The Muslim traditions also elaborated the legend that Alexander the Great had been the companion of Aristotle and the direct student of Plato. Zuwiyya, David Z. The tribes of Yajuj and Majuj were unable to reach them again or breach a way in the barrier. Translated into prose, with critical and explanatory remarks, by Captain H. Wilberforce Clarke. ": Josephus [37–100 AD], in his Antiquities of the Jews xi, 8, 5 tells of a visit that Alexander is purported to have made to Jerusalem, where he met the high priest Jaddua and the assembled Jews, and was shown the book of Daniel in which it was prophesied that some one of the Greeks would overthrow the empire of Persia. In the Qur’an he’s even elevated to the figure of a Prophet (even though historically he praied Ammon and himself became a god)! Furthermore, Cyrus' conquests[7]:16 also align with the account of Dhu al-Qarnayn as Cyrus was also a great King who expanded his empire in three directions, excluding the South. Then he sat down and wept because there were not other worlds for him to conquer.[69]. How this is possible that even though the sun being with all its greatness can go down in the dark waters? In reality, while Alexander did travel a great deal, he did not travel further west than ancient Libya and did not travel further east than the fringes of India. 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). Their knowledge of astronomy was limited to measuring time based on empirical observations of the "rising and setting" of the sun, moon, and particular stars. Dhul-Qarnayn also finds a people living by the "rising place of the Sun," and finds that these people somehow have "no shelter.". According to the Quran, he travelled first to the western end of the world where he witnessed the Sun setting in a muddy spring. So (it was). (18:85) He set out (westwards) on an expedition, (18:86) until when he reached the very limits where the sun sets, 63 he saw it setting in dark turbid waters; 64 and nearby he met a people. The angel spake unto him, saying, 'O man, I did not curse thee by the name by which thou and the works that thou doest are known. The Turks begged King Zulqarnain to help them get cleared of Yajooj and Majooj. [citation needed], The various campaigns of Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned in Q:18:83-101 have also been attributed to the South Arabian Himyarite King Ṣaʿb Dhu-Marāthid (also known as al-Rāʾid). Then when `Abdur Rehman wanted to advance towards Derbent, Shehrbaz [ruler of Armenia] informed him that he had already gathered full information about the wall built by Dhul-Qarnain, through a man, who could supply all the necessary details ...[49]. A second tradition, including St Basil and St Augustine, accepted the idea of the round Earth and the radial gravity, but in a critical way. When Zulqarnain, saw the sun setting in a muddy stream, this should be the place of the middle to lower reaches of the Yellow River, where it carries the most amount of silt and looks very muddy. [30] Among Western academics, Brannon Wheeler has argued that the alleged similarities between Alexander romances and the Dhu al-Qarnayn story are actually based on later commentaries of the Qur'an rather than the Qur'an itself. In this commentary Ibn Kathir differentiates between the end of the Earth and the supposed "place in the sky" where the sun sets (the "resting place" of the sun. Zulqarnain melted the iron sheets like red flames and with help of the water created desiring shapes then constructed a wall. Eventually elements of the Alexander romance were combined with Biblical legends such as Gog and Magog. He said: "As for him who doeth wrong, we shall punish him, and then he will be brought back unto his Lord, Who will punish him with awful punishment! At Dhu al-Qarnayn's request the mountain explains the origin of earthquakes: when God wills, the mountain causes one of its veins to throb, and thus an earthquake results. [29] Finally, ancient Christian Syriac and Ethiopic manuscripts of the Alexander romance from the Middle East have been found which closely resemble the story in the Quran. [67], The ancient Greek historian Herodotus (484–425 BC) also gave an account of the eastern "end of the Earth," in his descriptions of India. Dhul-Qarnayn is a Title Given to this Great King which means Processor of Two Horns. Re: Zulqarnain as Cyrus the Great within the Noble Quran you are wrong the prophet had to wait to reply because it really was from Allah if he just wanted to convince the jews it wouldnt have taken so long to give the reply it is you who is trying to prove something that you cant prove [25] There is also evidence that the Syriac translation was not directly based on the Greek recensions but was based on a lost Pahlavi (Middle Persian) intermediary. In the books of narrations it is described that in the heavenly scriptures like the Holy Quran and Taurat (Torah) the name of Zulqarnain was mentioned. [32][33] According to Wahb ibn Munabbih, as quoted by Ibn Hisham,[34] King Ṣaʿb was a conqueror who was given the epithet Dhu al-Qarnayn after meeting al-Khidr in Jerusalem. It is unclear why he was named such. [71], The earliest surviving Arabic narrative of the Alexander romance was composed by Umara ibn Zayd (767–815 AD). I know in my mind that thou hast exalted me above all kings, and thou hast made me horns upon my head, wherewith I might thrust down the kingdoms of the world...I will magnify thy name, O Lord, forever ... And if the Messiah, who is the Son of God [Jesus], comes in my days, I and my troops will worship Him...[37], While the Syriac Legend references the horns of Alexander, it consistently refers to the hero by his Greek name, not using a variant epithet. In the Jewish tradition Alexander was initially a figure of satire, representing the vain or covetous ruler who is ignorant of larger spiritual truths. Here are some examples from the 1000s of stunning Numerical and Scientific Miracles in the Glorious Quran. Thus the earth was not round but flat, and `Asia' was limited on the west by the Tanais (Don), the inland sea and the Nile, and on the east by `India' and `the Great Sea' ... he was mistaken in supposing that from the ridge of the Paropamisadae (Hindu Kush) one would see `the outer sea' and that `India' was a small peninsula running east into that sea.[70]. [18:85] So he followed a course. The Qur’an relates the story of Zulqarnain (one with two horns) in Surah Kahaf. The Turks pleaded … According to the most recent authority, ... it was compiled by a Greco-Egyptian writing in Alexandria about A.D. 300. The 17th chapter of the apocryphal Book of Enoch describes a journey to the far west where the fire of the west receives every setting of the sun and a river of fire empties into the great western sea. The Arabic unit of currency known as the dirham, known from pre-Islamic times up to the present day, inherited its name from the drachma. Some people raise objections on this story, stating that does Quran not know that the Sun does not set in a stream of water? [13], The Malay-language Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain traces the ancestry of several Southeast Asian royal families, such as the Sumatra Minangkabau royalty,[14] from Iskandar Zulkarnain,[15] through Raja Rajendra Chola (Raja Suran, Raja Chola) in the Malay Annals. [7] According to these legends, the Scythians, the descendants of Gog and Magog, once defeated one of Alexander's generals, upon which Alexander built a wall in the Caucasus mountains to keep them out of civilized lands (the basic elements are found in Flavius Josephus).The scholar Stephen Gero, sharing similar views, inserts that the earliest possible date for the Gog & Magog gate-narrative in this form dates to between 629 and 636, thus tentatively concluding the syriac Alexander Romance "stricte dictu cannot be considered as a source of the Qur’anic narrative", due to the fact that there is absolute consent among Western[8] and Muslim[9][10] scholars that Surah 18 belongs to the second Meccan Period (615-619). The Andalusian traveler Abū Hamid al-Gharnāti who visited Bulghar in the 1150s, noted that Iskandar Dhūl-Qarnayn passed through Bulghar, that is, the Volga-Kama region, on his way to build the iron walls that contained Yā'jūj and Mā'jūj [Gog and Magog] within the land of darkness ... while Najib al-Hamadāni reports that the rulers of Bulghar claimed descent from Iskandar Dhūl-Qarnayn.[78]. Most of these stories come from the myths of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] and the fabrications and lies of their heretics.[60]. [21] The Syriac Christian 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 sermon describes his journey to the Land of Darkness to discover the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth). [25] Ernst claims that Dhu al-Qarnayn finding the sun setting in a "muddy spring" in the West is equivalent to the "poisonous sea" found by Alexander in the Syriac legend. Leone Montagnini, "La questione della forma della Terra. There is also evidence that the Syriac translation of the Alexander romance, dating to the 6th century, was not directly based on the Greek recensions but was based on a lost Pahlavi (pre-Islamic Persian) manuscript.[71]. [77] Islamic Persian accounts of the Alexander legend, known as the Iskandarnamah, combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes material about Alexander, some of which is found in the Quran, with indigenous Sassanid Middle Persian ideas about Alexander. Cyrus the Great in the Quran is a theory that identifies Dhul-Qarnayn, a figure mentioned in verses 18:83-98 of the Quran, with Cyrus the Great. The word Zulqarnain means “the two horned”. A Mosque in the area of Medina, possibly: This page was last edited on 10 February 2021, at 00:32. In later versions of the Christian legends, dated to around the time of Emperor Heraclius (575–641 AD), the Gates are instead located in Derbent, a city situated on a narrow strip of land between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus mountains, where an ancient Sassanid fortification was mistakenly identified with the wall built by Alexander. "Translation and the Arat of Recreation: The legend of Alexander the Great from the, Zuwiyya, David Z. Popular opinion amongst the Muslims and quite recently, within the mainstream evangelical Christians identify Zul-Qarnian (of the Qur’an) with Alexander the great. [30] Rams were a symbol of virility due to their rutting behaviour; the horns of Ammon may have also represented the East and West of the Earth, and one of the titles of Ammon was "the two-horned." Either punish or show them kindness.". Popular opinion amongst the Muslims and quite recently, within the mainstream evangelical Christians identify Zul-Qarnian (of the Qur’an) with Alexander the great. 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,[1] may be a reference to Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC), popularly known as Alexander the Great. : "He of the Two Horns"), also spelled Zu al-Qarnayn, appears in the Quran, Surah Al-Kahf (18), Ayahs 83-101 as one who travels to east and west and erects a wall between mankind and Gog and Magog (called Ya'juj and Ma'juj). The rabbis told them to ask Muhammad about three things, one of them "about a man who travelled and reached the east and the west of the earth, what was his story". Until, when he came to the rising of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had provided no covering protection against the sun. During this period, a version of the Alexander legend was written in the Aljamaido language, building on the Arabic Qisas Dhul-Qarnayn legends as well as Romance language versions of the Alexander romance.[75][76]. It has been suggested that the incorporation of the Gog and Magog legend into the Alexander romance was prompted by the invasion of the Huns across the Caucasus mountains in 395 AD into Armenia and Syria.[44]. 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). However, some early Muslim scholars believed it to be a reference to a pre-Islamic monarch from Persia or south Arabia, with, according to Mau… Firdausi in his Shahnama immortalised Zulqarnain as the just king and conqueror. However, he is not depicted as a warrior and conqueror, but as a seeker of truth who eventually finds the Ab-i Hayat (Water of Life). In the northern lands they built a city and called it Bulghar.[78]. : "He of the Two Horns"), also spelled Zu al-Qarnayn, appears in the Quran, Surah Al-Kahf (18), Ayahs 83-101 as one who travels to east and west and erects a wall between mankind and Gog and Magog (called Ya'juj and Ma'juj). The verses of the chapter reproduced below show Dhu al-Qarnayn traveling first to the Western edge of the world where he sees the sun set in a muddy spring, then to the furthest East where he sees it rise from the ocean, and finally northward to a place in the mountains where he finds a people oppressed by Gog and Magog: A minority[citation needed] of Muslim commentators argue Gog and Magog here refers to some barbaric North Asian tribes from pre-Biblical times which have been free from Dhu al-Qarnayn's wall for a long time. In the Muslim world, several expeditions were undertaken to try to find and study Alexanders's wall, specifically the Caspian Gates of Derbent. For example, the Muslim explorer Ibn Battuta (1304–1369 AD) travelled to China on order of the Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq and he comments in his travel log that "Between it [the city of Zaitun in Fujian] and the rampart of Yajuj and Majuj [Gog and Magog] is sixty days' travel. Cyrus the Great in the Quran is a theory that identifies Dhul-Qarnayn, a figure mentioned in verses 18:83-98 of the Quran, with Cyrus the Great. When 'Abdur Rehman entered Armenia, the ruler Shehrbaz surrendered without fighting. West, north, east, south, there is nothing more for me to conquer.' It also includes features which occur exclusively in the Syriac version. 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 (?–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. "[56], Early Muslim scholars writing about Dhul-Qarnayn also associated Gog and Magog with the Khazars. The earliest Greek manuscripts of the Alexander romance, as they have survived, indicate that it was composed at Alexandria in the 3rd century. The Muslims claim many different miraculous features in regard to Qur'an. But actually the Qur’an responded to serve its own purpose of admonition. He ‘owns’ him by making him the grandson of Darius. In the Yemenite variation, Dhul-Qarnayn is identified with an ancient king of Yemen named Tubba', rather than Alexander the Great, but the Arabic story still describes the story of Alexander's Wall against Gog and Magog and his quest for the Water of Life. According to the Quran, he travelled first to the western end of the world where he witnessed the Sun setting in a muddy spring. (This article is continuation of topic Concept of Good Governance in Islam). Islamic point of view needs the accurate questions from students. How, Walter W. and Wells, J. In fact the Qur’an relates three incidents in this Surah, and the story of Zulqarnain is one of them. 3–8 which tells of the overthrow of the two-horned ram by the one-horned goat, the one horn of the goat being broken in the encounter ...The interpretation of this is given further ... "The ram which thou sawest that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. The story of creation in the Hebrew Bible, in Genesis 1:10, (dated c. 900–550 BC) is also considered by scholars to be describing a flat Earth surrounded by a sea. After Alexander's conquests, the drachma was used in many of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the Middle East, including the Ptolemaic kingdom in Alexandria. Early commentratoes believed that he was Alexander. Zulqarnain is an Arabic name for boys that means “possessor of two horns”. Thou hast come unto me, and I praise thee because, from the east to the west, the whole earth hath been given unto thee ...'[37]. The story of Moses and Al-Khidr is mentioned in Surah Al-Kahf (verses 60-82) and in Sahih Bukhari, Book 6, Volume 60, Hadith 249. Zulqarnain melted the iron sheets like red flames and with help of the water created desiring shapes then constructed a wall. Quran-18:83—84: They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain. Some believe that he was a messenger of God and according to few he was just a great king. The Alexander romance identified the Gates of Alexander, variously, with the Pass of Dariel, the Pass of Derbent, the Great Wall of Gorgan and even the Great Wall of China. 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. The work is significant as it introduced the Ptolemaic system into Islamic sciences (the Ptolemaic system was ultimately replaced by the Copernican system during the Scientific Revolution in Europe). [2], Early Muslim commentators and historians assimilated Dhu al-Qarnayn to several figures, among them Alexander the Great, the Parthian king Kisrounis,[3] the South-Arabian Himyarite king Sa'b Dhu Marathid, and the North-Arabian Lakhmid king al-Mundhir ibn Imru al-Qays. It is within this tract of land between the Paropamisadae mountains and Okeyanos that Alexander encloses Gog and Magog, so that they could not cross the mountains and invade the Earth. [20] The use of the Islamic epithet "Dhu al-Qarnayn", the "two-horned", first occurred in the Quran. Say: "I shall recite unto you a remembrance of him.". Together, they went to the Land of Darkness (diyār-i zulmat) to seek the Fountain of Youth (āb-i hayāt). [38] The use of the Islamic epithet "Dhu al-Qarnayn", the "two-horned", first occurred in the Quran.[39]. Yajuj and Ma'juj are certain communities of people who rejected humility and obedience before Allah and transgressed in oppression of obedience and humility before Allah and who caused chaos amidst peace loving people. Most of the students specially preparing for below mention entry tests may focus upon questions and answers in the form of MCQs in the form of Islam. [1] Elsewhere the Quran tells how the end of the world would be signaled by the release of Gog and Magog from behind the wall, and other apocalyptic writings report their destruction by God in a single night would usher in the Day of Resurrection (Yawm al-Qiyāmah). And (Gog and Magog) were not able to surmount, nor could they pierce (it). It was transferred to the passes through the Caucasus, on the other side of the Caspian, by the more fanciful historians of Alexander. The episode of Alexander's building a wall against Gog and Magog, however, is not found in the oldest Greek, Latin, Armenian and Syriac versions of the Romance. Pearls from Surah Al-Kahf: Exploring the Qur'an's Meaning, Yasir Qadhi Kube Publishing Limited, 4 Mar 2020, meeting of Alexander with the Indian sages, "The Alexander Legend in the Qur'an 18:83-102", "Did the Qurʾān borrow from the Syriac Legend of Alexander? Sinbad, the hero of the epic, is a fictional sailor from Basrah, living during the Abbasid Caliphate. 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 [Judaism, Christianity and Islam]. 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. The intention of God is right and true. A Georgian tradition, echoed in a chronicle, also identifies the Khazars with Gog and Magog, stating they are "wild men with hideous faces and the manners of wild beasts, eaters of blood. According to Muslim accounts, this chapter was revealed to Muhammad when his tribe, Quraysh, sent two men to discover whether the Jews, with their superior knowledge of the scriptures, could advise them on whether Muhammad was a true prophet of God. 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. This theological need, plus acculturation to Hellenism, led to a more positive Jewish interpretation of the Alexander legacy. They show him a place in the middle of the mountains, a narrow pass which had been constructed by God ...[46], Flat Earth beliefs in the Early Christian Church varied and the Fathers of the Church shared different approaches. The king said, "Where have the hosts [of Gog and Magog] come forth to plunder the land and all the world from of old?" References to Alexander's supposed horns are found in literature ranging many different languages, regions and centuries: The horns of Alexander ... have had a varied symbolism. 62 (18:84) We granted him power in the land and endowed him with all kinds of resources. Lo! 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. There is evidence in the legend of "ex eventu knowledge of the Khazar invasion of Armenia in A.D. 629,"[23][24] which suggests that the legend must have been burdened with additions by a redactor sometime around 629 AD. This area of astronomical study was known as anwa and continued to be developed after Islamization by the Arabs. These were apparently revealed in response to three questions asked by the Quraish. The famous Quranic translator maulana A. Yousuf Ali gave a long story as Appendix Vll (titled: Who was Zulqarnain; page 760-765) detailing the facts and figures why most Islamic scholars including himself considered very strongly that, Quranic Zulqarnain was nobody but Alexander the Great. Surah Kahaf is one of the exemplary surahs of Quran. Displayed at the British Museum. "If he tells you about these things, then he is a prophet, so follow him, but if he does not tell you, then he is a man who is making things up, so deal with him as you see fit."

Spyderco Endura 4 Stainless, Kick Rocks And Other Sayings, How To Pronounce Ute, Musc Neurology Appointment, Hoover Dam Bridge Bypass Trail, Pepper Fungus Disease,