Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran: Difference between revisions

It is well known that the Qur'an contains many stories that were first told in Jewish and Christian communities around the Middle East. This includes [[Parallelism Between the Qur'an and Judeo-Christian Scriptures|apocryphal and legendary tales]] that originated in Syria between the 2^nd and early 7^th century CE. One of the most widespread of these stories was the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. Popular in both Europe and the Middle East during medieval times, this story was translated into Latin and found its way into many Christian works of that era. It also became very prominent in the Muslim world because of its inclusion in the Qur'an. After the Renaissance and Enlightenment of the 16^th century, this story fell out of favor and was largely dismissed as mythical. Since the tale is not found in the Bible, it was also rejected by the majority of the world's Christian churches without any theological consequence. The feast day for the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is no longer observed by the Roman Catholic Church (it is now referred to within the church as a "purely imaginative romance"), and the story today is virtually unknown among the Protestant churches.