{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Iranian Studies","slug":"new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694","podcast_index_feed_id":6707694,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NBNK4310987155","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/009720be-8e2e-11ee-8bc9-6bbc6420e78e/image/32ca5502b9ad911a9e8d05d229de3bef.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":120,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork","last_synced_at":"2026-06-04T18:17:45.742387+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694"},"episode":{"title":"Isabel Toral and Beatrice Gruendler, \"An Unruly Classic: Kalīla and Dimna and Its Syriac, Arabic, and Early Persian Versions\" (Brill, 2024)","slug":"isabel-toral-and-beatrice-gruendler-an-unruly-classic-kal-la-and-dimna-and-its-syriac-arabic-and-early-persian-versions-brill-2024","published_at":"2025-08-03T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694/isabel-toral-and-beatrice-gruendler-an-unruly-classic-kal-la-and-dimna-and-its-syriac-arabic-and-early-persian-versions-brill-2024","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK8838791284.mp3?updated=1754075096","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK8838791284.mp3?updated=1754075096","summary":"The collection of wisdom fables known as Kalila and Dimna began its long literary life in Sanskrit more than two millennia ago, and was subsequently translated to numerous languages. But it is the Arabic version, adapted from Middle Persian by the eighth-century scholar Ibn al-Muqaffa, that has left the most substantial literary footprint. A foundational text of classical Arabic prose and the basis for translations into Hebrew, Syriac, Castilian, Latin, Persian, and more, versions of Kalila and Dimna exists in hundreds of manuscript copies held in libraries around the world. Kalila and Dimna is the focus of Isabel Toral and Beatrice Gruendler's new work An Unruly Classic: Kalīla and Dimna and Its Syriac, Arabic, and Early Persian Versions (Brill: 2024). In this collected volume, members of the Kalila and Dimna project discuss, from different perspectives, a core aspect of their work with this textual tradition: the study of variation and mutability. The aim is to shed light on Kalila and Dimna’s so-called mouvance and establish typologies of textual mobility and instability across linguistic traditions and historical periods, as well as to develop analytical tools to describe, classify, represent, and interpret these dynamics. As will be shown, the progressive digitalization of philology in the last decades has offered the unique opportunity of putting the concept of mouvance into practice. Contributors include Theodore S. Beers, Jan J. van Ginkel, Khouloud Khalfallah, Mahmoud Kozae, Rima Redwan, and Johannes Stephan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"The collection of wisdom fables known as Kalila and Dimna began its long literary life in Sanskrit more than two millennia ago, and was subsequently trans…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3902,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694/episodes/isabel-toral-and-beatrice-gruendler-an-unruly-classic-kal-la-and-dimna-and-its-syriac-arabic-and-early-persian-versions-brill-2024/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694/isabel-toral-and-beatrice-gruendler-an-unruly-classic-kal-la-and-dimna-and-its-syriac-arabic-and-early-persian-versions-brill-2024.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}