HISTORY OF KARRAAL TRIBE(PART 2)

 Dhu’l-Qarnayn before me was a Muslim
    Conquered kings thronged his court,
    East and west he ruled, yet he sought
    Knowledge true from a learned sage.
    He saw where the sun sinks from view
    In a pool of mud and fetid slime
    Before him Bilqis [Queen of Sheba] my father's sister
    Ruled them until the hoopoe came to her. [20]

The poem's reference to "a learned sage" from whom Dhul-Qarnyan sought knowledge from may be a reference to the story of Dhul-Qarnayn and Al-Khidir. Other pre-Islamic Arab poems about Dhul-Qarnayn are also reported in the Sira literature:

    The pre-Islamic poet Al-`Asha and the contemporary of Muhammad Hassan ibn Thabit (?-674 AD) both composed verses referring to the conquest of Gog and Magog and furthest east by Dhu`l-qarnain.[14]

One poem by Hassan ibn Thabit reads:

    Ours the realm of Dhu 'l-Qarnayn the glorious
    Realm like his was never won by mortal king.
    Followed he the Sun to view its setting
    When it sank into the somber ocean-spring;
    Up he clomb to see it rise at morning,
    From within its Mansions when the East it fired;
    All day long the horizons led him onward,
    All night through he watched the stars and never tired.
    Then of iron and of liquid metal
    He prepared a rampart not to be o'erpassed,
    Gog and Magog there he threw in prison
    Till on Judgement Day they shall awake at last [21]

[edit] Tafsir

Alexander is mentioned in the tafsir, the exegesis or commentaries of the Qur'an that were written by prominent early Islamic scholars. Significantly, Alexander the Great is mentioned in Tafsir al-Jalalayn, a well-known Sunni tafsir of the Qur'an from the 15th century. The tafsir notes that Dhul-Qarnayn's name was Alexander and also indicates that Dhul-Qarnayn was not a prophet:

    And they, the Jews, question you concerning Dhū’l-Qarnayn, whose name was Alexander; he was not a prophet. Say: ‘I shall recite, relate, to you a mention, an account, of him’, of his affair.[22]

The commentators of the Qur'an debated on whether or not Dhul-Qarnayn was a prophet of Islam; some concluded that he was not a prophet but was a holy man or a "friend of God" since he is mentioned favorably in the Qur'an. In Islam it is ambiguous as to whether or not Dhul-Qarnayn is a full-fledged prophet.

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149-1209 AD), in Tafsir al-Kabir also comments that Dhul-Qarnyan is Alexander the Macedonian. He provides a vague justification, saying that the Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned in the Qur'an travelled to the east and the west achieving victories and so he must be Alexander:

    While a survey in the history we do not find anybody other than Macedonian Alexander, therefore, the Dhul Qarnayn is the same Macedonian Alexander.[23]

[edit] Other Islamic literature

Aristotelian Muslim philosophers, such as al-Kindi (801–873 AD), al-Farabi (872-950 AD), and Avicenna (980 - 1037 AD), enthusiastically embraced the concept of Dhul-Qarnayn being an ancient Greek king. They stylized Dhul-Qarnayn as a Greek philosopher king. Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 AD) objected to the identification on the basis that Alexander was a pagan idolater, and he accused the Aristotelian Muslim philosophers such as Avicenna of making the "mistaken" identification:

    ...Thus, the sages of the Persian Zoroastrians are all kafir [infidels], as well as the sages of Greece such as Aristotle and those like him. They were associationists, worshipping idols and the planets. Aristotle was before 'Isa (Jesus) by three hundred years, and was a minister for Alexander son of Phillips the Macedonian, who is mentioned in the histories of Rome and Greece, as well as the histories of the Christians and the Jews. He is not, however, the same as the man named Dhu-l-Qarnain who Allah mentioned in His book, as some imagined. Some people mistakenly thought that Aristotle was a minister for dhu-l-qarnain, when they saw that (the one found in the Western histories) was named Alexander, and the names are similar, they thought that they were one in the same man. This mistaken view has been promulgated by Ibn Seena [Avicenna] and some others with him.[24]

The Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442 AD) claimed in his book Al-Khotatt that Dhul-Qarnayn was a Yemenite king named Sa'b and wrote:

    Those who claim that he [Dhul-Qarnayn] was Iranian, Roman, or that he was Alexander of Macedon, are wrong.[verification needed]

In his famous English translation and commentary of the Qur'an, Yusuf Ali (1872–1953 AD) supported the notion of Dhul-Qarnayn being Alexander the Great and he indicated an extensive knowledge of the legends concerning Alexander:

    Personally, I have not the least doubt that Zul-Qarnain is meant to be Alexander the Great, the historic Alexander, and not the legendary Alexander ... Another suggestion was made that, Quranic Zul-qarnain was an ancient king of Persia. But there is nothing in our literature to suggest that Zul-qarnain came to any such ignominious end. If it is argued that it was some old prehistoric Persian king who built the iron gates to keep the Gog and magog tribes, this is no identification at all. Another suggestion made is that it was some old prehistoric Himyarite king from Yemen, about whom nothing else is known. An identification with a supposed pre-historic king, about whom nothing is known, is no identification at all.[25]

In his commentary of the Qur'an, Abul Ala Maududi (1903–1979 AD) noted that historically most Muslim scholars had endorsed the identification of Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great, but recent commentators have forwarded an alternative theory that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great:

    The identification of Zul-Qarnain has been a controversial matter from the earliest times. In general the commentators have been of the opinion that he was Alexander the Great but the characteristics of Zul-Qarnain described in the Qur'an are not applicable to him. However, now the commentators are inclined to believe that Zul-Qarnain was Cyrus, an ancient king of Iran. We are also of the opinion that probably Zul-Qarnain was Cyrus, but the historical facts, which have come to light up to this time, are not sufficient to make any categorical assertion.[26]

[edit] Philological evidence

Philologists, studying ancient Christian legends about Alexander the Great, have come to conclude that the Qur'an's stories about Dhul-Qarnayn closely parallel certain legends about Alexander the Great found in ancient Hellenistic and Christian writings. There is some numismatic evidence, in the form of ancient coins, to identify the Arabic epithet "Dhul-Qarnayn" with Alexander the Great.[27] There is also a long history of monotheistic religions co-opting the historical Alexander. Finally, ancient Christian Syriac and Ethiopic manuscripts of the Alexander romance from the Middle East have been found which closely resemble the story in the Qur'an. This leads to the theologically controversial conclusion that these legends are the source of the story of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Qur'an.
[edit] The two-horned one

Silver tetradrachmon (ancient Greek coin) issued in the name of Alexander the Great, depicting Alexander with the horns of Ammon-Ra (242/241 BC, posthumous issue). Displayed at the British Museum.
   

Imitation silver tetradrachmon issued in the name of the Arab chieftain Abi’el, minted at the site of Mleiha in southeastern Arabia in circa 200 BC. Local imitative coinages played an important role in commerce along ancient trade routes. Displayed at the British Museum.

The literal translation of the Arabic phrase "Dhul-Qarnayn," as written in the Qur`an, is "the Two-Horned." Alexander the Great and was portrayed with two horns in ancient Greek depictions of Alexander:

    It is well known that already in his own time Alexander was portrayed with horns according to the iconography of the Egyptian god Ammon.[28]

The Egyptian god Ammon-Ra was depicted with ram horns. Rams were considered a symbol of virility due to their rutting behavior. The horns of Ammon may have also represented the East and West of the Earth, and one of the titles of Ammon was "the two-horned." Alexander was depicted with the horns of the Ammon as a result of his conquest of ancient Egypt in 332 BC, where the priesthood received him as the son of the god Ammon, who was identified by the ancient Greeks with Zeus, the King of the Gods. The combined deity Zeus-Ammon was a distinct figure in ancient Greek mythology. According to five historians of antiquity (Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch), Alexander visited the Oracle of Ammon at Siwa in the Libyan desert and rumors spread that the Oracle had revealed Alexander's father to be the deity Ammon, rather than Philip.[27][29][30] Alexander styled himself as the son of Zeus-Ammon and even demanded to be worshiped as a god:

    He seems to have become convinced of the reality of his own divinity and to have required its acceptance by others ... The cities perforce complied, but often ironically: the Spartan decree read, 'Since Alexander wishes to be a god, let him be a god.' [31]

Ancient Greek coins, such as the coins minted by Alexander's successor Lysimachus (360-281 BC), depict the ruler with the distinctive horns of Ammon on his head. Archaeologists have found a large number of different types of ancients coins depicting Alexander the Great with two horns.[27][32] The 4th century BC silver tetradrachmon ("four drachma") coin, depicting a deified Alexander with two horns, replaced the 5th century BC Athenian silver tetradrachmon (which depicted the goddess Athena) as the most widely used coin in the Greek world. After Alexander's conquests, the drachma was used in many of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the Middle East, including the Ptolemaic kingdom in Alexandria. The Arabic unit of currency known as the dirham, known from pre-Islamic times up to the present day, inherited its name from the drachma. In the late 2nd century BC, silver coins depicting Alexander with ram horns were used as a principal coinage in Arabia and were issued by an Arab ruler by the name of Abi'el who ruled in the south-eastern region of the Arabian Peninsula.[33]

In 1971, Ukrainian archeologist B.M. Mozolevskii discovered an ancient Scythian kurgan (burial mound) containing many treasures. The burial site was constructed in the 4th century BC near the city of Ordzhonikidze and is given the name Tovsta Mohyla (another name is Babyna Mogila). Amongst the artifacts excavated at this site were four silver gilded phalera (ancient Roman military medals). Two of the four medals are identical and depict the head of a bearded man with two horns, while the other two medals are also identical and depict the head of a clean-shaven man with two horns. According to a recent theory, the bearded figure with horns is actually Zeus-Ammon and the clean-shaved figure is none other than Alexander the Great.[34]

Alexander has also been identified, since ancient times, with the horned figure in the Old Testament in the prophecy of Daniel 8 who overthrows the kings of Media and Persia. In the prophesy, Daniel has a vision of a ram with two long horns and 8:20 explains that "The two-horns of the ram represent the kings of Media and Persia":

    Josephus [37–100 AD], in his Antiquities of the Jews xi, 8, 5 tells of a visit that Alexander is purported to have made to Jerusalem, where he met the high priest Jaddua and the assembled Jews, and was shown the book of Daniel in which it was prophesied that some one of the Greeks would overthrow the empire of Persia. Alexander believed himself to be the one indicated, and was pleased. The pertinent passage in Daniel would seem to be VIII. 3-8 which tells of the overthrow of the two-horned ram by the one-horned goat, the one horn of the goat being broken in the encounter ...The interpretation of this is given further ... "The ram which thou sawest that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough he-goat is the king of Greece." This identification is accepted by the church fathers ...[5]

The Christian Syriac version of the Alexander romance, in the sermon by Jacob of Serugh, describes Alexander as having been given two horns of iron by God. The legend describes Alexander (as a Christian king) bowing himself in prayer, saying:

    O God ... I know in my mind that thou hast exalted me above all kings, and thou hast made me horns upon my head, wherewith I might thrust down the kingdoms of the world...I will magnify thy name, O Lord, forever ... And if the Messiah, who is the Son of God [Jesus], comes in my days, I and my troops will worship Him...[5]

In Christian Alexander legends written in Ethiopic (an ancient South Semitic language) between the fourteenth and the sixteenth century, Alexander the Great is always explicitly referred to using the epithet the "Two Horned." A passage from the Ethiopic Christian legend describes the Angel of the Lord calling Alexander by this name:

    Then God, may He be blessed and exalted! put it into the heart of the Angel to call Alexander 'Two-horned,' ... And Alexander said unto him, ' Thou didst call me by the name Two-horned, but my name is Alexander ... and I thought that thou hadst cursed me by calling me by this name.' The angel spake unto him, saying, 'O man, I did not curse thee by the name by which thou and the works that thou doest are known. Thou hast come unto me, and I praise thee because, from the east to the west, the whole earth hath been given unto thee ...' [5]

References to Alexander's supposed horns are found in literature ranging many different languages, regions and centuries:

    The horns of Alexander ... have had a varied symbolism. They represent him as a god, as a son of a god, as a prophet and propagandist of the Most High, as something approaching the role of a messiah, and also as the champion of Allah. They represent him as a world conqueror, who subjugated the two horns or ends of the world, the lands of the rising and of the setting sun ...[5]

For these reasons, among others, the Qur'an's Arabic epithet "Dhul-Qarnayn," literally meaning "the two-horned one," is interpreted as a reference to Alexander the Great.
[edit] Alexander's Wall
A Persian painting from the 16th century illustrating the building of the wall

The Qur'an's story describes Dhul-Qarnayn building a great gate near the "rising place of the Sun," in order to enclose the nations of Gog and Magog who "do great mischief in the earth." A similar story about Alexander is found in the Alexander romance and the origins of the story can be dated as far back as 329 BC.
[edit] Early accounts of Alexander's Wall

The building of gates in the Caucasus Mountains by Alexander to repel the barbarian peoples identified with Gog and Magog has ancient provenance and the wall is known as the Gates of Alexander or the Caspian Gates. The name Caspian Gates originally applied to the narrow region at the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea, through which Alexander actually marched in the pursuit of Bessus in 329 BC, although he did not stop to fortify it. It was transferred to the passes through the Caucasus, on the other side of the Caspian, by the more fanciful historians of Alexander. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37–100 AD) mentions that:

    ...a nation of the Alans, whom we have previously mentioned elsewhere as being Scythians ... travelled through a passage which King Alexander [the Great] shut up with iron gates.[35]

Josephus also records that the people of Magog, the Magogites, were synonymous with the Scythians.[36] According to Andrew Runni Anderson,[37] this merely indicates that the main elements of the story were already in place six centuries before the Qur'an's revelation, not that the story itself was known in the cohesive form apparent in the Qur'anic account. Similarly, St. Jerome (347–420 AD), in his Letter 77, mentions that,

    The hordes of the Huns had poured forth all the way from Maeotis (they had their haunts between the icy Tanais and the rude Massagetae, where the gates of Alexander keep back the wild peoples behind the Caucasus).[38]

In his Commentary on Ezekiel (38:2), Jerome identifies the nations located beyond the Caucasus mountains and near Lake Maeotis as Gog and Magog. Thus the Gates of Alexander legend was combined with the legend of Gog and Magog from the Book of Revelation. It has been suggested that the incorporation of the Gog and Magog legend into the Alexander romance was prompted by the invasion of the Huns across the Caucasus mountains in 395 AD into Armenia and Syria.[39]
[edit] Alexander's Wall in Christian legends
Main article: Gates of Alexander

Christian legends speak of the Caspian Gates (Gates of Alexander), also known as Alexander's wall, built by Alexander the Great in the Caucasus mountains. Several variations of the legend can be found. In the story, Alexander the Great built a gate of iron between two mountains, at the end of the Earth, to prevent the armies of Gog and Magog from ravaging the plains. The Christian legend was written in Syria shortly before the Qur'an's writing and closely parallels the story of Dhul-Qarnayn.[40] The legend describes an apocryphal letter from Alexander to his mother, wherein he writes:

    I petitioned the exalted Deity, and he heard my prayer. And the exalted Deity commanded the two mountains and they moved and approached each other to a distance of twelve ells, and there I made ... copper gates 12 ells broad, and 60 ells high, and smeared them over within and without with copper ... so that neither fire nor iron, nor any other means should be able to loosen the copper; ... Within these gates, I made another construction of stones ... And having done this I finished the construction by putting mixed tin and lead over the stones, and smearing .... over the whole, so that no one might be able to do anything against the gates. I called them the Caspian Gates. Twenty and two Kings did I shut up therein.[4]

These pseudepigraphic letters from Alexander to his mother Olympias and his tutor Aristotle, describing his marvellous adventures at the end of the World, date back to the original Greek recension α written in the 4th century AD in Alexandria. The letters are "the literary expression of a living popular tradition" that had been evolving for at least three centuries before the Qur'an was written.[8]
[edit] Medieval accounts of Alexander's Wall
The wall of the Sassanid citadel in Derbent, Russia, is often identified with the Gates of Alexander. It is the only Sassasnid fortification remaining today. The Caliph Umar, as well as later Caliphs, sent expeditions to Derbent to seek out this wall.
The Caspian Gates of Derbent in winter. The fortification is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is most commonly associated with the legend of Alexander's wall against Gog and Magog

Several historical figures, both Muslim and Christian, searched for Alexander's Gate and several different identifications were made with actual walls. During the Middle Ages, the Gates of Alexander story was included in travel literature such as the Travels of Marco Polo (1254–1324 AD) and the Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The Alexander romance identified the Gates of Alexander, variously, with the Pass of Dariel, the Pass of Derbent, the Great Wall of Gorgan and even the Great Wall of China. In the legend's original form, Alexander's Gates are located at the Pass of Dariel. In later versions of the Christian legends, dated to around the time of Emperor Heraclius (575-641 AD), the Gates are instead located in Derbent, a city situated on a narrow strip of land between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus mountains, where an ancient Sassanid fortification was mistakenly identified with the wall built by Alexander. In the Travels of Marco Polo, the wall in Derbent is identified with the Gates of Alexander. The Gates of Alexander are most commonly identified with the Caspian Gates of Derbent whose thirty north-looking towers used to stretch for forty kilometers between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, effectively blocking the passage across the Caucasus.[41] Later historians would regard these legends as false:

    The gate itself had wandered from the Caspian Gates to the pass of Dariel, from the pass of Dariel to the pass of Derbend [Derbent], as well as to the far north; nay, it had travelled even as far as remote eastern or north-eastern Asia, gathering in strength and increasing in size as it went, and actually carrying the mountains of Caspia with it. Then, as the full light of modern day come on, the Alexander Romance ceased to be regarded as history, and with it Alexander's Gate passed into the realm of fairyland.[42]

In the Muslim world, several expeditions were undertaken to try to find and study Alexanders's wall, specifically the Caspian Gates of Derbent. An early expedition to Derbent was ordered by the Caliph Umar (586–644 AD) himself, during the Arab conquest of Armenia where they heard about Alexander's Wall in Derbent from the conquered Christian Armenians. Umar's expedition was recorded by the renowned exegetes of the Qur'an, Al-Tabarani (873-970 AD) and Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 AD), and by the Muslim geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179-1229 AD):

    When after the conquest of Azerbaijan, Umar sent Suraqah bin `Amr, in 22 A.H. [643 AD] on an expedition to Derbent, the latter appointed `Abdur Rahman bin Rabi`ah as the chief of his vanguard. When 'Abdur Rehman entered Armenia, the ruler Shehrbaz surrendered without fighting. Then when `Abdur Rehman wanted to advance towards Derbent, Shehrbaz informed him that he had already gathered full information about the wall built by Dhul-Qarnain, through a man, who could supply all the necessary details and then the man was actually presented before `Abdur Rehman.[43]

Two hundred years later, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Wathiq (?-847 AD) dispatched a party of fifty men under Sallam-ul-Tarjuman to study the wall of Dhul-Qarnain in Derbent, whose observations have been recorded in great detail by Yaqut al-Hamawi and by Ibn Kathir:

    ...this expedition reached Samarrah from where they reached Tbilisi and then through As-Sarir and Al-Lan, they reached Filanshah, from where they entered the Caspian territory. From there they arrived at Derbent and saw the wall [of Dhul-Qarnayn].[44]

The Muslim geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi further confirmed the same view in a number of places in his book on geography; for instance under the heading "Khazar" (Caspian) he writes:

    This territory adjoins the Wall of Dhul-Qarnain just behind Bab-ul-Abwab, which is also called Derbent.[44]

The Caliph Harun al-Rashid (763 – 809 AD) even spent some time living in Derbent. Not all Muslim travelers and scholars, however, associated Dhul-Qarnayn's wall with the Caspian Gates of Derbent. For example, the Muslim explorer Ibn Battuta (1304–1369 AD) traveled to China on order of the Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq and he comments in his travel log that "Between it [the city] and the rampart of Yajuj and Majuj [Gog and Magog] is sixty days' travel."[45] The translator of the travel log notes that Ibn Battuta confused the Great Wall of China with that supposedly built by Dhul-Qarnayn.[46]
[edit] Gog and Magog

In the Qur'an's story, it is none other than the Gog and Magog people whom Dhul-Qarnayn has enclosed behind a wall, preventing them from invading the Earth. In Islamic eschatology, on the Day of Judgement Gog and Magog will destroy this gate, allowing them to ravage the Earth, as it is described in the Qur'an:

    Until, when Gog and Magog are let loose (from their barrier), and they swiftly swarm from every mound. And the true promise (Day of Resurrection) shall draw near (of fulfillment). Then (when mankind is resurrected from their graves), you shall see the eyes of the disbelievers fixedly stare in horror. (They will say), ‘Woe to us! We were indeed heedless of this; nay, but we were wrongdoers.’ (Quran 21:96-97)

A similar story is found in the Alexander romance legends.
[edit] Gog and Magog in Christian legends
Example of a T-O map appearing in a German encyclopedia published by Joseph Meyer (1796-1856 AD). The T-O map was the first printed map in Europe. The map shows a disc shaped Earth surrounded by Oceanus, with the location Gog and Magog to the north, and Paropamisadae mountains (Hindu Kush) to the west in Asia. In the Christian legends, Alexander built the wall against Gog and Magog in the north, near the Caspian sea, and then went to the ends of the earth at the Paropamisadae, where it was supposed that the sun sets.

In the Syriac Christian legends, Alexander the Great encloses the Gog and Magog horde behind a mighty gate between two mountains, preventing the Gog and Magog from invading the Earth. In addition, it is written in the Christian legend that in the end times God will cause the Gate of Gog and Magog to be destroyed, allowing the Gog and Magog horde to ravage the Earth;

    The Lord spake by the hand of the angel, [saying] ...The gate of the north shall be opened on the day of the end of the world, and on that day shall evil go forth on the wicked ... The earth shall quake and this door [gate] which thou [Alexander] hast made be opened ... and anger with fierce wrath shall rise up on mankind and the earth ... shall be laid waste ... And the nations that is within this gate shall be roused up, and also the host of Agog and the peoples of Magog [Gog and Magog] shall be gathered together. These peoples, the fiercest of all creatures.[4]

The Christian Syriac legend describes a flat Earth orbited by the sun and surrounded by the Paropamisadae (Hindu Kush) mountains. The Paropamisadae mountains are in turn surrounded by a narrow tract of land which is followed by a treacherous Ocean sea called Okeyanos. It is within this tract of land between the Paropamisadae mountains and Okeyanos that Alexander encloses Gog and Magog, so that they could not cross the mountains and invade the Earth. The legend describes "the old wise men" explaining this geography and cosmology of the Earth to Alexander, and then Alexander setting out to enclose Gog and Magog behind a mighty gate between a narrow passage at the end of the flat Earth:

    The old men say, "Look, my lord the king, and see a wonder, this mountain which God has set as a great boundary." King Alexander the son of Philip said, "How far is the extent of this mountain?" The old men say, "Beyond India it extends in its appearance." The king said, "How far does this side come?" The old men say, "Unto all the end of the earth." And wonder seized the great king at the council of the old men ... And he had it in his mind to make there a great gate. His mind was full of spiritual thoughts, while taking advice from the old men, the dwellers in the land. He looked at the mountain which encircled the whole world ... The king said, "Where have the hosts [of Gog and Magog] come forth to plunder the land and all the world from of old?" They show him a place in the middle of the mountains, a narrow pass which had been constructed by God ...[4]

Flat Earth beliefs in the Early Christian Church varied and the Fathers of the Church shared different approaches. Those of them who were more close to Aristotle and Plato's visions, like Origen, shared peacefully the belief in a spherical Earth. A second tradition, including St Basil and St Augustine, accepted the idea of the round Earth and the radial gravity, but in a critical way. In particular they pointed out a number of doubts about the antipodes and the physical reasons of the radial gravity. However, a flat Earth approach was more or less shared by all the Fathers coming from the Syriac area, who were more inclined to follow the letter of the Old Testament. Diodore of Tarsus (?-390 AD), Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century), and Chrysostom (347–407 AD) belonged to this flat Earth tradition.[41] [47][48]
[edit] Medieval accounts of Gog and Magog

In the Christian Alexander romance literature, Gog and Magog were sometimes associated with the Khazars, a Turkic people who lived near the Caspian Sea. In his 9th century work Expositio in Matthaeum Evangelistam, the Benedictine monk Christian of Stavelot refers to the Khazars as Hunnic descendants of Gog and Magog, and says they are "circumcised and observing all [the laws of] Judaism";[49] the Khazars were a Central Asian people with a long association with Judaism. A Georgian tradition, echoed in a chronicle, also identifies the Khazars with Gog and Magog, stating they are "wild men with hideous faces and the manners of wild beasts, eaters of blood."[50]

Early Muslim scholars writing about Dhul-Qarnayn also associated Gog and Magog with the Khazars. Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 AD), the famous commentator of the Qur'an, identified Gog and Magog with the Khazars who lived between the Black and Caspian Sea in his work Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah (The Beginning and the End).[51][52] The Muslim explorer Ahmad ibn Fadlan, in his travelogue regarding his diplomatic mission in 921 AD to Volga Bulgars (a vassal of the Khazarian Empire), noted the beliefs about Gog and Magog being the ancestors of the Khazars.[53]

Thus Muslim scholars associated the Khazars with Dhul-Qarnyan just as the Christian legends associated the Khazars with Alexander the Great.
[edit] The rising place of the Sun

A peculiar aspect of the story of Dhul-Qarnayn, in the Qur'an, is that it describes Dhul-Qarnayn travelling to the "the rising place of the Sun" and the "setting place of the Sun," where the Sun sets into a murky (or boiling) body of water (or mud). Dhul-Qarnayn also finds a people living by the "rising place of the Sun," and finds that these people somehow have "no shelter from the sun."

In his commentary of the Qur'an, Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 AD) explains that verse 18:89 is referring to the literal ends of the Earth:

    (Until, when he reached the setting place of the sun,) means, he followed a route until he reached the furthest point that could be reached in the direction of the sun's setting, which is the west of the earth. As for the idea of his reaching the place in the sky where the sun sets, this is something impossible, and the tales told by storytellers that he traveled so far to the west that the sun set behind him are not true at all. Most of these stories come from the myths of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] and the fabrications and lies of their heretics.[54]

In this commentary Ibn Kathir differentiates between the end of the (presumably flat) Earth and the supposed "place in the sky" where the sun sets (the "resting place" of the sun. Ibn Kathir contends that Dhul-Qarnayn did reached the end of the Earth but not the "resting place" of the sun and he goes on to mention that the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) tell myths about Dhul-Qarnayn travelling so far beyond the end of the Earth that the sun was "behind him." This shows that Ibn Kathir was aware of the Christian legends and it suggests that Ibn Kathir considered Christian myths about Alexander to be referring to the same figure as the Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned in the Qu'an.

A similar theme is elaborated upon in several places in the Islamic hadith literature, in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim:

    It is narrated ... that the Messenger of Allah one day said: Do you know where the sun goes? They replied: Allah and His Apostle know best. He (the Holy Prophet) observed: Verily it (the sun) glides till it reaches its resting place under the Throne [of Allah]. Then it falls prostrate and remains there until it is asked: Rise up and go to the place whence you came, and it goes back and continues emerging out from its rising place...[55]

The setting place of the sun is also commented on by Al-Tabari (838-923 AD) and Al-Qurtubi (1214 - 1273 AD) and, like Ibn Kathir, they showed some reservations towards the literal idea of the sun setting in a muddy spring but held to the basic theme of Dhul-Qarnayn reaching the ends of the Earth. The later Islamic scholar Imam al-Suyuti (1445-1505 AD) also maintained that the Earth is flat.

On the other hand, Muslim astronomers believed in a spherical Earth as early as 830 AD. The great Persian Muslim scholar and polymath Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-1048 AD) successfully calculated the Earth`s circumference to within sixteen kilometers of its true value and is regarded as the father of the science of geodesy. The Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 AD) also maintained that the Earth is spherical, though he elaborated on an incorrect geocentric model of the universe:

    Celestial bodies are round—as it is the statement of astronomers and mathematicians—it is likewise the statement of the scholars of Islam. Indeed Allah has said: "And He [Allah] it is Who created the night and the day, the sun and the moon; They float, each in a falak [orbit]." [Qur'an 21:33] Ibn Abbas says [regarding this verse]: "A falaka like that of a spinning wheel." As for the other side of the earth it is surrounded by water. There are no human beings or anything like that [on that side].[56]

It is not entirely surprising that, by the 9th century, Muslim astronomers in the Samanid Empire and elsewhere were contemplating a spherical earth. Islamic astronomy inherited the concept of a spherical Earth, along with most of its theoretical foundation, from the ancient Greek astronomical tradition where none other than Pythagoras (570-495 BC) himself first proposed that the Earth must be spherical.[57] All this, however, did not prevent the Alexander romance legends from claiming that Alexander traveled to the ends of a flat Earth.
[edit] The rising place of the Sun in the Alexander legends
Rendition of Homer's view of the world (prior to 900 BC). The Homeric conception of the world involved a flat, circular Earth, surrounded by mountains and by Oceanus, the world-ocean of classical antiquity, considered to be an enormous river encircling the world. The Sun emerges from underneath the Earth, traveling along the fixed dome of the sky, and is shown rising from Oceanus. 
In reality, the Earth is nearly perfectly spherical and it orbits the Sun. Early astronomers such as Ptolemy (90–168 AD) advanced a geocentric model in which the Earth is spherical, but thought to be the stationary center of the universe. Stars were embedded in a large outer sphere, while each of the planets, the Sun, and the Moon were embedded in their own, smaller spheres. Copernicus (1473–1543 AD) was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology in which the Earth is one of many planets orbiting the Sun and sunrise / sunset are illusions caused by the Earth's rotation. Though it was a widely published theory, few astronomers were convinced of Copernican heliocentrism until 1700 AD.

An almost identical discourse regarding the rising place of the Sun is found in the Christian legends concerning Alexander the Great. The Christian legend about Alexander explains that when the Sun sets into the fetid sea, it enters into heaven and immediately bows down in obedience to God. Alexander travels to the end of the flat Earth to witness this spectacle. The legend explained that "the old, wise men" told Alexander about the sea in which the Sun rises from the west and in which the Sun sets in the east. The waters of this sea were imagined as being intensely hot from the heat of the Sun when it rose from the waters. Upon hearing about this place, Alexander sets out to the end of the flat Earth and witnesses the Sun rising from the fetid sea. At this place, where the Sun rises out of a terrible sea, Alexander finds a people who have no shelter from the Sun which is literally rising out of an intensely hot sea:

    The place of his [the Sun's] rising is over the sea, and the people who dwell there, when he is about to rise, flee away and hide themselves in the sea, that they be not burnt by his rays; and he passes through the midst of heaven to the place where he enters the window of heaven; and wherever he passes there are terrible mountains, and those who dwell there have caves hollowed out in the rocks, and as soon as they see the Sun passing [over them], men and birds flee away from before him and hide in the caves ... And when the Sun enters the window of heaven, he [it] straight away bows down and makes obeisance before God his Creator; and he travels and descends the whole night through the heavens, until at length he finds himself where he [the Sun] rises ... So the whole camp mounted, and Alexander and his troops went up between the fetid sea and the bright sea to the place where the Sun enters the window of heaven; for the Sun is the servant of the Lord, and neither by night nor by day does he cease from his travelling.[4]

The Christian legend is much more detailed than the Qur'an's version and elaborates at length about the cosmology of the Earth that is implied by the story:

    He [Alexander] said to them [the nobles]: "This thought has arisen in my mind, and I am wondering what is the extent of the earth, and how high the heavens are ... and upon what the heavens are fixed ... Now this I desire to go and see, upon what the heavens rest, and what surrounds all creation." The nobles answered and said to the king, ... "As to the thing, my lord, which thy majesty desires to go and see, namely, upon what the heaveans rest, and what surrounds the earth, the terrible seas which surround the world will not give thee a passage; because there are eleven bright seas, on which the ships of men sail, and beyond these there is about ten miles of dry land, and beyond these ten miles there is the foetid sea, Okeyanos (the Ocean), which surrounds all creation. Men are not able to come near to this foetid sea ... Its waters are like poison and if men swim therein, they die at once."[4]

This ancient motif of a legendary figure traveling to the end of Earth is also found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which can be dated to circa 2000 BC, making it one of the earliest known works of literary writing.[58] In the epic poem, in tablet nine, Gilgamesh sets out on a quest for the Water of Life to seek immortality. Gilgamesh travels far to the east, to the mountain passes at the ends of the earth where he grapples and slays monstrous mountain lions, bears and others. Eventually he comes to the twin peaks of Mount Mashu at the end of the earth, from where the sun rises from the other world, the gate of which is guarded by two terrible scorpion-beings. They allow him to proceed through the gate after Gilgamesh convinces them to let him pass, stating his divinity and desperation, and he travels through the dark tunnel where the sun travels every night. Just before the sun is about to catch up with him, and with the North Wind and ice lashing him, he reaches the end. The world at the end of the tunnel is a bright wonderland full of trees with leaves of jewels. The myth of a flat Earth surrounded by an Ocean into which the sun sets is also found in the Iliad, the famous epic poem written by Homer and dated to circa 900 BC. The story of creation in the Hebrew Bible, in Genesis 1:10, (dated circa 900-550 BC) is also considered by scholars to be describing a flat Earth surrounded by a sea.[59]

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus (484– 425 BC) also gave an account of the eastern "end of the Earth," in his descriptions of India. He reported that in India the sun's heat is extremely intense in the morning, instead of noon being the hottest time of day. It has been argued that he based this on his belief that since India is located at the extreme east of a flat Earth, it would only be logical if the morning were unbearably hot due to the sun's proximity.[60]
[edit] Alexander's travels
Map of Alexander's travels. Alexander never marched far west of his native Macedon and his advances eastward ended at the fringes of India.

The Qur'an and the Alexander romance both have it that Dhul-Qarnayn (or Alexander) travelled a great deal. In the Qur`an`s story of Dhul-Qarnayn, "God gave him unto every thing a road." (18:84) He travels as far as the ends of the Earth, to the place on the Earth where the Sun sets (the west) and the place on the Earth where the Sun rises (the east). The Qur'an's verses describe Dhul-Qarnayn's journey across the physical Earth to the "setting of the sun." Muslim interpretations of these verses are varied, but classical Muslim scholars seemed to have been of the opinion that Dhul-Qarnayn's journey was real, not allegorical, and that Dhul-Qarnayn's wall is also a real, physical wall somewhere on Earth.

In the Christian legends, Alexander travels to the places of the setting and rising of the Sun and this is meant to say that he traveled to the ends of the flat Earth and thus he had traversed the entire world (or universe). This legendary account served to convey the theme of Alexander's exploits as a great conqueror. Alexander was indeed a great conqueror, having ruled the largest empire in ancient history by the time he was 25 years old. However, the true historical extent of Alexander's travels are known to be greatly exaggerated in legends. For example, legend has it that upon reaching India,

    ... said Alexander 'Truly, then, all the inhabited world is mine. West, north, east, south, there is nothing more for me to conquer.' Then he sat down and wept because there were not other worlds for him to conquer.[61]

In reality, while Alexander did travel a great deal, he did not travel further west than ancient Libya and did not travel further east than the fringes of India. According to historians, Alexander invaded India following his desire to reach the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea." However, when he reached the Hyphasis River in the Punjab in 326 BC, his army nearly mutinied and refused to march further east, exhausted by years of campaigning. Alexander`s desire to reach "the ends of the Earth" was instilled by his tutor Aristotle:

    Alexander derived his concept of `Asia' from the teaching of Aristotle, for whom `the inhabited earth' was surrounded by `the Great sea' Ocean, and was divided into three areas - `Europe, Libya and Asia.' Thus the earth was not round but flat, and `Asia' was limited on the west by the Tanais (Don), the inland sea and the Nile, and on the east by `India' and `the Great Sea' ... he was mistaken in supposing that from the ridge of the Paropamisadae (Hindu Kush) one would see `the outer sea' and that `India' was a small peninsula running east into that sea.[62]

This view of the world taught by Aristotle and followed by Alexander is apparent in Aristotle's Meteorologica, a treatise on earth sciences where he discusses the "length" and "width" of "the inhabited earth." However, Aristotle knew that the Earth is spherical and even provided observational proof of this fact. Aristotle's cosmological view was that the Earth is round but he prescribed to the notion of an "inhabited Earth," surrounded by the Ocean, and an "uninhabited Earth" (though exactly how much of this was understood by his student Alexander the Great is not known).
[edit] Al-Khidir
Al-Khidr and Dhul-Qarnayn watch the Water of Life revive a salted fish. "When Alexander sought he did not find what Khizr found unsought" (Sikandar Nâma LXIX.75).

Surah Al-Kahaf has also been linked to the Alexander romance through a second story. The Qur'an verses 18:60-82, which immediately precede the story of Dhul-Qarnayn, mention the story of Al-Khidir and a fish that miraculously comes to life. It has been theorized that the Qur'an's story was influenced by the story of the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth) mentioned in Eastern versions of the Alexander romance.[63]

In Islamic traditions, Al-Khidir (literally "the Green One," an enigmatic figure in Islam) is the maternal cousin of Alexander or Dhul-Qarnayn.[citation needed] The Qur'an's story is about about Moses and Al-Khidir, though the classical Islamic scholars showed some disagreement over whether or not 'Moses' in this story is Moses of the Israelites. In the Qur'an's story, God commands 'Moses' to find Al-Khidir and seek his wisdom. In order to find the mysterious Al-Khidir, Moses must carry with him a fish and wherever the fish miraculously comes to life there he will find Al-Khidir. Thus Moses travels all the way to the "junction of the two seas," with his servant carrying a fish. Eventually they find Al-Khidir and Al-Khidir puts Moses to a test of patience where Moses must travel with Al-Khidir but not ask any questions. Al-Khidir sinks a vessel and drowns its passengers, then he murders a boy, causing Moses breaks his silence. Al-Khidir explains how each of his lawless acts were for a greater good and Moses fails the test of patience. The Qur'an's is remarkably similar to Jewish folklore concerning Elijah. In the Jewish tale, Rabbi Joshua ben Levi asks to join the prophet Elijah in his wanderings. Elijah grants the Rabbi's wish on the condition that he refrain from asking any questions about any of the prophet’s actions. He agrees and they begin their journey. Elijah carries out "lawless" acts, like Al-Khidir in the Qur'an, and similarly the Rabbi breaks his silence and demands an explanation.

The story in the Qur'an is summarized in a hadith of Sahih Al-Bukhari:

    Allah revealed to him [Moses]: 'At the junction of the two seas there is a slave of Ours [Al-Khidir] who is more learned than you. ' Moses asked, 'O my Lord, how can I meet him?' Allah said, 'Take a fish and put it in a basket (and set out), and where you, will lose the fish, you will find him.' So Moses (took a fish and put it in a basket and) set out, along with his boy-servant Yusha' bin Nun, till they reached a rock (on which) they both lay their heads and slept. The fish moved vigorously in the basket and got out of it and fell into the sea and there it took its way through the sea (straight) as in a tunnel.[64]

The idea that the sources of these verses are found in the Alexander romance was first proposed by Mark Lidzbarski and Karl Duroff in 1892. In 1913 Israel Friedlander wrote a book on the subject titled`"The Al-Khidir Legend and the Alexander Romance." Early Persian and Ethiopic Muslim legends concerning Alexander made a similar connection between Al-Khidir and Alexander (see figure).[65]

One similarity between the Qur'an story and the Alexander romance concerns the fish that miraculously comes to life. This motif is found in the Syriac sermon by Jacob of Serugh, where Alexander travels in search of the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth). A shorter version of the story in also found in the Greek β-recension of the Alexander romance. In the Syriac legend, Alexander finds a wise man who tells Alexander to take a salted fish and wash it in the fountains in the Land of Darkness, and if the fish comes to life then he will have found the Water of Life:

    The king [Alexander] said, "I have heard that therein [in the Land of Darkness] is the fountain of life, And I desire greatly to go forth and see if, of a truth, it is [there]. The old man said, ... "Command thy cook take with him a salt fish, and wherever he sees a fountain of water let him wash the fish; And if it be that it comes to life in his hands when he washes it, That is the fountain of the water of life which thou askest for, O King." [4]

Another similarity between the Al-Khidir legends and the Alexander romance is the Water of Life. Though the Qur'an does not mention the Fountain of Youth, it is alluded to in the hadith literature. Al-Khidir in the hadith literature is described as being immortal, having taught every prophet before Muhammad, and having the appearance of a young adult but having a long, white beard, and he is even described as being present at Muhammad`s funeral:

    ... whether Khidr was still alive, was a more contentious issue. In the twelfth century a Hanbali scholar denied the continued existence of Khidr. The majority of scholars, on the other hand, affirmed Khidr’s eternal life and have continued to do so into the twentieth century. New Arabic texts on Khidr have appeared during the last twenty years of the twentieth century, the majority of which have rejected the idea of his eternal life as ‘unislamic’ without enlisting new arguments for their viewpoint though.[66]

The story of Al-Khidir, in the Qur'an, does not mention Dhul-Qarnayn, rather only a figure called "Moses" is referred to by name. This would seem to shed doubt on the idea that the story is about Dhul-Qarnayn, as it appears to be a story about Moses of the Israelites. However, the early Islamic literature raises questions about whether the Moses mentioned in the story of the fish is the Moses of the Israelites, or someone entirely different:

    Narrated Sa'id: Ibn 'Abbas said, "Ask me (any question)" I [Sa'id] said, "O Abu Abbas! ... There is a man at Kufa who is a story-teller called Nauf; who claims that he (Al-Khadir's companion) is not Moses of Bani Israel ... Ibn 'Abbas said, "(Nauf) the enemy of Allah told a lie."[67]

The story, in the Alexander romance[58] and in the Qur'an, is considered by scholars to have been influenced by the Epic of Gilgamesh (specifically Giglamesh`s search for the Water of Life ). Gilgamesh reaches the water but, like Alexander, fails to become immortal. Like Alexander, Giglamesh also comes to the spot at which the sun rises from the Earth:

    The sources of the Khidir-story go back to mythological motifs appearing in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, in the Alexander romance and in Jewish legends centered around the mythical figure of Elijah. The story as it is told by the Qur'an interweaves several narrative motifs: the test of patience, the quest for the spring of life, and so on. The identification of the servent of god with al-Khidir is attested to in traditions from the Prophet, which may be the reason why it is rarely contested by Muslim commentators. There is less exegetical unanimity about whether the Moses mentioned here is the Egyptian Moses or not.[68]

A peculiar aspect of the story in the Qur'an is that Al-Khidir is found at a distant place called the "junction of the two seas." This is believed by secular scholars to be a reference to the end of the World, where the sun rises from the outer Ocean sea. The "junction of the two seas" is mentioned in several places in the Qur'an:

    He [Allah] is the one who has let free the two bodies of flowing water, one sweet and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He has made between them a barrier and a forbidding partition. (Qur'an 25:53)

This has been compared the ancient Akkadian myth of the Abzu, the name for a fresh water underground sea that was given a religious quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the Abzu underground sea, while the Ocean that surrounded the world was a saltwater sea. It would follow that the "junction" of these two seas would be at the end of the World, at the "the setting place of the sun," where Dhul-Qarnayn sees the sun setting into a body of water.[69] The Abzu freshwater sea was also depicted as a deity in the Babylonian creation myth, the Enûma Elish, where he was a primal being made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, who was a creature of salt water. The Enuma Elish begins:

    When above the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, Apsu the freshwater ocean was there, the first, the begetter, and Tiamat, the saltwater sea, she who bore them all; they were still mixing their waters, and no pasture land had yet been formed, nor even a reed marsh...

Similarly in Greek mythology, the world was surrounded by Oceanus, the world-ocean of classical antiquity. Oceanus was personified as the god Titan, whose consort was the aquatic sea goddess Tethys.[70] It was also thought that rainfall was due a third ocean above the "canopy of the sky." A comprehensive understanding of the Earth`s water cycle did not exist until a treatise titled De l'origine des fontaines ("On the origin of springs") was written by Pierre Perrault in 1674 AD.
[edit] The People of the Cave
The Cave of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in Ephesus, Turkey. As the earliest versions of the legend spread from Ephesus, this early Christian catacomb came to be associated with it, attracting pilgrims. The 'Grotto' of the Seven Sleepers and ruins of a church built over it were excavated in 1927-28. The excavation brought to light several hundred graves which were dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. Inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers were found on the walls of the church and in the graves.

Related to the story of Dhul-Qarnayn is the story of the People of the Cave in Surah Al-Kahf ("The Cave"), was also revealed on account of the rabbis's questions (according to the Sira):

    They (the rabbis) said "Ask him about some young men in ancient times, what was their story? For theirs is a strange and wondrous tale. Ask him about a man who travelled a great deal and reached the east and the west of the earth. What was his story? ...[18]

The question regarding "some young men in ancient times" refers to the Qur'an's story about the "People of the Cave," occurring in verses 18:9-26, immediately preceding the verses relating to Dhul-Qarnayn. The story in the Qur'an is remarkably similar to a related Syriac Christian legend called the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus[71]. A version of this legend was recorded in the Syriac language and attributed to Jacob of Serugh (451-521 AD)[72] who is also attributed as the author of a Syriac Alexander romance manuscript. In the Qur'an's story, some number of young monotheistic men lived in a time where they were persecuted. They fled the city together, and took refuge in a cave where they fell asleep. God caused them to remain sleeping for approximately 300 years, and when they woke the surrounding area had become monotheistic as well. In the Christian tale:

    During the reign of Decius over Rome, in the city of Ephesus, Christians were ordered to worship non-Christian deities. The Emperor sought seven high-ranking Christian officials. They fled to a cave on Mt. Celion, where they slept ... Long afterwards, The Roman Empire embraced Christianity [under Theodosius I]... they found the blocked up cave, and reopened it, and the sleepers awoke ... They [the Sleepers] paid for purchases in town with old coins they were still carrying from the days of Emperor Decius. The story spread and Theodosius came to meet these young men.[72]

The Christian legend shows many similarities to the story of the Cave in the Qur'an.[71] In his famous exegesis of the Qur'an, Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 AD) actually addresses the question of Christian origins of the story of the cave. Ibn Kathir reasons that the Qur'an's story could not be related to a Christian legend on account of the Jewish rabbis who supposedly asked Muhammad about the stories found in Surah Al-Kahf:

    It has been said that they [the People of the Cave] were followers of Jesus the son of Mary, but God knows it better: it is obvious that they lived much earlier than the Christian period - for, had they been Christians, why should the Jewish rabbis have been intent on preserving their story, seeing that the Jews had cut themselves off from all friendly communion with them [the Christians]?[73]

One interesting difference between the stories is that the Christian tale explicitly says that there were seven sleepers, while the Qur'an's story does not give an exact number. Instead, the Qur'an mentions that some people at the time claimed to know the exact number but the believers are admonished from inquiring about the matter:

    (Some) say they [the People of the Cave] were three [în number], the dog being the fourth among them; (others) say they were five, the dog being the sixth,- doubtfully guessing at the unknown; (yet others) say they were seven, the dog being the eighth. Say thou: "My Lord knoweth best their number; It is but few that know their (real case)." Enter not, therefore, into controversies concerning them, except on a matter that is clear, nor consult any of them about (the affair of) the Sleepers. (Qur'an 18:22)

The Christian Seven Sleepers legend predates the Qur'an and was current in the Middle East during the time during which the Qur`an was written. The Seven Sleepers form the subject of a homily in verse by the Edessan poet Jacob of Serugh (451-521 AD), which was published in the Acta Sanctorum. Another 6th century version, in a Syrian manuscript in the British Museum (Cat. Syr. Mss, p. 1090), gives eight sleepers. The legend rapidly attained a wide diffusion throughout Christendom, popularized in the West by Gregory of Tours (538-594 AD), in his late 6th century collection of miracles, De gloria martyrum (Glory of the Martyrs). Gregory says that he heard the legend from “a certain Syrian.“
[edit] Islamic depictions of Alexander the Great
[edit] Arabic traditions
Manuscript of the 9th century Arabic work Secretum Secretorum ("Secret of Secrets"), an encyclopedic treatise on a wide range of topics including physiognomy, astrology, alchemy, magic, and medicine. This work includes a series of supposed letters from Aristotle, addressed to Alexander. The Arabic manuscript was translated into Latin in the 12th century and was influential in Europe during the High Middle Ages

Alexander the Great features prominently in early Arabic literature. There is evidence of a lost pre-Islamic Arabic translation of the Alexander romance that was intermediate between the Syriac Christian and Ethiopic Christian translations, as well as later Persian translations[74] There are many surviving versions of the Alexander romance in Arabic but they are sufficiently different from the Syriac Christian legends that they cannot be called direct recensions or translations.

The earliest full-length Arabic narrative about Alexander was composed by Umara ibn Zayd (767-815 AD). In the tale, Alexander travels a great deal, builds the Wall against Gog and Magog, searches for the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth), and encounters angles who give him a "wonder-stone" that both weighs more than any other stone but is also as light as dust. This wonder-stone is meant to admonish Alexander for his ambitions and indicate that his lust for conquest and eternal life will not end until his death. The story of the wonder-stone is not found in the Syriac Christian legend, but is found in Jewish Talmudic traditions about Alexander as well as in Persian traditions.[14][75]

A South Arabian Alexander legend was written by the Yemenite traditionist Wahb ibn Munabbih (?-732 AD) and this legend was later incorporated in a book by Ibn Hisham (?-833 AD) regarding the history of the Himyarite Kingdom in ancient Yemen. In the Yemenite variation, Dhul-Qarnayn is identified with an ancient king of Yemen named Tubba', rather than Alexander the Great, but the Arabic story still describes the story of Alexander`s Wall against Gog and Magog and his quest for the Water of Life. The story also mentions that Dhul-Qarnayn (Tubba') visited a castle with glass walls and visited the Brahmins of India. The South Arabian legend was composed within the context of the division between the South Arabs and North Arabs that began with the Battle of Marj-al-Rahit in 680 AD and consolidated over two centuries.[14]

The Alexander romance also had an important influence on Arabic wisdom literature. In Secretum Secretorum ("Secret of Secrets", in Arabic Kitab sirr al-asrar), an encyclopedic Arabic treatise on a wide range of topics such as statecraft, ethics, physiognomy, alchemy, astrology, magic and medicine, Alexander appears as a speaker and subject of wise sayings and as a correspondent with figures such as Aristotle. The origins of the treatise are uncertain. No Greek original exists, though there are claims in the Arabic treatise that it was translated from the Greek into Syriac and from Syriac into Arabic by a well-known 9th century translator, Yahya ibn al-Bitriq (?-815 AD). It appears, however, that the treatise was actually composed originally in Arabic.

In another example of Arabic wisdom literature relating to Alexander, Ibn al-Nadim (?-997 AD) refers to a work on divination titled The Drawing of Lots by Dhul-Qarnain and to a second work on divination by arrows titled The gift of Alexander, but only the titles of these works have survived.

Notably, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tasim (794-842 AD) had ordered the translation of the Thesaurus Alexandri, a work on elixirs and amulets, from Greek and Latin into Arabic. The Greek work Thesaurus Alexandri was attributed to Hermes (the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology) and similarly contained supposed letters from Aristotle addressed to Alexander.[14][76]

A more direct Arabic translation of the Alexander romance, called Sirat Al-Iskandar, was discovered in Constantinople, at the Hagia Sophia, and is dated to the 13th century. This version includes the letter from Alexander to his mother about his travels in India and at the end of the World. It also includes features which occur exclusively in the Syriac version. Interestingly, the Arabic legend also retains certain pagan elements of the story, which are sometimes modified to suit the Islamic message:

    It is quite remarkable that some characteristics belonging to a pre-Islamic 'pagan' entourage, have survived in the text ... For example, Alexander orders an offering of sacrificial animals at the temple of Hercules. In the Arabic letter the name of the deity has been replaced by Allah ... Another passage in the account of the palace of Shoshan or Sus, gives a description of the large silver jars, which were alleged to have capacity of three hundred and sixty measures of wine. Alexander puts this assertion to the test, having one of the jars filled with wine and poured out for his soldiers during a banquet. This exact specification has been maintained, heedless of the Islamic ban on the use of wine ... These retouched borrowings are highly significant in this text, because the Arabic Alexander figure is portrayed as a propagator of Islamic monotheism.[74]

Another piece of Arabic Alexander literature is the Laments (or Sayings) of the Philosophers. These are a collection of remarks supposedly made by some philosophers gathered at the tomb of Alexander after his death. This legend was originally written in the 6th century in Syriac and was later translated into Arabic and expanded upon. The Laments of the Philosophers eventually gained enormous popularity in the Europe[10]:

    [The 'Sayings of the Philosophers' are] remarks of the philosophers gathered at the tomb of Alexander, who utter a series of apophthegms on the theme of the brevity of life and the transience of human achievement ... a work entitled 'Sayings of the Philosophers' was first composed in Syriac in the sixth century; a longer Arabic version was composed by Hunayan Ibn Ishaq (809-973) the distinguished scholar-translator, and a still longer one by al-Mubashshir ibn Fatiq (who also wrote a book about Alexander) around 1053. Hunayanès version was translated into Spanish ... in the late thirteenth century.[77]

The Arabic Alexander romance also had an influence on a wider range of Arabic literature. It has been noted that some features of the Arabic Alexander legends found their way into The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, a medieval story-cycle of Arabic origin. Sinbad, the hero of the epic, is a fictional sailor from Basrah, living during the Abbasid Caliphate. During his voyages throughout the seas east of Africa and south of Asia, he has fantastic adventures going to magical places, meeting monsters, and encountering supernatural phenomena. As a separate example of this influence on Arabic literature, the legend of Alexander's search for the Water of Life is found in One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folktales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age.[14]
[edit] Andalusian traditions
Manuscript of a 14th century poem (Poema de Yuçuf) written in Aljamiado (Spanish and Mozarabic language transliterated in Arabic alphabet).

After the Umayyad Muslim conquest of Al-Andalus (Spain) in 711 AD, Muslim literature flourished under the Caliphate of Cَrdoba (929 to 1031 AD). An Arabic derivative of the Alexander romance was produced, called Qisas Dhul-Qarnayn (Tales of Dhul-Qarnayn).[12] 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").[13]

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 Qur'anic 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.[78][79]
[edit] Persian traditions
15th century Persian miniature painting from Herat depicting Iskander, the Persian name for Alexander the Great

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 centuries of Persian domination by Hellenistic foreign rulers. Islamic Persian accounts of the Alexander legend, known as the Iskandarnamah, combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes material about Alexander, some of which is found in the Qur'an, 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 writers as Nezami Ganjavi were making him the subject of their epic poems. The Muslim traditions also elaborated the legend that Alexander the Great had been the companion of Aristotle and the direct student of Plato.

There is also evidence that the Syriac translation of the Alexander romance, dating to the 6th century, was not directly based on the Greek recensions but was based on a lost Pahlavi (pre-Islamic Persian) manuscript.[74]
[edit] Central Asian traditions

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 Dhū 1-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.[80]

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.[80]

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.[80]

[edit] Theological controversy

Though early Muslim scholars identified Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great, this identification has been a matter of controversy amongst Muslim scholars for centuries. The belief that the Qur'an contains passages derived from pagan folklore, rather than its own internal epistemological standard that itself establishes the legitimacy of similar texts (such as the Bible), has led some to judge the Dhul-Qarnayn story a serious theological problem. Ancient Muslim scholars of Islam were unaware of such theological controversies, but even in modern times, some influential mainstream Muslims have endorsed the traditional Islamic view which identified Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great, judging the theological problems that could be posed surmountable. Most secular scholars studying Islam have been concord in their view that there is strong evidence supporting the conclusion that Dhul-Qarnayn is none other than Alexander the Great. However, belief in the infallibility of the Qur'an has made this position untenable in the opinions of many modern Muslim scholars.

Most of the factual details of the Alexander romance, as those that appear to be included in the Qur'an (Alexander's fantastic deeds as well as his implied monotheism), have little or no basis in historical fact. The historical personality of Alexander the Great was co-opted by the legendary traditions of both Judaism and Christianity, which chose to portray Alexander as "the Believing King" — a devout monotheist. It was in this Judeo-Christian context that the legends of Alexander the Great reached the Arabian Peninsula. It is well known that the Qur'an contains a very large number of Judeo-Christian stories, most of them found in the Bible. The Alexander romance was also at one time believed to be true in the Judeo-Christian world, however today it not found in the Bible but rather mainly in obscure works of folklore that could easily be ignored by Jews and Christians as the history of Alexander was brought under the light of modern scrutiny. Cartographers no longer show the location of Gog and Magog on maps of the world, nor do they show the Paropamisadae mountains at the supposed end of the World, nor do archeologists continue the search for the Gates of Alexander. This apparent confusion in the Qur'an between fact and legend, combined with endorsement of Alexander Dhul-Qarnayn in Muslim literature from the earliest times up to the present, could possibly be a source of embarrassment to some Muslim scholars.

Some notable twentieth century Muslim scholars of Islam rejected the traditional Muslim identification of Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander and offered alternative theories, the most popular being that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great. Abul Ala Maududi (1903-1979 AD) and Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958 AD) suggested that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great (600-530 BC), the first Zoroastrian Persian emperor.
[edit] See also

    * Origin and development of the Qur'an
    * Legends and the Qur'an
    * Biblical narratives and the Qur'an
    * Sana'a manuscripts

[edit] Notes

   1. ^ Esposito.
   2. ^ a b Edwards 2002.
   3. ^ Nöldeke.
   4. ^ a b c d e f g Budge 1889.
   5. ^ a b c d e Anderson 1927.
   6. ^ McGinn 1998.
   7. ^ Broydé 1906.
   8. ^ a b Boyle 1974.
   9. ^ Beyer, Klaus; John F. Healey (trans.) (1986). The Aramaic Language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. pp. 44. ISBN 3-525-53573-2.
  10. ^ a b c Brock 1970.
  11. ^ HANAWAY, WILLIAM L. ESKANDAR-NĀMA. Encyclopedia Iranica.
  12. ^ a b Zuwiyya 2001
  13. ^ a b Zuwiyya 2009.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Stoneman 2003.
  15. ^ Czeglédy 1954.
  16. ^ Czeglédy 1957.
  17. ^ Doufikar-Aerts 2003.
  18. ^ a b Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Al-Kahf, Reason why this Surah was revealed
  19. ^ Guillaume p.139.
  20. ^ Guillaume p.12.
  21. ^ Von Kremer's Altarabische Gedichie ueber die Volgssage von Yemen p.15 (No. viii,1.6 sqq).
  22. ^ Imam Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti. "Tafsir Al-Jalalayn". http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=18&tAyahNo=83&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageID=2.
  23. ^ Razi, Tafsir al-Kabir, commenting on Q. 18:83-98.
  24. ^ Morgan.
  25. ^ The Holy Qur'an, Translation and Commentary by Yusuf Ali, Appendix 7, page 763 (1983)
  26. ^ Maududi, Abdul Ala (1972). "Tafheem-ul-Qura'an". p. 18:83, note 62. http://www.englishtafsir.com/Quran/18/index.html#sdfootnote61sym.
  27. ^ a b c "Coin: from the Persian Wars to Alexander the Great, 490–336 bc". Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124716/coin/15880/From-the-Persian-Wars-to-Alexander-the-Great-490-336-bc. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
  28. ^ Griffith 2008.
  29. ^ Green 2007. p.382
  30. ^ Plutarch, Alexander, 27
  31. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica, Alexander III, 1971
  32. ^ the Great coins gallaery
  33. ^ The Impact of Alexander the Great’s Coinage in East Arabia, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, description of the exhibit "Presveis," displayed at the Numismatic Museum of Athens
  34. ^ Shanks, Jeffrey H. (2005) [http Alexander the Great and Zeus Ammon: A New Interpretation of the Phalerae from Babyna Mogila]. Ancient West & East. Volume 4, Number 1.
  35. ^ The Wars of the Jews, VII, vii, Flavius Josephus
  36. ^ The Antiquities of the Jews, I, vi, Flavius Josephus
  37. ^ Anderson 1932.
  38. ^ Letter 77 "To Oceanus", 8, Saint Jerome
  39. ^ Gog and Magog : Ezekiel 38-39 as pre-text for Revelation 19,17 and 20,7-10, Sverre Bøe, Mohr Siebec, 2001 (see excerpt) (ISBN 978-3-16-147520-7)
  40. ^ Southgate 1978.
  41. ^ a b Bretschneider 1876.
  42. ^ Anderson, Andrew Runni, ed (January 1932). Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog, and the enclosed nations. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Medieval Academy of America. ISBN 9780910956079.
  43. ^ Tafsir al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Vol. III, pp. 235–239
  44. ^ a b Mu'jam-ul-Buldan, Yaqut al-Hamawi
  45. ^ H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham, trans. The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325–1354 (Vol. IV). London: Hakluyt Society, 1994 (ISBN 0-904180-37-9), p. 896
  46. ^ Gibb, p. 896, footnote #30
  47. ^ Leone Montagnini, "La questione della forma della Terra. Dalle origini alla tarda Antichità," in Studi sull'Oriente Cristiano, 13/II: 31-68
  48. ^ Flammarion 1877
  49. ^ Kevin Alan Brook. The Jews of Khazaria. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.
  50. ^ Schultze (1905), p. 23.[verification needed]
  51. ^ Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidayah wa'l-Nihayah (The Beginning and the End)
  52. ^ Ibn Kathir, "Stories of the Prophets", page 54. Riyadh, SA Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 2003
  53. ^ Collection of Geographical Works by Ibn al-Faqih, Ibn Fadlan, Abu Dulaf Al-Khazraji, ed. Fuat Sezgin, Frankfurt am Main, 1987
  54. ^ Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Al-Kahf 18:89, His traveling and reaching the Place where the Sun sets (the West) ([1])
  55. ^ Sahih Muslim 1:297
  56. ^ History, Science and Civilization: Early Muslim Consensus: The Earth is Round
  57. ^ Ragep, F. Jamil: "Astronomy", in: Krنmer, Gudrun (ed.) et al.: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Brill 2010, without page numbers
  58. ^ a b Sattari J., "A study on the epic of Gilgamesh and the legend of Alexander." Markaz Publications 2001 (In Persian)
  59. ^ Seely 1997.
  60. ^ How, Walter W. and Wells, J. A Commentary on Herodotus. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1912. vol 1. p. 290.
  61. ^ Thirty Most Famous Stories Retold, James Baldwin (1841–1925)
  62. ^ Hammond 1998.
  63. ^ Friedlنnder.
  64. ^ (Khidir in the Hadith, Sahih Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60, Number 249.)
  65. ^ Wheeler 2002.
  66. ^ Al-Khidir The Green Man. Review by Claudia Liebeskind in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 6513 (2002) of Patrick Franke. Begegnung mit Khidr: Quellenstudien zum Imaginنren im traditionellen Islam. Beiruter Texte und Studien 82. Beirut-Stuttgart 2000. XV + 620p, 23 ill
  67. ^ Sahih Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60, Number 250. (link)
  68. ^ Leaman, Olver. ed. (2006). Al-Khidir in The Qur'an: an encyclopedia p.344
  69. ^ The Two Seas and the Ocean of Heaven in the Koran
  70. ^ Burkert, Walter The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early archaic Age (Harvard University Press) 1992, pp 91-93.
  71. ^ a b The Qur'an in its Historical Context, "Christian Lore and the Arabic Qur'an: The 'Companions of the Cave' in Surat al-Kahf and in Syriac Christian tradition," Sidney riffith, 2008 (ISBN 978-0-415-42899-6)
  72. ^ a b Sawma, Gabriel. The Qurʼan: misinterpreted, mistranslated and misread : the Aramaic language of the Qur'an, 2006, p. 314(ISBN 978-0-9778606-9-2)
  73. ^ Muhammad Asad. The Message of the Qur'an. The Book Foundation: 2003. Footnote on 18.7
  74. ^ a b c Doufikar-Aerts, Faustina (2003). The Last Days of Alexander in an Arabic Popular Romance of Al-Iskandar. in The Ancient Novel and Beyond by Panayotakis, Zimmerman and Keulen.
  75. ^ Southgate, Minoo. S. Portrait of Alexander in Persian Alexander-Romances of the Islamic Era. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 97, No. 3, (Jul. - Sep., 1977), pp. 278-284
  76. ^ Yucesoy, Hayrettin. Messianic Beliefs & Imperial Politics in Medieval Islam: The Abbasid Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century. 2009. University of South Carolina. pp.122-123
  77. ^ Hofmann, Heinz. Latin fiction: the Latin novel in context. Routledge, 1999. p.245
  78. ^ 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 filolَgicos de traducciَn. Ed. Vicente Lَpez Folgado. Cَrdoba: Universidad de Cَrdoba (2002). Pp. 243-263.
  79. ^ 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.
  80. ^ a b c 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: 89–107. http://remmm.revues.org/index274.html.

[edit] Bibliography

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    * Anderson, Andrew Runni (1928). "Alexander at the Caspian Gates". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 59: 130–163. doi:10.2307/282983.
    * Brock, S.A. (1970). "The Laments of the Philosophers over Alexander in Syriac". Journal of Semitic Studies 15 (2): 205–218. doi:10.1093/jss/15.2.205. http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/15/2/205.
    * Boyle, John Andrew (1974). "The Alexander Legend in Central Asia". Folklore 85 (4): 12. http://www.jstor.org/pss/1259620.
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    * Budge (translator), E. A. W., ed (1896) (in Ethiopic). "The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great Being," a Series of Translations of the Ethiopic Histories of Alexander by the Pseudo Callisthenes and Other Writers.
    * Bretschneider, E. (1876). The Medieval Geography and History of Central and Western Asia. London. p. 208. http://books.google.ca/books?id=R98-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA208&dq=derbend+gates+of+alexander&cd=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
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    * Edwards, Rebecca (2002). "Two Horns, Three Religions. How Alexander the Great ended up in the Quran". American Philological Association, 133rd Annual Meeting Program (Philadelphia, 5 January 2002) 36, under Reception of Classical Literature, No. 5. http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/02mtg/abstracts/edwardsr.html. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
    * Emerick, Yahiya (2005). What Islam is All About. Noorart Inc.. ISBN 978-1-933269-02-3. http://www.noorart.com/what_islam_is_all_about_hardcover.
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    * Esposito, John L., ed. "Alexander the Great". The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e113?_hi=0&_pos=5. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
    * Flammarion, Camille (March 1877). "Popular Science Monthly". http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_10/March_1877/How_the_Earth_was_Regarded_in_Old_Times.
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    * Friedländer, Israel (1910). "Alexanders Zug Nach Dem Lebensquell Und Die Chadhirlegende [Alexander's Journey to the Water of Life and the Legend of Al-Khidir]" (in German). Archiv Für Religionswissenschaft 13: 161–246.
    * Friedländer, Israel (1913) (in German). Die Chadhirlegende Und Der Alexanderroman [The Legend of Al-Khidir and the Alexander Romance]. Leipzig: Druck Und Verlag Von B. G. Teubner.
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    * Wheeler, Brannon M. (2002). Moses in the Qur'an. London: RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 10–36.
    * Wood, Michael (1997). In the footsteps of Alexander the Great: a journey from Greece to Asia. University of California Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0520231924. http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5wDWn1dL6HMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=
Alexander the great
 Dhul Qarnain

by Imam Ibn Kathir - from Stories From Quran

Allah the Almighty says:

{And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnain. Say: "I shall recite to you something of his story." Verily, We established him in the earth, and We gave him the means of everything. So he followed a way. Until, when he reached the setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of black muddy (or hot) water. And he found near it a people. We (Allah) said (by inspiration): "O Dhul-Qarnain! Either you punish them, or treat themآ with kindness." He said: "As for him (a disbeliever in the Oneness of Allah) who does wrong, we shall punish him, and then- he will be brought back unto his Lord, Who will punish him with a terrible torment (Hell)."But as for him who believes (in Allah's Oneness) and works righteousness he shall have the best reward, (Paradise), and we (Dhul-آ­Qarnain) shall speak unto him mild words (as instructions)." Then he followed another way. Until, when he came to the rising place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We (Allah) had provided no shelter against the sun. So (it was)! And We knew all about him (Dhul-Qarnain). Then he followed (another) way. Until, when he reached between two mountains, he found, before (near) them (those two mountains), a people who scarcely understood a word. They said: "O Dhulآ­-Qarnain! Verily Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog) are doing great mischief in the land. Shall we then pay you a tribute in order that you might erect a barrier between us and them?" He said: "That (wealth, authority and power) in which my Lord had established me is better (than your

tribute). So help me with strength (of men),] will erect between you and them a barrier. "Give me pieces (blocks) of iron;" then, when he had filled up the gap between the two mountain-cliffs, he said: "Blow;" then when he had made them (red as) fire, he said: "Bring me molten copper to pour over them." So they (Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog))) could not scale it or dig through it. Dhulآ­-Qarnain) said: "This is a mercy from my Lord, but when the Promise of my Lord comes, He shall level it down to the ground. And the Promise of my Lord is ever true. "}. (Al-Kahf, 83-98)

 

آ Was He a Prophet?

Allah the Almighty praised Dhul-Qarnain in the Glorious Qur'an for his justice. He ruled over the easts and wests and many regions where he subjected their peoples and ruled them with perfect justice. The most likely opinion is that he was just a king.

Also, he was said to be a Prophet, or a Messenger. However, the most unlikely opinion thereof was that he was an Angel. The latter was narrated after the Leader of the Faithful, 'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) who heard a man calling another saying: 0 Dhul-Qarnain! He ('Umar) said: Shut up! Was it not enough with you to name yourselves after the Prophets, that you take names after those of the Angels?"

It is reported that' Abdullah Ibn 'Amr said: Dhul-Qarnain was a Prophet. Conversely, Abu Hurairah narrated that Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) said: "I do not know whether Tubba' was a cursed one or not? And, I do not know whether Hudud (the Prescribed Penalties) are expiatory for their people or not? And, I do not know whether Dhul-Qarnain was a Prophet or not?" (This Hadith is Odd and Strange)

In other narration, Ibn 'Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) transmitted a report that goes to the saying that Dhul-Qarnain was a good king whose work was praised in Allah's Book (the Glorious Qur'an); he was made victorious; and Al-Khadir was his minister, leader of his army, and his consultant.

Al-Azraqi and others mentioned that Dhul-آ­Qarnain embraced Islam at the hands of Ibrahim (Abraham) (Peace be upon him) and that he circumambulated around the Ka' bah with him and his son, Isma'il (Peace be upon them). Also, it was narrated after 'Ubaid Ibn 'Umair and his son, 'Abdullah and others: that Dhul-Qarnain set out on foot to perform Pilgrimage. Upon hearing this, Ibrahim (Peace be upon him) welcomed him and invoked Allah for his sake and gave him advice as well. In addition, Allah the Almighty subjugated for Dhul-Qarnain the clouds to carry him wherever he wished. Allah knows best!

Why was he called "Dhul-Qarnain" (i.e. Owner of the two horns)?

This is a controversial issue, that there is not a definite known reason behind this. Some said: he had something on his head that looked like two horns. Wahb Ibn Munabih said: He had two horns of brass on his head. (This interpretation is very weak)

Some scholars from among the People of the Book (Christians and Jews) said: This is because he ruled over Persian and Roman territories. It was also said: that he reached the first ray of the rising sun on the east and that on the west and he ruled over all that was in between. (The latter opinion is more likely true, which is the saying of Az-Zuhari)


Al-Hasan Al-Basri said: He had two braids of hair that he used to fold up and thus was called "Dhul-Qarnain". And, Ishaq Ibn Bishr narrated that the grandfather of 'Umar Ibn Shu' aib said: Dhulآ­Qarnain, once, invited a tyrant king to the way of Allah. The king hit him on the head and broke one of his horns. Dhul-Qarnain invited him again and the tyrant broke the second horn. Thus, he was called "Dhul-Qarnain" .

Narrated Ath-Thawri that 'Ali Ibn Abu Talib (May Allah be pleased with him) was once asked about Dhul-Qarnain. He replied saying: He was a rightly-guided and pious man. He invited his people to Allah, but they hit him on his horn (side of the head) and he was killed. Allah the Almighty resurrected him and he invited them again, again they hit him on his second horn and he was killed (for the second time). Allah the Almighty revived him and thus he was called "Dhul-Qarnain". In other narrations, it was narrated by Abu At-Tufail after 'Ali Ibn Abu Talib that he said: He was neither a Prophet, nor a Messenger, nor an Angel, but was a godly, pious worshipper.

What's his Name?

Scholars disagreed regarding his name. Azآ­ Zubair Ibn Bakkar narrated after' Abdullah Ibn, Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him): His name was 'Abdullah Ibn Ad-Dahhak Ibn آ آ آ آ Ma'd; or Mus'ab Ibn 'Abdullah Ibn Qinan Ibn Mansur Ibn 'Abdullah Ibn Al-Azd Ibn Ghauth Ibn Nabt Ibn Malik Ibn Zaid Ibn Kahlan Ibn Saba' Ibn Qahtan.

It has been narrated in a Hadith that he was from the tribe of Himyar and that his mQther was Roman, and he was called the Philosopher for the excellence of his mentality. However, As-Suhaili said: his name was Marzaban Ibn Marzabah. This was mentioned by Ibn Hisham who mentioned in another location that his name was: As-Sa'b Ibn Dhi Mara'id who was the grandfather of the Tababi'ah and it was him who gave the verdict to the benefit of Ibrahim (Peace be upon him) pertaining to the well of As-Sab' .

It was said: He was Afridun Ibn Asfiyan who killed Ad-Dahhak. Al-Qass Ibn Sa' idah Al-Iyadi said in his famous sermon: 0 folk of Ayad Ibn As-Sa'b! Dhul-Qarnain ruled over the west. and east, subjugated the Jinn and mankind, and he lived for two thousand years. However, all this was just like a twinkle of the eye.

Ad- Daraqutni and Ibn Makula mentioned that his name was Hirmis, or Hirwis Ibn Qitun Ibn Rumi Ibn Lanti Ibn Kashaukhin Ibn Yunan Ibn Yafith Ibn Nuh (Noah (Peace be upon him)), and Allah knows best!

Ishaq Ibn Bishr narrated after Sa'id Ibn Bashir on the authority of Qatadah as saying: Alexander was (called) Dhul-Qarnain, his father was the first Caesar, and he was from among the offspring of Sam Ibn Nuh (Noah (Peace be upon him)).

At this conjecture one should distinguish between two people who were called Dhul-Qarnain. The first is our pious Dhul-Qarnain while the second is Alexander Ibn Philips Ibn Masrim Ibn Hirmis Ibn Maitun Ibn Rumi Ibn Lanti Ibn Yunan Ibn Yafith Ibn Yunah Ibn Sharkhun Ibn Rumah Ibn Sharfat Ibn Tufil Ibn Rumi Ibn AI-As far Ibn Yaqz Ibn Al-'lis Ibn Ishaq Ibn Ibrahim (Peace be upon him). This lineage was stated by Al-Hafiz Ibn' Asakir in his Tarikh (History). Moreover, he was the Macedonian, Greek, Egyptian leader who established Alexandria and basing on whom the Romans set their Calendar. He came after the first Dhul-Qarnain with a very long time. This was three hundred years before Jesus (Peace be upon him). His minister was the famous Philosopher Artatalis. Moreover, he was the one who killed Dara Ibn Dara, and subjugated the Persian kings and seized their lands. We only drew the reader's attention to this because many people think that the two men called "Dhul-Qarnain" are me, which is a big mistake for there were great differences between both. The first was a godly, pious, righteous worshipper of Allah the Almighty, and he was a just king whose minister was the pious man, Al-Khadlr. Moreover, some scholars stated that he was a Prophet as well. Whereas, the latter was a polytheist whose minister was a philosopher as mentioned earlier. In addition, the time elapsed between them both was more than two thousand years. Hence, none can miss the great differences and variance between both of them but an ignorant idiot who know nothing at all!

Allah's Saying: {And they ask you about Dhulآ­-Qarnain} was revealed because the people of Quraish asked the Jews of something about which they would ask the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to test his knowledge. The Jews told them: Ask him about a man who traveled through the earth, and about some young men who set out and no one knew what happened to them? Thereupon, Allah the Almighty revealed the stories of the Owners of the Cave and that of Dhul-Qarnain. Thus, He said: {Say: I shall recite to you something of his story}, i.e. enough and sufficient news about him and his status. Then, He said: {Verily, We established him in the earth, and We gave him the means of everything}, i.e. Allah the Almighty expanded his kingdom and provided him with what might enable him to gain what he wished to. Narrated Qutaibah that 'Ali Ibn Abu Talib was once asked about Dhul-Qarnain: how could he reach the east and west? 'Ali replied: The clouds wert subjugated for him, the means (of everything) were provided to him, and he was given extension pertaining to the light. 'Ali added: Do you want me to go on? The man became silent and thereupon, 'Ali (May Allah be pleased with him) became silent.

Narrated Abu Ishaq As-Subai'i after 'Amr Ibn 'Abdullah Al-Wada'i: "I heard Mu'awiyah as saying: four persons ruled over the earth: Sulaiman Ibn Dawud the Prophet (Peace be upon them), Dhulآ­-Qarnain, a man from the people of Hulwan, and another man. Someone said: was it Al-Khadir? Mu'awiyah said: No."

آ Az-Zubair Ibn Bakkar narrated that Sufyan Athآ­ Thawri said: I have come to know that four persons ruled over the whole earth: two of them were believers and the other two were disbelievers. The believing two were: Prophet Sulaiman and Dhul-آ­Qarnain. And, the disbelieving two were: Namrud and Bikhtinassar." The same was narrated by Sa' id

Ibn Bashir.

Narrated Ishaq Ibn Bishr after Sa' id Ibn Abu 'Urubah after Qatadah after Al-Hasan as saying: "Dhul-Qarnain was a king after Namrud. He was a pious, righteous Muslim who traveled through the east and west. Allah the Almighty prolonged his life and granted him victory over the enemies and to ge1 hold of their properties. He conquered the land, subjugated the people and traveled through the earth till he reached the east and west. Allah the Almighty says: {And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnain. Say: "I shall recite to you something of his story." Verily, We established him in the earth, and We gave him the means of everything}, i.e. knowledge of seeking the means of fulfilling things. Ibn Ishaq said: Muqatil claimed that he used to conquer the lands and collect treasures, and used to offer the people two choices: whether they embrace his religion and follow him, or they be killed.

Ibn 'Abbas, Mujahid, Sa'id Ibn Jubair, 'Ikrimah, 'Ubaid Ibn Ya' la, As-Sadyi, Qatadah and Ad-Dahhak said: {and We gave him the means of everything}, i.e. knowledge. Qatadah and Matar Al-Warraq said: This means landmarks, locations, milestones and traces of the land. 'Abdur Rahman Ibn laid Ibn Aslam said: this means languages as he used not to conquer a people but he first speaks with them in their own language. The most possible and true explanation is that he knew all means through which he could fulfill his need or desire. As he used to take from every conquered region the provisions that enabled him to seize the next region, and so on.

Some scholars from among the People of the Book (Christians and Jews) mentioned that he spent one thousand and six hundred years traveling through the land inviting people to the worship of Allah the Almighty Who has no partner in His Dominion. But, it seems that there is some exaggeration in specifying that lengthy period, and Allah knows best!

Allah's Statement {So he followed a way. Until, when he reached the setting place of the sun} i.e. he reached the place that no one can ever overpass, and he stood on the edge of the western ocean called Oqyanus wherein the islands called Al-Khalidat "The Eternal Ones". There, he could watch the setting of the sun. {He found it setting in a spring of black muddy (or hot) water}, i.e. the sea or ocean, as one who stands ashore sees the sun as if it rises from and sets in the sea. For this he said {he found it}, i.e. as he thought.

Imam Ahmed narrated after Yazid Ibn Hamn after Al-'Awwam Ibn Haushab as saying: I was told by a freed-slave of 'Abdullah Ibn 'Amr after 'Abdullah as saying: Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) looked at the sun when it sat and said: "In Allah's blazing fire. Were it not for its prevention by Allah's Command, it would burn all that is on earth." (This Hadith is very Strange and Odd and surely it is not an Authentic one)

Dhul-Qarnain is Seeking the Eye of Life:

Ibn 'Asakir reported a lengthy narration in which: Dhul-Qarnain had a friend from among the Angels called Ranaqil. Dhul-Qarnain asked him: Do you know the place on earth called "the Eye of Life"? The Angel described to him its location. Dhul-Qarnain set out seeking it appointing Al-Khadir as his harbinger. Al-Khadir came upon it in the land of darkness and he drank thereof. But, Dhul-Qarnain did not make it. However, Dhul-Qarnain met with a group of Angels in a palace there and he was given a stone. When he returned to his army, he asked the scholars who put it on a scale and put on the other one thousand stones of the like (weight and shape). However, the scale containing the first stone tilted. He, then, asked Al-Khadir who put on the other scale a single stone and a handful of dry dust. Al-آ­Khadir's scale tilted this time. He then commented saying: "This is like the son of Adam, he is never satisfied till he is buried (covered with dust)". Thereupon, the scholars prostrated themselves before him as a sign of respect and honor; and Allah knows best!

Then, Allah the Almighty informs us that Dhul-Qarnain gave verdicts pertaining to the people of that region {We (Allah) said (by inspiration): "0 Dhulآ­Qarnain! Either you punish them, or treat them with kindness." He said: "As for him (a disbeliever , in the Oneness of Allah) who does wrong, we shall ! punish him, and then he will be brought back unto his Lord, Who will punish him with a terrible torment (Hell)} i.e. he tastes the torment in this present life and in the Hereafter. He began with the torment of the present life for its more difficult in the sight of the disbeliever. {But as for him who believes (in Allah's Oneness) and works righteousness he shall have the best reward, (Paradise), and we (Dhul-Qarnain) shall speak unto him mild words (as instructions)} where he started with the reward of the Hereafter which is most important and he added thereto kindness, i.e. justice, knowledge and faith. Allah the Almighty says {Then he followed another way}, i.e. he followed a way to return back from the west to the east. Some say that it took him twelve years to return to the east. {Until, when he came to the rising place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We (Allah) had provided no shelter against the sun}, i.e. they do not have houses or any shelters to save them from the blazing sun. Some scholars say: they used to resort to trenches dug in the earth to shelter then from the burning rays of the sun. Then, Allah the Almighty says: {So (it was)! And We knew all about him (Dhul-Qarnain)}, i.e. Allah knows all about his affairs; He preserves and keeps him during his travels through the land from the west to the east and vice versa.آ

It was narrated after' Ubaid Ibn 'Umair, his son 'Abdullah and others that Dhul-Qarnain performed Pilgrimage on foot. Upon hearing that, Ibrahim (Peace be upon him) met him and on their meeting he invoked Allah for his sake, and advised him. It was said also that he was brought a horse to ride, but he said: I do not ride (on the back of horses) in a land wherein Prophet Ibrahim (Peace be upon him). Hence, Allah the Almighty subjugated for him the clouds, and Ibrahim (Peace be upon him) gave him the glad tidings pertaining to this. The clouds used to carry him anywhere he wished for. Allah the Almighty says: {then, he followed (another) way. Until, when he reached between two mountains, he found, before (near) them (those two mountains), a people who scarcely understood a word}, i.e. they were ignorant. It was said that they were the Turk,[1] cousins of Gog and Magog. However, they told him that Gog and Magog wronged them and practiced mischief in their land. They offered him a tribute for that he builds a barrier (dam) preventing them from raiding over them. He refused to take the tribute they offered him finding sufficiency in that which Allah the Almighty has given him, so {He said: "That (wealth, authority and power) in which my Lord had established me is better (than your tribute)}. Then, he asked them to bring him men and tools to erect the barrier between them. Gog and Magog could only reach them from that place located between two mountain-cliffs. The other paths were either vast seas, or high mountains. Consequently, he erected it using iron and molten copper: he put iron instead of bricks and molten copper instead of clay. Allah the Almighty commented, {So they (Gog and Magog) could not scale it} with escalators, {or dig through it} with axes or picks. {(Dhul-Qarnain) said: "This is a mercy from my Lord} i.e. Allah the Almighty decreed this to be a mercy from Him to His slaves that they no longer assaulted by Gog and Magog. {But when the Promise of my Lord comes} i.e. the time He decided for them (Gog and Magog) to demolish it and get out attacking mankind near the Last Hour, {He shall level it down to the ground} this will inevitably take place. As He says {And the Promise of my Lord is ever true}, and {Until, when Gog and Magog are let loose (from their barrier), and they swoop down from every mound. And the true promise (Day of Resurrection) shall draw near (of fulfillment). Then (when mankind is resurrected from their graves), you shall see the eyes of the disbelievers fixedly staring in horror. (They will say): Woe to us! We were indeed heedless of this nay, but we were Zalimun (polytheists and wrongآ­doers)}. (Al-Anbiya', 96, 97) Allah the Almighty says: {We shall leave them to surge like waves"on one another} i.e. on the day Gog and Magog will come out, {and the Trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect them (the creatures) all together}.

Narrated Abu Dawud At- Tyalisi after Athآ­-Thawri saying: I have been informed that the first human being to shake hands (with someone else) was Dhul-Qarnain. Moreover, it was narrated on the authority of Ka'b Al-Ahbar that he said to Mu'awiyah: Dhul-Qarnain on his death-bed told his mother, after his death, to prepare food and gather the women of the city and invite them to eat save anyone who lost any of her children (she should not eat thereof). The mother did as she asked, and none of them stretched a hand towards the food. She said: Glory be to Allah! Did you all lost children? They answered: By Allah! Yes we did. And, this was a great condolence for her.

Ishaq mentioned after Bishr Ibn 'Abdullah Ibn Ziyad after some of the People of the Book (Christians and Jews) the will of Dhul-Qarnain, an eloquent and lengthy advice, and that he died at the age of three thousand years. (This is very odd and strange)

Ibn 'Asakir said: I was informed that he lived for about thirty-six years. Others said: he lived for thirty-two years and that he came seven hundred and forty years after Dawud (David) (Peace be upon him). He came after Adam (Peace be upon him) with five thousand and one hundred eighty-one years and that his reign lasted for sixteen years. But, that which he related is true as for the Macedonian Alexander and not our Dhul-Qarnain. He thus mixed the former with the latter and this is perfectly wrong.

Among those who mixed them and declared both to be just one, was Imam 'Abdul Malik Ibn Hisham (Narrator of the Prophet's Biography), which was denied and rejected by Al-Hafiz Abu Al-Qasim Asآ­Suhaili. He severely refuted his sayings and set clear boundaries between the two persons as mentioned earlier. He said: May be some of the former kings called themselves "Dhul-Qarnain" following the example of the first true one; and Allah knows best!

[1] These are not the inhabitants of Turkey. (Translator)
Family tree of alexander the great.
Alexander Ibn Philips Ibn Masrim Ibn Hirmis Ibn Maitun Ibn Rumi Ibn Lanti Ibn Yunan Ibn Yafith Ibn Yunah Ibn Sharkhun Ibn Rumah Ibn Sharfat Ibn Tufil Ibn Rumi Ibn AI-As far Ibn Yaqz Ibn Al-'lis Ibn Ishaq Ibn Ibrahim (Peace be upon him). This lineage was stated by Al-Hafiz Ibn' Asakir in his Tarikh (History).