"The Birds and the Monkeys with the Glow Worm", Folio from a Kalila wa Dimna
Unknown Artist
second quarter 16th century
Medium
Ink and opaque watercolor on paper
Dimensions
Overall: H. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm) W. 8 7/8 in. (22.6 cm) Average text size: H. 8 5/8 in. (21.9 cm) W. 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm)
Classification
Codices
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Alice and Nasli Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Alice Heeramaneck, 1981
Accession Number
1981.373.44
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 16th-century Islamic manuscript with this captivating folio from *Kalila wa Dimna*, *"The Birds and the Monkeys with Glow Worm."* This illustrated page comes from a renowned collection of animal fables, originally adapted from ancient Indian Panchatantra tales into Persian by Ibn al-Muqaffa in the 8th century. Popular across the Islamic world, *Kalila wa Dimna* used clever stories of beasts—like birds, monkeys, and a glowing worm amid lush plants—to impart moral lessons on wisdom, deception, and harmony, much like Aesop's fables but richly infused with Eastern ph...