Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran: Difference between revisions

The story of the companions of the cave is found in the 18^th [[surah]] of the Qur'an, [[The Holy Qur'an: Al-Kahf (The Cave)|al-Kahf]] (the Cave), for which the surah is named. It relates the tale of a young group of believers, who fall into a supernatural sleep in a cave, only to awaken hundreds of years later. This story mimics a story found in the Syriac homily by a Christian bishop named Jacob of Serugh (521 CE).<ref name="Reynolds">Reynolds, Gabriel Said. "Seven Sleepers" in [http://books.google.com/books?id=H-k9oc9xsuAC&pg=PA720 Medieval Islamic Civilization], ed  Josef W. Meri, Routledge, 2004, p. 720, ISBN 9780415966900 </ref> His story tells of seven young Christians in Ephesus (an ancient Greek city now situated in modern-day [[Turkey]]), who hide from an evil emperor in a cave, fall into a supernatural sleep for hundreds of years, and awaken to find that their home town has been converted to Christianity.<ref name="Gold">Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275 First Edition Published 1470. "Seven Sleepers" in [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume4.asp The Golden Legend: Volume IV] <small>([http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fordham.edu%2Fhalsall%2Fbasis%2Fgoldenlegend%2FGoldenLegend-Volume4.asp&date=2013-12-04 archived])</small>.</ref>  

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.

*{{external link| url = http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Sources/s18.html| title = The Fellows of the Cave| publisher = [[Answering Islam]]| author = | date = | archiveurl = http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.answering-islam.org%2FQuran%2FSources%2Fs18.html&date=2013-12-05| deadurl = no}}