A Persian physician’s autobiography shaped later Islamic autobiographical fragments

Evidence

Much more important than either of these is the brief autobiography of Burzoye, a Persian physician who was sent to India, knew Indian languages, and translated from Sanskrit the collection of animal fables that later came to be known as Kalı¯la wa-Dimna. The introduction to his autobiography states that the king gave orders to set down the history of this man from the day of his birth, including his education, his studies, his travels, “until his heart was filled with all kinds of wisdom and knowledge.” As we shall see, this short autobi­ ography became the model for a vast number of autobiographical writings— fragments rather than autobiographies—by men of learning. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1888

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the Islam-West representation cluster: an Indian/Sanskrit-to-Arabic translation lineage anticipates the knowledge-transfer mechanisms Said-adjacent scholarship tracks for how the region became legible.