Berlin Staatsbibliothek Petermann I 24

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Manuscript Identification

Reference Number

SyriacSindban1

Location

Berlin, Staatsbibliothek

Siglum / Shelfmark

Petermann Syr. 24

Page / Folio range

60a–87b

Textual Content & Tradition

Standardised title of narrative

Sindban

Incipit or textual title

ܟܬܒܐ ܕܣܢܕܒܢ (the book of sindban)

Version (siglum)

Syriac

Translated / adapted from (Version/Text)

Arabic Version A (The Seven Viziers)

Digitisation & Editions

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 & Production

Scribe

Unknown

Author

Unknown

Place of Production

Unconfirmed - likely Bar Sauma monastery near Melitene (Malatya).

Date of 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

Physical Description

Material

Paper

Total pages / folios

87 surviving (many replacement folios added later); 177 folios originally

Prose or verse

Prose

Illustrations

No

Contents & 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 & 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)

Research Material

Has Research Material Title	Has Research Material Link	Has Research Material Description