Translating and Teaching : From the Arabic Kalila wa-Dimnah to the Byzantine Stephanites kai Ichnelates

In the late 11th century, Symeon Seth, a scholar from Antioch, dedicated a translation of the highly popular Arabic fable collection Kalila wa-Dimnah to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. As a both educational and entertaining text, the translation Stephanites kai Ichnelates quickly spread in the Byzantine Empire. Yet, the lack of surviving Arabic manuscripts from before the 13th century, makes it hard to say how Symeon Seth’s translation changed its source text and how these changes affected the didactic content. This study therefore has a twofold aim. First, to reconstruct as closely as possible the connection between the Arabic sources and the Greek translation, and to rethink medieval translation practices. Second, to analyze the didactic techniques by which the text sets out to teach its readers. In addition, the close examination of manuscripts and Symeon Seth’s translation practices offer new methodological approaches. First, the comparison of manuscripts and other writings attributed to the same historical person can help constructing what in this study is termed a writing persona. Second, the analysis of didactic narratological devices employed in the text further the understanding of how texts attempt to educate their readers.