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.  

In addition to the Dhu'l Qarnayn episode and its relationship with the Syriac Alexander legend, the immediately preceeding story about Moses in Surah al Kahf has long been noticed to derive from another story in the Alexander Romance tradition about Alexander's quest to find the water imparting immortality, featuring his cook, a dead fish that springs back to life from this water and escapes, and a wise sage. In {{Quran-range|18|60|65}}, Moses travels to the junction of the two seas with his servant, who later realises that they have left their fish behind there, which has come back to life and swam away through a passage. Moses then meets a sage who imparts wisdom to him. As Tommaso Tesei notes, "The most ancient versions of this story are found in three sources preceding or contemporaneous to the rise of Islam: the Rec. β of the Alexander Romance (fourth/fifth century), the Babylonian  Talmud (Tamīd, 32a–32b), and the so-called Syriac Alexander Song (ca. 630–635)".<ref>Tommaso Tesei (2015) [https://www.almuslih.org/Library/Tesei,%20T%20-%20Some%20Cosmological%20Notions%20from%20Late%20Antiquity.pdf Some Cosmological Notions from Late Antiquity in Q 18:60–65: The Quran in Light of Its Cultural Context] Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.1</ref>

The next section of the story (18:65-82), in which Moses is taught lessons about justice by a servent of God, is in line with a contemporary genre of literature in which a wise sage is upset by notions of divine Justice. In the section of his book quoted above, Reynolds goes on to highlight the work of Roger Paret who has demonstrated a connection between the Quranic justice story and a sixth century CE tale, the Leimon (or Pratum Spirituale) of John Moschus (d. 619 CE).