Who is Sinbad the Sailor?
Sinbad the Sailor is the star of a cycle of stories written about his adventures on the high seas. These stories are probably Persian in origin, and they are included in some collections of the Arabian Nights, an epic collection of Arabic folktales, songs, and parables which is familiar to many Westerners. Sinbad is such a distinctive character that stories about him are sometimes published alone, and he has inspired other books in addition to films and musical performances. One may also see Sinbad’s name spelled with an additional “D,” as “Sindbad,” reflecting the imperfections inherent in transliterating from Arabic into English. In either event, it is probable that the stories about Sinbad were compiled from a variety of sources, including sailors’ yarns and nursery stories, making Sinbad a sort of composite character upon which these tales could be projected. In this sense, he is like many characters in the Arabian Nights, used a vehicle for a cycle of stories to make them more int
