The Fables of Pilpay: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Fables of Pilpay, credited to Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Fables of Pilpay by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ. Read in English by April Mendis; Craig Campbell; czandra; Rebecca Eden Walker; Tasha C Mapes; plspark; Kingsnake; Monicha1; Christina Fu; Michael MacTaggert; Alan Mapstone; Hannah Dormor; Gini Pug; Ellies; Jonathan Gary; Mary in Arkansas; holtonhj64 ; Sandy Kurtz; Jennifer Louise; ThomasGibby These moralistic stories within stories date back to the Sanskrit text Panchatantra (200 BC – 300 AD). They were first translated into Arabic by a Persian named Ruzbeh who named it Book of Kalilah and Dimna and then by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa and later Joseph Harris in 1679 and then remodeled in 1818. Max Mueller noted that La Fontaine was indebted to the work and other scholars have noted that Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and John Fletcher were both familiar with the fables. The Fables of Pilpay are a series of inter-woven fables, many of which deploy metaphors of anthropomorphized animals with human virtues and vices. (Summary by The introduction and Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Fables of Pilpay
• Author credits: Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 59
• Listed recording duration: 6:46:35

Catalogue topics

• fables
• Indian literature
• panchatantra
• book of kalilah and dimna

Opening tracks: first 24 of 59

1. 01 - Preface — 9:06
2. 02 - Introduction — 9:24
3. 03 - The Story Of Dabschelim And Pilpay — 17:22
4. 04 - The Travelling Pidgeon — 14:27
5. 05 - The Falcon and the Raven — 5:26
6. 06 - The greedy and ambitious Cat — 6:50
7. 07 - The poor Man who became a great King — 6:46
8. 08 - The Leopard and the Lion — 7:01
9. 09 - The Merchant and his Children — 4:15
10. 10 - The King and his two Sons — 4:51
11. 11 - The Demise, the Falcon, and the Raven — 2:58
12. 12 - The Countryman and several Rats — 7:46
13. 13 - The Carpenter and the Ape — 1:49
14. 14 - The two Travellers, and the Lion carved in Stone — 17:28
15. 15 - The Fox and the Hen — 8:04
16. 16 - The Sparrow and the Sparrow-hawk — 5:59
17. 17 - The King who from a savage Tyrant, became benign and just — 3:48
18. 18 - A Raven, a Fox, and a Serpent — 1:55
19. 19 - The Crane and the Craw-fish — 6:56
20. 20 - The Rabbit, the Fox, and the Wolf — 5:32
21. 21 - The Lion and the Rabbit — 8:37
22. 22 - The two Fishermen and the three Fishes — 3:04
23. 23 - The Scorpion and the Tortoise — 10:24
24. 24 - The Falcon and the Hen — 2:54

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Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.