The story of Dhu al-Qarnayn (in Arabic ذو القرنين, literally "The Two-Horned One"; also transliterated as Zul-Qarnain or Zulqarnain), is mentioned in Surah al-Kahf of the Quran.
It has long been recognised in modern scholarship that the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn has strong similarities with the Syriac Legend of Alexander the Great. According to this legend, Alexander travelled to the ends of the world then built a wall in the Caucasus Mountains to keep Gog and Magog out of civilized lands (the latter element is found several centuries earlier in the works of Flavius Josephus). Several argue that the form of this narrative in the Syriac Alexander Legend (known as the Neṣḥānā) dates to between 629 and 636 CE and so is not the source for the Quranic narrative based on the view held by many Western and Muslim scholars that Surah 18 belongs to the second Meccan Period (615–619). The Syriac Legend of Alexander has however received a range of dates by different scholars, from a latest date of 630 (close to Muhammad's death) to an earlier version inferred to have existed in the 6th century CE. Sidney H. Griffith argues that the simple storyline found in the Syriac Alexander Legend (and the slightly later metrical homily or Alexander poem) "would most likely have been current orally well before the composition of either of the Syriac texts in writing" and it is possible that it was this orally circulating version of the account which was recollected in the Islamic milieu.
Alexander the Great
Alexander in legend and romance Alexander the Great was an immensely popular figure in the classical and post-classical cultures of the Mediterranean and Middle East. Almost immediately after his death in 323 BC a body of legend began to accumulate about his exploits and life which, over the centuries, became increasingly fantastic as well as allegorical. Collectively this tradition is called the Alexander romance and some recensions feature such vivid episodes as Alexander ascending through the air to Paradise, journeying to the bottom of the sea in a glass bubble, and journeying through the Land of Darkness in search of the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth).
The earliest Greek manuscripts of the Alexander romance, as they have survived, indicate that it was composed at Alexandria in the 3rd century. The original text was lost but was the source of some eighty different versions written in twenty-four different languages.McGinn 1998. As the Alexander romance persisted in popularity over the centuries, it was assumed by various neighbouring people. Of particular significance was its incorporation into Jewish and later Christian legendary traditions. In the Jewish tradition Alexander was initially a figure of satire, representing the vain or covetous ruler who is ignorant of larger spiritual truths. Yet their belief in a just, all-powerful God forced Jewish interpreters of the Alexander tradition to come to terms with Alexander's undeniable temporal success. Why would a just, all-powerful God show such favour to an unrighteous ruler? This theological need, plus acculturation to Hellenism, led to a more positive Jewish interpretation of the Alexander legacy. In its most neutral form this was typified by having Alexander show deference to either the Jewish people or the symbols of their faith. In having the great conqueror thus acknowledge the essential truth of the Jews' religious, intellectual, or ethical traditions, the prestige of Alexander was harnessed to the cause of Jewish ethnocentrism. Eventually Jewish writers would almost completely co-opt Alexander, depicting him as a righteous gentile or even a believing monotheist.Broydé 1906.
The Christianized peoples of the Near East, inheritors of both the Hellenic as well as Judaic strands of the Alexander romance, further theologized Alexander until in some stories he was depicted as a saint. The Christian legends turned the ancient Greek conqueror Alexander III into Alexander "the Believing King", implying that he was a believer in monotheism. Eventually elements of the Alexander romance were combined with Biblical legends such as Gog and Magog.
During the period of history during which the Alexander romance was written, little was known about the true historical Alexander the Great as most of the history of his conquests had been preserved in the form of folklore and legends. It was not until the Renaissance (1300–1600 AD) that the true history of Alexander III was rediscovered:
Dating and origins of the Alexander legends
The legendary Alexander material originated as early as the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty (305 BC to 30 BC) and its unknown authors are sometimes referred to as the Pseudo-Callisthenes (not to be confused with Callisthenes of Olynthus, who was Alexander's official historian). The earliest surviving manuscript of the Alexander romance, called the α (alpha) recension, can be dated to the 3rd century AD and was written in Greek in Alexandria:
The Greek variants of the Alexander romance continued to evolve until, in the 4th century, the Greek legend was translated into Latin by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius (where it is called the Res gestae Alexandri Magni) and from Latin it spread to all major vernacular languages of Europe in the Middle Ages. Around the same as its translation into Latin, the Greek text was also translated into the Syriac language and from Syriac it spread to eastern cultures and languages as far afield as China and Southeast Asia.Hanaway, William L. "Eskandar-nāma". Encyclopædia Iranica. The Syriac legend was the source of an Arabic variant called the Qisas Dhul-Qarnayn (Tales of Dhul-Qarnayn)Zuwiyya 2001 and a Persian variant called the (Book of Alexander), as well as Armenian and Ethiopic translations.Zuwiyya 2009.
The Syriac manuscripts of the Alexander Romance contain evidence of lost texts. For example, there is some evidence of a lost pre-Islamic Arabic version of the translation that is thought to have been an intermediary between the Syriac Christian and the Ethiopic Christian translations.Doufikar-Aerts 2003. There is also evidence that the Syriac translation was not directly based on the Greek recensions but was based on a lost Middle Persian or (Neo-Persian) intermediary.
The Syriac Legend
The version recorded in Syriac is of particular importance because it was current in the Middle East during the time of the Quran's writing and is regarded as being closely related to the literary and linguistic origins of the story of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Quran. The Syriac version of the Alexander Romance (or Pseudo-Callisthenes), as it has survived, consists of six distinct manuscripts, each including separately a Syriac Christian religious legend concerning Alexander in prose text called the Neṣḥānā d-Aleksandrōs or "Exploits of Alexander", often referred to simply as the Syriac Legend or Syriac Christian Legend, and based on it, a sermon known as the metrical homily (mēmrā), or Alexander song or poem ascribed to the Syriac poet-theologian Jacob of Serugh (451–521 AD, also called Mar Jacob), which according to Reinink was actually composed around 629–636. The Syriac Legend appears in each of the six manuscripts containing the Syriac version of the Alexander Romance A key manuscript witness is British Library Add. 25875 (copied 1708–1709), which is the oldest and one of the five used by E. A. W. Budge, who used it as the base text for his critical edition of the Syriac text and English translation of the Legend. The slightly later Metrical Homily (mēmrā) survives in five manuscripts, the oldest of which was copied in the 9th century CE. The Syriac Legend concentrates on Alexander's journey to the end of the World, where he constructs the Gates of Alexander to enclose the evil nations of Gog and Magog, while the Metrical Homily describes his journey to the Land of Darkness to discover the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth), as well as his enclosure of Gog and Magog. These legends concerning Alexander are remarkably similar to the story of Dhul-Qarnayn found in the Quran.Stoneman 2003
The Syriac Legend has been generally dated to between 629 AD and 636 AD. There is evidence in the legend of " knowledge of the Khazar invasion of Armenia in A.D. 629",Czeglédy 1954.Czeglédy 1957. which suggests that the legend must have been burdened with additions by a redactor sometime around 629 AD. The legend appears to have been composed as propaganda in support of Emperor Heraclius (575–641 AD) shortly after he defeated the Persians in the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628. It is notable that this manuscript fails to mention the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem in 636 AD by Muhammad's (570–632 AD) successor, Caliph Umar (590–644 AD). This fact means that the legend might have been recorded before the "cataclysmic event" that was the Muslim conquest of Syria and the resulting surrender of Jerusalem in November 636 AD. That the Byzantine–Arab Wars would have been referenced in the legend, had it been written after 636 AD, is supported by the fact that in 692 AD a Syriac Christian adaption of the Alexander romance called the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius was indeed written as a response to the Muslim invasions and was falsely attributed to St Methodius (d. 311 AD); this Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius equated the evil nations of Gog and Magog with the Muslim invaders and shaped the eschatological imagination of Christendom for centuries. The Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius shows obvious borrowing from the Syriac Legend for its account concerning the barrier against Gog and Magog (especially its description of the Huns as chiefs of thirty eschatological nations), while the Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephrem (dated between 642 and 683 CE) shows borrowing from both the Syriac Legend and the Alexander Poem (i.e. the Metrical Homily).
One scholar (Kevin van Bladel)van Bladel, "Alexander Legend in the Qur'an", 2008: pp. 175–203 who finds striking similarities between the Quranic verses 18:83-102 and the Syriac legend in support of Emperor Heraclius, dates the work to 629–630 AD or before Muhammad's death, not 629–636 AD. The Syriac legend matches many details in the five parts of the verses (Alexander being the two horned one, journey to edge of the world, punishment of evil doers, Gog and Magog, etc.) and also "makes some sense of the cryptic Qur'anic story" being 21 pages (in one edition)van Bladel, "Alexander Legend in the Qur'an", 2008: pp. 178–79 not 20 verses. (The sun sets in a fetid poisonous ocean—not spring—surrounding the earth, Gog and Magog are Huns, etc.) Van Bladel finds it more plausible that the Syriac legend is the source of the Quranic verses than vice versa, both for linguistic reasons as well as because the Syriac legend was written before the Arab conquests when the Hijazi Muslim community was still remote from and little known to the Mesopotamian site of the legend's creation, whereas Arabs worked as troops and scouts for during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 and could have been exposed to the legend.van Bladel, "Alexander Legend in the Qur'an", 2008: p.189–190
Stephen Shoemaker, commenting on the views of Reinink, van Bladel, and Tesei, argues it more likely that most of the text of the current version of the legend existed in a sixth century version, given the stringent timings otherwise required for the legend to influence the Syriac metrical homily and Quranic versions, and the difficulty of otherwise explaining the presence of the first ex-eventu prophecy about the Sabir Hun invasion of 515 CE in the legend, which was already circulating as an apocalyptic revelation in John of Ephesus's Lives of the Eastern Saints in the sixth century CE.
Search for the water of life