Seven Sleepers


The Seven Sleepers, also known in Christendom as the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and in Islam as Aṣḥāb al-Kahf, is a late antique Christian legend, and a Qur’anic Islamic story. The Christian legend speaks about a group of youths who hid inside a cave around the year AD 250 to escape Roman persecutions of Christians and emerged many years later. The Qur'anic version of the story appears in Sura 18.
The Seven Sleepers have been venerated as Christian saints since at least the 5th century as the "Holy Seven Youths" in the Orthodox church; in the Catholic Church, they are venerated individually.

Origins and propagation

The story appeared in several Syriac sources before Gregory of Tours's lifetime. The earliest Syriac manuscript copy is in MS Saint-Petersburg No. 4, which dates to the 5th century.
The earliest known version of this story is found in the writings of the Syriac bishop Jacob of Serugh, who relies on an earlier Greek source, now lost. Jacob of Serugh, an Edessan poet-theologian, wrote a homily in verse on the subject of the Seven Sleepers, which was published in the Acta Sanctorum. Another sixth-century version gives eight sleepers in a Syrian manuscript in the British Museum.
Whether the original account was written in Syriac or Greek was debated, but today a Greek original is generally accepted. The pilgrim account De situ terrae sanctae, written between 518 and 531, records the existence of a church dedicated to the sleepers in Ephesus.
An outline of this tale appears in the 6th-century writings of Gregory of Tours and the History of the Lombards of Paul the Deacon. The best-known Western version of the story appears in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend. It also appears in BHO, BHG and BHL Dormientes Ephesi.
Accounts of the Christian legend are found in at least nine medieval languages and preserved in over 200 manuscripts, mainly dating to between the 9th and 13th centuries. These include 104 Latin manuscripts, 40 Greek, 33 Arabic, 17 Syriac, six Ethiopic, five Coptic, two Armenian, one Middle Irish, and one Old English. Byzantine writer Symeon the Metaphrast  alluded to it. It was also translated into Sogdian. In the 13th century, the poet Chardri composed an Old French version. The ninth-century Irish calendar Félire Óengusso commemorates the Seven Sleepers on 7 August.
The legend was also translated into Persian, Kyrgyz, and Tatar.

Dissemination in the West: story and relics

The story rapidly attained a wide diffusion throughout Christendom. It was popularized in the West by Gregory of Tours, in his late 6th-century collection of miracles, Glory of the Martyrs . Gregory claimed to have gotten the story from "a certain Syrian interpreter", but this could refer to either a Syriac- or Greek-speaker from the Levant. During the period of the Crusades, bones from the sepulchres near Ephesus, identified as relics of the Seven Sleepers, were transported to Marseille, France, in a large stone coffin, which remained a trophy of the Abbey of St Victor, Marseille.
The Seven Sleepers were included in the Golden Legend compilation, the most popular book of the later Middle Ages, which fixed a precise date for their resurrection, AD 478, in the reign of Theodosius.

Christian story

The story says that during the persecutions by the Roman emperor Decius, around AD 250, seven young men were accused of following Christianity. They were given time to recant their faith but refused to bow to Roman idols. Instead, they chose to give their worldly goods to the poor and retire to a mountain cave to pray, where they fell asleep. The Emperor, seeing that their attitude towards paganism had not improved, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed.
Decius died in 251, and many years passed during which Christianity went from being persecuted to being the state religion of the Roman Empire. At some later time—usually given as during the reign of Theodosius II —in AD 447 when heated discussions were taking place between various schools of Christianity about the resurrection of the body in the day of judgement and life after death, a landowner decided to open up the sealed mouth of the cave, thinking to use it as a cattle pen. He opened it and found the sleepers inside. They awoke, imagining that they had slept but one day, and sent one of their number to Ephesus to buy food, with instructions to be careful.
Upon arriving in the city, this person was astounded to find buildings with crosses attached; the townspeople were astounded to find a man trying to spend old coins from the reign of Decius. The bishop was summoned to interview the sleepers; they told him their miracle story, and died praising God.
The Seven Sleepers' various lives in Greek and other non-Latin languages are listed at BHO.

Account in the Quran

The Quran tells that the polytheists of Mecca, after consulting with the people of the Book, tested Muhammad by asking him three questions, and Surah Al-Kahf was sent down in answer to them. The mushriks inquired about the identity of the Sleepers of the Cave, the real story of Khidr, and about Dhu al-Qarnayn.
The story of the Companions of the Cave is referred to in Surah Al-Kahf. The precise number of sleepers is not stated. The Quran furthermore states that people, shortly after the incident emerged, started to make "idle guesses" as to how many people were in the cave. To this, the Quran asserts, "My Sustainer knows best how many they were." Similarly, regarding the exact period of time the people stayed in the cave, the Quran, after asserting the guesswork of the people that "they remained in the cave for 300 years and nine added," resolves that "God knows best how long they remained ." The 9 years are often interpreted as the difference between solar and lunar years. The Quran says that the sleepers included a dog, which Islamic tradition names as Qitmir, who guarded the entrance of the cave.

Number and names

Jewish and Christian versions

Early versions do not all agree on or even specify the number of sleepers. Some Jewish circles and the Christians of Najran believed in only three brothers; the East Syriac, five. Most Syriac accounts have eight, including a nameless watcher whom God sets over the sleepers. A 6th-century Latin text titled "Pilgrimage of Theodosius" featured the sleepers as seven people in number, with a dog named Viricanus.
Bartłomiej Grysa lists at least seven different sets of names for the sleepers:
  • Maximian, Martinian, Dionisius, John, Constantine, Malchus, Serapion
  • Maximilian, Martinian, Dionisius, John, Constantine, Malkhus, Serapion, Anthony
  • Maximilian, Martinian, Dionisius, John, Constantine, Yamblikh, Anthony
  • Makṯimilīnā, Marnūš, Kafašṭaṭyūš, Yamlīḫā, Mišlīnā, Saḏnūš, Dabranūš, Samōnos, Buṭōnos, Qālos
  • Achillides, Probatus, Stephanus, Sambatus, Quiriacus, Diogenus, Diomedes
  • Ikilios, Fruqtis, Istifanos, Sebastos, Qiryaqos, Dionisios
  • Aršellītīs, Probatios, Sabbastios, Stafanos, Kīriakos, Diōmetios, Avhenios
In the modern Orthodox Church, they are named
  • Μαξιμιλιανός, Ἰάμβλιχος, Μαρτινιανός, Διονύσιος, Ἀντωνῖνος , Κωνσταντῖνος, and Ἐξακουστοδιανός ;
and in the modern Catholic Church, as
  • Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Joannes, Serapion, and Constantinus.*

    Islamic view

The Qur'an does not state the exact number of sleepers in the cave. Qur'an 18:22 discusses the disputes regarding their numbers. The verse says:
Some will say, "They were three, their dog was the fourth," while others will say, "They were five, their dog was the sixth," only guessing blindly. And others will say, "They were seven and their dog was the eighth." Say, O Prophet, "My Lord knows best their exact number. Only a few people know as well." So do not argue about them except with sure knowledge, nor consult any of those who debate about them.

Duration

Christian accounts

The number of years the sleepers slept also varies between accounts. The highest number, given by Gregory of Tours, was 373 years. Some accounts have 372. Jacobus de Voragine calculated it at 196. Other calculations suggest 195.

Caves of the Seven Sleepers

Several sites are attributed as the "Cave of the Seven Sleepers," but none could empirically prove to be the original site associated with the legend. As the earliest versions of the legend spread out from Ephesus, an early Christian catacomb in that area came to be associated with it, attracting scores of pilgrims. On the slopes of Mount Pion near Ephesus, the grotto of the Seven Sleepers with ruins of the religious site built over it was excavated in 1926–1928. The excavation brought to light several hundred graves dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. Inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers were found on the walls and in the graves. This grotto is still shown to tourists.
Other possible sites of the cave of the Seven Sleepers are in Damascus, Syria and Afşin and Tarsus, Turkey. Afşin is near the antique Roman city of Arabissus, to which the East Roman Emperor Justinian paid a visit. The site was a Hittite temple, used as a Roman temple and later as a church in Roman and Byzantine times. The Emperor brought marble niches from Western Anatolia as gifts for it, which are preserved inside the Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye mosque to this day. The Seljuks continued to use the place of worship as a church and a mosque. It was turned into a mosque over time, with the conversion of the local population to Islam.
A cave near Amman, Jordan, also known as the Cave of Seven Sleepers, which has eight smaller sealed tombs inside and a ventilation duct coming out of the cave.

List of notable sites

Asia Minor