قصه اصحاب كهف به روايت سغدي

The Tale of the Sleepers of the Cave in Sogdian

The Koranic tale of Ashab al-Kahf (the Seven Sleepers of the Cave) which attests 1o the truth of resurrection and the rising of the dead has been told and retold in various forms in the Christian and Moslem communities. There are over two hundred MSS of the talc in hand, in such different languages as Syriac, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Armenian, Abyssinian, Persian and Sogdian. After reviewing these different MSS, the author examines the tale of the Seven Sleepers in the Surah al-Kahf; goes through its various interpretations, and then compares it with its Christian versions. Finally the paper deals with the Sogdian manuscript of the tale, which is the only extant version of the story from the Middle Iranian period, renders it into Modern Persian, and compares it with the Christian and Islamic versions.