The Performativity of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ's Kalīla wa-Dimna and Al- Maqāmāt al-Luzumīyya of al-Saraqusṭi

providing a context for the anecdotes and fables narrated by the characters in each text. The way in which the performativity of each text is constructed reflects their respective cultural and literary heritage, as well as the performative nature of Medieval Arabic literature in general. The two texts represent a convergence of different oral narrative traditions: in Kalīla we find the animal fable tradition originating in India, and in the maqāma the Arabic tradition of popular preaching and storytelling, coupled with anecdotal religious literature such as the ḥadīt. The episodic frametale structure introduced into Arabic literature by Kalīla is adapted by the maqāma, which can be seen as one of Medieval literature's first forays into realistic prose fiction