Not only is there a direct parallel between the stories, but the Syriac legend helps makes sense of the short and cryptic Qur'anic version of the story. Tafsir Ibn Kathir, "The Barrier restrains Them, but It will be breached when the Hour draws nigh", The Alexander legend in the Qur‘an 18:83-102, p. 182, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, Ch6, v1, Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned some where as being, For news came that the hordes of the Huns had poured forth all the way from Mæotis (they had their haunts between the icy Tanais and the rude Massagetæ; where. Dhul Qarnayn (ذو القرنين) is righteous ruler mentioned in the Quran who constructed a wall to hold Gog and Magog. Most early Muslim commentators and scholars identified Dhul-Qarnayn as Alexander the Great, and some modern ones do too. [4] Similar connections can be found in Islamic poetry contemporary to the time of Muhammad. In one of the tablets of his many adventures, Gilgamesh travels far to the east, to the mountain passes at the ends of the earth. Here he sets up his camp near a mountain pass. It is through this telling and re-telling of stories that this legend likely came to be known by the author of the Qur'an. Is the Qur'anic story based on the Syriac story? St. Jerome, an early church father, writes about rumors of attacks against Jerusalem by invaders from the north. He slays mountain lions, bears and other wild animals. If that were the case, he could have given a one sentence answer such as "he is Alexander" or "he is Cyrus". The story of Gog and Magog being let loose at the end of the world, on Judgement Day, can be found in the Book of Revelation. When we consider that Alexander is said to have two horns in the Alexander legend, this lack of direct reference to Cyrus further weakens this theory. While he is never mentioned explicitly by name, the story is clearly based upon a legendary account of Alexander the Great. Bargozideh Tafseer-i Nemuneh, Vol 3, p. 69, A brief defense of Alexander against Cyrus by a Muslim apologist can be viewed. Ghazali's version later made its wa… The Qur'anic story next gives the reader a cryptic speech by Dhul-Qarnayn where he says that "whoever does wrong" will be sent back to the Lord (i.e. From the above, we have learned the following: Dhul Qarnayn had travelled to the western and eastern most parts possible He travelled to these place at the times of sunset and sunrise There, or along the way, he witnessed sunset and sunrise which appeared to … rises above the flat earth) must seek cover because the sun is much closer to the ground and its rays burn the people and animals there. Dhul-Qarnain invited him again and the tyrant broke the second horn. This is exactly the opposite of Alexander, who first traveled east, then returned west after reaching India. (2008), Last edited on 13 November 2020, at 02:25, "The History of Alexander the Great, Being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Volume 1", http://books.google.com/books/about/The_History_of_Alexander_the_Great_Being.html?id=_14LmFqhc8QC, http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab9.htm, "The Antiquities of the Jews: Book I, Ch6, v1", http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2848/2848-h/2848-h.htm#link2HCH0006, "The Wars Of The Jews: Book VII, Ch7, v4", http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-7.htm, http://www.amazon.com/Before-Jerusalem-Fell-Dating-Revelation/dp/0930464206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385273746&sr=8-1, http://books.google.com/books?id=6FAookts4MUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false, "Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Chrisitan and Islamic Sources", http://books.google.com/books?id=PtxOXRlPMA0C, http://tanzil.net/pub/ebooks/History-of-Quran.pdf, http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=18&tAyahNo=83&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageID=2, http://books.google.com/books?id=jbVWRp56XxsC, http://books.google.com/books?id=lkYFVJ3U-BIC, "Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age", http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Great-Hellenistic-Peter-Green/dp/0753824132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385374702&sr=8-1, "The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins", http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Alexander-Great-Greek-Roman/dp/0415394511/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385374897&sr=8-1, "Tafsir Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an", http://www.islamicstudies.info/result.php?sura=18&verse=83, "Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation: (1880 - 1960)", http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/maududi/introductions/mau-18.php, "The enigma of the red snake: revealing one of the world’s greatest frontier walls", http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/staff/academic/esauer/pubs/iranian_walls.pdf, http://wikiislam.net/index.php?title=Dhul-Qarnayn_and_the_Alexander_Romance&oldid=125481, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0), Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0. He visited the Oracle at Delphi and sought prophecies about his future. Visual Concept Map. Showing page 1. The only king whose actions come closer to Dhul Qarnayn is the Persian king Cyrus who in fact traveled in all the three directions that Dhul Qarnayn traveled in. Therefore, they must be using the Alexander legend as their source for the "right" answer. Oxford University Press. This included information about Alexander as a polytheist, Zeus worshiping pagan and insight into his personal and sexual preferences. Found 0 sentences matching phrase "Dhu al-Hijjah".Found in 0 ms. Dukes, 2009-2017. You can sign in to add a message if this information could be improved or requires discussion. One of the earliest and most influential stories, the Epic of Gilgamesh was written sometime before 2000 BCE. It is even possible that early Muslim followers heard the story of the Syrian legend during their raids on Mu'ta on the borders of Syria around September 629 CE.[4]. The Quranic Arabic Corpus is available under the GNU public license with terms of use. The issue of "Dhu l-Qarnayn" in the Islamic culture originates from the Qur'an. Sahih International: They said, "O Dhul-Qarnayn, indeed Gog and Magog are [great] corrupters in the land.So may we assign for you an expenditure that you might make between us and them a barrier?" pp. In summary, the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence supports that: From all of this it can be concluded that the story of Dhul-Qarnayn is a myth about Alexander the Great and has no basis in history. (2002) [?-767 AD]. Again, apologists are simply ignoring the wide range of stories used by Jews and Christians of the 7th century. As early as the 399 CE, local stories of Alexander building a wall against the Huns had made their way into Christian writings as well. 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. After speaking with the people about Gog and Magog, Alexander says he will build a barrier (a wall or dam) between the people and the tribes that harass them. The legend identifies the first two kings of this tribe as Gog and Magog, the exact same names used in the Qur'anic account. This writing dates to the second half of the 1st century. E-mail: kais@kaisdukes.com. Chron 36:22-33, Ezra 1:1-8, Ezra 3:7, Ezra 4:3-5, Ezra 5:13-17, Ezra 6:3,14, Isaiah 44:28, Isaiah 45:1,13, Daniel 1:21, Daniel 6:28, Daniel 10:1. Another problem with identifying Cyrus as the ram is that the ram is defeated and disgraced by the goat. In more recent years, some prominent scholars have also supported the connection between Alexander and Dhul-Qarnayn of the Qur'an. Dhul-Qarnayn or Zulqarnayn, (Arabic: ذو القرنين‎ ḏū al-qarnayn), "he of the two horns", appears in Surah 18 verses 83-98 of the Qur'an as a figure empowered by Allah to erect a wall between mankind and Gog and Magog, the representation of chaos. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. He said: "(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than tribute): Help me therefore with strength (and labour): And Alexander commanded and fetched three thousand smiths, workers in iron, and three thousand men, workers in brass And, He fixed the gate and the bolts, and he placed nails of iron and beat them down one by the other, so that, The History of Alexander the Great, Being the Syriac Version, p. 154. The Qur’an relates the story of Dhul-Qarnayn ("he of the two horns") in Sura' al-Kahf. In Holy Texts. Shall we be destroyed though there will be righteous people among us?" In Heckel, Alice; Heckel, Waldemar; Tritle, Lawrence A. Allameh Tabatabae. The story of Dhul-Qarnayn (in Arabic ذو القرنين, literally “The Two-Horned One”, also transliterated as Zul-Qarnain or Zulqarnain), mentioned in the Quran, may be a reference to Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC), popularly known as Alexander the Great. Ismaeel has 2 jobs listed on their profile. The map below shows the part of the visual ontology for this concept. This shows that local folklore already contained the basic backbone of the Alexander story almost six centuries before the story found in the Qur'an. When his army first invaded Asia, Alexander dedicated the lands of his conquests to the gods. 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. First, it is made of bricks not iron and brass. Yusuf Ali gives a detailed defense of the Alexander theory in the Appendix of his commentary on the Qur'an, including assertions that the Qur'an accurately depicts an historical account of Alexander and not a legendary one. Many differing theories were proposed on the identity of Zhul-qarnayn by Islamic scholars throughout the ages. Ed. This "one word having multiple meanings" problem if you will, exists in English as well. The wall is 195 km (121 mi) long and interspersed with forts. <. In effect, the story of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Qur'an is simply another example of the widespread inclusion of Alexander folklore into the stories and traditions of the religious groups in the Middle East. [22], Alexander appears to have believed himself a deity, or at least sought to deify himself. In this legend, Josephus relates that Alexander allows the tribes of Magog to come out from behind the wall and create havoc in the land. [20] Again, if this gate is the same as the one in the Qur'anic story then the apologist must admit that the revelation of the gate holding back Gog and Magog must have failed since they did not rampage over the nations nor bring about judgement day. His son, Yahya, has listed at least 14 published and about 13 unpublished works by his father. I looked up, and there before me was. View Ismaeel Dhul-Qarnayn’s profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. In his first book, "The Antiquities of the Jews", he mentions that the tribes of Magog are called the Scythians by the Greeks. [2] Coins depicting Alexander with ram horns on his head were first minted shortly after his death. Tafsir al-Jalalayn, a classical Sunni tafsir of the Qur'an, composed by Jalal ad-Din al-Mahalli in 1459 CE identifies Dhul-Qarnayn as Alexander. Another similarity between the two stories is that the wall will be made of both iron and brass. The horn on the goat is considered by many to be a reference to Alexander the Great. (2) What is the real story of Khidr? Allamah Abu Abd Allah al-Zanjani, Mahliqa Qara'i (trans. Here we see a very clear connection of Alexander to an iron gate and the tribes of Magog being prevented from plundering the land. However, linking Cyrus explicitly to both of the "two horns" is problematic. However this slowly changed after the Renaissance in the 16th century when proper archaeological and historical methods were first applied to the life of Alexander the Great. These Huns spoil and ravage the land and then return back to their lands on the other side of the mountain. Thul Qarnain (one who impacts on two ages (qarn = epoch or age) ) was a political figure whose poltical power rested on foudnations of faith and used power to punish the oppressor and to assist the oppressed. 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