Nakhshabi abridgement

The Indian physician and Sufi mystic Ziya' al-Din Nakhshabi possibly included a heavily abridged version of the Sindbadnama in his Tutinama, a 14th century Persian adaptation of the Sanskrit Śukasaptati. However, the earliest manuscripts we have of the Tutinama date from the 1560s, which saw an explosion of interest in the text under the Mughal Emperor Akbar, who was a great benefactor of the Chishti Sufi order, of which Nakhshabi was a prominent member. Some, but by no means all, of these manuscripts contain an abridged version of the Sindbadnama, but it is impossible to know whether it was included in Nakhshabi's original, or whether the story was inserted because of its later popularity. The manuscripts which do contain the Sindbadnama are also inconsistent, with some containing only the frame narrative and others containing very brief abridgements of some of the inset stories. It is also impossible to be sure that the Samarqandi Sindbadnama was the version which was used: the Tutinama abridgements are far more focused on the Makr al Nisa (wiles of women), whereas Samarqandi's version is significantly more nuanced. Given that the late 9th century polymath al-Yaqubi refers to the Sindbadnama of his day as a Makr al Nisa text, it is perhaps more likely that Nakhshabi was working off an earlier version (likely either the Fanaruzi or Rudaki versions, both now lost or highly fragmentary and difficult to attribute.

Identification and general Information
Reference Number
Siglum of the version of the Seven Sages	Persian Sindbadnama
Title	Nakhshabi abridgement
Author	Ziya' al-Din Nakhshabi

Tradition and Lineage
Branch of the tradition	Book of Sindbad
Adapted from (version)	Persian Sindbadnama
Adapted into (version)
Source for composition and adaptation information

Recorded secondary versions
Persian Sindbadnama Azod Yazdi versification Nakhshabi abridgement Zahiri al Samarqandi, Sindbadnama

Connected manuscripts
No connected manuscripts

Language and Composition
Language of version	Persian
Language of text
Regional or specific language of version	Dari (Insha)
Translated into (languages)
Place of composition	Delhi
Date of composition	14th century (8th century^AH)
Islamic date of composition	8th century
Hebrew date of composition
Source for date of composition

Modern Scholarship and Editions
Modern research literature
Modern Editions	Nakhshabī, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn. Ṭūṭī-nāma. Edited by Fatḥ-Allāh Mujtabāʼī and Ghulām-ʿAlī Āryā. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Zuvvār, 1372 SH

Notes and Commentary

Note

Notable Tutinama manuscripts containing a Sindbadnama abridgement:

British Library Ṭūṭīnāma, Or. 15665	British Library	Late 16th/early 17th century (commissioned by Akbar the Great for the Mughal court).
Cambridge University Library, MS Add. 3139	Cambridge University Library	19th century
Chester Beatty In 21	Chester Beatty Library	Late 16th/early 17th century (commissioned by Akbar the Great for the Mughal court).

Pattern of embedded stories in this version

Has Short Title	Has Sequence Number	Has Narrator	Has Name Variation

Connected prints
No connected prints