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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 22:14, 2 October 2025
, 2 OctoberNoted earlier versions pre-dating the Qur'an in the page intro.
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[[File:Seven sleepers.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Folio from an illustrated Islamic manuscript depicting the Seven Sleepers and the evil emperor led by a [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Racism|dark-skinned Satan]]. Iran, Qazvin. 1550s.]] | [[File:Seven sleepers.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Folio from an illustrated Islamic manuscript depicting the Seven Sleepers and the evil emperor led by a [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Racism|dark-skinned Satan]]. Iran, Qazvin. 1550s.]] | ||
The [[Qur'an|Qur'anic]] story of the "Companions of the Cave" has traditionally been explained by the Islamic narrative as proof of [[Allah]]'s divine power whereby he miraculously caused 7 youths to fall asleep and awaken after more than 300 years. Yet comparison with the literary milieu of the Qur'an, 7th century Chrisian culture in the Middle East, reveals parallels to the 7 Sleepers of Ephesus, a Christian legend dating from the 5th century which tells the story of Christian youths being persecuted by the pagan Roman Emperor Decius in the 3rd century. The youths seek shelter in a cave, fall asleep for over 200 years, and venture out only to find that the Empire is now Christian. Their faith confirmed, the youths then die and are embraced by the Lord. Rather than a mere exhibition of god's power, the original story was a parable meant to emphasis the ability of Christian faith to overcome persecution, a celebration of the Christianization of the Roman Empire and an answer to heretics at the time of the story's composition who doubted the literal nature of the physical Resurrection. As the Qur'an does not preserve the entire story, but appears to merely refer to it, the [[tafsir|mufassirun]] of later generations misinterpreted the story, leaving out key components and failing to relay the underlying message of the original parable. In 2023, academic scholar Thomas Eich published his finding that the specific version of the tale found in the Qur'an overlaps significantly with the version taught by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690 CE), and which can be situated in an early 7th century Palestinian context.<ref name="Eich2023">Eich, Thomas. [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/islam-2023-0003/html Muḥammad und Cædmon und die Siebenschläferlegende. Zur Verbindung zwischen Palästina und Canterbury im 7. Jahrhundert] (abstract in English), Der Islam, vol. 100, no. 1, 2023, pp. 7-39. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2023-0003</ref> | The [[Qur'an|Qur'anic]] story of the "Companions of the Cave" has traditionally been explained by the Islamic narrative as proof of [[Allah]]'s divine power whereby he miraculously caused 7 youths to fall asleep and awaken after more than 300 years. Yet comparison with the literary milieu of the Qur'an, 7th century Chrisian culture in the Middle East, reveals parallels to the 7 Sleepers of Ephesus, a Christian legend dating from the 5th century which tells the story of Christian youths being persecuted by the pagan Roman Emperor Decius in the 3rd century. The youths seek shelter in a cave, fall asleep for over 200 years, and venture out only to find that the Empire is now Christian. Their faith confirmed, the youths then die and are embraced by the Lord. Rather than a mere exhibition of god's power, the original story was a parable meant to emphasis the ability of Christian faith to overcome persecution, a celebration of the Christianization of the Roman Empire and an answer to heretics at the time of the story's composition who doubted the literal nature of the physical Resurrection. | ||
As the Qur'an does not preserve the entire story, but appears to merely refer to it, the [[tafsir|mufassirun]] of later generations misinterpreted the story, leaving out key components and failing to relay the underlying message of the original parable. In 2023, academic scholar Thomas Eich published his finding that the specific version of the tale found in the Qur'an overlaps significantly with the version taught by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690 CE), and which can be situated in an early 7th century Palestinian context.<ref name="Eich2023">Eich, Thomas. [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/islam-2023-0003/html Muḥammad und Cædmon und die Siebenschläferlegende. Zur Verbindung zwischen Palästina und Canterbury im 7. Jahrhundert] (abstract in English), Der Islam, vol. 100, no. 1, 2023, pp. 7-39. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2023-0003</ref> Sydney Griffith (2008) notes that the earliest recension of the story is believed to be by Bishop Stephen of Ephesus in the 5th century (in Greek), and the earliest extant texts are in Syriac date from the 6th century.<ref>''[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.120.'' QHC, 109–37. Sidney H. Griffith. </ref> | |||
==Introduction== | ==Introduction== | ||
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In his article (the rest of which is written in German), Eich explains that Theodore spent the period from the 640s until 668 CE in Rome in the Monastery of St. Anastasius, a Greek monastic community which had begun to move there from Palestine from the 630s, probably triggered by the Byzantine conquest of Palestine in 629-30, though possibly due to the Arab conquest several years later. In 669 the Pope sent Theodore to England to take the vacant seat as Archbishop of Canterbury, where his teachings would go on to reflect those of his former Greek-Palestinian monastic community and showed knowledge of the Syriac church fathers. | In his article (the rest of which is written in German), Eich explains that Theodore spent the period from the 640s until 668 CE in Rome in the Monastery of St. Anastasius, a Greek monastic community which had begun to move there from Palestine from the 630s, probably triggered by the Byzantine conquest of Palestine in 629-30, though possibly due to the Arab conquest several years later. In 669 the Pope sent Theodore to England to take the vacant seat as Archbishop of Canterbury, where his teachings would go on to reflect those of his former Greek-Palestinian monastic community and showed knowledge of the Syriac church fathers. | ||
It is in a Biblical commentary by Theodore when he was in England (surviving in two 9th century and one 11th century Latin manuscripts) where we find a version of the seven sleepers story, quoted below, with exceptional | It is in a Biblical commentary by Theodore when he was in England (surviving in two 9th century and one 11th century Latin manuscripts) where we find a version of the seven sleepers story, quoted below, with exceptional correspondences to the Quranic version. Unlike all other Syriac-Christian references to the legend (which have all been assigned to communities in Palestine, and in one case to Najran in Southern Arabia), in Theodore's version: | ||
*The cave is not walled up. {{Quran|18|18}} likewise suggests that the cave was open. | *The cave is not walled up. {{Quran|18|18}} likewise suggests that the cave was open. | ||