Texts and their transmission

Literary figure

Giamblico, one of the Sleepers

Name of a youth in the Christian version translated by Guidi; he returns to the city to buy bread after the long sleep.

Modern diagram of Giamblico's role in the Christian version translated by Guidi: awakening, buying bread, and the time gap revealed through coins. It explains the narrative role rather than depicting a historical likeness

City

Qazvin

Iranian city that served as a Safavid capital in the later sixteenth century and was associated with manuscript arts.

The Chehel Sotun pavilion in Qazvin, in a modern photograph uploaded in 2009. The city's heritage, not a proven production site for the Falnama leaf in the study. Abtin, CC BY-SA 3.0

Figure

John the Syrian, Gregory's interpreter

Interpreter named in the ending of the Latin Sleepers of Ephesus account, dated to the sixth century CE.

Modern diagram of John the Syrian's role in the Latin narrative's ending: an interpreter assisting Gregory. Greek or Syriac as the source language remains debated. This is neither a portrait nor a chain of transmission to the Qur'an

Researcher

Sidney H. Griffith

American scholar (1938–2026) of Syriac and early Arabic Christianity and encounters with Islam.

McMahon Hall at the Catholic University of America, Washington, photographed in 2018. Institutional context for Griffith's career, not his portrait or a documented office. w_lemay, CC0

Researcher

Nicholas Sims-Williams

Scholar of Middle Iranian languages, including Sogdian, and of Christian texts translated from Syriac.

Nicholas Sims-Williams at the Berlin Symposium on the Kushans, December 2013. Photograph by John Hill, CC BY-SA 3.0

Researcher

Ignazio Guidi

Italian scholar (1844–1935) who edited Syriac forms of the Sleepers story and translated one into Italian.

Historical portrait of Ignazio Guidi (1844–1935), from Wikimedia Commons. The file record credits the Italian Chamber of Deputies but does not identify the artist. CC BY 3.0

Figure

Theodosius II

Eastern Roman emperor of 408–450 CE; the Sleepers narratives place their awakening in his reign.

Gold solidus of Theodosius II, dated to his reign (408–450 CE), Met 04.2.819. Evidence for the emperor named in the story, not for the cave's events. Public Domain

Figure

Emperor Decius

Roman emperor who ruled in 249–251 CE; the Sleepers narratives set their persecution in his reign.

Antoninianus of Decius (249–251 CE), showing his portrait and the reverse. It documents his reign; it is not a coin proven to have been used in the Sleepers story. Velatrix, CC0

City

Ephesus

Ancient city in western Türkiye with major Roman and early Christian phases.

The Library of Celsus at Ephesus in a modern photograph. This Roman monument identifies the city, not the Sleepers' cave. Emre Dokur, CC BY-SA 4.0

Researcher

Marianna Klar

Scholar of Quranic narrative in its late-antique literary contexts.

Ninth-century North African Qur'an folio with Sura 54:13–27. It illustrates later manuscript transmission, not Dhul Qarnayn's passage or Marianna Klar. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.39.2.a

Researcher

Yasin Kara

Author of a 2026 study comparing Dhul Qarnayn with the Syriac Alexander tradition.

Original diagram of two models discussed in Kara’s study: direct dependence between texts (01) or a shared narrative milieu feeding two versions (02). The arrows are hypothetical, not evidence of a documented transfer

Researcher

Kevin van Bladel

Philologist and historian of the Near East and the transmission of learning across languages.

A Persian scene of Alexander building the wall, dated 1481. It is a later witness to the story, not the Syriac text studied by van Bladel or his portrait. Walters Art Museum, W.604.315A

Figure

Lysimachus

A successor of Alexander who ruled Thrace; his coins showed Alexander with Ammon’s horn.

Gold stater issued in the name of Lysimachus, 286–281 BCE; the horned head is Alexander, not Lysimachus. The Met, 52.127.4

City

Tangier

City in northern Morocco by the Strait of Gibraltar, proposed in one interpretation of the Quran's meeting of the seas.

Tangier and its port from the sea, 18 September 2008; a modern city view, not a confirmed location of Moses' story

Person

Heraclius, Byzantine emperor

Byzantine emperor who ruled 610–641 CE; his victory over Persia informs dating proposals for some Syriac Alexander texts.

Gold solidus of 629–631 CE bearing official representations of Heraclius and his son Heraclius Constantine; a Byzantine coin, not a photographic likeness

Researcher

E. A. Wallis Budge

British Egyptologist and ancient-language scholar (1857–1934) who published a historical English translation of Syriac Alexander texts.

Researcher

Brannon M. Wheeler

Scholar of the history of religion and early Islamic exegesis.

Figure

Herod the Great

Late-first-century-BCE king of Judaea in the journey-to-Egypt story.

Person

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Italian artist (1727–1804) who depicted the Holy Family resting beside a palm.

Figure

Callimachus of Cyrene

Third-century-BCE Greek poet whose Hymn to Delos evokes Apollo's birth.

Researcher

Suleiman A. Mourad

Islamic-history scholar who proposed a comparative route for Mary and palm narratives.

Researcher

Stephen J. Shoemaker

Scholar of early Christian Mary traditions and late-antique Near Eastern religion.

Researcher

Brandon W. Hawk

Scholar of medieval literature and Christian apocrypha.

Researcher

Mary Dzon

Medieval-literature scholar who studied Jesus and clay birds across traditions.

Translator

Paul Peeters

Scholar and translator who published Syriac, Arabic and Armenian infancy texts in 1914.

Entity

North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature

Research society maintaining a guide to Christian apocryphal texts and witnesses.

Figure

Irenaeus of Lyon

Late-second-century Christian writer who mentioned the child Jesus and a teacher.

Translator

Alexander Walker

Nineteenth-century English translator of several apocryphal infancy narratives.

Researcher

Tony Burke

Scholar of Christian apocrypha who edited Greek and Syriac infancy traditions.

Researcher

Gabriel Nocchi Macedo

Greek and Latin papyrologist who co-edited the Hamburg fragment.

Researcher

Lajos Berkes

Papyrologist who co-edited a papyrus with the clay-sparrow episode.

Researcher

Richard Kalmin

Professor of Talmud and rabbinics who studies rabbinic narratives and Jewish Babylonia.

Researcher

Jillian Stinchcomb

Scholar of biblical reception who studies the Queen of Sheba across Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions.

Translator

Aaron Bernstein (translator of Cassel)

Named translator of the 1888 English edition of Paulus Cassel's Esther commentary.

Researcher

Paulus Cassel

German theologian and writer (1821–1892) whose Esther commentary included an appendix on the Second Targum.

Researcher

Michael Beshay

Scholar of late-antique religions who studies traditions about Mary and Solomon across communities.

Researcher

Nils Arne Pedersen

Aarhus University scholar of church history and early Christian literature, coauthor of a study of Solomonic rings.

Researcher

Ittai Gradel

Roman historian (1965–2026) and coauthor of a study of rings bearing a Solomonic formula.

Researcher

Dennis C. Duling

Scholar of ancient Jewish and Christian texts who studied the Solomon-as-exorcist tradition.

Person

F. C. Conybeare

British scholar and translator (1856–1924) who published the Testament of Solomon in 1898.