A Comparative Analysis of the Critical Dialogues with the Power in the Section of the King and Fanza in Translations and Paraphrases of Kalila and Demna (The Stories of Bidpai, Bahramshahi Kalila and Demna, and Anwar Suhayli)

Kalila and Demna is an ancient text dating back to the ancient period of Iranian culture and thought. It was always studied and many translations and paraphrases have produced for the work. Apart from linguistic and formal differences, there are also conceptual differences as well as differences in how the material is articulated. The present research aims to inquire into the concept of critical dialogue with the power in the section on the king and Fanza in the translations produced by Muhammad ʿAbd Allah al-Bukhari and Nasr Allah al-Munshi as well as Waʿiz al-Kashifi’s paraphrase. It studies how and why they differ given the theme of this section. The method of this research is descriptive and analytic, along with textual analysis and close reading in the framework of the theories of the sociology of knowledge. The findings show that the historical, political, cultural, and social circumstances in which the translators lived affected the manner of dialogue with the political power such that we can see changes from explicit criticism of the king in Bidpai stories to prolixity and indirect implicit talk in al-Munshi’s Kalila and Demna, and extreme implicitness and roundabout talk in Anwar Suhayli in the critique of the political power.