'l
M'ati Nasru'llah's Anvar-i Suhaili (composed in n2I), and Fariduddin
Attar's Mantiq at-Tair (Speech of the Birds), completed in n78. These
texts constituted a canon as foundational exegetical texts, addressing
governance and royal conduct for the Persianate rulers of northern In-
dian from the twelfth century to the eighteenth. In these texts, differ-
ence is overwhelmingly understood through dialogue and refracted
through pragmatic politics.
The Chachnama, and its audiences, would then be able to see reso-
nances and lessons in the text. For they would see the connective tis-
sues between this text and the fables, or the histories, or the advice litera-
tures which are present in numerous forms in the literary elite circles
of the thirteenth century. I conclude that there are modes of adminis-
trative, strategic, and political advice in Chachnama that draw upon
diverse sources. The administrative mode is geared toward the under-
standing of political rule, the capacity to govern, and the ways in
which alliances can be built, all of which constitute the text's theory of
politics. The strategic mode is found in the explicit commands given
through the minister or through Hajjaj, calibrating the hierarchy of
how wisdom governs the polity. The political mode is the invocation
of accommodation between differing communities through a process
of dialogue'tl.nd discussion.
Finally, there are small hints that also make possible a reading of
Chachnama as an esoteric text that contains a batani (internal)
meaning as is normative for Sufi mystical texts. I deliberately want to
make a gesture toward such a reading, for there are clues provided of