Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa

Abdullah Ibn Dhadawayh (d. c. 756), also known as Ibn al-Muqaffa (Arabic: ابن المقفع) and Rouzbeh pour-e Dādvayh (روزبه پور دادوَيه) in Persian, was an 8th century Persian author and translator. Ibn al-Muqaffa's translation of the Kalīla wa-Dimna from Middle Persian "is considered the first master­piece of Arabic literary prose."^[1] "Ibn al-Muqaffa' was a pioneer in the introduction of literary prose narrative to Arabic literature. He paved the way for later innovators such as al-Hamadani and al-Saraqusti, who brought literary fiction to Arabic literature by adapting traditionally accepted modes of oral narrative transmission into literary prose."^[2] Ibn al-Muqaffa was also an accomplished scholar of Middle Persian, and was the author of several moral fables. Ibn al-Muqaffa, though a resident of Baghdad, was originally from Iranian province of Fars. His father had been a state official in charge of taxes, and after being accused and convicted of embezzling some of the money entrusted to him, was punished by the ruler by being beaten on his palms, hence the name Muqaffa (parched hand). As stated by a number of historians, Ibn al-Muqaffa was murdered around 756 on the orders of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur for heresy, in particular for attempting to import Zoroastrian ideas into Islam. ^[3] Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa should not be confused with Severus Ibn al-Muqaffa, an Egyptian Coptic historian.

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