Alexander the Great in Islamic tradition

Silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great shown wearing the horns of the ram-god Zeus-Ammon.

Alexander the Great was a king of ancient Greece and Macedon who forged one of the largest empires in world history. Soon after his death, a body of legend began to accumulate about his life and exploits. With the Greek Alexander Romance and its translation into numerous languages including Armenian, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, and more, an entire genre of literature was dedicated to the exploits of Alexander in both Christian and Muslim realms. Alexander was also the one most frequently identified with Dhu al-Qarnayn (Arabic: ذو القرنين; lit. "The one with two horns"), a figure that appears in Surah Al-Kahf in the Quran, the holy text of Islam, which greatly expanded the attention paid to him in the traditions of the Muslim world.

Arabic tradition

Main article: Alexander the Great in Arabic tradition

Some Islamic commentators have identified the Quranic figure of Dhu al-Qarnayn (lit. 'The Two-Horned One') with Alexander the Great. ^{[1] [2] [3]} .There are many surviving versions of the Alexander Romance in Arabic that were written after the conquest of Islam. It is also thought that pre-Islamic Arabic versions of the Alexander Romance may have existed. ^[4]

However, a major flaw of this theory is Alexander the Great was known to be a follower of the pagan Ancient Greek religion ^[5] therefore making it difficult to align him with the 'Dhul-Qarnayn' of the Quran who was a believer in Allah, one God. Furthermore, The depiction of him with physical ram horns is symbolic of Greco-Egyptian god Zeus-Ammon. ^[6]

Persian tradition

Folio from the Shahnameh showing Alexander praying at the Kaaba, mid-16th century

With the Muslim conquest of Persia in 644 AD, the Alexander Romance found its way into Persian literature —an ironic outcome considering pre-Islamic Persia's hostility towards the national enemy who conquered the Achaemenid Empire and was directly responsible for Persian domination by Hellenistic foreign rulers.^{[ citation needed ]} However, he is not depicted as a warrior and conqueror, but as a seeker of truth who eventually finds the Ab-i Hayat (Water of Life). ^[7] Islamic Persian accounts of the Alexander legend, frequently titled as Iskandarnamah ("Book of Alexander", such as an anonymous eleventh-century Iskandarnameh and the Iskandarnameh of Nizami), combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes material about Alexander, some of which is found in the Quran, with indigenous Sassanid Middle Persian ideas about Alexander. For example, Pseudo-Callisthenes is the source of many incidents in the Shahnama written by Ferdowsi (935–1020 AD) in New Persian. Persian sources on the Alexander legend devised a mythical genealogy for him whereby his mother was a concubine of Darius II, making him the half-brother of the last Achaemenid shah, Darius. By the 12th century such important Persian writers as Nizami Ganjavi (from Ganja in modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan) were making him the subject of their epic poems. Another significant version was the 13th-century Ayina-i Iskandari (Alexandrine Mirror) of Amir Khusrau ^[8] and the 15th-century Kherad-nâme (Book of Alexandrian Intelligence) of Jâmi. ^[9]

The Muslim traditions also elaborated the legend that Alexander the Great had been the companion of Aristotle and the direct student of Plato.

Andalusian tradition

After the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus) in 711, Muslim literature flourished under the Caliphate of Córdoba (929 to 1031 AD). An Arabic derivative of the Alexander Romance was produced, called the Qissat Dhulqarnayn (Tales of Dhul-Qarnayn). ^[10] The material was later incorporated into Qisas al-Anbiya (Tales of the Prophets):

By the turn of the first millennium C.E., the romance of Alexander in Arabic had a core centered on the Greek legendary material ... Interwoven later into this narrative in the Tales of the Prophets literature were episodes of an apparent Arab-Islamic elaboration: the construction of a great barrier to keep the people of Gog and Magog from harassing the people of the civilized world until Judgement Day, the voyage to the end of the Earth to witness the sun set in a pool of boiling mud, and Dhu al-Qarnayn's expedition into the Land of Darkness in search of the Fountain of Life accompanied by his companion Khidir ("the Green-One"). ^[11]

Another Hispano-Arabic Alexander Romance was produced, called the Hadith Dhulqarnayn , also known as the Leyenda de Alejandro. ^[12] By 1236 AD, the Reconquista was essentially completed and Europeans had retaken the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims, but the Emirate of Granada, a small Muslim vassal of the Christian Kingdom of Castile, remained in Spain until 1492 AD. During the Reconquista, Muslims were forced to either convert to Catholicism or leave the peninsula. The descendants of Muslims who converted to Christianity were called the Moriscos (meaning "Moor-like") and were suspecting of secretly practicing Islam. The Moriscos used a language called Aljamiado, which was a dialect of the Spanish language (Mozarabic) but was written using the Arabic alphabet. Aljamiado played a very important role in preserving Islam and the Arabic language in the life of the Moriscos; prayers and the sayings of Muhammad were translated into Aljamiado transcriptions of the Spanish language, while keeping all Quranic verses in the original Arabic. During this period, a version of the Alexander legend was written in the Aljamaido language, building on the Arabic Qisas Dhul-Qarnayn legends as well as Romance language versions of the Alexander Romance. ^{[13] [14]}

Central Asian tradition

Certain Muslim people of Central Asia, specifically Bulgar, Tatar and Bashkir peoples of the Volga-Ural region (within what is today Tatarstan in the Russian Federation), carried on a rich tradition of the Alexander legend well into the 19th century. The region was conquered by the Abbasid Caliphate in the early 10th century. In these legends, Alexander is referred to as Iskandar Dhul-Qarnayn (Alexander the Two Horned), and is "depicted as founder of local cities and an ancestor of local figures." The local folklore about Iskandar Dhul-Qarnayn played in an important role in communal identity:

The conversion of the Volga Bulghars to Islam is commonly dated to the first decades of the 10th century, and by the middle of the 12th century, it is apparent that Islamic historical figures and Islamic forms of communal validation had become important factors for Bulghar communal and political cohesion. The Andalusian traveler Abū Hamid al-Gharnāti who visited Bulghar in the 1150s, noted that Iskandar Dhūl-Qarnayn passed through Bulghar, that is, the Volga-Kama region, on his way to build the iron walls that contained Yā'jūj and Mā'jūj [Gog and Magog] within the land of darkness ... while Najib al-Hamadāni reports that the rulers of Bulghar claimed descent from Iskandar Dhūl-Qarnayn. ^[15]

The Iskandar Dhul-Qanryan legends played an important role in the conversion narrative of the Volga Bulgar Muslims:

There are numerous digressions dealing with the founding of the Bulghar conversion narrative, and legends concerning Iskandar Dhūl-Qarnayn [Alexander Dhul-Qarnayn] and Socrates. According to the account, Socrates was born a Christian in Samarqand and went to Greece to serve Iskandar Dhūl-Qarnayn (Iskandar Rūmi). Together, they went to the Land of Darkness (diyār-i zulmat) to seek the Fountain of Youth (āb-i hayāt). In the northern lands they built a city and called it Bulghar. ^[15]

In 1577 AD the Tsardom of Russia annexed control of the region and Bulgar Muslim writings concerning Dhul-Qarnayn do not appear again until the 18th and 19th centuries, which saw a resurgence of local Iskandar Dhul-Qarnayn legends as a source of Muslim and ethnic identity:

It was only at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries that we begin to see historical legends concerning Iskandar Dhūl-Qarnayn reemerge among Volga-Kama Muslims, at least in written form, and it was not until the 19th century that such legends were recorded from local Muslim oral tradition. In one of his earliest historical works, entitled Ghilālat al-Zamān and written in 1877 the Tatar theologian, Shihāb al-Dīn Marjānī wrote that according to Arabic and other Muslim writings, as well as according to popular legends, the city of Bulghar was founded by Alexander the Great. ^[15]

Malaysian tradition

The Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain ("Romance of Alexander the Two-Horned") is a Malay epic describing fictional exploits of Alexander the Great (Iskandar), identified in the story with Dhu al-Qarnayn. The oldest existing manuscript is dated 1713, but is in a poor state. Another manuscript was copied by Muhammad Cing Sa'idullah about 1830. ^[16] Iskandar Zulkarnain is claimed to be a direct antecedent of the Minangkabau kingdoms of Sumatra by their rulers. The best known Minangkabau ruler, Adityavarman, who ruled over Sumatra between 1347 and 1374 AD claimed for himself the name Maharajadiraja, 'a great lord of kings.' It was William Marsten who first publicized this link at the end of the 18th century. ^[17] The descent from Iskandar Zulkarnain, ^[18] is claimed via Raja Rajendra Chola (Raja Chulan, Raja Cholan) in the Malay Annals. ^{[19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]} There is a "Sumatran version" of the narrative. ^[25] Its most likely source is the Arabic Sīrat al-Iskandar . ^[26]

Reception in non-Islamic texts

Commentary on the figure of Dhu al-Qarnayn by Christians is found in glosses on the Quran. For example, glosses on Quran 18:83–102 in Latin translations of the Quran demonstrates an unambiguous familiarity among Christian commenters that the passage they were reading was a story about the two-horned Alexander the Great. ^[27]

References

1. Griffith, Sidney (2022-03-15). "Narratives of "the Companions of the Cave," Moses and His Servant, and Dhū 'l-Qarnayn in Sūrat al-Kahf". Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association. 6 (1): 146–147. doi:10.5913/jiqsa.6.2021.a005. ISSN   2474-8420. S2CID   251486595.
2. Chism, Christine (2016-02-04), "Facing The Land Of Darkness: Alexander, Islam, And The Quest For The Secrets Of God", Alexander the Great in the Middle Ages, University of Toronto Press, pp. 51–75, doi:10.3138/9781442661301-007, ISBN   978-1-4426-6130-1 , retrieved 2024-01-17
3. Daneshgar, Majid (2020). Studying the Qur'ān in the Muslim Academy. AAR reflection and theory in the study of religion. New York (N.Y.): Oxford University Press. p. 77. ISBN   978-0-19-006754-0.
4. Doufikar-Aerts, Faustina (2003). "The Last Days of Alexander in an Arabic Popular Romance of Al-Iskandar". In Stelios Panayotakis; Maaike Zimmerman; Wytse Keulen (eds.). The Ancient Novel and Beyond. Brill. ISBN   9789047402114.
5. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/925/alexander-the-great-as-a-god/
6. https://academic.oup.com/book/51697/chapter-abstract/419760236?redirectedFrom=fulltext#:~:text=Horn%20symbolism%20appears%20in%20ancient,after%20Alexander's%20conquest%20of%20Egypt.
7. Algar, Hamid (1973). Mīrzā Malkum Khān: A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism. University of California Press. p. 292, ft. 26. ISBN   9780520022171.
8. Casari, Mario (2023). "The Alexander Legend in Persian Literature". In Ashtiany, Mohsen (ed.). Persian narrative poetry in the classical era, 800-1500: romantic and didactic genres. A history of Persian literature / founding editor - Ehsan Yarshater. London New York Oxford New Delhi Sydney: I.B. Tauris. pp. 491–504. ISBN   978-1-78673-664-2.
9. Casari, Mario (2023). "The Alexander Legend in Persian Literature". In Ashtiany, Mohsen (ed.). Persian narrative poetry in the classical era, 800-1500: romantic and didactic genres. A history of Persian literature / founding editor - Ehsan Yarshater. London New York Oxford New Delhi Sydney: I.B. Tauris. pp. 491, 504–510. ISBN   978-1-78673-664-2.
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12. Zuwiyya, Zachary David (2011). "The Alexander Romance in the Arabic Tradition". In Zuwiyya, David (ed.). A companion to Alexander literature in the Middle Ages. Brill's companions to the Christian tradition. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 79–82. ISBN   978-90-04-18345-2.
13. Zuwiyya, David Z. "Translation and the Arat of Recreation: The legend of Alexander the Great from the Pseudo-Callisthenes to the Aljamiado-Morisco Rrekontamiento del rrey Alisandre" in Sensus de sensu: Estudios Filológicos de traducción. Ed. Vicente López Folgado. Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba (2002). Pp. 243–263.
14. Zuwiyya, David Z. "The Hero of the Hispano-Arabic Alexander Romance Qissat Dhulqarnayn: Between al-Askander and Dhulqarnayn," Kalamazoo, Michigan, 34th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Spring 1999.
15. Frank, Allen J. (2000). "Historical Legends of the Volga-Ural Muslims concerning Alexander the Great, the City of Yelabuga, and Bāchmān Khān". Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée. 89–90 (89–90): 89–107. doi: 10.4000/remmm.274 .
16. malay concordance project Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain
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21. Dewan bahasa. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. 1980. pp. 333, 486.
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24. Yusoff Iskandar (1992). Pensejarahan Melayu: kajian tentang tradisi sejarah Melayu Nusantara. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kementerian Pendidikan, Malaysia. p. 147. ISBN   978-983-62-3012-6.
25. MCP . Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain . bibliography * * * *
26. Zuwiyya, Z. David (2011). "The Alexander Romance in the Arabic Tradition". In Z. David Zuwiyya (ed.). A Companion to Alexander Literature in the Middle Ages. Brill. pp. 73–112.
27. Starczewska, Katarzyna K. (2021-10-25), "Dhul-Qarnayn, The One of the Two Horns, in the Latin Glosses to the Qur'an", Dhul-Qarnayn, The One of the Two Horns, in the Latin Glosses to the Qur’an, De Gruyter, pp. 299–316, doi:10.1515/9783110702712-016, ISBN   978-3-11-070271-2 , retrieved 2024-04-02

Further reading

• Alexander the Great in Islam: A Historical Perspective