Cultural Variety

THE LEGEND OF ESHAB-I KEHF

                                 THE LEGEND OF ESHAB-I KEHF

Six young governors, three of whom are the right arm, and three of whom are the left arm of the Roman Emperor Dakyanus, oppose to the pagan king, and invite him to monotheism, to Jesus Christ's religion. The king gets angry and say them:

-“You either follow my way... Or die.”

Six young men leave the city, helplessly. The merciless king sends his soldiers behind them. And he orders:

-Kill them.

Looking for a place to hide on the mountain named Benculus, the young men come across a shepherd on the way. Their purpose is to ask where to go, to find somewhere to be sheltered. The shepherd adopts their view, too, and join them.

The names of the young:
Yemliha... Mekselina... Mislina... Mernuş... Debernuş...Şazenuş... and the shepherd Kefeştetayyuş.
But although they tell the same story, Christians list the names as follows: Malta... Malchus... Martianus...Dionysius... Joannes... Serapion, and Costantinus.

These seven young men and their dog are sheltered in a cave in the end. The cave has only one entry. When they enter, they become sleepy and go asleep.

Dakyanus's soldiers just go behind them into the cave, and seeing them asleep, they close the entry of the cave with stones, and leave them to death.

It is narrated that 7 young men slept there for 300 years (300 years according to the solar calendar, 309 years according to the lunar calendar).

But when the young men wake up, they think they have slept for just one day, and send Yemliha for shopping. When the young man gives the baker in the city the currency of the 3 hundred years ago, the truth comes out. The young man, who tries to shop giving the money 300 years beforehand, is arrested because he is thought to have found treasure. And then, he is questioned by the king of the time, and tells what they have experienced.

Following this, they come to the cave, and as soon as they enter the cave, all the Seven Sleepers become invisible, and the visitors just see a bird nest where there are seven baby birds. And thereon, this cave is called the "Cave of the Seven Sleepers".Meanwhile, the society and the king have adopted monotheism, and therefore the young become a legend.

                                                        Prepared by

                                                          Çiğdem KINIK, Ayşegül ASAR