Journal of Art and Civilization of the Orient

A Comparative Study of the Evolution of Text and Illustrations in the Story of the Ducks and the Turtle in Kalilah wa-Dimnah, Tuhfat al-Aḥrar, and Anvar-i Suhayli

https://doi.org/10.22034/jaco.2025.532467.1483
Volume 13, Issue 50
Winter 2026
Pages 32-43
Journal of Art and Civilization of the Orient

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Hojjatollah Askari Alamouti
Arezoo Babaie

Department of Handicraft, Faculty of Art, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
The parable of the turtle and the ducks is among the most venerable narrative motifs of Indian provenance. Owing to its allegorical tenor, the tale was subsequently assimilated into other canonical works, including Kalilah wa-Dimnah, Jami’s Haft Awrang (specifically Tuhfat al-Aḥrar), and Mulla Ḥusayn Vaʿiẓ Kashifi’s Anvar-i Suhayli. Over the centuries, numerous miniatures have been executed to embellish manuscripts of these texts. A comparative consideration of these visualizations across disparate codices that nevertheless share a common narrative kernel elucidates the rationale and scholarly significance of the present inquiry. The fundamental research question posed is this: notwithstanding the allegorical unity of the tale, what mutations have taken place in its textual articulations in contrast with the archetype Kalilah wa-Dimnah? Methodologically, the study employs a descriptive-comparative approach. Manuscript samples were selected at random and examined until the point of saturation was reached. The findings may be articulated on two interrelated planes: textual transformation and pictorial transformation. On the textual plane, the most liberal reinterpretations and literary embellishments appear in Jami’s Tuhfat al-Aḥrar. More generally, however, it can be affirmed that the illustrations of each recension remain consonant with the stylistic disposition of their host text. Thus, miniatures within Kalilah wa-Dimnah manuscripts mirror the clarity and unadorned expression of the narrative, favoring austere compositional schemes devoid of excessive visual elaboration. Conversely, in Anvar-i Suhayli, whose prose style is marked by the Indo-Persian literary idiom of the Safavid milieu, saturated with metaphor and ornate rhetoric, the paintings attributed to Ṣadiqi Beyk Afshar faithfully transpose the textual intricacies described by Kashifi. In illustrated copies of Tuhfat al-Aḥrar, however, the displacement of the tale’s central actors to peripheral or recessive positions within the composition suggests that narrative action is relegated to a secondary role; in harmony with Jami’s poetic idiom, the emphasis shifts toward human spectatorship and mystical-ethical exegesis.

Keywords

Iranian Painting
Parable of the Turtle and the Two Ducks
Kalilah wa-Dimnah
Tuhfat al-Aḥrar
Anvar-i Suhayli
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