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materials of such literary appropriations? In the case ofAhl al-Kahfthequestion can help us to sketch the interpretive life of a qur"nic narrativeand to understand the shift from a narratives traditional context to

that of another, very different genre. I will discuss the nature of thetale, followed by examples from the Arabic exegetical tradition thatshow how scholars with differing exegetical priorities derive meaningor significance from the scriptural version of the story. I will show thatthere is little attention to the unity of the tale, and that the exegeticalpoints of departure for interpretation are the individual components orsemantic units found in individual verses.

Moving to the play by Tawfq al-akm, I will demonstrate how itis precisely these components, rather than any other literary aspects,which al-akm adopts in his play. I will also discuss his use of thisqur"nic material for tragedy, and its significance for the play. It will notsuffice to regardAhl al-Kahfin terms of the Qur"n. It must be approachedas a literary work and analyzed on its own terms if one is to discern

the echoes of scriptures and the responses of the modern author. More-over, if we can learn about the modern appropriation of a scripturalstory, then we can also learn something about the nature of the scrip-tural story in its earlier incarnations.

The question of the meaning or significance of the Men of the Cavestory is the central issue here, and even if we do not find a theme inthe usual sense, we can discern different aspects of its significance. I will

argue that the matter of the meaning of the story as a wholeremainslargely unstated, and that despite Tawfq al-akms radical innovationin his play, his usage of qur"nic elements remains consistent with theuse of scriptural passages throughout the mainstream of the exegeticaltradition.

I. Christians and Muslims: The Seven Sleepers and the Men of the CaveThe Qur"ns rendition of theAb al-kahf, from which the eighteenth

chapter or sra takes its name (Srat al-kahf), is an allomorph of theearly Christian legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. This legendexists in Latin, Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Christian Arabic, Coptic andEthiopian versions, and is generally held to be derived from Syriac ori-gins whose earliest mss. appear to go back to the end of the fifth cen-tury AD. The tale is set in Ephesus during the persecution of Christiansby the idolatrous emperor Decius. A group of youths residing in the palaceare accused of being Christians, and rather than submit to worshipping

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the idols, they flee and take refuge in a cave, where they presently fallinto a deep slumber. Three centuries later, during the time of a the-ological dispute over the resurrection of the dead, God awakens the

youths, who are unaware that more than a night has passed. One ofthem descends into the town, and is astonished that it seems to be openlyChristian. In trying to buy food with his outdated coinage, he is accusedof hiding a treasure. Threatened and then taken to the authorities, heinvites the bishop and governor to come to the cave where they seethe youths alive, and read inscriptions that confirm their story. One ofthem explains that God had put them to sleep, then awakened thembefore the Day of Judgment in order to demonstrate the truth of theresurrection. Then the youths fall asleep forever and a basilica is builton the spot.3

The Qur"n is less explicit about the events, but the main elementsof the narrative are recognizable:

Or dost thou think the men of the cave and al-Raqm (ab al-kahf wa l-raqm) were among our

signs a wonder? [9]When the youths took refuge in the Cave, saying, Our Lord, give us mercy from Thee, and

furnish us with guidance in our affair. [10] Then We smote their ears many years in the Cave.[11]

Afterwards We raised them up again, that We might know which of the two parties wouldbetter calculate the while they had tarried. [12]

We will relate to thee their tidings truly. They were youths who believed in their Lord, andWe increased them in guidance. [13]

And We strengthened their hearts, when they stood up and said, Our Lord is the Lord of

the heavens and the earth; we will not call upon any God, apart from Him, or then we hadspoken outrage. [14]

These our people have taken to them other gods, apart from Him. Ah, if only they wouldbring some clear authority regarding them! But who does greater evil than he who forges againstGod a lie? [15]

So, when you have gone apart from them and that they serve, excepting God, take refuge inthe Cave, and your Lord will unfold to you of His mercy, and will furnish you with a gentleissue of your affair. [16]

And though mightest have seen the sun, when it rose, inclining from their Cave towards the

right, and when it set, passing by them on the left, while they were in a broad fissure of theCave. That was one of Gods signs; whomsoever God guides, he is rightly guided, and whom-soever He leads astray, thou wilt not find for him a protector to direct. [17]

Thou wouldst have thought them awake, as they lay sleeping, while We turned them now tothe right, now to the left, and their dog stretching its paws on the threshold. Hadst thou observedthem, surely thou wouldst have turned thy back on them in flight, and beenfilled with terror ofthem. [18]

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3 For a useful summary, see I. Guidi, Seven Sleepers, The Encyclopaedia of Religionand Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York: Scribner, 1908-27), s.v.; also M. Huber,DieWanderlegende von den Siebenschlaefern (Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz 1910).


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And even so We raised them up again that they might question one another. One of themsaid How long have you tarried? They said We have tarried a day, or part of a day. Theysaid, Your Lord knows very well how long you have tarried. Now send one of you forth withthis silver to the city, and let him look for which of them has purest food, and bring you pro-

vision thereof, let him be courteous, and apprise no man of you. [19]If they should get knowledge of you they will stone you or restore you to their creed, then you

will not prosper ever. [20]And even so We made them stumble upon them, that they might know that Gods promise is

true, and that the Hour, there is no doubt of it. When they were contending among themselvesof their affair then they said, Build over them a building; their Lord knows of them very well.Said those who prevailed over their affair, We will raise over them a place of worship. [21]

(They will say, Three, their dog was the fourth of them. They will say, Five, their dog wasthe sixth of them, guessing at the Unseen. They will say, Seven and their dog was the eighth

of them. Say, my Lord knows very well their number, and none knows them, except a few. Sodo not dispute with them, except in outward disputation, and ask not any of them for a pro-nouncement on them. [22] And do not say, regarding anything, I am going to do that tomor-row, [23] but If God will, and mention thy Lord, when thou forgettest, and say, It may bethat my Lord will lead me unto something nearer to guidance than this,) [24] And they tar-ried in their cave 300 years and to that they added 9 more. [25]4

Despite this brief and somewhat enigmatic presentation, Muslim historical

and exegetical traditionfi

lled out the sketch with details largely corre-sponding to the Christian version. For example, the location is usuallygiven as Ephesus or Tarsus, the episode sometimes resolves a debate aboutthe resurrection of the body, and there are some accounts of the youthsbackgrounds, and how they came to be fervent Christians.

The Seven Sleepers/Men of the Cave tale has long fascinated bothMuslims and Christians.5 Even the skeptical Edward Gibbon was charmed:

Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am tempted todistinguish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers. This distinc-tion was due in part to its remarkable diffusion, but also for the meritof its apparent universality. The possibility of awakening to centuriesof change, to easily juxtapose a new epoch with the old, would, hewrote, furnish the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance.6

Gibbons opinion appears to have been shared by Tawfq al-akm.

His play Ahl al-Kahfdraws on the scriptural account as well as thecorpus of Muslim exegetical reports, but he nonetheless departs fromtradition entirely. His story is set in Tarsus, the youths are two viziers

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4 Translation slightly adapted from A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Oxford:University Press, 1983), pp. 288-91.

5 See Franois Jourdan La tradition des sept dormants: Une rencontre entre chrtiens et musul-mans (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2001), and Louis Massignon, Les septs dormantsdEphse en Islam et Chrtient, Revue dtudes islamiques, XXII (1954), pp. 59-112.

6 Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J. B. Bury(London: Methuen, 1909), III, 436-9.


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to the tyrant Decius, hiding their true faith from the king, and they areaccompanied by a Christian shepherd and his dog who aided them intheir flight. Their names, Milniyy, Marn and Yaml, are arabized

variants of some of the names found in the earlier sources.After awakening in the darkness of the cave, the men weigh the dan-

gers of leaving the cave with their desire to see their loved ones: forMarn, his wife and child; for Mishlniyy, his beloved the princess Prsk,daughter of the tyrant Decius; and for the pious shepherd Yaml,simply his sheep. When they are discovered, they are brought to thepalace and hailed as living saints. Milniyy meets another princess Prskwho perfectly resembles her namesake and has even inherited the ringMishlniyy gave to his secret fiance centuries earlier. Milniyy refusesto comprehend that more than a day has passed and wonders whyPrsk does not recognize him. There follow lengthy, faintly comicalexchanges between the two. In the meantime, both Yaml and Marndiscover that much more than a day has passed, and that their sheep,

wife and child are long gone. They decide that this world has no placefor them and return to the cave to sleep or die. Milniyy soon fol-lows, and once in the cave, they discuss their helplessness in the faceof history. While Yaml and Marn lost their loved ones in the past,the tragedy is more acute for Milniyy, who has fallen in love withthe new version of Prsk, making his inevitable submission to time andfate more ironically tragic. The men pass again into the sleep of cen-

turies, but Prsk too renounces the world and sacrifices herself, firmin her belief that her deep religious faith will ultimately bring her backto love. Having said that Love is stronger than time, she walls her-self up in the cave with the three sainted sleepers and their dog.

II. Theme, Motif and Qur"n

As mentioned above, Tawfq al-akm stated that his goal in Ahl al-Kahfwas to insert the element of tragedy into an Arab-Islamic topic(idl 'unur al-tr[diyyf maw' 'arab-islm). However, one translatorrendered the phrase as Arab-Islamic theme.7 The Arabic term (maw')may indeed mean theme, but the translation begs the question notonly of what exactly that theme might be, but also whether there isindeed a theme here in the proper sense of the word. A theme is a

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7 Farouk Abdel Wahab, Modern Egyptian Drama (Minneapolis, Chicago: BibliothecaIslamica, 1974), p. 30.


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central idea that may be abstracted from the individual text. For exam-ple, the theme of Othello is jealousy.8 In my use of theme here Iassume first that it is the product of some interpretive process, that it

is an abstraction generally not stated in the text itself, and second, thatit relates to or is derived from the narrative in its entirety, rather thana segment. My usage could be synonymous with meaning, and thisnecessarily implies a degree of speculation, or as Jonathan Culler putit, playing the about game . . . To say that Hamletis about a princein Denmark is to refuse to play the game.9

While the theme is derived from the whole of the narrative, a motifis a fragment or individual unit, a simple element which serves as abasis for expanded narrative, or less strictly, a conventional situation,device, interest or incident.10 Motif is distinguished from theme bybeing more specific or concrete, a type of character, a recurrent imageor event. A theme may be constituted by motifs, but the difference isthat the identification of motifs precedes interpretation or abstraction.

For example, if glasses are a motif in Princess Brambilla, vision is atheme in that work.11

What is the theme of the Men of the Cave tale? Scholars have beenlargely elusive on the matter. R. Paret in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, forexample, calls the story edifying, but does not describe the nature ofthis edification.12 Ali Mrad mentions sa thmatique du temps (lchelle humaine et lchelle eschatologique), which is certainly a

viable interpretation, but as we will see below, it is not necessarily rep-resented in the exegetical tradition on theses verses.13 Any reader mayextract a theme, but what, if anything, does one find in the exegeticaltradition? And what was Tawfq al-akms understanding of the talehe was to adapt?

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8 J. A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Themes and Literary Theory, new ed.(London: Penguin, 1991), s.v.

9 Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1997), p. 64.

10 C. Hugh Holman,A Handbook to Literature, Based on the original by William FlintThrall and Addison Hibbard, 3rd Ed. (Indianapolis and New York: Odyssey Press, 1972),p. 329.

11 Gerald Prince,A Dictionary of Narratology, revised ed. (Lincoln and London: Universityof Nebraska Press, 2003), s.v. Motif. For simplicity, I leave aside the topos, whichis a complex of motifs.

12 R. Paret, Ab al-kahf, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill,1954-2002), s.v.

13 Ali Mrad, Lexgse coranique. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, Que sais-je?,1998), p. 40.


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chaotic introduction and the disruption of the tale by indoctrinatingrhetoric, to conclude that [a]ltogether the narrative is so stronglypunctuated with the rhetoric of admonition that its flow may only be

pieced together against the flow of its rhetoric.16Elsewhere, Stetkevych broached the matter of the qur "nic topic

of Paradise, and its potential for poetical elaboration. Responding tothe critical observation that this topic is, as a rule, of limited scopeand elaborateness in post-qur"nic Arabic poetry, he suggests thatqur"nic topics we would consider to be themes in fact do not tran-scend their status as individual semantic units, i.e., motifs.

In Umayyad and early Abbasid verse the subject of Paradise of qur"nic prove-nance, if viewed in purely formalist literary terms, differs minimally from its appear-ance and formal integration in the primary qur"nic contexts, inasmuch as inthese, too, Paradise is nota full-fledged, self-referential subject (i.e., a theme) but,in this formalist sense, merely a motif. We are thus faced with the provocativeproposition that . . . the eminently poetic subject of Paradise in the Qur"n maynot have had the necessary power to engender truly theme-centered poetic devel-opments, for the theme in literary-textual terms had not been there as a modelto begin with.17 [Italics in original.]

Stetkevychs provocative proposition reminds us that the literary com-ponents of the Qur"n, be they narratives or poetic motifs, are not eas-ily isolated from their context in the paranetic discourse of that scrip-ture. However, while he is correct to note that the presentation ofnarrative is thus impeded, it is worth pointing out that an equally valid

reading would describe the narrative fragments as complementary towhat Stetkeyvych deemed the overarching rhetoric. This rhetoricis an essential part of qur"nic content, and the narrative componentsfound therein must be viewed less as narratives in themselves than asmotifs supporting the overall message.18

From here we note that in the Qur"n, the narrative of the Men ofthe Cave is certainly subordinatewe find various details of their account

forming but one element of the Qur"ns discourse. The relation of thedetails of the story to Gods oratory of damnation, punishment anddivine omnipotence may be less than clear at first, but it is clearly partof that discourse. When the narrative elements are extracted from their

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16 Jaroslav Stetkevych, Muammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth

(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), pp. 10-1.17 Idem., The Zephyrs of Najd: The Poetics of Nostalgia in the Classical Arabic Nasb (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 168-9.18 Angelika Neuwirth, Myths and Legends, EQ, III, 481-2.


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scriptural context, whether for narrative (chronicles, prophetic history) orexegetical purposes, they require further details and expansions in orderto make the scattered (and apparently non-linear) scriptural references

intelligible. But the significance of the anecdote is guaranteed by its inclu-sion in the Qur"n. That is, we can assume it is a significant sign fromGod. As will be seen, commentators could be adept at relating individualverses to the broader discourse of the Qur "n, but it is not so easy tosee what the entire tale is about, and one sees little abstraction ofthe whole to render a central idea or what we might call a theme.

But the derivation of theme or central idea requires a degree of spec-ulation, and speculation, as is well known, has had a tenuous relation toscriptural exegesis in Islam. The nature of this tenuous relation tends tobe either overstated or minimized. Speculation as such was not forbidden,but it required agreed sources of certain knowledge, to safeguard againstthe potentially heretical and destabilizing excesses of unbridled hermeneu-tics. Motifs, by contrast, are (in theory, anyway) recognizable without

interpretation or speculation, and it is perhaps not surprising that thescriptural narrative should be transmitted in a literal, rather thanabstracted, form, as motifs rather than the more volatile theme.

III. The Exegetical Tradition

The first question, then, is how this story has been represented in

the Muslim exegetical tradition, the genre of qur "nic exegesis (tafsr).19

This genre contains vast quantities of material, and to fully survey thecommentaries on Q 18:9-26 would take us too far from the originalquestions provoked by Tawfq al-akm. However, in order to appre-ciate al-akms appropriation of the qur"nic material, one must appre-ciate the forms of earlier appropriations.

The history of the interpretation of the Men of the Cave verses is,

like that of most other verses, one of continuity and diversity in reports

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19 The versions of the story found in works of history (al- abar, Ibn al-Ar) or inthe Tales of the Prophets (qia al-anbiy") genre (al-a'lab,) contain longer narrativesequences than are found in most commentaries (with the exception of al-Tabars tafsr).However, they too are fragmented, that is, presented in discontinuous segments, neveras a really complete narrative whole, and are derived from the much larger pool of

material in the exegetical genre. In the reconstruction of Gordon Newby (The Makingof the Last Prophet[Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1989], pp. 213-23), various narrative fragments are put together into one continuous story, thus ren-dering the original forms completely unrecognizable.


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and opinions. In order to render a large body of material manageable,I will here take examples from four very different, well known com-mentaries in order to give an impression of the uses of the motifs and

the expression of abstract meaning. These four tafsrworks demonstratea variety of ways in which the motifs of the story have been inter-preted, as well as a diachronic range from the 10th/4th to the 20th/14thcentury. The selection is by no means intended as a thorough or exhaus-tive survey. It is rather meant to be both reasonably representative ofthe tradition while demonstrating its diversity. Other works could haveeasily fulfilled the same role.

Briefly put, we find little attention to narrative unity. In a sense, itis quite true that within the Qur"n the narrative is subordinated tothe meta-rhetoric of the scripture, and in the commentarial genre it isfurther subordinated to the citation of earlier authorities or discussionsof philological or legal matters.

At the same time, it would be inaccurate, I think, to say that the tale

is devoid of thematic signifi

cance, or that it is signifi

cant only by virtueof its inclusion in the revelation (although this is not an insignificantpoint). At numerous instances, all of our exegetes extrapolate fromverses on the Men of the Cave to certain abstract ideas. Often theseare so generic (e.g., the omnipotence of God) as to resist any specificlink to our story. But elsewhere we can discern in commentary on Q18:9-26 some consistency in relating the sleepers to the witnessing of

faith, steadfastness in the face of persecution and the deprivation ofmaterial, worldly comforts. (The latter element being especially applic-able because of the preceding verses: We have appointed all that is on theearth an adornment for it, and that We may try which of them is fairest in works;

and we shall surely make all that is on it barren dust [Q 18:7-8].) It is leftto the reader to draw such connections, but the material is there.

A.Al-abar (d. 923/310)

Al-abars ]mi' al-Bayn 'an Ta"wl y al-Qur"n is doubtless the sin-gle most influential and best known of all Qur"n commentaries. Thereare a number of aspects to the section on Q 18:9-26 that might be ofinterest to us, such as the lengthy narrative segments or the integra-tion of the scriptural narrative into the context of the revelation to the

Prophet Muammad.20

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20 It is important to recognize that the Qur"n is not a constative text like theHebrew Bible and the Gospels. It does not present straightforward narratives, but relates


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Most significant for our purposes, though, are those instances in whichal-abar seems to extract a theme or abstract meaning from the story.Broadly speaking, the two recurring ideas (neither unique to this episode)

are persecution of the believers (and the consequent importance ofsteadfast faith) and the omnipotence of God. On Q 18:13-4, after citingthe verses, al-abar begins with the following discussion of the verseand its context:

And We increased them in guidance: We increased them in their faith in their Lord,and their perception of their religion, until they were able to endure the separa-tion from the abode of their people, and the flight away from them towards Godwith their religion, and the detaching from the ease of life and comfort, to theroughness of staying in the cave of the mountain.21

Here the elaboration of the experience of the Men of the Cave is notquite a narrative expansion, but rather an illustration or description ofthe physical and spiritual state of the believers taking refuge in the cave.

As for the omnipotence of God, Q 18:17 reads in part: And thou

mightest have seen the sun, when it rose, inclining from their cave towards the right,and, when it set, passing them by on the left, while they were in a fissure of the

cave. That was one of Gods signs. Here al-abarprovides a kind of inter-pretive summary, explaining first that He diverted the path of the sunin order that the sleepers bodies not decay and their clothes not dete-riorate in the heat. Such a sign is among Gods proofs and indi-cations of His creation, and the indications by which those possessed

of minds (l l-albb) infer the greatness of his power and authority,and to show that he is not incapable of anything he desires.22 Thispassage both explains the verse and links the imagery to the commonqur"nic theme of the omnipotence of God. There is no explicit recog-nition of narrative unity or coherence but rather the passage is setwithin the context of the qur"nic whole.

In commenting on the following verse, Q 18:18, Hadst thou observed

them surely thou wouldst have turned thy back on them in flight, and been filledwith terror of them, al-abar again gives his own elaboration on themeaning of the passage, without mentioning the story as a whole.

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them as an element of a larger discourse, as a kind of speech or performative utter-ance, with frequent first- and second-person usages, warnings and admonitions. See

Claude Gilliot and Pierre Larcher, Language and Style, EQ, III, 126-7.21 Al- abar, ]mi' al-Bayn 'an Ta"wl y al-Qur"n, ed. idq ]aml al-'Ar (Beirut:

Dr al-fikr, 1995), p. 259.22 Ibid., p. 266. (Note the internal reference to another qur"nic phrase, those pos-

sessed of minds [l l-albb]. Cf. Q 2:179, 197, 269; 3:7, etc.)


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From looking upon them [the sleepers bodies] your soul would fill with terror (faza'),for the awesome countenance in which God had cloaked them (lim albasahum

Allh min al-hayba) so that no one can reach them (kay lyaila ilayhim wil), andno touching hand touch them, until the Book informs of them their time, andHis power and authority awaken them from their slumber at the time that Hewanted to make for them a lesson ('ibra) for those of his creation he wills, and asign to those of his servants against whom He remonstrated, so that they will knowthat the promise of God is true (aqq), and that of the Hour there is no doubt.23

The same method is found throughout. Thematic observations on behalfof the commentator are limited to excerpts only, never the entire nar-rative, and in all cases it is clearly the narrative excerpts that are made

to serve the larger message of the Qur"n. The tale of the Ab al-kahf is there as support for the rest of Gods speech or discourse.

B.Al-abris (d. 1154/548)

Fal b. al-asan al- abris (sometimes known as al- abars) was theauthor of Ma[ma' al-Bayn f 'ulm al-Qur"n, an Imm 'work dis-

playing very strong Mu'tazil influences. It is a much more scholasticwork than that of al-abar, less occupied with the sources of trans-mitted knowledge than with the limits and possibilities for legitimatespeculation.24

Here we will find thematic observations of a very different kind.Whereas al-abar linked the verses to the overall rhetoric and grandthemes of the revelation, as proof-texts for the general, in Ma[ma' al-

Bayn al- abris is more inclined to go to the particular, towards method-ological issues, philological minutiae, and where possible, issues rele-vant to an Imm identity.

Sometimes these digressions expand or add detail to the narrative.An example here concerns part of Q 18:18, And their dog:

Ibn 'Abbs and most of the exegetes said that [the Companions] fled by nightfrom their king and they passed by a shepherd who had with him a dog. He fol-lowed them in their religion, and his dog followed him.

And it was said, They passed by a dog and it followed them. They drove it awaybut he returned. They did it several times, and the dog said to them What do

you want from me? Do not fear treachery, for I love the friends of God (fa-anuibbu awliy" Allh). So they slept while he guarded them. [This was related]from Ka'b.

And it was said, That was their hunting dog.And it was said, that dog was yellow in colour. [This was related] from Muqtil.

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23 Ibid., pp. 268-9.24 Ma[ma' al-Bayn f 'Ulm al-Qur"n (Beirut: Dr al-ma'rifa, n.d.).


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And it was said, it was spotted (anmar), and its name was Qimr. [This wasrelated] from Ibn 'Abbs.

In the tafsr of al-asan [it is related] that that dog remained there for 309years without food or drink, without sleeping or getting up.25

Some of these comments, such as the colour of the dog, are of littleexegetical value.26 But in other cases, such detail may provide a necessaryor useful degree of verisimilitude, or resolve a potential ambiguity. Forexample, to say that it was their hunting dog is helpful, for althoughdogs are considered unclean in Islamic law, hunting dogs are not, andthis detail may simply explain the presence of the unclean animal.

Other examples may contain thematic possibilities. For example, tosay that the Companions mistakenly tried to drive the dog away, onlyto find that it recognized them as friends of God (awliy"Allh), andprotected them while they slept, or similarly to emphasize that the dogstayed immobile but alert for three centuries is to relate the mentionof the dog to the material of the larger story. The Companions canineis given a direct role in their experience; it becomes another sign ofGods protection and omnipotence. Perhaps, in its persistent refusal tobe driven away, it reflects the sleepers steadfastness in their faith. Thatwould be an instance of the guardian-dog motif linking to the themeof divine protection, and although this is never mentioned explicitly bythe exegetes, it is difficult to believe they were not aware of it.

Elsewhere al- abrisdoes record observations on the story as a whole,

but in a manner much more concise than we saw with al-abar, andone which, furthermore, takes knowledge of the story of the Men ofthe Cave for granted. For Q 18:17, Whomsoever God guides, he is rightlyguided, he adds, like the Men of the Cave (mitla ab al-kahf), andwhomsoever He leads astray, thou will not find for him a protector to directlikethe people of the Men of the Cave (mitla qawm ab al-kahf), that is,those who continued in their idolatrous ways.27

In other places he draws conclusions, in a very concrete and well-defined manner, from individual verses or passages. The statement of

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25 abris, III, 704.26 Indeed the colour of this dog was listed by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) among

those thing that cannot be proven and are in any case useless, along with the part ofthe cow struck by Moses [2:73], the size of Noahs ship and the type of wood used to

make it [11: 37], and the name of the boy killed by ir [17: 74]. Ibn Taymiyya,Muqaddima f Ul al-Tafsr, ed. 'Im Fris al-arastn and Muammad Shakr [[Amrr. (Amman: Dr 'Ammr, 1997), p. 26.

27 abris, III, 703.


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Q 18: 16 that God will provide for the youths is indication of thegreat importance of emigration for religion and the ignominy of remain-ing in the abode of unbelief if that is only possible with the profession

of unbelief (dalla 'al 'iam manzilat al-hi[ra f l-dn wa 'al qub al-maqmfdr al-kufr i lyumkinu l-maqm fh ill bi-ihr kalimat al-kufr).28 Herethe motif is linked to the prophetic (Muammadan) motif of emigra-tion, putting the Men of the Cave story in a larger Islamic context,taking it as part of the motif of the flight of the believers. It is alsomade to include a judgment, moral if not legal, about emigration andits alternative.

Other verses are linked to more narrowly doctrinal elements. A com-mon refrain in Ma[ma' al-Bayn is the need for individual knowledgeof God based on contemplation and study. Thus for Q 18:19, We raisedthem up that they would question each other, it is explained that So thatthere will be questioning and dispute and contention between themover the length of their tarrying, and by that they will become aware

of the knowledge of their Maker and increase their certainty with cer-tainty.29 On a specifically Imm Sh' note, at They will restore you totheir creed and you will not prosper ever(Q 18:20) al- abrisaddresses whetherthe restore you to their creedrefers to compulsion (al-ikrh) or merely sum-mons (al-istid'" dna l-ikrh), and if, at that time, cautionary dissimula-tion (al-taqiyya) was permitted.30

Instead of abars links to the grand themes, we find inMa[ma' al-

Bayn discussion of the more particular, the more specific and doctri-nal, and less of a sense of the scriptural rhetoric. Among these exam-ples, only the glosses to Q 18:17, cited above, could serve as commentaryon the theme of the Men of the Cave, and even there the theme ormeaning as such is left unstated. There are thematic observations here,to be sure, but I would add that they are either implicit (the dog anec-dote) or vague (Q 18:17), or they are not based on the whole of the

Men of the Cave story but on single verses or phrases.

28 Ibid., III, 701.29 Ibid., III, 705. The phrase is an abridgement of that in al-s, al-Tibyn f Tafsr

al-Qur"n, eds. A mad Shawq al-Amn and A mad abb Quayr al-'mil (Najaf:Maktabat al-Amn, 1376-83), VII, 23-4, where it is stated more clearly that, if they areunbelievers, they will come to knowledge of their Maker, and if believers, their cer-tainty will increase.

30 abris, III, 707.

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C. Al-Qsim (d. 1914/1332)

]aml al-Dn al-Qsim was a Damascene scholar and author of a

well-known tafsr work, Masin al-Ta"wl, which might be consideredlate classical or early modern.31 It is worth mentioning briefly his treat-ment of the Men of the Cave verses because in it al-Qsim presentsin condensed form much of the cumulative exegetical tradition beforehim and combines the tendencies to extrapolate towards both the gen-eral and the particular.

Here, as in the ]mi' al-Bayn of al-abar, verses or scenes from

the Cave story serve to support the larger themes of the qur "nic dis-course, such as Gods power or the importance of piety, although withgreater intensity. Take, for instance, the gloss on Q 18:14,

And we strengthened their hearts: we made them stronger with patience for the strug-gle. And we encouraged them to fight Satan, and to flee in their religion to oneof the caves, and the clash with the self (mulafat al-nafs), and the abandonmentof familiar material things and sensual sweetnesses, and maintaining the vow of

Gods unity (wa l-qiym bi-kalimat al-taw d). And it is said, We emboldened themto maintain the vow of Gods unity, and to manifest the proper religion (al-dn al-qawm), and to call for the truth before their tyrant king . . .32

This is a good illustration of the narratives subordination to whatStekevych called the over-arching rhetoric. Moreover, despite theeconomy of expression, it is based squarely on previous tradition, includ-ing the same ideas found in abar and other exegetes.

We also find the type of argumentation more common to al- abrissMa[ma' al-Bayn, in which more specific legal, grammatical or theolog-ical points are either supported by a word or verse, or used to clarifypotential questions or difficulties that might arise from the text. Someof the examples carry a greater engagement with contemporary con-cerns. For example, at Q 18:16, So when you have gone apart from them andthat they serve, take refuge in the cave and your lord will unfold to you of his

mercy and furnish you with a gentle issue of your affair, al-Qsim notes thatthis cannot be used to support seclusion (al-'uzla) or withdrawal fromsociety, because the Men of the Cave fled for the sake of their religion,and they lived in a community of unbelievers, and thus the situationis not applicable to Muslims separating themselves from other Muslims.33

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31 'Umar Ri Kala, Mu'[am al-Mu"allifn (Beirut: Mu"assasat al-risla, 1993), I,504; ayr al-Dn al-Zirikl, al-A'lm (Beirut: Dr al-'ilm li-l-malyn, n.d.), II, 135-6.

32 Al-Qsim, Masin al-Ta"wl, ed. Muammad Fu"d 'Abd al-Bq (Cairo: 'sl-Bb l-alab, 1959), XI, 4038.

33 Ibid., XI, 4030.


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Elsewhere, in the commentary on Q 18:21, we find a digression con-demning the building over the tombs of prophets or saints, and thevisitation of graves, for that opens the door to polytheism.34 Other

examples are numerous.In all of the above, though, the story of the Men of the Cave as

told in the Qur"n remains a frame onto which the exegetes place theirown ideas about what is important, necessary, and true. This is, struc-turally speaking, not so different from Tawfq al-akms Arab-Islamictopic, into which he attempted to insert a tragic plot.

D. Sayyid Qub (d. 1966/1386)

The fourth and final example is taken from the unconventional tafsrof the Egyptian ideologue Sayyid Qub, F ill al-Qur"n. In this workQub eschews the traditional sources and methods of qur "nic exege-sis to produce a highly subjective commentary that pays close atten-tion to the literary aspects of the text. It is Qub who most explicitly

discusses what we might call its theme or meaning, as when he remarksthat the story of the Men of the Cave is presented as an exemplar(nama[) of the bringing forth of faith against the falsehood of worldlylife and all its ornamentation.35

The Men of the Cave story might appear to lend itself to allegori-cal readings, or at least to heavy symbolism, but excluding the fand the radical sectarian margins there is little.36 However, Qubs par-ticular brand of fundamentalism and anti-modernism was not limited

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34 Ibid., XI, 4036-4037.35 Sayyid Qub, F ill al-Qur"n (Cairo: Dr al-urq, n.d.), XV, 2259.36 For example, in the tafsrof the early Imm exegete al-'Ayy (d. c. 320/932),

the Men of the Cave (ab al-kahf), along with a host of other terms, is used to referto the Imms, but the reference does not go beyond the name. On this type of early' interpretion, see Meir M. Bar-Asher, Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imm Shiism(Leiden and Jerusalem: E. J. Brill and the Magnes Press, 1999), pp. 106-10. Althoughthis identification of scriptural characters with other religious figures is distinct from theexegesis discussed in this article, it is doubtful that this type of identification would fita proper definition of allegory. Paraphrastic allegory perhaps? In the work of LouisMassignon, one finds an emphasis on reading the Men of the Cave story with variousallegorical and numerological interpretations. The larger body of the exegetical tradi-tion, as discussed here, does not find a place in his writings. In addition, it is oftenvery difficult to distinguish between Massignons own theories and those found in the

texts he claims to be studying. See Les sept dormants: Apocalypse de lislam, andLe culte liturgique et populaire des VII dormants martyrs dEphse (Ahl al-Kahf): Traitdunion Orient-Occident entre lislam et la chrtient, Opera Minora (Beirut: Dar al-Maaref, 1963), III, 104-80.


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to literal readings: we find in F ill al-Qur"n an interpretation of thecave that verges on the allegorical.

Your lord will spread for you His mercy [Q 18:16]: The wording He will spread caststhe shade of wide power, prosperity and ampleness (tulq ill al-si'a wa l-bubawa l-infis ). So the cave then is an ample, welcoming and wide space. Mercy isspread within, its rays spread out, and its shade extended. It provides for themkindness, gentleness and comfort. The narrow boundaries are thrown back, thesolid walls are weakened, and the deep desolation is penetrated. For there is mercy,kindness, comfort and support. It is faith.37

Later, less poetically but more directly he states the lesson (al-'ibra)

of the episode was to give indication of the resurrection and to bringpeople closer to the matter of the resurrection, but this seems to bethe lesson for the inhabitants of the city who witnessed the awakeningof the sleepers, and secondarily for the reader of the Qur "n.

The lesson (al-'ibra) in concluding of [the story of ] these youths is the indication(dalla) of the resurrection by a real, close and tangible example. It brings thematter of the resurrection closer to the people. They learn that the promise of

God of resurrection is true (aqq), and that there is no doubt about the Hour.And in this way God raised up the youths from their sleep and caused their peo-ple to stumble upon them.38

Qub concludes by repeating his frequent insistence on the absolutecoordination between the Qur"ns religious directives and its artisticpresentation.39 For all we know about his anti-modernism, Qub wasa modern reader, whose concerns with the text no doubt reflect his

early career as a literary critic. It is highly unlikely that Qub was thefirst to feel the emotional resonance provoked by the scriptural verses;he was, though, one of the first major writers to make a descriptionof qur"nic style and its effect on the reader/auditor an integral partof his tafsr.40 This is an important consideration in contemplating thetales migration from scriptural commentaries to twentieth-century theatre.

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37 Qub, XV, 2262.38 Ibid., XV, 2264. The term lesson or 'ibra, also seen above in an example from

abar, does have some semantic overlap with theme. However, 'ibradiffers in twodistinct ways: it carries a sense of admonition, and unlike theme it does not requirespeculation or abstraction. This is the case in the Qur"n (Q 3:13; 12:111; 16:66, etc.),and see also the references in E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon (Cambridge: TheIslamic Texts Society, 1984). II, 1938.

39 Qub, XV, 2266. See also his al-Tawr al-Fannf l-Qur"n al-Karm (Cairo: Dr al-urq, n.d.), p. 190ff. on ab al-kahf, parts of which are repeated in F ill al-Qur"n.

40 See Qubs own remarks on the shortcomings of Arabic literary criticism dealingwith the inimitability (or incapacitation) of the Qur "n (i'[z al-Qur"n) in al-Tawr al-Fann, pp. 27-34.


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physical and emotional experiences of the characters. The third kindof influence (c) is what we may call general Arab-Islamic elementsnot directly related to the Men of the Cave tale, but an overall per-

spective or worldview consonant with an orthodox Muslim ethos. Thisdefinition is vague, but the quality is not difficult to identify in a straight-forward work such as Ahl al-Kahf, and merits consideration given al-akms attempt to create a tragedy from such material.

(a) In terms of familiar references or motifs, we find on the most basiclevel direct quotations from scripture. The first of these occurs beforethe curtain goes up. In the printed edition of the play, Q 18:11-12appears as an epigraph: So We smote their ears many years in the cave. Thenwe raised them up that we might know which of the two parties would better cal-

culate the while they had tarried.43 (Interestingly, this is Gods only appear-ance in the play.) Then the stage directions contain several qur "nicelements, such as The cave at al-Raqm, referring to a word in Q18:9, and a dog stretching its paws over the threshold, from Q 18:18.

Throughout the play there are uses of relevant scriptural words andterms, some quite clear, such as Marnshs response to how long theyhave slept: A day, or part of a day (yawman aw ba'a yawmin, Q 18:19).44

Another example is three, the fourth their dog (Q 18:22), which providesal-akm with the justification for having only three sleepers, as com-pared to the usual seven, as suggested later in the same verse.45

More often, though, it is a matter of suggestive vocabulary. The

causitive verb a'ara, from Q 18:21, Thus We made them stumble uponthem (wa-kalika a'arn 'alay-him), is echoed in its intransitive form sev-eral times.46 Similarly, the words of Q 18:18, law iala'ta 'alayhim la-wallayta minhum firran wa la-muli"ta minhum ru'ban, reappear in variousforms.47 These and other qur"nic vocabulary from the same sracan-not but evoke the scripture in the minds of an Arabic-speaking audi-ence. Thematically their function is opaque, but this evocative power

should not be underestimated or dismissed. They recall the Qur "n andthe context of its message, and like the motifs in Stetkevychs descriptionthey may not be intended to have a specific abstract meaning or con-notation. The same is true of the story of the Sleepers in the technical

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43 Tawfq al-akm,Ahl al-Kahf (Cairo: Maktabat al-db, 1952 [1933]).44 Ibid., p. 10, also 138.45 Ibid., pp. 47, 50.46 Ibid., pp. 34, 44.47 Ibid., pp. 34, 39, 47.


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sense. It evokes Gods word, and Gods word does not need explicationor justification, as a mundane narrative might, in order to be significant.We will return to this kind of significance later in the article.

On the level of the narrative, we have mentioned that the basic ele-ments of the play, the story and the setting, are from the Qur "nand the supporting exegetical and historical tradition. These includevarious details such as the locale (the city of Tarsus), the name of thedog (Qimr) and the identification of the idolatrous tyrant with theemperor Decius. The major episodes, though, can be identified as fol-lows: the awakening in the cave called al-Raqm after a long sleep, thebelievers flight from persecution, Yaml going offto search for food,taking some coins from Marnsh, his discovery by the inhabitants ofthe city, a long discussion of the time spent in the cave and the natureof their experience, questioning the truth of the resurrection (al-ba'),their return to sleep, and a monks rejection of the suggestion that theybe buried in coffins. All of these incidents in the play have some basis

in the Muslim exegetical tradition.(b) The Islamic motifs and their skeletal story provide only the set-ting and familiarity. If we look to what is supposed to make the playinteresting and intelligible as a play or philosophical tale, it does not comedirectly from the earlier Islamic versions of the tale. However, Tawfqal-akms innovation here is to extrapolate from the traditional storyor action-frame to provide a plot incorporating more universal themes.

More specifically, he brings the individual into the scriptural legend.As Gibbon noted long ago, the motif of time-travel is an intriguing onefrom the perspective of the traveler, not a perspective found in theQur"n or its commentary. Clearly he was thinking of the possibilitiesof time-travel rather than the Seven Sleepers legend itself, but in doingso he identified its strengths. Time-travel in itself is a kind of motif; itis a means, a device or convention that helps to illustrate theme.

Literature featuring journeys to the past or future does have, in thewords of Michael Cooperson, a common set of preoccupations, mostprominently an urgent insistence on the historicity of the present, andsuch a description would fit Tawfq al-akms Ahl al-Kahf.48 But onemust note that a theme such as the historicity of the present suchas it appears in time-travel literature is dependent on the experience

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48 Michael Cooperson, Remembering the Future: Time-travel in Arabic Literature,Edebiyat, 8 (1998), pp. 171-89, on Ahl al-Kahfsee pp. 176-7.


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of the individual who arrives or awakens in another epoch and expe-riences the anticipated displacement and perhaps the unexpectedfamiliarities. Moreover, literary themes are usually dependent on indi-

viduation, that is, the ideas or questions they represent are based onan individuals knowledge of himself or his relationship with society orthe universe.49 However, the experiences, psychological, emotional orphysical, of the individual sleepers of the Men of the Cave are notalluded to in the Qur"n, nor are they the topic of discussion in thesubsequent exegetical literature. They are allowed only piety, and occa-sionally fear, which are of course related to the message and purposeof the revelation.50

It is one of the innovations of al-akm to address the charactersown experiences. A pleasing instance of this occurs as the Sleepersawaken to find themselves with inexplicable muscle pain and soreness,as they think they have spent only one night in the cave. From physicalpain to more emotional and spiritual concerns, we see the cave as rep-

resenting freedom from persecution, then freedom from the cruelty oftime, the paradox of their escape and freedom being met by the lossof home, of loved ones, of becoming strangers in their own home. Al-akms sleepers seem to have evaded history, but the evasion is futile,with pain as the only apparent result. None of this has precedent asfar as the Islamic tradition goes, but it is built upon the motifs of thattradition (and, it must be said, it provides a good explanation for why

the Men went back to sleep in the cave). As the qur"nic componentswere only motifs to begin with, subordinate to the scriptural rhetoric,here in Ahl al-Kahf they remain motifs subordinate to the tragic planof the authors devising.

The result mixes the familiar, specifically Islamic motifs with the uni-versal themes: time, refuge, displacement, faith, love. It also provides ameasure of irony, as the reader/viewer is aware of the passage of time,

as the characters are not.So, as far asAhl al-Kahfhas a theme, it is derived only indirectly from

the qur"nic background. Some of the possible themes just mentioned,such as refuge and faith, can be found in the tafsrtradition, but there

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49 See, for example, Horst S. and Ingrid Daemmrich, Themes and Motifs in WesternLiterature: A Handbook. (Tubingen: Francke Verlag, 1986), p. 241.

50 For fear, see in particular the long anecdote given in al- abar, IX, [uz" 15, pp.252-5 (17270).


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is a crucial difference in their expression. What makes the play inter-esting and intelligible as a theatrical piece or philosophical tale comesfrom the expression of the individual characters experiences, by their

contact with the new city of Tarsus (in the case of the Sleepers, thedog) or with the old (Prsk, her father and her tutor lys). Individualexperience was hardly touched on in the pre-modern versions.

The focalization has changed from the qur "nic perspective of Godspower to the experience of the individual, to human powerlessness againstthe slow force of time. It is a tragic theme in that it shows man to beat the mercy of forces far beyond his control. Although the sleepers havean opportunity not only to experience the future (a universal humandesire?) but to experience a better future, in which true believers haveprevailed and they themselves are hailed as living saints, they cannotbear the separation from their own lives. The inhabitants of Tarsusmay be Christians, but the sleepers, especially Yaml and Marnsh,feel only fear and distrust from their new fellow citizens.51 In one of

the more touching moments of the play, Yaml tells what happenedto the dog Qimr:

I came across my dog Qimr, and the dogs of the city had surrounded him. Theybegan to look and sniffat him, as if he were some weird animal, and he was try-ing to get free from their closing in, but he could find no way out. The poorthing finally ran to a nearby wall and fell down underneath it, exhausted andterrified. The dogs followed him until they were a step away and resumed star-ing at him. Some of them wanted to get closer and start sniffing again, but cau-

tion kept them away. This is me and this is my dog in this new life! . . . Farewell,my brothers of the past, remember the good old days of Decius!52

After Mishilniyy has left the present Prsk and rejoined his com-panions in the cave, a long argument ensues over how long they havereally been there, and if their experiences outside the cave were notin fact just a dream. The scene brings to mind Q 18:19 in which twounnamed parties debate the length of the sleepers time in the cave.However, that reference merely provides a starting point for a lengthyand not entirely coherent discussion of human relationship to time andhistory. Our time is past, and now we are the property of history.We sought to wipe away time . . . but time is taking its revenge.53 Thereis obvious tragedy of a sort here. They have survived, but are unable

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51 Ahl al-Kahf, pp. 69, 70-71.52 Ibid., pp. 80-81.53 Ibid., p. 158.


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to take advantage of that survival. They cannot go home, because homebelongs to the past.

One may see how al-akms play unfolds and exploits the poten-

tial of qur"nic material, the countless narratives that may be fashionedfrom those motifs when detached from their textual context, or whatmight be called scriptural subordination. From the didactic, prescrip-tive rhetoric of God and faith, he brings out the unspoken aspect, thecost to the fallible human believer, susceptible to emotional pain andintellectual doubt. The fashioning of a tragedy out of such elements ispotentially both fascinating and audacious.

(c) The third type of influence listed is not directly related to theMen of the Cave story, but is rather what we might call a very gen-eral Muslim orthodox worldview. The characters continual referencesto prayer and belief are the most superficial manifestation of this per-spective, but there is another more crucial dimension, one that posesserious problems to al-akms notion of tragedy.54

Love plays a major part inAhl al-Kahf, and here we see most clearlythe effort to portray some degree of piety, however ill-defined, that willbe consistent with al-akms idea of a Muslim orthodoxy. Mishilniyyloves his fiance Prsk, and longs to be with her again. His frustra-tion at not finding her is of course mitigated by his slow realizationthat he loves her namesake of three centuries later. Now, in order forthe tragedy to be fully realized, the two lovers must be kept apart. The

apparent device for this is that Mishilniyy is engaged to the long-dead Prsk, and the fact of this past betrothal poses an insurmount-able barrier to their love in the present. In the introduction to al-Malikdb, his version of the Oedipus story, al-akm reflected on the tragedyin Ahl al-Kahf. He claimed to see Mishilniyy and the later Prsk asOedipus and Jocasta, two honest lovers torn apart by horrible cir-cumstances beyond their control.

I looked precisely at the hidden struggle that took place in the play Ahl al-Kahf.This struggle was not just between man and time, as its readers were wont to seeit, but it was another hidden fight noticed by few. A fight between reality (al-wqi') and truth (al-aqqa), between the reality of a man, like Mishilniyy, whoreturned from the cave and found Prsk. He loved her and she loved him.Everything seemed ready to lead them to a life of comfort and bliss. But suddenlysomething came between them and this beautiful reality . . . Was that truth?

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54 Ruth Roded also noted this tendency of al-akms characters to make frequentpious utterances, in Gendered Domesticity in the Life of the Prophet: Tawfq al-akmsMuammad,Journal of Semitic Studies, XLVII/1 (2002), p. 73.


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The truth of this man Miilniyy who made clear to Prsk that he was the fiancof her ancestor! The two lovers struggled to forget this truth that began to ruinfor them their reality. But with their tangible reality they were powerless torepel this intangible, inscrutable thing called truth. Oedipus and Jocasta them-

selves are none other than Mishilniyy and Prsk. They too loved each other,but the knowledge of the truth of ones relation to the other ruins what they had!Mans strongest opponent is always a spectre, a spectre called truth.55

A secret wedding engagement three centuries previous lacks the tragicextent of the unwitting crimes of Oedipus: regicide, patricide, begettingchildren with his own mother, and bringing a blight upon the land ofThebes. The degrees of disaster are quite disproportionate, but al-akmis seeking a cause for his tragedy, and in doing so he forces a tragicelement upon a strict, unyielding monotheism. In the simplest terms,it is the contradiction between the Greek helplessness before the sternand capricious gods, and the belief in the comprehensible universe ofthe one true God. Al-akm adheres to what George Steiner describedas the Judaic vision, in which true tragedy is unknown:

The wars recorded in the Old Testament are bloody and grievous, but not tragic.They are just or unjust. The armies of Israel shall carry the day if they haveobserved Gods will and ordinance. They shall be routed if they have broken thedivine covenant or if their kings have fallen into idolatry. The Judaic vision seesin disaster a specific moral fault of failure of understanding. The Greek tragicpoets assert that the forces which shape or destroy our lives lie outside the gov-ernance of reason or justice. Worse than that: there are around us demonic ener-gies which prey upon the soul and turn it to madness . . .56

In his adaptation of Oedipus, al-akm went so far as to make Tiresias themain villain of the play, scheming and plotting against Oedipus andthereby relieving the deities of their destructive role. In Ahl al-Kahfhesimilarly makes the Sleepers plight fit into the scheme of a just andrational universe.

A-akm does raise the thesis that love can control mans actions,but not his destiny. It can conquer reality, but not truth, in al-akms

terms. Early in the play, the doubter Marnsh says, By giving us hearts,perhaps God has given up some of His rights over us.57 He is wrong, ofcourse, because even though God remains outside the story, his influenceis felt. It is felt in al-akms logic: it is not so much that love governshuman behaviour as love must remain secondary to God and law. Godsplan for the believers must be just, and it must be comprehensible. The

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55 Al-Mlik db, pp. 42-3.56 George Steiner, The Death of Tragedy (New York: Knopf, 1963), pp. 6-7.57 Ahl al-Kahf, p. 25.


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cruel gods of Greek tragedy are not present here; the villain is some-thing called truth, which is nonetheless subordinate to the divine plan.Al-akms tragic lovers achieve salvation and sainthood, and if they

are unable to enjoy the pleasures of love and time-travel, they havenonetheless been faithful to the principles that matter most. By pro-viding a theologically unproblematic ending, al-akm has not upsetthe balance of the original Islamic tale, but he has neutralized most ofthe tragedy.

I will return to the tragic potential of the Men of the Cave talebelow, but here let us note that the attempt to build a tragedy out ofqur"nic material does not succeed. Its interest to us is at the level ofthe conception and not its execution, for the play itself as art or enter-tainment is, frankly, not entirely successful. But it is a fascinating attemptto exploit the Islamic scripture for literary purposes, and an illustrationof one authors self-imposed limits on what may be done. For the mostpart, the qur"nic elements consist of the story frame and selected motifs

throughout. Doubtless there is, for an audience intimately familiar withthe Sraof the Cave, some emotional resonance in the recognition ofsetting and motifs. But what of the thematic connection, if any? Thethemes of time and love, truth and reality run parallel to the qur"nicstory, without disruption, until the true moment of tragedy comes, andal-akms conception of his Arab-Islamic topic (which is not neces-sarily part of the Men of the Cave tale) ultimately, and conservatively,

refuses any further intrusion of the element of tragedy.

V. Conclusion

We know that the playAhl al-Kahfis based on the qur"nic/Islamicversion of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, but as the context is a modernliterary work, decidedly fictional, it is fair to ask, what is it about? Is

there a theme here, or following Stetkevychs proposition, a full-fledged self-referential subject, or (merely) a collection of motifs? Inthe examples from the tafsrtradition, the story is transmitted largely asmotifs rather than as a singular unit. But although we see these motifsused for a variety of uses and digressions, each commentator makessome attempt to link the motif to some other context, usually some-thing related to one of the over-arching elements of qur "nic rhetoric.

InAhl al-Kahfthe thematic elements, the plot and the narrative force,are derived not from the original Muslim legend but from the tragedy(al-akms element of tragedy) of the human dimension of the legend,

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of the slow tyranny of time, and of love, which has power over manbut cannot conquer time or destiny. The qur"anic components, those takenfrom the Islamic tradition, provide a story or setting, but are here also

inextricable from an Arab-Islamic orthodoxy. The references and cita-tions from Q 18:9-26 have a self-referentiality that may point only towhat we might call the qur"nic fact, a reference whose familiarityand authority is its own message.

The play is both daring and conservative. It is daring in its extrap-olation of the religious legend, showing a human side of a story thatpreviously was all about God; it is conservative because the omnipotenceof God has been replaced by a rigorous human piety. The tragedy issuccessful on the human level in that we see the suffering of those whohave traveled over time, their loss and alienation. On the divine level,though, al-akm is not able to ignore God completely, and becausethe God of Islam is (in al-akms view) just, tragedy in the Greeksense is ultimately impossible. The brilliant irony of giving Gods Men

of the Cave personal tragedies cannot be sustained because the playsfinal vision is that of an eternal fulfillment of the pious believers efforts,where sainthood and salvation will be found.58

I have stressed the fragmentary form that the content of the tale takesin both tafsrand in Ahl al-Kahf. Is it the case, then, that the story ofthe Men of the Cave remains simply a set of motifs at the mercy ofany editor or redactor, be it a medieval Imm exegete or a twentieth-

century Egyptian playwright? It seems obvious that the answer shouldbe no, but it is not so obvious to explain why the answer is no, with-out slipping into apologetics. The explanation must lie in the variousreasons Muslims have elevated the Qur"n to the status of scripture,be they rhetorical, aural, theological or cultural. I would suggest thatat least part of the answer lies in the inward-looking nature of qur"nicdiscourse and commentary. For one familiar with the Qur"n, the story

invokes the revelation itself and a host of other scriptural images andmessages. It is these features, rather than the narrative itself, that thetafsr tradition emphasizes, and that provide the references in Ahl al-Kahfwith their potential emotional resonance. But whereas the tafsr lit-erature both preserves the discursive meanings of earlier authoritative

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58 Compare the comments of Robert Alter on the influence of the Bible in other lit-eratures, where the familiarity and common cultural references are balanced by polemicengagements or playful transformations. Canon and Creativity: Modern Literature and the

Authority of Scripture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), citations from pp. 51-2.


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interpretation and generates the new,Ahl al-Kahfcannot claim the samekind of continuity. The values of the motifs may remain for the mostpart intact, but the play is neither completely consonant with tradition

nor drastically ironic or tragic enough to effectively rewrite it.Then again, the Men of the Cave story has always retained some-

thing of a mysterious air. It stands out from most of the narrative inthe Qur"n because it does not involve a prophet (though some exegetestried to give it one), and thus does not follow the prophetic paradigmknown to us via the stories associated with the prophets found in theQur"n and popular religious literature. But also it begins with thewords, Or dost thou think the Men of the Cave and al-Raqm were among oursigns a wonder?[Q 18: 9]. Interestingly, the exegetical consensus here isthat the Men of the Cave were nota wonder, or at least, that there wereamong Gods signs much more wondrous things. In glossing Q 18: 24,Say, It may be that my Lord will lead me unto something nearer to guidance than

this, al- abris adduced the following on the authority of al-Za[[[

(d. 923/311): Its meaning is, Say, perhaps my Lord will give to me,from the signs and the indications of prophecy, something that will becloser to guidance, and better evidence, than the story of the Men ofthe Cave.59

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