Page 19 - The Book of Rumi

whose breathy stories of separations, the pathos of exile, and the longing to be
scorched by love immediately enrapture the listener. Thereafter, almost every
page of the Masnavi contains a relevant or surprising story.
Mowlana Jalal od-Din, along with many of his medieval contemporaries
in Iran, such as Sa’di of Shiraz and Nezami of Gandja, valued the potency of
stories as the most reliable ambassadors to diffuse cultural and oral traditions
across political, religious, and national boundaries.
If we were to conduct the most rudimentary survey of fables and old
tales that exist around the world, we would realize quickly how closely they are

linked; even fables told in far-flung lands, in languages that are endangered or
only distantly related to the world’s major languages, are often familiar, draw-
ing comparison with tales we’ve heard since we were children. These fables
not only travel from “breast to breast” and down through generations, they
relocate across borders. Moreover, in the process of migration, bearing the
hallmarks of their origins, they soak up many characteristics of the land-
scapes and societies at which they have arrived. Like the passport of a veteran
traveler, the best and most enduring itinerant stories bear the stamp of each
checkpoint at every cultural border crossing.
The most popular tales, whether from East Asia, the Indian subconti-
nent, Iran, or the Arab world, or those that originate in the heart of Europe,
the Americas, or Africa, all share the same themes, motifs, and didactic tones,
communicating the principles of morality and the values of courage and chiv-
alry. It is therefore tempting to believe that all fables can be traced back to a
single progenitor. Can we identify the original sources and locate them in a
fi xed time and a place?
Several scholars of Asian and Middle Eastern fables and folklore believe
that the wellspring of legendary tales such as the Thousand and One Nights, the
animal fables of Kalila and Demna that are reminiscent of Aesop’s Fables, and the
Persian wisdom tales of Marzb¯ann¯ame, is most likely none other than the J¯ataka,
a Pali collection of literature from India that dates back to at least 300 BC.
The J¯ataka tales recount the lessons and inner wisdom that spring from the
many lives of the virtuous Buddha through his incarnations in human as well
as animal forms.

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