Trans* gender and the translingual transmission of the story matter The Seven sages of Rome / Book of Sindbad

This article discusses The Book of Sindbad and The Seven sages of Rome as a single story matter, pan-continentally adapted in multiple languages, with the centre of transmission moving from the Middle East to Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In this view inspired by Abu-Lughod’s concept of a “world system,” the consistency of the motif of gender change across most versions becomes apparent, which may have formed part of the story matter’s translingual appeal. This article analyses three trans* characters from different versions the Arabic Mi’at layla wa-layla, the Latin Dolopathos and Historia septem sapientum to argue that the trans* characters embody and problematize the transgressions of gender roles in the story’s central plot constellation of a wife or concubine of a male ruler sexually propositioning his son.