Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature: Difference between revisions

The Quranic story of Dhu'l Qarnayn is narrated in {{Quran-range|18|83|101}}, and is perhaps the most famous example of an intertextual relationship between the Quran and a non-biblical legend. Academic scholars consider the Quranic pericope to be closely connected to the ''Syriac Alexander Legend'', which has Alexander the Great voyaging to the ends of the earth to see where the sun sets and also describes its rising place, before he secures the Huns (including Gog and Magog) behind an iron wall. The academic consensus today is that the story was composed in the sixth century CE, with a small interpolation around 629-30 CE to make it relevant to a later context (previously, a prominent view had been that the whole legend was composed at that later date, but this is now rejected). The legend of Alexander enclosing Gog and Magog behind a iron barrier is first found several centuries earlier in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus. For a detailed discussion, see the main article.