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Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran: Difference between revisions
Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran (view source)
Revision as of 20:22, 2 October 2025
, 2 October→Slept for Hundreds of Years: Added a citation for the coin and it's significance in the original story.
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(→Number of Sleepers: Updating research on number of sleepers varying and being debated in Syrian Christian traditions and citing dispute over the length of time they were asleep.) |
(→Slept for Hundreds of Years: Added a citation for the coin and it's significance in the original story.) |
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===Money for Bread=== | ===Money for Bread=== | ||
Another similarity between the two stories is that both state that one of the companions goes to the city to buy bread with coins. The Syriac legend states that the name of the person who buys bread is Malchus. | Another similarity between the two stories is that both state that one of the companions goes to the city to buy bread with coins. The Syriac legend states that the name of the person who buys bread is Malchus. The significance of the coin in identifying the sleepers being from a reign centuries ago is not stated in the Qur'an, but implies familiarity with the late antique Christian tale.<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said. ''Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (p. 91).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. | ||
There are a number of other significant correspondences between the legend of the Seven Sleepers and the qur’anic account of the Companions of the Cave. Like the Christian legend, the qur’anic account has one of the young men enter the city to buy food with a coin (Q 18:19).<sup>107</sup> The Qur’an’s account does not speak of the emperor Decius (whose image would have been on the coin as the merchant inspected it), and so one would need some knowledge of the Christian legend in order to recognize the significance of the coin in the unfolding of the plot in the Qur’an. This is one sign that the Qur’an is engaging with an audience that is already familiar with this Christian tale.</ref> | |||
{{Quote|The Seven Sleepers (par 3)| | {{Quote|The Seven Sleepers (par 3)| | ||
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===Slept for Hundreds of Years=== | ===Slept for Hundreds of Years=== | ||
Both accounts state that the youths slept for hundreds of years. The Qur'an stating that it was 300 years and the Syriac version stating the number was closer to 200. There is considerable variation in different versions of the Seven Sleeper legend as to the time frame that they slept.<ref | Both accounts state that the youths slept for hundreds of years. The Qur'an stating that it was 300 years and the Syriac version stating the number was closer to 200. There is considerable variation in different versions of the Seven Sleeper legend as to the time frame that they slept.<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said. ''Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (p. 92-93).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. | ||
''“[https://almuslih.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Griffith-S-The-%E2%80%98Companions-of-the-Cave-in-Surat-al-Kahf-.pdf Christian Lore and the Arabic Qurʾān: The ‘Companions of the Cave’ in Sūrat al-Kahf and in Syriac Christian Tradition].”. pp.129.'' QHC, 109–37. | |||
Griffith explains: In the pre-Islamic Syriac texts there is in fact disagreement about the number of years the youths stayed asleep in the cave. For the most part the differences seem to come from the methods of computing the number of years which elapsed between the reigns of the emperors Decius (249–51) and Theodosius II (408–50). Recension I of Jacob of Serugh’s mêmrâ says of Decius, “According to the numbering and the reckoning of the Greeks, he was the king three hundred and seventy-two years ago,” but recension II says, “According to the numbers and the reckoning of the Greeks, Decius passed on three hundred and fifty years ago.” The Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus says that the coinage of Decius in the youths’ possession was current three hundred and seventy years ago; in the Ecclesiastical History of Zacharias of Mitylene, the bishop of Ephesus tells the youth Dionysius that Decius reigned “two hundred years ago, more or less.” With this reckoning, the bishop would seem to be “more or less” correct; the number of years which elapsed between the end of the reign of Decius (d. 251) and the last year of the reign of Theodosius (d. 450), when the youths were discovered, is roughly 199.</ref> Though all of them are longer than 200 years. | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|18|25}}| | {{Quote|{{Quran|18|25}}| | ||