number of works written in prose for the moral education and amusement of readers. The oldest of these is a collection of animal fables called Kalila wa Dimna (the names of the two jackals who were the leading characters) which is the Arabic translation of a Pahlavi version of the Panchtantra . The most widespread and lasting literary works are the stories of hero-adventurers such as Alexander (al-Iskandar) and Sindbad, or those of unhappy lovers such as Qays (known as Majnun or the Madman). These have developed over the centuries into oral and written traditions.
The Thousand and One Nights is another collection of stories told by a single narrator, Shahrzad, to her husband night after night. The collection was originally in Indo-Persian and was translated into Arabic in Baghdad in the eighth century. More stories were later added in Cairo during the Mamluk period. These stories depict human beings of different types – the generous, the stupid, the gullible, the crafty – and were told to educate and entertain.
In his Kitab al-Bukhala (Book of Misers) , Jahiz of Basra (d. ) collected amusing anecdotes about misers and also analysed greed. From the ninth century onwards, the scope of adab was expanded to include biographies, manuals of ethics ( akhlaq ), Mirrors for Princes (books on statecraft) and, above all, history ( tarikh ) and geography. Dimna is talking to the lion (asad) in this miniature painting of a thirteenth-century Arabic manuscript.
The tradition of history writing was well established in literate Muslim societies. History books were read by scholars and students as well as by the broader literate public. For rulers and officials, history provided a good record of the glories and achievements of a dynasty as well as examples of the techniques of administration. In the two major historical works, Ansab al-Ashraf (Genealogies of the Nobles) of Baladhuri (d.
) and Tarikh al-Rusul wal Muluk (History of Prophets and Kings) of Tabari, the whole of human history was treated with the Islamic period as the focal point. The tradition of local history writing developed with the