Alexander the Great was the king of the Kingdom of Macedon and the founder of an empire that stretched from Greece to northwestern India.Bloom, Jonathan M.; Blair, Sheila S. (2009) The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture: Mosul to Zirid, Volume 3. (Oxford University Press Incorporated, 2009), 385; "[Khojand, Tajikistan]; As the easternmost outpost of the empire of Alexander the Great, the city was renamed Alexandria Eschate ("furthest Alexandria") in 329 BCE."Golden, Peter B. Central Asia in World History (Oxford University Press, 2011), 25;"[...] his campaigns in Central Asia brought Khwarazm, Sogdia and Bactria under Graeco-Macedonian rule. As elsewhere, Alexander founded or renamed a number of cities, such as Alexandria Eschate ("Outernmost Alexandria", near modern Khojent in Tajikistan)." Legends surrounding his life quickly sprung up soon after his own death. His predecessors represented him in their coinage as the son of Zeus Ammon, wearing what would become the Horns of Alexander as originally signified by the Horns of Ammon. Legends of Alexander's exploits coalesced into the third-century Alexander Romance which, in the premodern period, went through over one hundred recensions, translations, and derivations and was translated into almost every European vernacular and every language of the Islamic world. After the Bible, it was the most popular form of European literature. It was also translated into every language from the Islamicized regions of Asia and Africa, from Mali to Malaysia.
The first appearance of Alexander traditions in Arabic literature occurs in the first extant Arabic book, the Quran, in its description of Dhu al-Qarnayn. Alexander was widely believed to be Dhu al-Qarnayn, and this identification is found in some of the earliest texts which discuss this, like the biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq and the commentary on the Quran by Muqatil ibn Sulayman. Likewise, Alexandrian texts feature among the earliest known texts translated from other languages into Arabic, such as the Rasāʾil Arisṭāṭālīsa ilāʾl-Iskandar (The Letters of Aristotle to Alexander or the Epistolary Romance), consisting of a set of apocryphal letters meant to confirm Alexander's reputation as a wise ruler produced during the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743) from sources originally in Greek. Versions of the Alexander Romance were repeatedly translated into Arabic from Syriac, Latin, and Hebrew throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, the most popular being the Sirat al-Iskandar. These stories about Alexander were believed to be historically factual by the people who transmitted them.
Quran
Dhu al-Qarnayn
Alexander was often identified with Dhu al-Qarnayn (Arabic: ذو القرنين; lit. "The Two-Horned One"), a figure that appears in the Quran. This identification would play a role in enhancing the popularity of the Arabic Alexander tradition, which often made Alexander synonymous with his attributed Two-Horned title.
Other Earlier in Surah al-Kahf, a pericope in the Quran presents Moses in search for the Fountain of Life (18:60–64). This pericope resembles earlier legends where Alexander the Great searches for the Fountain of Life in texts such as the Alexander Romance (in its Greek α recension from the third century), the Babylonian Talmud, and the Song of Alexander. Some studies have looked into why the protagonist was shifted from Alexander to Moses in the version as the narrative appears in the Quran.
Recently, Zishan Ghaffar has also argued for the role played by Alexander legends in shaping the narrative that appears in 27:15–44.
Genres
Classification Doufikar-Aerts has divided the Arabic Alexander literature into four categories or genres of literature. The first is the literature in the tradition of Pseudo-Callisthenes, or the 'Pseudo-Callisthenes tradition' or the Arabic Alexander Romance tradition, which focused on the biographical elements of Alexander's career. The second is the 'Alexander and Wisdom literature' tradition. The third is the Dhu al-Qarnayn tradition, related to texts from the Qisas al-Anbiya (Tales of the Prophets) literature. This tradition was rooted in the Quranic figure of Dhu al-Qarnayn. The fourth is the Sirāt al-Iskandar tradition, which follows in the tradition of a popular romance known as the Sīrat al-Iskandar.
Wisdom literature The Alexander Romance also had an important influence on Arabic wisdom literature. Arabic was introduced as the court language of the caliphate during the Umayyad Caliphate around the year 700. One of the first texts translated into Arabic was the Rasāʾil Arisṭāṭālīsa ilāʾl-Iskandar (The Letters of Aristotle to Alexander or the Epistolary Romance), which consists of a set of apocryphal letters meant to confirm Alexander's reputation as a wise ruler. It was composed during the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743) from Greek sources like the Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem.
Part of this text became a constituent of the Kitāb Sirr al-Asrār (Book of Secret of Secrets) by Yahya ibn al-Batriq (d. 815), a Pseudo-Aristoteliean treatise which became immensely popular and was translated directly from the Arabic into many other (including European) languages. Both Alexander and Aristotle became important figures in Islamic wisdom literature, such as in the chapter dedicated to Alexander in the 9th-century Ādāb al-Falāsifa (Sayings of the Philosophers) written in the name of the famous Christian translator and physician Hunayn ibn Ishaq. Other texts in this tradition from the tenth century onward included Ṣiwān al-Ḥikma (Chest of Wisdom) of Abu Sulayman Sijistani, the Al-Ḥikma al-Khālida (Everlasting Wisdom) of Miskawayh, and the Al-Kalim al-Rūḥānīya fīʾl-Ḥikam al-Yūnānīya (Spiritual Sayings about Greek Maxims) of Ibn Hindu.
Notably, the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tasim (794–842 AD) had ordered the translation of the Thesaurus Alexandri, a work on elixirs and amulets, from Greek and Latin into Arabic. The Greek work Thesaurus Alexandri was attributed to Hermes (the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology) and similarly contained supposed letters from Aristotle addressed to Alexander.Stoneman 2003Yucesoy, Hayrettin. Messianic Beliefs & Imperial Politics in Medieval Islam: The Abbasid Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century. 2009. University of South Carolina. pp. 122–123
In Secretum Secretorum ("Secret of Secrets", in Arabic Kitab sirr al-asrar), an encyclopedic Arabic treatise on a wide range of topics such as statecraft, ethics, physiognomy, alchemy, astrology, magic and medicine, Alexander appears as a speaker and subject of wise sayings and as a correspondent with figures such as Aristotle. The origins of the treatise are uncertain. No Greek original exists, though there are claims in the Arabic treatise that it was translated from the Greek into Syriac and from Syriac into Arabic by a well-known 9th century translator, Yahya ibn al-Bitriq (?–815 AD). It appears, however, that the treatise was actually composed originally in Arabic.
Another piece of Arabic Alexander literature is the Laments (or Sayings) of the Philosophers. These are a collection of remarks supposedly made by some philosophers gathered at the tomb of Alexander after his death. This legend was originally written in the 6th century in Syriac and was later translated into Arabic and expanded upon. The Laments of the Philosophers eventually gained enormous popularity in Europe.Brock 1970.
Romance literature The Syriac Alexander Romance, alongside some apocalyptic traditions it incorporated from the shorter Syriac Alexander Legend, would become the main source for Arabic Alexander Romance tradition and for Arabic-language historians who wanted to discuss the role of Alexander in pre-Islamic history. One such history was the Kitāb al-Akhbār al-Ṭiwal (Book of Comprehensive History) of Abu Hanifa Dinawari (d. 896), itself based on an older version in Pseudo-Aṣma‛ī's Nihāyat al-Arab (Ultimate Aim), includes a short history of the kingdom of Alexander in this tradition. Other examples include the Tārīkh (Historiae) of al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 897), the al-Rusul waʾl-Mulūk (History of the Prophets and Kings, or simply Annales) of al-Tabbari (d. 923), the Murūj al-Dhahab (Meadows of Gold) of al-Masudi (d. 956), and the Naẓm al-Jawhar (String of Pearls) of Eutychius of Alexandria.
The earliest full-length Arabic Alexander Romance was the Qissat al-Iskandar of ʿUmara ibn Zayd, composed in the late 8th or early 9th century. In the tale, Alexander the Great travels a great deal, builds the Wall against Gog and Magog, searches for the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth), and encounters angels who give him a "wonder-stone" that both weighs more than any other stone but is also as light as dust. This wonder-stone is meant to admonish Alexander for his ambitions and indicate that his lust for conquest and eternal life will not end until his death. The story of the wonder-stone is not found in the Syriac Christian legend, but is found in Jewish Talmudic traditions about Alexander as well as in Persian traditions.Southgate, Minoo. S. Portrait of Alexander in Persian Alexander-Romances of the Islamic Era. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 97, No. 3, (July – September 1977), pp. 278-–284
The other prominent Arabic versions would be the Qissat Dhulqarnayn (9th century), a second Qissat Dhulqarnayn in the Ara'is al-majalis fi Qisas al-anbiya (Book of Prophets) of al-Tha'labi (11th century), the Hadith Dhulqarnayn (15th century), the Sīrat al-Iskandar (15th century), the Sirat al-malek Eskandar Dhu’ l-Qarneyn, and the Tārīkh al-Iskandar al-Makdūni (History of Alexander of Macedon) (17th century).
Tales of the prophets One figure transmitting Alexander legends in the tradition of the qiṣaṣ genre was Wahb ibn Munabbih, although this is according to an attribution later made by Ibn Hisham. According to Ibn Hisham, Dhu al-Qarnayn should be identified with a South Arabian king named Sa'b Dhu Marathid as opposed to Alexander, although Sa'b is a mythical figure whose biography is derivative from Alexander's in the tradition of Pseudo-Callisthenes. That Ibn Hisham's traditions go back to Wahb as he stated is doubtful. The Arabic story still describes the story of Alexander's Wall against Gog and Magog and his quest for the Water of Life. The story also mentions that Dhu al-Qarnayn visited a castle with glass walls and visited the Brahmins of India. The South Arabian legend was composed within the context of the division between the South Arabs and North Arabs that began with the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684 AD and consolidated over two centuries.
Another transmitter who Alexander traditions are attributed to was Ka'b al-Ahbar.
Sirat al-Iskandar The Sīrat al-Iskandar (Life of Alexander) is a 13th-century popular Arabic-language romance about Alexander the Great. It belongs to the sīra shaʿbiyya genre. In the Sīrat, Alexander is a son of Dārāb, a prince of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, and Nāhīd, daughter of King Philip II of Macedon. He is born in secret at Philip's court and is raised by Aristotle. He eventually succeeds Philip as king, while his half-brother Dārā succeeds to the Persian throne. They go to war and Alexander is victorious, with Dārā dying in his arms. After returning to Macedon, Alexander comes under the influence of the devil, Iblīs, until he is brought back to the right path by al-Khiḍr, who convinces him he has a divine mission: to convert the whole world to monotheism. The two travel first to the West and then to the East, converting people everywhere they go. Alexander then constructs the famous wall confining Gog and Magog before setting out for the Land of Darkness to find the Water of Life. He is prevented from reaching the water by the Isrāfīl (angels), who instead give him the wonderstone. Shortly after, Alexander writes a letter of consolation to his mother and dies. He is buried in Alexandria.