Seven Viziers

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The version of the Book of Sindbad the Philosopher narrative titled كتاب السندباد [Kitāb al-Sindbād], or الوزراء السبعة [Al-wuzarāʾ al-sabʿa, The Seven Viziers] is referenced in Arabic literature dating from the 9th and 10th centuries. Though no early versions of the full text survive, allusions to the narrative may be found in the works of historians such as al-Yaʿqūbī (9th century) and al-Shābushtī (d. after 998 CE / late 4th century AH). This suggests that the narrative was well known by the 10th century, with the original transmission from Persian into Arabic occuring sometime around the 9th, or possibly even 8th century (Krönung 2016, p. 370). Additional references to the narrative are found in Murūj al-Dhahab by al-Masʿūdī’ (d. 956 CE / 345 AH), who claims the popular entertainment book Kitāb al-Sindbād refers to the sage Sindbād who lived during the reign of the Indian king Kush and relates the story of 'The Seven Viziers, the Prince, and the King's wife'. It is also mentioned in al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 995 CE / 385 AH), in which Kitāb Sindbād al-Ḥakīm is referenced as a book of entertainment that exists in two forms - long and short - and has either Persian or Indian origins (see Ateş 1948, pp. 12-13). Ibn al-Nadīm identifies the Arabic poet Abān al-Lāḥiqī (d. ca. 815 CE / 200 AH) as the author of one version, and also 'transmits the name of the Persian scholar Mūsā b. 'Īsā al-Kisrawī (d. 874/875 CE), one of the leading translators from Persian into Arabic, who has been unanimously identified in modern scholarship as Mousos from Andreopoulos's Preface' in the Greek version (Krönung 2016, p. 370).

The surviving copies of the text in Arabic are much younger than this, however. According to Krönung, they fall into three distinct versions or redactions:

• Arabic Version A: The Seven Viziers redacted indepently of a larger frame structure.
• Arabic Version A101: The version of The Seven Viziers embedded in the One Hundred and One Nights (مائة ليلة وليلة, Mi’at layla wa-layla)
• Arabic Version A1001: The version of The Seven Viziers embedded in the One Thousand and One Nights (ألف ليلة وليلة, Alf layla wa-layla)

For the latter two groups, this means that that the frame and embedded stories of the Seven Viziers are further embedded within another, larger frame story. The story collections titled the One Hundred and One Nights and the Thousand and One Nights concern a king who, embittered and vengeful after witnessing his wife's adultery, marries a new maiden every night, and has her executed every morning. The string of murders is broken when the king marries Shahrazād, a vizier’s daughter. Shahrazād delays her own death and keeps the king's attention by telling incomplete stories every night, promising their resolution the following evening if the king allows her to live on. In the end, Shahrazād wins the king’s affection, and all ends happily. Both the Thousand and One Nights and the One Hundred and One Nights contain a version of the Seven Viziers narrative as one of the embedded stories that Shahrazād tells the king, though the two are not identical; the One Hundred and One Nights version shares about half of the embedded stories with the version found in the Thousand and One Nights. The independently transmitted Arabic Version A, on the other hand, shares the majority of stories (about 17 out of 22) with the One Hundred and One Nights version.

Identification & General Information

Title

الوزراء السبعة (Al-wuzarāʾ al-sabʿa, The Seven Viziers)

Tradition & Lineage

Branch of the tradition

Book of Sindbad

Adapted into (version)

Arabic Version A (The Seven Viziers), Arabic Version A101 (Hundred and One Nights), Arabic Version A1001 (Thousand and One Nights)

Recorded Secondary Versions

• Seven Viziers
  • Arabic Version A (The Seven Viziers)
  • Arabic Version A1001 (Thousand and One Nights)
  • Arabic Version A101 (Hundred and One Nights)

Language & Composition

Language of version

Arabic

Date of Composition

700 - 850

Source for date of composition

Krönung (2016)

Modern Scholarship & Editions

Modern research literature

Fudge (2016), Krönung (2016), Ateş (1948), Lerner (2018), Grotzfeld (1984), Walther (1987), Chraïbi (2008), Marzolph and Chraïbi (2012), Ott (2012), Gaudefroy-Demombynes (1911), Lacarra (2009), Marzolph and van Leeuwen (2004), Redwan (2016), Redwan (2023), Artola (1978), Perry (1960), Basset (1903), Belcher (1987)

Modern Editions

Fudge, One Hundred and One Nights (2016), Tarshuna, Miʾat layla wa-layla (1984), Shuraybiṭ, Miʾat layla wa layla (2005), Ott, 101 Nacht (2012), Ateş, Sindbād̲-nāme (1948)