Igereth Ba’alei Chaim [“The Animal’s Collection” - fables]

A collection of animal fables. Kalonymus ben Kalonymus of Arles (Provence) translated from the Arabic original in seven days in 1316 the end of the twenty-fifth volume of a Sufi encyclopedia produced in the city of Basra, Iraq. In his introduction, R. Kalonymus makes the point that the present collection should not be misconstrued as being of the same genre as the famous Arabic work Kalila and Dimna (whose origin is Indian) or Mishlei Sendabar, the tales of Sindabar (Sindbad the Sailor) but is rather a deep moral treatise. After much meandering the verdict is pronounced that man is superior to the animal kingdom by virtue of his reason; along the way the various virtues of the different species are presented in a court of justice. Igereth Ba’alei Chaim was first published in Mantua in 1557. For a brief synopsis of the derivation of the fables gathered here, see Meyer Waxman, A History of Jewish Literature II, pp. 600-603; EJ Vol. 6, col.1130. The fables of Igereth Ba’alei Chaim enjoyed immense popularity, witnessed by the fact that the small book was several times published in Yiddish and Ladino translation. In addition to Igereth Ba’alei Chaim, Kalonymus also authored an ethical treatise Even Bohan (Naples, 1489).