West and East: A new Arabic version of the fable of “The father, the son and the donkey” in al-Andalus

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to offer a new Arabic version of the well-known fable “The father, the son and the donkey” that appeared in the historical work Kitāb A‘māl al-a‘lām by the 14th century scholar from Granada, Ibn al-Khaṭīb, while shedding light on its historical and socio-cultural context. To do so, a comparative analysis was performed of the different existing versions of this fable, in the Latin and Castilian traditions and also the Arabic tradition, particularly during the 13th and 14th centuries, with the purpose of discovering common patterns that would provide a better understanding of this fable's evolution and different possibilities regarding its diffusion. The study reveals the existence of a primitive version that quickly evolved into more elaborate forms, with two or more versions of the story coexisting at the same time, as a result of the fable's very significant oral and written transmission, starting at the time of its origin in the East in the first half of the 13th century and especially in the first half of the 14th century in the Iberian Peninsula and Europe. The version by the scholar from Granada, the direct origin of which is undoubtedly Arabic, has features that would indicate that the author had knowledge of other contemporary Castilian and Latin versions.