Sindbad

The Book of Sindbad the Sage, on the wiles of women, is probably a product of the Late Sasanian Empire.

The Book of Sindbad the Sage, on the wiles of women, is probably a product of the Late Sasanian Empire (Perry), though others have considered that it is of Indian origin. The work (to be distinguished from the tales of Sindbad the Sailor) proved to be very popular and was translated into many different languages, eastern and western, the latter via Hebrew (Sendebar, ed. M. Epstein, 1967) and Spanish (the European versions often go under the title ‘The Seven Sages of Rome’). All versions ultimately go back to a lost Middle Persian text by way of Arabic. The Syriac version is the earliest extant witness, having been translated from a lost Arabic intermediary (ca. 9th cent.); in the 11th cent. the Syriac was in turn translated into Greek in Melitene by Michael Andreopoulos (who rendered the name as Syntipas). An extract is included in the Chrestomathy in Brockelmann’s Syrische Grammatik.