Writes the Valia Papanastasopoulou // *
The mysterious Dhu al-Qarnayn (= Doo Al-Karnaϊn)
Much talk was in previous months for the monumental tomb of Amphipolis in Kasta Hill and the identity of the deceased or of the dead that was hiding for centuries within the bowels of. Speculations in the media have enormous dimensions and already written many texts on the subject and while the archaeological process was still underway. The revelation of the tomb – the existence of which was known in the scientific community since the 1960s, When the late d. Lazaridis made a first excavation – sparked, as expected, the popular imagination of modern Greek and led many to stimulate again the story of the lost tomb of the great Macedonian Commander.
The charm of the person and the conquests of m. Alexander is not a new case, but one fact that spread in literature and the imagination of peoples with whom they had contacted the Macedonian King and not only. Within this context, not surprisingly, the presence of Alexander and the literature of the Arab world, But what you may not be well-known in the broader Greek audience is a possible reference to the face of m. Alexander inside the Koran.
The Koran is the sacred book of Islam and in surah Al Kachf (= Cave) a mysterious person named – certainly symbolic nickname – are Dhu al-Qarnayn (ذو القرني ن ) (= Doo Al-Karnaϊn). The narrative (18, 83-98) mentions that there was once a mighty hero, who traveled to both ends of the world, Eastern and Western, i.e. in points, where the sun rises and sets. This was the Dhu al-Qarnayn, who, continuing his journey to other parts of the Earth, arrived in front of two big mountains, in the shade of which lived a peculiar breed. The people of this tribe are characterized by the recitation of the Koran as sub-human and animal behavior, but nevertheless seek the help and protection of Dhu al-Qarnayn in order to repel the Gog and Magwg, who lived beyond these two mountains and frightened this breed. The Dhu al-Qarnayn will give the solution to their problem, constructing a giant wall of iron and fire blocking the unclean Nations Gog and Magwg to enter. According to the Koran this wall still exists even today and will be destroyed only during the day of judgement. Then hordes of Gog and Magwg will stream and will torment the whole world.
The Gog and Magwg, already known from the book of the old testament, presented in the book of the Apocalypse of John as enemies of humanity. The keeping of them behind a firewall from the m. Alexander first mentioned by Jerome, While it was known this story and in the 6th century. in some Syrian versions of the legend of Alexander.
Who is but the Dhu al-Qarnayn in the Qur'an and how it could be identified with the m. Alexander; The phrase Dhu al-Qarnayn in Arabic means "the bearing two horns». Comes from the word dhu and binary number of the word karn (= Horn). The identity of the Dhu al-Qarnayn has been the source of much speculation over the years. Although opinions vary, the classical Muslim exegetes of the Qur'an considers as the most common identification of Dhu al-Qarnayn with Alexander the great person.
Really, the name itself Dhu al-Qarnayn (= bearing two horns) It is particularly revealing the sources of the text of the Koran, as the title was actually a commonly used adjective for the m. Alexander since antiquity. In fact this title is the result of Alexander's connection with the horned sygkritistiki Egyptian deity, known by the name Zeus-Amun, which led to the depiction of the Macedonian king with two horns of a RAM to protrude from his head. The iconography of the god Amun will continue to be associated with Alexander, even after his death. The god Amun had become particularly important for Alexander after his visit to the sanctuary of God in Siva of Egypt at which point Alexander himself to call God many times his father. After the death of Alexander, people of his close environment incorporated horns of Amun in the iconography of Alexander, as seen for example in the currencies, an illustration that has been preserved for many centuries in art.
Nevertheless, It is not only the name of Dhu al-Qarnayn that identifies that person with the m. Alexander, but the fact that the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn in the Qur'an shows a large degree of similarity with the myths and legends developed around the m. Alexander in the centuries that followed his death. More specifically, the narration associated with travel in the West and counter the Gog and Magwg precede the Koran during many centuries and has its roots in an ancient legend about the m. Alexander.
According to Greek and Latin tradition, Alexander built gates in the Caucasus to keep out intruders. As early as the 1st century BC. e.g.. the Roman historian, Pliny the elder mentioned in this tradition, While in the Middle East region, the story gained a more elaborate way of storytelling, as connected with popular apocalyptic biblical legends, as it ascertains and the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius. Therefore, as early as the first century Alexander presented one to construct a giant iron stronghold in the mountains of the Caucasus and in Central Asia in order to keep away hordes of bad Gog and Magwg.
When at the end of the 4th century. a.d. Oynoi appear to carry out raids and destroy Syria and northern Mesopotamia, the memories are triggered by the biblical Gog and Magwg threat, which helped to further develop the tradition around the m. Alexander. The latter occurs in the traditions of the season as a patron, who with the help of God builds a dam to protect humanity this time from the Huns.
Without doubt it is so obvious that the above narrative comes from the novel of Alexander, a collection of legends recorded by an unknown author in us, who is called conventional "Pseudo-Callisthenes». The novel of Alexander seems to have crystallized literary in Alexandria, Egypt at the end of the 3rd century. a.d. The text very soon became very popular with the result to be rewritten and adapted both to the cultural and national data of individual readers. Hence, the novel of Alexander popularized in many versions and languages in East and West with oldest Latin (4century.) and the Armenian version (5century.).
Though, Basically it was the Syriac version of the novel of Alexander, that brought all these different traditions into a single narrative, adding to the text a number of unknown until then for other traditions stories. In this way, the episode of the construction of the wall against Gog and Magwg, not seen in the oldest versions of the novel, but is originality of Syrian version, probably as a coalescing of the pattern of the wall of Alexander with the biblical tradition of revealing Gog and Magwg peoples. The Syriac version of Alexander's Novel is written in 629-630 a.d. In this narrated Alexander is determined by the known ancient epithet "the bearing two horns», one property that construed literally, as the Macedonian hero is described as having the head of horns.
This myth continued to exist for more than a Millennium in Persia, where the famous poet Ferdowsi in his epic masterpiece in Shahnameh titled devotes a section to this story. There is no doubt that the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn is a direct loan of pre-Islamic stories and legends associated with Alexander the great. These myths come from the 1st century a.d. and widely spread throughout the ancient world till the appearance of Islam. And it is especially interesting that the prophetic activity of Muhammad (610-632 a.d.) coincide with the Syriac version of the novel of Alexander (629-630 a.d.), Although many of these stories had already become well known in the Arabian Peninsula before Islam. No one can deny that the m. Alexander is an important figure in Arabic literature. Even in pre-Islamic poetry we encounter references to his face, the prosfwnwntas either as al-Iskandar either as Dhu al-Qarnayn, like for example the poets Maymūn ibn Qays al-A'sha and contemporary of Muhammad, Hassan ibn Thabit, He composed verses relating to the episode with the Gog and Magwg.
Summing Up, We conclude that it is no surprise the identification of Alexander with the Dhu al-Qarnayn from classical exegetes of the Qur'an. The ancient biblical narratives associated with Gog and Magwg merged them into a single myth with ancient non-historical narrative about Alexander and the construction of a wall in the Caucasus iron: THE M. Alexander built a huge wall in the Caucasus to imprison the Gog and Magwg. Follows, o I Oynoi that invaded in the 4th century a.d. their concurred with Gog and Magwg and would remain imprisoned behind a wall of Alexander until the day of judgment.
This story was further developed during the coming centuries through the various versions of the novel of Alexander of Pseudo-Kallistheni up to the 7th century a.d. – display time of Islam -, so in the Koran the story adapts to the data of the new religion with the help of the Syrian version of the novel. In Accordance, well, with the recitation of the Koran Alexander the great as Dhu al-Qarnayn was a God-fearing theist, who traveled to the ends of the Earth and built a huge wall of iron and bronze to imprison bad Nations Gog and Magwg till the day of judgment, When the Gog and Magwg will break the wall and will stream free spreading fear and havoc on Earth. It is very likely that Muhammad or a later editor of Koran seized the pre-Islamic legends and incorporated in the Koran, adapted to the data of the new monotheistic religion.
Alexander's face had started getting mythic proportions since the reign of, and after his death the oral narratives spread in various peoples. This unique personality was destined to leave its mark on the world and exert a huge influence for hundreds of years after his death, touching even the holy books of various religions, as Islam. Would be overkill, If we say, how Alexander starting from Aigai of Macedonia for all around the world, κατάφερε τελικά να αγγίξει εκείνο που τόσο πολύ ονειρευόταν και δεν ήταν άλλο από το ίδιο το θείο.
Ενδεικτική Βιβλιογραφία
Budge, Ernest A. W. (ed.), The History of Alexander the Great: Being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1889.
Donzel, Emeri Van, & Andrea Schmidt, Gog and Magog in Early Syriac and Islamic Sources: Sallam's Quest for Alexander's Wall, Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2009.
Fildes, Alan & Joann Fletcher, Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods, Los Angeles, CA: Getty Publications, 2002.
Goldsborough, Reid, ‘Alexander the Great Numismatic Portrait’, 2010, at http://tinyurl.com/66g3r7x, όπως ανακτήθηκε στις 05/01/2015.
Panayotakis, Stelios, Maaike Zimmerman & Wytse Keulen, The Ancient Novel and Beyond, Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2003.
* THE Βάλια Παπαναστασοπούλου είναι Αρχαιολόγος-Θεολόγος MS, Υποψήφια διδάκτωρ Α. Π. Θ.
