Alexander The Great in The Quran - Introduction

Introduction

Early Islamic scholars generally endorsed the identification of Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander. The earliest written identification between Alexander and Dhul-Qarnayn is made by the Muslim hagiographer Ibn Hisham (?-833 AD) in the Sira literature. This identification with Alexander is also endorsed by Islamic tafsir (exegesis) literature dating as far back as the 10th century. Some prominent Islamic scholars in recent times have also endorsed this identification.

As can be seen in the following quotation from Edwards, secular philologists studying ancient Syriac Christian legends about Alexander the Great also came to the conclusion that Dhul-Qarnayn is an ancient epithet for Alexander the Great. Edwards says,

Alexander's association with two horns and with the building of the gate against Gog and Magog occurs much earlier than the Quran and persists in the beliefs of all three of these religions . The denial of Alexander's identity as Dhul-Qarnain is the denial of a common heritage shared by the cultures which shape the modern world--both in the east and the west. The popularity of the legend of Alexander the Great proves that these cultures share a history which suggests that perhaps they are not so different after all.

In the 19th century, Orientalists studying the Qur'an began researching the identity of Dhul-Qarnayn. Theodor Nöldeke, believed that Dhul-Qarnayn was none other than Alexander the Great (a dialect of Middle Aramaic). The Syriac manuscripts were translated into English in 1889 by E. A. Wallis Budge.

In the early 20th century Andrew Runni Anderson wrote a series of articles on the question in the Transactions of the American Philological Association. The findings of the philologists imply that the source of the Qur'an's story of Dhul-Qarnayn is the Alexander romance, a thoroughly embellished compilation of Alexander's exploits from Hellenistic and early Christian sources, which underwent numerous expansions and revisions for two-thousand years, throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

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