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that this Pohlvi version of the Indian tales, or rather the 

 Arabic translation made from it two centuries later, became 

 the channel through which these fables subsequently fount: 

 their way to nearly every other nation of western Asia am: 

 of Europe. The author of the Arabic translation was a 

 Persian, who had originally professed the religion of the 

 Magi, and \vas named Ruzbeh, but on his conversion to the 

 Mohammedan faith took the name of Abdallah ben Mocaffa. 

 He lived during the first half of the eighth century, and 

 was murdered by order of the Abbaside caliph, Mansur, 

 probably between the years 137 and 139 of the Hegira 

 (A..D. 751-756). His Arabic, translation of these fables is in 

 the East usually called ' the book of Calilah and Dimnah.' 

 It is thus designated in allusion to the names of two jackals 

 which act a conspicuous part in the first story of the Arabian 

 version, and which we recognise in the Sanscrit original 

 under the forms Carataca and Damanaca. (See the be- 

 ginning of the first book of the Pancha Tantra, where this 

 is likewise the first story; and the first story in the second 

 book of the Hitopadcsd, p. 47, edit. Schlegel'.) In the title 

 of a Syriae translation mentioned by Ebcd Jesu, and attri- 

 buted by him to Bud Pcriodeuta, the same two animals are 

 called t'alilag and Damnag. Every trace of this transla- 

 tion is no'.v lost; but if Assemani is correct in saying that 

 Bud lived early in the sixth century, this Syriae transition 

 must have been made from the Pehlvi version, or perhaps 

 from the Indian original itself. 



The narrator of the stories is, in the Arabic version, called 

 Bidpai : in the Sanscrit original no name similar to this 

 occurs, and the explanations of it proposed by several Ori- 

 ental scholars do not appear to us satisfactory ; but it is cer- 

 tain that the name Pi/pay,\>y which the work is at pre- 

 sent most generally known in Europe, is a corruption of 

 Bidpai. 



From the Arabic text of Abdallah ben Mocaffa sprung 

 several translations into the (modern) Persian. One of the 

 c irlicst into verse is attributed to Rudeghi, a blind poet who 

 (1 Jiii-ished during the earlier part of the tenth century. It 

 v.:i~ followed by a translation into prose by Narallah, who 

 wrote about the year 515 of the Hegira (A.D. 1121). The 

 most admired Persian translation is, however, that written 

 about the commencement of the sixteenth century, by 

 1 lussain Viii-z Ciishefi, and known under the title ofAnwilr- 

 i-Soheili ; though less exact and complete than the later 

 one by the celebrated vizir Abulfazl, named Ayur-i-D'unnh. 

 The Amciir-i-Soheili was, soon after its appearance, trans- 

 lated into Turkish, under the title Humayun-Nlimeh, by 

 AH Chelebi, who dedicated his performance to the Osmaii 

 sultan, Suleiman I. 



The earliest translation of the work of Abdallah ben 

 Mocaffa into a European language is the Greek version 

 by Simeon, son of Seth, who flourished towards the close of 

 the eleventh century. S. G. Stark published it, from a 

 Ilimburg manuscript, in Greek and Latin, but without the 

 introductory chapters prefixed to the work partly by Bar- 

 ziiyeli and partly by Ebn MocafFa, under the title Specimen 

 'ntiee Indorum Veterum,&ic. (Berlin, 1697, 8vo.) The 

 chapters wanting in the Hamburg manuscript were edited, 

 :h slill incomplete, from a manuscript preserved at 

 Upsala, by J. Floder. (Prolegomena ad lihrum "ZTtfyaviTrig 

 ciii Ixi/ijXarijc, Upsala, 1 780.) It does not appear that trans- 

 lations into other European languages flowed from the 

 Greek text of Simeon. 



The means by which the Indian stories first became known 

 to most of the nations of Europe, was a translation from the 

 Arabic into Hebrew, made by Rabbi Joel, a learned Jew, 

 probably a native of Spain, who seems to have flourished 

 during the twelfth century. Of his Hebrew version of the 

 book of Calilah and iJimnah, a single incomplete manu- 

 script has been preserved in the Royal Library at Paris, of 

 which Baron de Sacy has given an ample account in the 

 ninth volume of the Notices et Kxtrails des MSS. de la 

 BiUiotheque ilit Ifui. The Hebrew text of Rabbi Jofl was, 

 in the thirteenth century (probably between A.D. 1262 and 

 I -1 -), turned into Latin by Johannes dc Capua, a converted 

 Jew, who dedicated his translation to his protector, the Car- 

 dinal Matthew dc' Rossi (Matthscus de Rubeis). It bears 

 the title Dirfr.ttrrium Humane Vile, alias Parabole Anti- 

 quorum Sapienlum; and has been printed once, without 

 dato, but probably in H80. This Latin interpretation was 

 again translated into Spanish by Maestro Fadnque Alenian 

 de Basilea, under the title I'.^cnijiLirio contra Ins Kngaiins 

 i/ /V//>rot dfl Mundn (printed at Burgos, 1498, fol), and 

 into German by Count Eberhard of Wurtemberg, under the 



title Beispiele der Weisen von Geschltcht zu Gexcftlerht 

 (printed at Dim, 1483). The Exemplurio contra los En- 

 ganos seems to have been the source from which A^nolo 

 Firenzuola drew the substance of his Discorsi degli Ani- 

 mali : here, however, the scenes of the several narratives 

 are laid in various real localities, transferred to Italy. (See 

 Opere di Messer Agnolo Firenzuola, Florence, 1763, 8vo. 

 torn. i. pp. 5-S9.) Another Italian version of these stories, 

 in Doni's Filosophia de' Sapienti Antichi, is little more 

 than a translation of the Latin text of Johannes de Capua. 

 In the Royal Library at Paris there is a manuscript of 

 another Latin translation, which was made in the year 

 1313 by Raymundus dc Byterris (Raimond de Beziers), by 

 order of Queen Johanna of Navarra, the wife of Philip le 

 Bel. The author says that he had a Spanish original before 

 him, which is now lost, but which was probably a transla- 

 tion from the Hebrew of Rabbi Joel. 



Besides the Latin version from the Hebrew by Johannes 

 de Capua, there seems to have existed another Latin trans- 

 lation made from the Arabic, which became the source of a 

 translation into the Castilian language, said to have been 

 made about the year 1289 at the command of King Alfonso 

 X. of Castilia. 



(See the Memoire Historique sur le lii're intitule Calilah 

 et Dimna, prefixed to Baron de Sacy's edition of the Arabic 

 text of the Fables of Bidpai, Paris, 1316, 4to., and the dis- 

 sertations on the same subject, and by the same authors, in 

 vols. ix. and x. of the Notices et Extrai/s d/-s MSS. dn la 

 Bibliotheque du Rni ; II. II. Wilson's Analytical Account 

 of the Pancha Tantra, in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 155.) 



BIELEFELD, a minor circle in the administrative circle 

 of Minden, in the north-eastern part of Westphalia, inter- 

 sected by a triple ehain of mountains, of which chalk, sand, 

 clay, and marl form the constituent parts : the mountains 

 commence near Oerlinghausen in the earldom of Lippe, 

 and pass from the territory of Oznaburg into this and the 

 adjacent circle of Halle. Cultivation is carried high up 

 their slopes ; and their summits, of which the Sparcnberg 

 near the town of Bielefeld is one of the most elevated, are 

 in part naked and in part crowned with woods. The circle 

 is watered by the Lutter and Aa, and their small tribu- 

 taries ; it is one of the most thriving districts in the 

 Prussian dominions, as well from the extent to which the 

 manufacture and bleaching of linen is carried, as from its 

 rich growth of grain, flax, and hemp, and the numerous 

 droves of horned cattle which it rears. In no quarter of 

 ICurope is a finer description of linen-yarn spun than at 

 Isselhorst; iron-ware, tobacco, woollens, leather, soap, cop- 

 ier and copper-ware, yarns, and damask cloths, arc also 

 unong the manufactures of this circle. It contains an area 

 of about 95 square miles, and had, in 1828, 33,292 inhabit- 

 ants, and at the close of the year 1831, 35,346, of whom 

 about 32,000 were Protestants. At the last-mentioned 

 date its stock of horses amounted to 1277 ; of horned cattle, 

 to 7349; and of sheep and goats to 4021. 



Bielefeld, its capital, on the high northern road from 

 Elberfeld to Minden, in 52 1' N. lat, and 8 30' E. long., 

 ies at the foot of the Sparenberg, on the Lutter or Lutter- 

 jach, in the midst of a highly picturesque country ; it is 

 <=urrounded by ramparts and a broad ditch, which have been 

 aid out in agreeable walks. The most remarkable build- 

 ups in the town are the churches of St. Nicholas and St. 

 Wary, the church attached to the Franciscan monastery, 

 and the new town-hall. It possesses a gymnasium, an 

 irphan asylum, and infirmary, and a society of music, 

 nauufactures of linen and damask cloths, yarns, cottons, 

 ibands, soap, tobacco, iron and steel, meerschaum pipe- 

 "icads, &c., and extensive bleaching-grounds. Its sale of 

 incus and threads is estimated at nearly 80,000^. a-year. 

 [n December, 1831, the number of its inhabitants was 5539. 

 [t lies about 260 miles a little to the south-west of Berlin. 



BIELITZ, a duchy of Austrian Silesia, in the circle of 

 Teschen, between the Vistula and Biala, and bounded on 

 the north-east by the kingdom of Galicia. It was a minor 

 sovereignty until it came into the possession of the princely 

 ine of Sulkoft'sky, in the year 1752, when Francis I., em- 

 peror of Germany, erected it into a dukedom. It is eight 

 miles in length, and about the same distance in breadth ; 

 and, inclusive of the two estates of Ernsdorf and C/cc.hovilz, 

 which are independent properties, it contains 1 town, 19 

 villages, 2 colonies, 2600 houses, and nearly 10,000 inha- 

 bitants, one- half of whom are Protestants, and the other 

 half Roman Catholics. 



