Alexander the Great in Christianity and Islam, Part Two: The Islamic Tradition
Sixteenth-century Persian miniature from the Falnama. Alexander the Great oversees both people and jinn in the construction of the barrier to contain Gog and Magog (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
NOTE: To learn about Alexander’s place in the Christian tradition, click here to read Part 1.
I remember the excitement and wonder I felt upon purchasing my first Qurʾan. I was in my mid-teens and as soon as I left the bookstore, I immediately cracked open the index of the holy book to see just what and, more important for me, who it spoke of. While I knew by then that the Qurʾan contained passages on biblical figures such as Abraham, David, and Jesus, I was still surprised to find other familiar names like Noah and St. John the Baptist listed in the index. However, the name that shocked me the most that day was that of my fellow Macedonian Alexander the Great.
Yet, when I began to read the supposed passage about him, i.e., Qurʾan 18:83-101, I could not find the name Alexander anywhere, just the story of someone called Dhu al-Qarnayn. To make matters even more bewildering, there was no mention of this Dhu al-Qarnayn’s heritage, that he had been a king, of the famous conquest of Persia, or really anything that would have made it clear to me at the time that the Qurʾan was indeed speaking about Alexander the Great. Nonetheless, the translation of the Qurʾan that I had purchased, i.e., A.J. Arberry’s The Koran Interpreted, presented Dhu al-Qarnayn as Alexander in a matter-of-fact way. While it was not clear to me at the time, the editor had good reason to do so, as many Muslims, including such prominent scholars as Tabari, Razi, and Tabrisi, have long identified Dhu al-Qarnayn as Alexander, or as he is known in Arabic, Iskandar. In fact, some have even counted the Macedonian king among the prophets of Islam.
According to the hadith, God revealed the verses concerning Dhu al-Qarnayn in response to doubting Meccans who wanted to test the authenticity of Muhammad’s prophethood. It is said that on the advice of certain Jewish rabbis, the Meccans challenged the Prophet to relate the story of the man who travelled from the West to the East, i.e., Dhu al-Qarnayn. It seems that the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn was so important that the rabbis expected any legitimate prophet of God to know it. While it may seem somewhat odd that they should assign such importance to this Dhu al-Qarnayn, it is worth noting that by Muhammad’s time, Alexander—assuming he is Dhu al-Qarnayn—had long been seen as a great and pious figure by Jews.
According to the verses revealed to Muhammad, God had blessed Dhu al-Qarnayn “with the means to achieve everything.” Moreover, during his travels, Dhu al-Qarnayn reaches a place between two mountains and comes into contact with a people who have great difficulty understanding his language (it’s all Greek to them!). Yet, they are still able to communicate to God’s servant regarding their ongoing issues with their violently aggressive neighbour, Gog and Magog (Yajuj wa Majuj), on the other side of the mountains. Clearly recognizing Dhu al-Qarnayn’s power, the people offer him tribute in exchange for building a barrier between them and Gog and Magog. While the traveller rejects their offer of tribute, seeing as God has provided him with much greater things, he still agrees to build a barrier for them. It is said that with the people’s assistance, Dhu al-Qarnayn constructs an unbreachable barrier out of iron and molten copper (or perhaps molten iron or brass) between the two mountains, protecting the people from Gog and Magog. He then tells them, “This is a mercy from my Lord. But when my Lord’s promise is fulfilled, he will raze this barrier to the ground: my Lord’s promise always comes true.” The Qurʾan then states,
On that Day, We shall let them surge against each other like waves and then the Trumpet will be blown and We shall gather them all together. We shall show Hell to the disbelievers, those whose eyes were blind to My signs, those who were unable to hear. Did they think that they could take My servants as masters instead of Me? We have prepared Hell as the disbelievers’ resting place (18:83-101).
Now, even without much analysis of the story itself, a critical clue regarding Dhu al-Qarnayn’s identity can be found in his very name, or epithet, which is Arabic for “He of the Two Horns.” Of course, the historical Alexander has long been depicted with two horns. As spoken about in Part One, Alexander, himself a Greek polytheist, claimed that he was the divine son of Zeus-Ammon, a ram-headed deity. This belief found its origin, or perhaps confirmation, at the oracle of Ammon (Amu) in Siwa, when the priests informed the great conqueror that he was the son of the god. Thus, in honour of his true father (sorry, Philip), Alexander would soon start depicting himself on coinage and elsewhere wearing the ram horns of Zeus-Ammon.
c. 297-281 BC Greek coin. Obverse: Alexander the Great wearing the horns of Zeus-Ammon. Reverse: The goddess Athena with Nike. (Image credit: Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki)
On the other hand, the idea that the Qurʾan would call someone whom it portrays as a servant of God by an epithet related to their claims of divinity hardly seems halal. This is perhaps why we find so many conflicting views among Muslim scholars over what the two horns represent, with seemingly no one tying them into the historical Alexander’s claim of divine descent. According to The Study Quran edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al., opinions among Muslim scholars have ranged from Dhu al-Qarnayn having horns that were cut off by unbelievers just before God resurrected him to the dual horns symbolizing his position as ruler of both Rum (i.e., the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium) and Persia.
Muslims, however, are not the only ones to have reinterpreted the meaning behind Alexander’s horns in a manner more acceptable to their religious outlook. In The Qurʾan and the Bible: Text and Commentary, Gabriel Said Reynolds notes that the Syriac Christian Legend of Alexander (c. 630) says that the Macedonian king’s horns were given to him by God as a symbol of his power. It is also worth mentioning that the same Syriac work even portrays Alexander as a believer who anticipated the coming of the Son of God, Jesus.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some modern Muslim scholars have rejected the traditional practice of identifying Dhu al-Qarnayn as Alexander. For instance, a number of prominent Muslim scholars, e.g., Abul Kalam Azad and Allameh Tabatabaʾi, have argued that Dhu al-Qarnayn was actually Cyrus the Great. Of course, the Persian king arguably fits the Muslim model of a servant of God better than Alexander does, as Cyrus had famously freed the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity and even rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. In fact, the Old Testament holds Cyrus in such high esteem that the Book of Isaiah even refers to him as Messiah, or Christ (45:1).
That being said, another strong indication that Dhu al-Qarnayn is not Cyrus or anyone other than Alexander the Great can be found in the central element of the Qurʾanic story itself, i.e., the construction of the barrier meant to contain Gog and Magog. But before speaking more about how this pertains to the Macedonian conqueror, it may be useful to say a word or two about what in the world Gog and Magog are supposed to be.
The truth is that Gog and Magog have been portrayed and interpreted in a number of different ways throughout the centuries. For instance, in the Book of Genesis, Magog is listed as one of the sons of Japheth and is, therefore, a great-grandson of Noah (10:2). Later, we read in the Book of Ezekiel of Gog, of the Land of Magog. In this apocalyptic prophecy, we are told that Gog will travel with its hordes from the “far north” and try to lay waste to Israel. Yet God’s hand will be with his people and Gog will be soundly defeated (Ezek. 38:1-39:16). Moreover, in the New Testament, it is said that in the end times, Satan, having been released from his thousand-year imprisonment, will lead Gog and Magog in a failed war on the saints and Jerusalem, i.e., the Church (Rev. 20:7-10). So in the Bible we can see a sort of evolution of the terms. Magog begins as someone’s name, then becomes the place where Gog is from, and finally, becomes Gog and Magog.
Interestingly, Gog and Magog became part of the legends surrounding Alexander the Great. The first writer to associate Magog (but not Gog) with him was the first century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. Josephus, whose pen contributed more than any other to solidifying the Macedonian king’s good standing in the Jewish tradition, identifies the Scythians with Magog and says that Alexander had built iron gates to keep them at bay. Moreover, though the names of the peoples associated with Gog and Magog would change depending on the political circumstances, even Christian writers, e.g., St. Jerome and Pseudo-Ephraim, would connect the Gates of Alexander with the apocalypse.
In The Qurʾan and the Bible, Reynolds argues that the Qurʾanic story of Dhu al-Qarnayn parallels the above-mentioned Christian Legend of Alexander, since among other things, the latter tells of how the conqueror had built a brass gate to prevent those ruled by the kings Gog and Magog from pouring through a pass in a mountain. Moreover, perhaps to fully solidify Dhu al-Qarnayn as Alexander, Reynolds contends that the same sura’s brief story regarding Moses and an escaped fish (Q 18:60-4) is but a reworking of the tales of Alexander and his cook Andrew found in such varied sources as the Greek Alexander Romance, the Babylonian Talmud, and the Song of Alexander.
Of course, since most of Alexander’s conquests took place in areas that would later be converted to Islam, it makes sense that he should find a place in the Islamic tradition. In fact, long before the name of Alexander would be made sacred by the Qurʾanic story of Dhu al-Qarnayn, his cosmopolitan approach to humanity would inspire many Middle Easterners and South Asians whom he conquered to immediately, or relatively soon afterwards, adopt him as one of their own. Yet, some of those whom he ruled over continued to resent him for centuries. For instance, it would take the Arab conquest to truly change the Persian view of Alexander. For before their conversion to Islam, Persians often remembered him as the devil who had destroyed the magnificent city of Persepolis, with its great structures and early Zoroastrian texts. But since the Islamic tradition presented Alexander as having piously built the barrier that was currently delaying the end of the world, it was rather difficult for Muslim Persians to continue to hold a grudge against him.
Islamic Persian legends would portray Alexander as a powerful and deeply pious leader. Composed in Islamic Iran, Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) presents Alexander as the brother of Dara II (likely a reference to Darius III). The same work also speaks of Alexander visiting the Kaʿba in Mecca. However, unlike other Islamic legends, which portray him as a Muslim who partakes in the rituals associated with the holy site (see below), the Shahnameh recognizes that he lived before Islam, but then goes on to anachronistically present Alexander in a Christian context.
Sixteenth-century Persian folio from the Shahnameh. In later versions of the work, Alexander the Great is portrayed as a pious pilgrim. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
In Alexander the Great in the Shāhnāmeh of Ferdowsī, Haila Manteghi points to a number of Christian references related to Alexander in the epic poem. For instance, when Alexander goes to battle Dara II, his army is portrayed as carrying a banner in Arabic that reads “lovers of the Cross.” Moreover, Ferdowsi speaks of his meeting with Queen Candace—whose eunuch, according to the Book of Acts, was baptized by St. Philip the Deacon (8:26-40). Manteghi notes that Alexander promises to leave Candace’s kingdom in peace, swearing an oath by “the Messiah’s religion.”
In The Persian Alexander, Evangelos Venetis provides a full translation of the anonymous Alexander Romance the Iskandarnama (Book of Alexander), which was first compiled in the eleventh-century. Venetis notes that the work portrays Alexander as a Persian Muslim warrior, who journeys around the world battling idolaters. Of course, such a portrayal is rather ironic for the historically cosmopolitan Alexander. Yet, even in Nizami’s version, the violence that Alexander is said to have committed against Zoroastrianism is reinterpreted as but a testimony of his desire to remove falsehood from the earth.
The Iskandarnama also presents Alexander as making a number of pious pilgrimages. For instance, we read of how the great conqueror travelled to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to visit the tomb of Adam, who in Islam is not only the first human being but also a prophet. More important, however, is Alexander’s pilgrimage to Mecca. After a long journey, Alexander camps outside of the holy city with his massive army of men, horses, and elephants. When the rulers of Mecca visit his camp, Alexander comes into contact with Arabs for the first time and is moved by their holiness. Moreover, when the great king finally enters the city itself, he performs the circumambulation of the Kaʿba, while weeping and repenting of his sins. The Iskandarnama says that Alexander stayed in Mecca for fifteen days. During this time, he follows the path of a true Muslim pilgrim, as among other things, he prays at Maqam Ibrahim, a stone Muslims believe bears the imprint of Abraham’s feet, and even drinks from the well that God had provided a desperate Hagar and Ishmael, known as Zamzam. In the Iskandarnama, as in many Islamic legends concerning him, Alexander is portrayed as not only a great warrior, but also as a humble Muslim.
The reality seems to be that Alexander the Great, both the historical person and the myth, captured the imagination of peoples far from the mountains of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia. His accomplishments were perhaps on a scale too large for many not to see some sort of divine role in them. In fact, even if one does not accept that the Qurʾanic story of Dhu al-Qarnayn is about Alexander, there can be no denying that his traditional association with it, which helped inspire some of the most profound Islamic legends, has all but guaranteed the Macedonian king a lasting place in the Islamic tradition.