Syriac Sindban

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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.

Identification and general Information
Title	ܟܬܒܐ ܕܣܢܕܒܢ (The Book of Sindban)
Author

Tradition and Lineage
Branch of the tradition	Book of Sindbad
Adapted from (version)	Arabic Version A (The Seven Viziers)
Adapted into (version)	Andreopoulos Syntipas
Source for composition and adaptation information

Recorded secondary versions
Syriac Sindban

Connected manuscripts
Has Language Has Location Has Date Range Of Production

Language and Composition
Language of version	Syriac
Regional or specific language of version	Syriac (Serto script)
Translated into (languages)	Greek
Place of composition	Likely near Melitene (Malatya)
Date of composition	Unknown (8th century/11th)
Islamic date of composition
Hebrew date of composition
Source for date of composition

Modern Scholarship and Editions
Modern research literature	Barsoum (2003), Macler (1903), Gollancz (1987), Minov (2013), Minets (2023), Jernstedt (1912)
Modern Editions	David Taylor (in progress as of 2025)

Notes and Commentary
Note	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).
Notes on motifs

Pattern of embedded stories in this version
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Connected prints
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