EuTradOr - Cultures, Texts, and Traditions of the Christian East in Dialogue with Europe and Islam
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Objectives and Scope |
Drawing on a strongly interdisciplinary approach and involving diverse research perspectives, the members of the interdepartmental research unit aim to study the Christian East in its broadest sense. This research category encompasses the vast region stretching from the Bosphorus to the Near East, and from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean—an area that has served as a theater for intense exchange, contact, and cultural and religious encounters. In this perspective, the Christian East, including Byzantine civilization, will be examined not as an isolated entity, but within a broader framework of relations with medieval Europe on one side and the Arab-Islamic world on the other. The primary focus of investigation will be the texts of the Christian East and Byzantine culture, aiming to understand and enhance the study of their history, literature (both edifying and secular, learned and popular or semi-popular), respective languages, liturgy, theology, and spirituality. Furthermore, the unit will investigate the circulation and reception of these texts both within their original contexts and across the Latin and Islamic worlds. The research unit will promote and coordinate research projects, conferences, seminars, and scholarly publications in this field. |
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Specific Research Lines |
The Research Unit aims to study those literary traditions that achieved widespread circulation in both Christian and Muslim spheres. Three main research strands are envisioned: the study of hagiographic literature from philological, literary, historical-religious, and cultural perspectives; the literature of the learned tradition (courtly literature, philosophy, science, medicine, etc.); and entertainment literature (epic-chivalric sagas, epic literature, and The Thousand and One Nights in its various receptions and adaptations). The approach adopted will be comparative, focusing on the circulation and reception of texts that cross religious and cultural borders to engage with other worlds. The "journey" of texts and ideas will be analyzed not only through a philological-genealogical lens but also by examining parallel cases of similar phenomena, even in the absence of direct contact. |
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Activities and Results |
The Research Unit was established in the academic year 2021-2022. The project, titled The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus: Sacred Text, Hagiography, and Cult, examines the history of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus through its various traditions and versions, both Christian and Muslim, Eastern and Western. The legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus belongs to the category of universal hagiographies, whose success has spanned diverse cultural and religious traditions. Indeed, the legend achieved widespread circulation not only across the Christian oecumene of the East and West—consider, for example, a homily by Jacob of Serugh, the Syriac theologian and Church Father who lived in Upper Mesopotamia between the 5th and 6th centuries, and the In gloria martyrum by Gregory of Tours, who introduced the legend to Europe during the same period—but it also gained significant importance within the Islamic tradition. Suffice it to say that one of the most important chapters of the Qur'an (XVIII, 6-24) transmits a version of this legend. The story recounts a persecution of Christians in the city of Ephesus around 250 AD, during the reign of Emperor Decius, who forced the entire city to sacrifice to pagan gods under penalty of death. Seven young Christians, refusing to offer sacrifices to idols, hid in a cave near the city; however, once discovered by soldiers, they were walled in alive by order of the Emperor. Nevertheless, God saved them by inducing a miraculous sleep; they awoke only after 372 years (309 according to the Qur'anic account) without corruption or aging. Until at least the 1950s, scholarly opinion on the origin of this legend was not unanimous. This changed when Ernest Honigmann published a study (1953) reconstructing the time and place of the legend’s origin, based on the results of archaeological excavations in Ephesus conducted by the Austrian mission led by Franz Miltner (1937). One reason for the legend's enduring success is the presence of the miraculous dormitio topos, a theme that permeates universal literature and folklore. Louis Massignon (1883-1964), one of the greatest orientalists and theologians of the last century, extensively studied the spread of this legend from the Mediterranean basin to the Comoros Islands and Indonesia. The current project involves a study of modern bibliography on the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, as well as a re-examination of both Eastern and Western sources. A study day is planned to present the initial research results. |
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Publications |
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| Public events | International conference: The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. Legend, history, worship University of Florence, June 26-27, 2025 |
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Coordinator |
Paolo La Spisa |
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ERC sector |
SH5-SH6 |
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Group members |
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Departments involved |
Lettere e Filosofia (DILEF) Formazione, Lingue, Intercultura, Letterature e Psicologia (FORLILPSI) Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Arte e Spettacolo (SAGAS) |
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Contacts |
paolo.laspisa(AT)unifi.it |
Last update
12.03.2026