Page of Calligraphy from a Kalila wa Dimna

Art Historical Context

This exquisite page of calligraphy hails from a 16th-century manuscript of *Kalila wana*, a beloved collection of animal fables with moral lessons originally adapted from ancient Indian tales into Arabic during the Abbasid era. Produced in the second quarter of the1500s—likely in a Persian or Ottoman workshop—this single folio, measuring just 8⅝ inches in height, exemplifies the pinnacle of Islamic book arts. Now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of's Islamic Art Department as part of the Alice andli Heeramaneck Collection, it invites visitors to appreciate the timeless wisdom embedded in its ...