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{{Version
{{Version
|Has Description=The Syriac ''Sindban'' only survives in one fragmentary manuscript, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Petermann I 24. Entries in the manuscript mentions the date 1579CE (as well as the date 1583CE, and elsewhere the date 1660CE), which led its German translator Baethgen (1879) to presume that is was written some time before 1579CE. Krönung (2016) follows that dating, as does Perry (1960). Sachau's catalogue of the Berlin library (1899), however, considers these entries to be a later addition, and dates the manuscript to 1400-1450CE. The current digital Berlin library catalogue follows this dating.
There is credible evidence that the text itself must have been composed much earlier: Michael Andreopoulos plausibly claims to have translated his Greek ''Syntipas'' from a Syriac text. The text of his Greek ''Syntipas'' is close to the surviving Syriac manuscript, leading most academics to assume that both were based on a common source (Perry 1960, Krönung 2016).  Krönung 2016 assumes that the Syriac version was composed some time in the ninth, tenth or eleventh centuries, Minets 2023 speaks of the eighth to the eleventh centuries.
The frame narrative in this version is set at the court of King Cyrus, and the prince is taught by Sindban alone, who reads the prophecy in the stars. The seven philosophers who come to the prince's defence are the king's counsellors. The sequence of stories is the same as in Andreopoulos' ''Syntipas'', except for three lacunae. A leaf is missing in the manuscript just after the fourth philosopher had announced that he would tell his first story (which is 'Balneator' in Andreopoulos' ''Syntipas''). The text start again in the middle of his second story, 'Canicula'. Three leaves are missing after the seventh philosopher has just begun to tell 'Ingenia'. The ending is also missing, just after the prince has started telling the story 'Senex Caecus'. In Andreopoulos' ''Syntipas,'' this ending includes two more stories, 'Vulpes' and 'Fatum'.
Entered by Bettina Bildhauer
|Has Display Title=Syriac Sindban
|Has Display Title=Syriac Sindban
|Has Parent Version=Arabic Version A (The Seven Viziers)
|Has Title=ܟܬܒܐ ܕܣܢܕܒܢ (The Book of Sindban)
|Has Author=Unknown
|Has Title=Syriac Sindban
|Has Branch Of Tradition=Book of Sindbad
|Has Branch Of Tradition=Book of Sindbad
|Is Adapted From=Arabic Version A (The Seven Viziers)
|Is Adapted Into=Andreopoulos Syntipas
|Is Adapted Into=Andreopoulos Syntipas
|Has Text Language=Syriac
|Has Source For Composition And Adaption Information=Krönung (2016); Perry (1960); Toth (2016)
|Has Language Of Version=Syriac
|Has Regional Language=Syriac (Serto script)
|Has Regional Language=Syriac (Serto script)
|Has Modern Research Literature=Barsoum, I. A,. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature  and Sciences, 2nd revised (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2003)., p: 196.; 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); Perry, Ben E.: The Origin of the Book of Sindbad. In: Fabula 3 (1960), pp. 1–94.
|Is Translated Into Languages=Greek
|Has Modern Edition=aethgen, F., (ed.): Sindban oder Die Sieben weisen Meister. Syrisch  und Deutsch. Leipzig 1879.; David Taylor (in progress as of 2025)
|Has Place Of Text Composition=Melitene (Malatya)
|Has Start Date Of Composition=801
|Has End Date Of Composition=1100
|Is Date Uncertain=No
|Has Source For Date Of Text Composition=Krönung (2016)
|Has Modern Research Literature=Barsoum (2003); Macler (1903); Gollancz (1987); Minov (2013); Minets (2023); Jernstedt (1912); Krönung (2016); Perry (1960); Sachau (1899)
|Has Modern Edition=David Taylor (in progress as of 2025)
|Has Internal Notes=Text from Alfie Watkins:
 
The beginnings of the Syriac ''Sindban'' tradition are very difficult to  secure. Estimates for the first Sindban translation range from the 8th -  11th centuries. The difficulty we have is that no other surviving Syriac  text refers to the ''Sindban'', and although intertextual references to similar 'migrating texts' such as Kalila wa Dimna are also very few (though not nonexistent), other  fabulistic narratives such as the Story of Ahiqar and the Fables of  Aesop are frequently referred to. Furthermore, the fact that we have  only one surviving manuscript (itself fragmentary) from a period of voluminous manuscript production adds to the fact that there is a  strong body of negative evidence that suggests that the Syriac ''Sindban'' tradition was not particularly widespread, and may, in fact, be limited  to the niche fabulistic interests of the monks of Mor Bar Sawmo monastery and the specifically 11th/12th century Byzantine interest in recovering the folklore of the lost Near Eastern provinces.
 
We are thus unable to provide a secure stemma for the Syriac part of the ''Seven Sages'' tradition. The Greek Syntipas and Sachau 238 are virtually identical in  the plot lines of the surviving stories: the only differences can be explained by the reliance on rare vocabulary (e.g. the hunter storyline in Syriac uses the rare word ܢܐܳܫܘܪܽ for weasel, whose part is erased in Greek, likely due to the translator’s lack of familiarity with the  word). However, there are numerous differences in phraseology. This  raises the question of Michael Andreopoulos’ fidelity as a translator, which has divided scholars. If we assume Michael Andreopoulos was  a faithful translator, we must distinguish between the Syriac text  Andreopoulos claims to be translating and Sachau 238. Yuliya Minets has partly pushed back on this, suggesting that the  differences can be explained by Michael Andreopoulos’ creative  decontextualisation of the ''Sindban'', moving away from a Middle Eastern language of power and replacing it with a Greek one. It is  noteworthy, for example, that the Greek phraseology in describing the figures of royalty is significantly more vivid and precise than the Syriac, and the  language of philosophical instruction is significantly more sophisticated  (even accounting for the relative poverty of Syriac philosophical  vocabulary). It could, therefore, be the case that our surviving Syriac manuscript ('Syriac 2'), possibly  produced at the Mor Bar Sauma, faithfully draws off the Syriac text used by Michael Andreopoulos ('Syriac 1), and that  the divergence can be explained by Michael Andreopoulos’ creative  translation choices. However, we should note that a) Michael  Andreopoulos’ text was dedicated to Gabriel of Melitene, and likely  designed for the world of the frontier successor states following the  battle of Manzikert, not the Constantinopolitan court, so there was a smaller Hellenising incentive and b) Andreopoulos’ text rarely  reproduces common Byzantine formulae, eg rhetorical introductions  or courtroom procedure, which we would expect to see if he really  was creatively adapting the original Syriac 1. It is thus more likely  that the differences can be explained by the inferiority of Syriac 2,  either as a simpler copy of Syriac 1, or, more likely, that Syriac 2 was  working off a separate ''Sindban'' manuscript.  
 
A final point to note is the interaction between the Sindban and the  wider Syriac fabulistic tradition. As is true of other versions (eg the  Sindbadnameh and Seven Viziers) and parallel works (''Fables of  Aesop, Kalila wa Dimna'', etc), there is a great deal of cross pollination  between the Sindban and other fabulistic works. In particular, the  theme of a falsely accused son being defended in a court setting by a  group of Seven Sages crops up several times. However, there is a great  deal of divergence in these pseudo Sindban tales. Thus, it is worth  making a firm distinction between the Syriac ''Sindban'' proper and the  broader Syriac ‘Fables of Sindban’ tradition. For more detail on the surviving manuscript, see manuscript page for Berlin Staatsbibliothek Petermann I 24.
 
'''Bibliography:'''
 
Baethgen, F., (ed.): Sindban oder Die Sieben weisen Meister. Syrisch  und Deutsch. Leipzig 1879.
 
Barsoum, I. A,. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature  and Sciences, 2nd revised (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press,  2003)., p: 196.  
 
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)  
 
Perry, Ben E.: The Origin of the Book of Sindbad. In: Fabula 3 (1960),  pp. 1–94.  
 
Roediger, E. Chrestomathia Syriaca. 1801-1874 ed. Halis Saxonum
 
Sachau, E. ed., Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der Königlichen  Bibliothek zu Berlin, 23. Band:Verzeichniss der syrischen  Handschriften, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1899).
}}
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Latest revision as of 12:14, 5 March 2026

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The Syriac Sindban only survives in one fragmentary manuscript, Berlin Staatsbibliothek Petermann I 24. Entries in the manuscript mentions the date 1579CE (as well as the date 1583CE, and elsewhere the date 1660CE), which led its German translator Baethgen (1879) to presume that is was written some time before 1579CE. Krönung (2016) follows that dating, as does Perry (1960). Sachau's catalogue of the Berlin library (1899), however, considers these entries to be a later addition, and dates the manuscript to 1400-1450CE. The current digital Berlin library catalogue follows this dating.

There is credible evidence that the text itself must have been composed much earlier: Michael Andreopoulos plausibly claims to have translated his Greek Syntipas from a Syriac text. The text of his Greek Syntipas is close to the surviving Syriac manuscript, leading most academics to assume that both were based on a common source (Perry 1960, Krönung 2016). Krönung 2016 assumes that the Syriac version was composed some time in the ninth, tenth or eleventh centuries, Minets 2023 speaks of the eighth to the eleventh centuries.

The frame narrative in this version is set at the court of King Cyrus, and the prince is taught by Sindban alone, who reads the prophecy in the stars. The seven philosophers who come to the prince's defence are the king's counsellors. The sequence of stories is the same as in Andreopoulos' Syntipas, except for three lacunae. A leaf is missing in the manuscript just after the fourth philosopher had announced that he would tell his first story (which is 'Balneator' in Andreopoulos' Syntipas). The text start again in the middle of his second story, 'Canicula'. Three leaves are missing after the seventh philosopher has just begun to tell 'Ingenia'. The ending is also missing, just after the prince has started telling the story 'Senex Caecus'. In Andreopoulos' Syntipas, this ending includes two more stories, 'Vulpes' and 'Fatum'.

Entered by Bettina Bildhauer

Identification & General Information

Title
ܟܬܒܐ ܕܣܢܕܒܢ (The Book of Sindban)

Tradition & Lineage

Branch of the tradition
Book of Sindbad
Adapted into (version)
Andreopoulos Syntipas
Source for composition and adaptation information
Krönung (2016), Perry (1960), Toth (2016)

Recorded Secondary Versions

Connected Manuscripts

 Has LanguageHas LocationHas Date Range Of Production

Language & Composition

Language of version
Syriac
Regional or specific language of version
Syriac (Serto script)
Translated into (languages)
Greek
Place of composition
Melitene (Malatya)
Date of Composition
801 - 1100


Source for date of composition
Krönung (2016)

Modern Scholarship & Editions

Modern research literature
Barsoum (2003), Macler (1903), Gollancz (1987), Minov (2013), Minets (2023), Jernstedt (1912), Krönung (2016), Perry (1960), Sachau (1899)
Modern Editions
David Taylor (in progress as of 2025)


Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version













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