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.