Syriac (Berlin Sachau 238)

Manuscript Identification
Reference Number	SyriacSindban1
Location	Berlin, Staatsbibliothek
Siglum/Shelfmark	Petermann Syr. 24
Page/Folio range	60a–87b

Textual Content and Tradition
Standardised title of narrative	Sindban
Incipit or textual title	ܟܬܒܐ ܕܣܢܕܒܢ (the book of sindban)
Version (siglum)	Syriac
└ Language Group within Version
└ Narrative/Scholarly Group within Version
└ Further scholarly subgroup (1)
└ Further scholarly subgroup (2)
Translated/adapted from (Version/Text)	Arabic Version A (The Seven Viziers)
Source for information on textual relationship to broader tradition

Languages
Language of text
Regional or specific Language of text
Source for regional or specific Language of text

Digitisation and Editions
Digitisation
Modern Editions	Baethgen, F., (ed.): Sindban oder Die Sieben weisen Meister. Syrisch und Deutsch. Leipzig 1879 (Baethgen, F., (ed.): Sindban oder Die Sieben weisen Meister. Syrisch und Deutsch. Leipzig 1879), David Taylor (in progress as of 2025)

Note
A precise provenancing of this manuscript is difficult to achieve. It was obtained by Julius Heinrich Petermann during his travels in eastern Anatolia in the 1850s. However, as far as I can find, Petermann does not provide any information on where he obtained it. Paratextual comments suggest that it circulated between at least two different monasteries. However, the presence of page numberings, an unusual practice in Syriac outside of hagiographies, is limited to a few monasteries, one of which is the old patriarchal headquarters of Mor Bar Sauma, just outside Melitene, where Michael Andreopoulos translated the Syriac into the Greek Syntipas. One potential reconstruction of this manuscript’s circulation history would be an initial production at Mor Bar Sauma, based on the earlier Sindban manuscript used by Michael Andreopoulos, likely around the 15th century (given that Garshuni only really takes off in the late 14th century), followed by an enforced move east in the 16th/17th century (when Mor Bar Sauma was gradually abandoned, and when we have records of the insertion of replacement folios in the manuscript), followed by a another move between the 17th and 19th centuries. The original texts of the manuscript seem to have been put together by at least 4 different hands (not including replacement folios). On folio 15, we have a series of signed paratextual records: in 1579 we have a priest, Hidayat, who, following aristocratic Syriac custom, provides family details, and, in 1660, a deacon named Qūsṭanṭīn. The other names are not dated, but follow the conventions of early modern Serto without diacritics or vocalisations. One possibility is that the dominant landowners around Mardin, a Syriac Christian family which produced several patriarchs of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and among whom the names Hidayat (admittedly a Syriac common name) and Qūsṭanṭīn (a far less common, classicising name) were ubiquitous, came to acquire the manuscript in the 1500s, which would explain both the apparent explosion of interest in the manuscript during this period and the literary links to the folk poetry of the Mardin region.

Authorship and Production
Scribe	Unknown
Author	Unknown
Place of Manuscript Production	Unconfirmed - likely Bar Sauma monastery near Melitene (Malatya).
Date of Manuscript Production	Unconfirmed / codicological evidence suggests it was likely copied in 15th/16th century, working off an original that was similar, but likely distinct from, the version used by Michael Andreopoulos in translating the Book of Syntipas
Source of Date of Manuscript Production

Physical Description
Material	Paper
Total pages/folios in Manuscript	87 surviving (many replacement folios added later); 177 folios originally
Height
Width
Script style/form
Prose or verse	Prose
Illustrations	No

Contents and Additional Texts
Other texts in the Manuscript	Manuscript contains a heterogenous collection of folk and wisdom literature traditions. However, only 87 folios of the original 177 survive, and about half of the remaining folios are inserted replacements, with dated paratextual comments suggesting that the process of replacement began in the 16th/17th century. We therefore cannot securely assess the full original character of the manuscript. The first part of the manuscript is taken up by a dialogue between God and Moses on Mount Sinai, comprising of a series of wise aphorisms and followed by a prophetic speech concerning the last judgement, and then a Garshuni (Arabic language in Syriac script) version of Aesop’s fables, set in a frame story at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. Six fables, however, forming a continuous group in the middle, are in Syriac. The Sindban itself takes up pages 60a-87b, and is written in fine small Serto script. The manuscript also contains medical advice (how to tell when a woman is pregnant with a boy), and a collection of spiritual addresses to the soul in (inconsistent and poorly rhymed) Iambic metre. In the case of the latter, the poet identifies himself as Habib, a presbyter from the village of Klebin near Mardin (the heartland of Syriac monasteries on the Tur Abdin plateau). Sachau notes the similarities between these verses and contemporary Arabic folk songs from the Mardin/Sirnak region.

Catalogues and Research Literature
Catalogue
Modern Research Literature	Property "Has Modern Research Literature" (as page type) with input value "Barsoum, I. A,. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, 2nd revised (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2003)., p: 196. (Barsoum, I. A,. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, 2nd revised (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2003)., p: 196.)" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Barsoum, I. A,. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, 2nd revised (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2003)., p: 196. (Barsoum, I. A,. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, 2nd revised (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2003)., p: 196.), Property "Has Modern Research Literature" (as page type) with input value "Gollancz, H., ‘The History of Sindbad and the Seven Wise Masters’, Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society 8 (1897), 99–130. (Gollancz, H., ‘The History of Sindbad and the Seven Wise Masters’, Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society 8 (1897), 99–130.)" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Gollancz, H., ‘The History of Sindbad and the Seven Wise Masters’, Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society 8 (1897), 99–130. (Gollancz, H., ‘The History of Sindbad and the Seven Wise Masters’, Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society 8 (1897), 99–130.), Jernstedt, V., Mich. Andreopuli Liber Syntipae (1912). (Greek translation), Macler, F., Contes syriaques. Histoire de Sindbad (1903)., Minets, Y., “Language of Speaking, Arguing, and Persuading: Cultural Exchange and Adaptation in Greek and Syriac Versions of the ‘History of Sindban/Syntipas’,” Das Mit- telalter 28:1 (2023), 155–171., Minov, S., (ed.), A Comprehensive Bibliography on Syriac Christianity (The Center for the Study of Christianity, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013)

Pattern of embedded stories in this manuscript

Has Short Title	Has Sequence Number	Has Narrator	Has Name Variation