Dhul-Qarnayn and the Alexander Romance: Difference between revisions

The story of Dhul-Qarnayn (in [[Arabic]] ذو القرنين, literally "The Two-Horned One", also transliterated as Zul-Qarnain or Zulqarnain) is found in the 18^th [[Surah]] of the Qur'an, al-Kahf (the Cave).  While he is never mentioned explicitly by name, the story is clearly based upon a legendary account of Alexander the Great.  For centuries, most Muslim historians and Qur'anic commentators endorsed the identity of Dhul-Qarnayn as Alexander, though some also proposed alternatives. In recent years, this identification of Dhul-Qarnayn has become particularly problematic and controversial for Muslim scholars, as the Qur'an's understanding of Alexander differs remarkably from the image of him in history as a Greek [[Pagan Origins of Islam|pagan]] who fashioned himself as a [[god]]. This has prompted some [[apologists]] to create and advance alternative theories that identify  Dhul-Qarnayn as other prominent historical kings, most notably Cyrus the Great. These alternative theories, though, have major deficiencies and fall short of the strong parallels between the Qur'anic story and legends of Alexander that date to the early 7^th century. The theory that Dhul-Qarnayn is some other figure such as Cyrus the Great has little evidence in its favor compared to the overwhelming evidence that the story is actually based on a legendary version of Alexander. The story in the Qur'an in fact parallels a medieval Syriac legend of Alexander quote closely; both narratives portray him as a believing king who traveled the world and built a barrier of iron which holds back the tribes of Gog and Magog until Judgement Day. Almost every major element of the Qur'anic story can be found in Christian and Jewish folklore about Alexander which dates back hundreds of years prior to the time of Prophet Muhammad. Most early Muslim commentators and scholars identified Dhul-Qarnayn as Alexander the Great, and some modern ones do too. Historical and Archaeological evidence, though, quite plainly reveal that the real Alexander was a polytheistic pagan who believed he was the literal son of Greek and Egyptian gods. In addition, the story speaks of a giant wall built by Dhul-Qarnayn to hold back the nations of Gog and Magog, yet today, there is no such giant wall of iron and brass between two mountains that is holding back a tribe of people; it likely never existed and was originally a legendary embellishment of the original Alexander legend.  

The gargantuan conquests of Alexander the Great, stretching from Macedonia in the West to the river Indus in the East, left an indelible mark on all the regions where his troopers trode. Alexander founded cities, declared himself a god and the son of a god, solved the famous Gordian knot, initiated a new chapter in the history of civilizational exchange and spread Greek Hellenic culture far and wide. Dying at 33 of either alcohol overdose or perhaps poisoning, his legend quickly became larger than life. First Jews and then Christians claimed his as their own, though according to Theodor Nöldeke the origin of their Alexander Romances was actually a Pahlavi Persian Alexander romance (though probably written by a Syriac-speaking Christian) <ref> Encyclopedia of Islam Volume IV E. J. Bril 1997, p. 127</ref>. As the legend of Alexander spread, so too did the claims of his miraculous deeds grow in scope and size.  

It has been well understood for many centuries that legendary accounts of Alexander's life began shortly after his death in 323 BC.  These were popular across most of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Persia and even India and China.  In the subsequent centuries after his death, the historical accounts of Alexander were largely forgotten and legendary accounts of his deeds and adventures replaced them in popular folklore.  It is these legendary depictions of Alexander that would have been known in the 7^th century and not the historically accurate accounts of his life.  It was not until the Renaissance in the 16^th century that the first historical accounts of Alexanders life were rediscovered and investigated.

 

In 1889, the renowned scholar and philologist, Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge, translated five Alexander stories from Syriac manuscripts into English. One of these stories was a legend that detailed the exploits of Alexander, the son of Philip the Macedonian, and how he traveled to the ends of the world, made a gate of iron, and shut behind it the Huns so they might not come forth to spoil the land.<ref name="Budge" /> Titled as the Neṣḥānā d-leh d-Aleksandrōs, “the victory of Alexander”, the parallels between this Syriac legend and the story of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Qur'an are detailed below.

Dr. Kevin Van Bladel, professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, states in his comparison of the two stories, that the water at the place where the sun sets is 'fetid' in both texts, a coincidence of two uncommon synonyms (Syriac saryâ, Arabic hami'a).<ref name="VanBladel"> Van Bladel, Kevin, “The Alexander legend in the Qur‘an 18:83-102″, in [http://books.google.com/books?id=DbtkpgGn4CEC&pg=PA175 "The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context"], Ed. Gabriel Said Reynolds, New York: Routledge, 2007.</ref> Similar connections can be found in Islamic poetry contemporary to the time of Muhammad. Muhammad ibn Ishāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār recorded many pre-Islamic Arabic poems in his [[Sirat Rasul Allah]] (Biography of Muhammad);  This included a poem about Dhul-Qarnayn that he claims was composed by a pre-Islamic king of ancient Yemen.  Here we can see that the sun sets into a pool of water that is described as being both muddy and fetid, a perfect linking of the two adjectives in both the Qur'anic and Syriac stories.

Van Bladel in his book sums up the relation between the Qur'an and the Syriac legend:

==Relationship with the Syriac Legend==

The parallels between the Syriac Legend and the Qur'an detailed above are quite striking. As to the question of dependency, Van Bladel has argued that the Syriac Legend is a direct source for the Quranic account.<ref name="VanBladel"/> Tommaso Tesei concurs with van Bladel's thesis, though allows for the possibility that they share a common source.<ref name="Tesei2013">Tommaso Tesei (2013) [https://www.academia.edu/10863446/_The_prophecy_of_%E1%B8%8E%C5%AB_l_Qarnayn_Q_18_83_102_and_the_Origins_of_the_Qur%CA%BE%C4%81nic_Corpus_Miscellanea_arabica_2013_2014_273_90  The prophecy of Dhu-l-Qarnayn (Q 18:83-102) and the Origins of the Qurʾānic Corpus] Miscellanea arabica 2013–2014: 273-90</ref> He notes that, while the final part of the legend concerns Alexander's battles with the Persian king and is an allegory of the bloody conflict between Byzantines and Sasanids with a propaganda purpose to glorify Heraclius (important in dating its final redaction), it is clear that in the rest of the story, there are indeed multiple streams of earlier elements, which it shares with the Qur'an. Crucially, these appear in the same order in both versions. Tesei argues that while this sequencing could go back to a common source, he finds it more plausible that the Syriac legend originated the particular composition, agreeing with van Bladel's argument that Alexander's journeys are intended to form the shape of a cross, and adding his own hypothesis that the story originally involved a failed attempt to reach paradise, removed in order to better glorify Heraclius. The elements pre-dating both the Qur'an and Syriac legend by many centuries include folklore found in earlier Christian and Jewish writings. Parallels to the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh and the Biblical story of Gog and Magog can be clearly identified in the story as well.

The Alexander Legend in its final redaction was composed by a Mesopotamian Christian probably in Amid or Edessa. It was written down in 629-630 CE after the victory of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius over the Sasanian king Khusrau Parvez. Dr. Reinink, a Near East philogist and scholar, highlights the political agenda of the legend which is clearly written as a piece of pro-Byzantine propaganda. Its purpose was probably to win the separated Syrian Christians back to a union with the church at Constantinople.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://books.google.com/books?id=PtxOXRlPMA0C|title= Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Chrisitan and Islamic Sources|publisher= BRILL|author= Ed. Emeri J. van Donzel, Andrea Barbara Schmidt|page= 18|date= 2010|archiveurl= |deadurl=no}}</ref>

 

Stephen Shoemaker has discussed the arguments of Reinink, van Bladel and Tesei, but argues that "it would appear that in its current form the Legend almost certainly updates an older version of the Legend that was composed in the early sixth century". The hypothetical earlier version would incorporate the main elements of the story up to the first ex-eventu prophecy of the 514-515 CE Sabir Hun invasion mentioned above, which was circulating in the sixth century. Shoemaker states that "a clear majority" of scholars take this view, though Renink's view that the Legend represents a new composition of the 7th century "presently enjoys relative acceptance". Shoemaker notes that unlike Reinink, van Bladel at least attempts to explain the presence of the first prophecy, which holds no importance to the narrative (van Bladel suggests that it served as a verification for 7th century listeners to trust the later prophecies), though like Tesei, he is unconvinced in light of Czeglédy's findings mentioned above. For this and reasons of timing, he finds it most likely that the Quran depends on a 6th rather than 7th century version of the Legend.<ref>Stephen J. Shoemaker, [https://www.google.de/books/edition/The_Apocalypse_of_Empire/w9FwDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA79&printsec=frontcover The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam], University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018, pp. 79-86</ref>

According to the traditional Muslim narrative, Al-Kahf (The Cave) was generally revealed in Mecca, except verse 28 and verses 83-101 which were revealed in Medina.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://tanzil.net/pub/ebooks/History-of-Quran.pdf|title= The History of the Quran|publisher= Al-Tawheed|author= Allamah Abu Abd Allah al-Zanjani, Mahliqa Qara'i (trans.)|page=34|date= |archiveurl= |deadurl=no}}</ref> Based on this information, the story of Dhul-Qarnayn, contained in verses 83-101, would be dated to after the Hijra in June 622 CE and before Muhammed's death in June 632 CE; a more specific date is difficult to ascertain with any certainty from the Islamic narrative. Van Bladel dismisses the possibility that the Quran could be a source for the Syriac legend.<ref name="VanBladel" /> Since the community of Muslims in Mecca were far from well known outside of Arabia, the possibility of their story influencing Christians in Syria is extremely remote. The far more expansive Syriac work also contains no references to the Arabic phrases used in the Qur'anic account, which would be expected if the Syrian story was using that as its source. Tesei concurs with van Bladel's arguments here.<ref name="Tesei2013" />

Alexander appears to have believed himself a deity, or at least sought to deify himself.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Great-Hellenistic-Peter-Green/dp/0753824132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385374702&sr=8-1|title= Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age|publisher= London: Phoenix|author=  Peter Green|date= August 7, 2008|isbn=978-0-7538-2413-9|archiveurl= |deadurl=no}}</ref> Olympias, his mother, always insisted to him that he was the son of Zeus,<ref name="Plutarch" /> a theory apparently confirmed to him by the oracle of Amun at Siwa in Libya.<ref name="Plutarch" /> Shortly after his visit to the oracle, Alexander began to identify himself as the son of Zeus-Ammon and often referred to Zeus-Ammon as his true father.  This god, an amalgamation of both the Greek god Zeus and the Egyptian god Ammon was often depicted with ram horns on his head. Subsequent currency depicted Alexander adorned with similar rams horn as a symbol of his divinity.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Alexander-Great-Greek-Roman/dp/0415394511/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385374897&sr=8-1|title= The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins|publisher= Routledge|author= Karsten Dahmen|date=  February 23, 2007|isbn=0-415-39451-1|archiveurl= |deadurl=no}}</ref>

===Turning-point against Alexander as Dhul-Qarnayn===

Since most early Muslim scholars and commentators believed that Dhul-Qarnayn was Alexander, any defense of another theory is first obligated to state why Alexander should be rejected from consideration.<ref name="Azad" /> Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, one of the first to advance the theory of Cyrus, gives a typical justification for his rejection of Alexander by appealing to the historical man as an unrighteous polytheist:

 

 

====Two Horns====

In order to connect Cyrus to the epithet Dhul-Qarnayn (i.e. man with two-horns), proponents of this theory have pointed to a relief found on a doorway pillar near the tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae, Iran.  In these depictions, a set of horns can be seen as part of an Egyptian [[w:Hemhem crown|Hemhem]] head dress worn by a winged figure. Some scholars believe this to be a depiction of Cyrus, whose name was once inscribed at the top of the monument above the pillar.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mallowan |first1=Max |last2= |first2= |date=1972 |title=“Cyrus the Great (558-529 B.C.). |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4300460 |journal=Iran |volume= |issue=10 |pages=1-17 |doi=10.2307/4300460 |access-date=8 March 2021}}</ref> Others note that the complex also once included human-headed winged bulls with crowns, and regard this as a protective doorway figure, inspired by Assyrian winged genii, and the words to be a "foundation inscription", also visible in two of the other palaces there.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/pasargadae |title=PASARGADAE |last=Stronach |first=David |date=2009 |website=Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=8 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/herzfeld-ernst-ii |title=HERZFELD, ERNST ii. HERZFELD AND PASARGADAE  |last=Stronach |first=David |date=2003 |website=Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=8 March 2021}}</ref> We have no other physical engravings or any other archaeological evidence that connects Cyrus with the epithet "two horns".

 

====Questions from the People of the Book====

The "they" in question is often identified as Jews, or sometimes generally as the [[People of the Book|People of the Book]], living near Mecca who use the question as a test of Muhammad's prophet-hood

====Reference in the Bible====

====Building a Wall====

{{Hub4|Category:Dhul-Qarnayn|Dhul-Qarnayn}}