par Prevost, Virginie ![](/vufind/images/ULB/publications_list.png)
Référence Revue de l'histoire des religions, 237, page (5-36)
Publication Publié, 2020-05-01
![](/vufind/images/ULB/publications_list.png)
Référence Revue de l'histoire des religions, 237, page (5-36)
Publication Publié, 2020-05-01
Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : | The legend of the Seven Sleepers inspires great devotion in Southern Tunisia: these seven saints are venerated in a cave in El Oudiane, in a partially troglodytic mosque in Chenini and in an old cemetery in Midès. It is likely that these sites were already frequented during the pre-Islamic period, probably dedicated to other cults, and that after the Islamization of the region, the local populations, mostly Ibadi, maintained the cults devoted to these sanctuaries. Worship practices there then gradually shifted towards the Seven Sleepers. Among the hypotheses of interpretation are the prolongation of the sevenfold worships, or the particular recollection that the sovereign warrior Decius had left in the collective memory and in local toponymy. |