Seven Wise Masters, the most common title given to a famous mediæval collection of stories, grouped round a central story, the history of which is almost the most important among the problems of storiology. The leading story itself is briefly as follows: A young prince is born in answer to prayer as the only son of the aged king Kârush, and the astrologers foretell a great danger overhanging his fate at twenty. At seven years he is entrusted to masters, but at thirteen he has not learned anything. The sages then recommend Sindibâd as the best master, but for six and a half more years the young prince studies under him uselessly, and at nineteen and a half he has still learnt nothing. The king again assembles the wise men, and Sindibâd offers to teach the prince everything in six months or forfeit his life. He now shuts himself up with his pupil, who this time succeeds to his master's satisfaction. Before bringing him back Sindibâd consults the stars, and sees that the prince will die if he should speak before seven days. Sindibâd therefore hides himself, and the prince at court is found to be dumb. One of the king's women now tempts him as the wife of Potiphar did Joseph, and in the fury of disappointed rage accuses him to the king of an attempt on her virtue. The king condemns him to death, whereupon the seven viziers resolve to intercede to stay his execution. The first goes to the king, and by two tales against women obtains the suspension of the execution for that day. Next day the woman by a tale of contrary character obtains a confirmation of the sentence; but a second vizier again procures a suspension by two tales; and so on till the end of the seventh day when the prince is free to speak. He now comes to the king attended by the sages and by Sindibâd, whereupon the woman is duly punished, and the king, after seeing proof of his son's wisdom, gives him his throne and retires into solitude to serve God.
Of variant versions there are two principal groups, the Eastern and the Western, the first including all the texts in Eastern languages, and some more or less free translations from Oriental texts; the other including the Dolopathos, the Historia Septem Sapientum, the Erasto, and many others. The Oriental texts have so many elements in common that they obviously spring from one book as a common basis, of which they are more or less faithful translations, at different epochs and in different literatures. The Western texts, though derivable from the Eastern, show great divergencies alike in the fundamental story and in the tales inserted in it. The real cause of this is that in the Western cases oral tradition has transmuted the contents.
The earliest version of a Book of Sindibâd is found in Arabian writers of the 10th century. The more important Eastern versions are the following: (1) The Syntipas, a Greek text translated from the Syriac by Michael Andreopulos during the last years of the 11th century (ed. by Dr A. Eberhard in vol. i. of Fabulae Romanenses Grace Conscriptæ, Leip. 1872). A Syriac text was found by Rödiger, and has been edited, with a German translation, by Dr Baethgen (Leip. 1879). (2) The Hebrew version entitled Parables of Sandabar (Mischle Sandabar), translated from the Arabic, probably in the first half of the 13th century. There is a German translation by Sengelman (Halle, 1842), a French by Carmoly (Paris, 1849). (3) The Sindibâd-Nâmeh, an unedited Persian poem, written in 1375. (4) The eighth night of the Tâti-nâmeh of Nachschebi, a Persian poet who died in 1329. Of this there is a German translation by Professor Brockhaus (Leip. 1845). (5) The Seven Viziers, an Arabic text, forming part of some redactions of the Thousand and One Nights, of uncertain age, but not ancient. (6) An ancient Spanish translation of an Arabic text existing in a 15th-century codex—the version closest to the Syntipas. It was first printed by Comparetti in his Ricerche intorno al Libro di Sindibâd (Milan, 1869; Eng. trans. of Comparetti's study and the old Spanish text, Folklore Society issues, 1882).
Western versions exist in the most perplexing variety and number—Latin, French, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, English, German, Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, and Armenian. The Dolopathos is a French metrical version supposed to have been made by Herbert in the reign of Louis IX. from the Latin romance of Jean de Haute-Seille, Historia de Rege et Septem Sapientibus. This Latin text (Johannis de Alta Silva Dolopathos) was edited by Oesterley (Strasb. 1873); other Latin versions varied widely. A French metrical version was printed by Keller (Tüb. 1836); Li romans de Dolopathos, by Ch. Brunet and A. de Montaiglon (1856); two prose versions of the Sept Sages de Rome, by Gaston Paris (1876). An English prose version soon followed (middle of 16th century) under the title of the Seven Wise Masters, and about the same time a Scotch metrical version by John Rolland of Dalkeith. One English metrical version was printed by Henry Weber (1810), another by T. Wright for the Percy Society (1845). Among Italian versions we have a 13th-century translation from a French prose version, printed by Professor A. d'Ancona (Il Libro dei Sette Savi di Roma, Pisa, 1864); the latest is the 16th-century book, I Compassionevoli Avvenimenti di Erasto. German versions begin with the metrical rendering of 1412 by Hans v. Bühel, Diocletianus Leben, edited by A. Keller (Quedlinb. 1841). A second and anonymous poetical version is given in Keller's Altdutsche Gedichte (Tüb. 1846). The prose Volksbuch was first printed in the 15th century, and will be found in Simrock's collection. See Professor Mussafia, Beiträge zur Litteratur der sieben weisen Meister (Vien. 1868); Dr Marcus Landau, Die Quellen des Dekameron (2d ed. 1884); and W. A. Clouston, The Book of Sindibâd, from Pers. and Arab. (1884).