Vom Hündlein der Siebenschläfer

Abstract This essay argues that the figure of the dog (Kitmīr/Qitmir) in the Seven Sleepers tradition serves as a test case for poetic and conceptual regimes in early nineteenth- century German reception. Reading Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan and Friedrich Rückert’s Ein Hündlein, das einst Wache that bei Schäfern … (published in the Taschenbuch für Damen , 1822, in the same context that also produced the Östliche Rosen ) alongside Qurʾān 18, Ṭabarī, Ṯaʿlabī, Hammer’s versified Qurʾān and Claudius James Rich in Fundgruben des Orients , as well as Gregory of Tours and Jacob of Serugh, the study shows how Goethe aestheticizes and stabilizes doctrinal tensions, whereas Rückert elevates the creature within a mediating, barzakh -like framework. The comparison tracks a shift from ornamental adaptation to transformative re-coding and locates key pressure points in seemingly marginal narrative details. The case sheds light on broader patterns in German engagements with Sufi metaphysics between 1800 and 1850.