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Dhul-Qarnayn in Islamic literature
Main article: Dhul-Qarnayn
Qur'an
Dhul-Qarnayn (The two-horned in English) features in the Qur'an, the sacred scripture believed by Muslims to have been revealed by Allah to Muhammad. The story of Dhul-Qarnayn appears in seventeen short verses of the Qur'an, specifically verses 18:83-99 of Surah Al-Kahf. Dhul-Qarnayn is mentioned in only one place in the Qur'an, unlike the more familiar stories that are repeated throughout the text (for example, Jesus is mentioned in 93 verses in 15 different surahs of the Qur'an). The Qur'anic story describes a man called Dhul-Qarnayn (meaning "the Two-Horned"), who was already familiar to the inhabitants of the region, to whom Allah gave great power, and who traveled to the rising place and setting place of the sun, where he found the sun setting in a murky (or boiling) sea. At this place, Dhul-Qarnayn builds a wall in order to enclose the nations of Gog and Magog. It is thought that Gog and Magog will breach Dhul-Qarnayn's wall before Yaum al-Qiyāmah (the Day of Judgement) and will wreak havoc in the world (Islamic Armageddon):
Earlier we saw the question in response to which the story of Ashab al-Kahf was related. The matter of Dhul Qarnain was also inquired about. The upcoming verses relate his story – in response to that inquiry – focusing
Earlier we saw the question in response to which the story of Ashab al-Kahf was related. The matter of Dhul Qarnain was also inquired about. The upcoming verses relate his story – in response to that inquiry – focusing
And they ask you about Zulqarnain. Say: I will recite to you an account of him.
SHAKIR
| Qur'an Verse | Abdullah Yusuf Ali | Pickthall |
|---|---|---|
| 18:83 | They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain Say, "I will rehearse to you something of his story." | They will ask thee of Dhu'l-Qarneyn. Say: "I shall recite unto you a remembrance of him." |
| 18:84 | Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways and the means to all ends. | Lo! We made him strong in the land and gave him unto every thing a road. |
| 18:85 | One (such) way he followed, | And he followed a road |
| 18:86 | Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: near it he found a people: We said: "O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority), either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness." | Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: "O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness." |
| 18:87 | He said: "Whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then shall he be sent back to his Lord; and He will punish him with a punishment unheard-of (before). | 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!" |
| 18:88 | "But whoever believes, and works righteousness, he shall have a goodly reward, and easy will be his task as we order it by our command." | "But as for him who believeth and doeth right, good will be his reward, and We shall speak unto him a mild command." |
| 18:89 | Then followed he (another) way. | Then he followed a road |
| 18:90 | 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. | Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom. |
| 18:91 | (He left them) as they were: We completely understood what was before him. | So (it was). And We knew all concerning him. |
| 18:92 | Then followed he (another) way. | Then he followed a road |
| 18:93 | Until, when he reached (a tract) between two mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who scarcely understood a word. | Till, when he came between the two mountains, he found upon their hither side a folk that scarce could understand a saying. |
| 18:94 | They said: "O Zul-qarnain! the Gog and Magog (people) do great mischief on earth: shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou mightest erect a barrier [wall] between us and them?" | They said: "O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Lo! Gog and Magog are spoiling the land. So may we pay thee tribute on condition that thou set a barrier [wall] between us and them?" |
| 18:95 | He said: "(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than tribute): help me therefore with strength (and labour): I will erect a strong barrier [wall] between you and them: | He said: "That wherein my Lord hath established me is better (than your tribute). Do but help me with strength (of men), I will set between you and them a bank [wall]." |
| 18:96 | "Bring me blocks of iron." At length, when he had filled up the space between the two steep mountain sides, he said, "Blow (with your bellows)" then, when he had made it (red) as fire, he said: "Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten lead." | "Give me pieces of iron" - till, when he had leveled up (the gap) between the cliffs, he said: "Blow!" - till, when he had made it a fire, he said: "Bring me molten copper to pour thereon." |
| 18:97 | Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it. | And (Gog and Magog) were not able to surmount, nor could they pierce (it). |
| 18:98 | He said: "This is a mercy from my Lord: but when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will make it into dust; and the promise of my Lord is true." | He said: "This is a mercy from my Lord; but when the promise of my Lord cometh to pass, He will lay it low, for the promise of my Lord is true." |
| 18:99 | On that day We shall leave them [Gog and Magog] to surge like waves on one another: the trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect them all together. | And on that day we shall let some of them [Gog and Magog] surge against others, and the Trumpet will be blown. Then We shall gather them together in one gathering. |
Sira
The earliest mention of Dhul-Qarnayn outside the Qur'an is found in the works of the earliest Muslim historian and hagiographer, Ibn Ishaq (?-761 AD), which form the main corpus of the Sira (religious biography) literature. Ibn Ishaq's Sira reports that the eighteenth chapter of the Qur'an (which includes the story of Dhul-Qarnayn) was revealed to Muhammad by God on account of some questions posed to Muhammad by the rabbis. The verse was revealed during the Meccan period of Muhammad's life. According to Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad's tribe, the powerful Quraysh, were greatly concerned about their tribesman who had started claiming prophethood and wished to consult the Jewish rabbis' superior knowledge of the scriptures and about the prophets of God. The two Quraysh men described their tribesman, Muhammad, to the Jewish scholars. The rabbis told the men to ask Muhammad three questions:
They (the rabbis) said, 'Ask him about three things which we will tell you to ask and if he answers them then he is a Prophet who has been sent (by Allah); if he does not, then he is saying things that are not true, in which case how you will deal with him will be up to you. Ask him about some young men in ancient times, what was their story? For theirs is a strange and wondrous tale. Ask him about a man who travelled a great deal and reached the east and the west of the earth. What was his story? And ask him about the Ruh (soul or spirit) —what is it? 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.'[19]
The famous story in the Sira relates that when Muhammad was informed of the three questions from the Rabbis, he declared that he would have the answers in the morning. However, Muhammad did not give the answer in the morning. For fifteen days, Muhammad did not answer the question. Doubt in Muhammad began to grow amongst the people of Mecca. Then, after fifteen days, Muhammad received the revelation that is Sura Al-Kahf ("The Cave"), the eighteenth chapter of the Qur'an. Surah Al-Kahf mentions the "People of the Cave," a strange story about some young men in ancient times who slept in a cave for many years (the widespread myth of the Seven Sleepers, see below). Surah Al-Kahf also mentions the winds (related to the word for spirit, verse 45). Finally, the surah also mentions "a man who travelled a great deal and reached the east and the west of the earth"—namely, Dhul-Qarnayn. Though Ibn Ishaq himself does not explicitly mention the name Alexander, he relates that a storyteller told him that Dhul-Qarnayn was a Greco-Egyptian (an accurate description of Alexander):
A man who used to purvey stories of the foreigners, which were handed down among them, told me that Dhul-Qarnayn was an Egyptian whose name was Marzuban bin Mardhaba, the Greek.[20]
Ibn Ishaq's original work is lost, but it has been almost completely incorporated in Ibn Hisham (?-833 AD), another early Muslim historian. Ibn Hisham collected Ibn Ishaq's Sira and added his notes to it; in regards to Dhul-Qarnayn, Ibn Hisham noted:
Dhu al-Qarnain is Alexander the Greek, the king of Persia and Greece, or the king of the east and the west, for because of this he was called Dhul-Qarnayn [meaning, 'the two-horned one']...[verification needed]
The theme, amongst Islamic scholars, of identifying Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great appears to have originated here. Why Ibn Hisham made this identification is not entirely clear.
[edit] Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry
Ibn Ishaq recorded many pre-Islamic Arabic poems in the Sira, including a poem about Dhul-Qarnayn that he claims was composed by a pre-Islamic king of ancient Yemen named Tubba':
Dhu’l-Qarnayn before me was a Muslim
Conquered kings thronged his court,
East and west he ruled, yet he sought
Knowledge true from a learned sage.
He saw where the sun sinks from view
In a pool of mud and fetid slime
Before him Bilqis [Queen of Sheba] my father's sister
Ruled them until the hoopoe came to her.[21]
The poem's reference to "a learned sage" from whom Dhul-Qarnayn sought knowledge from may be a reference to the story of Dhul-Qarnayn and Al-Khidir. Other pre-Islamic Arab poems about Dhul-Qarnayn are also reported in the Sira literature:
The pre-Islamic poet Al-`Asha and the contemporary of Muhammad Hassan ibn Thabit (?-674 AD) both composed verses referring to the conquest of Gog and Magog and furthest east by Dhu`l-qarnain.[14]
One poem by Hassan ibn Thabit reads:
Ours the realm of Dhu 'l-Qarnayn the glorious
Realm like his was never won by mortal king.
Followed he the Sun to view its setting
When it sank into the somber ocean-spring;
Up he clomb to see it rise at morning,
From within its Mansions when the East it fired;
All day long the horizons led him onward,
All night through he watched the stars and never tired.
Then of iron and of liquid metal
He prepared a rampart not to be o'erpassed,
Gog and Magog there he threw in prison
Till on Judgement Day they shall awake at last[22]
[edit] Tafsir
Alexander is mentioned in the tafsir, the exegesis or commentaries of the Qur'an that were written by prominent early Islamic scholars. Significantly, Alexander the Great is mentioned in Tafsir al-Jalalayn, a well-known Sunni tafsir of the Qur'an from the 15th century. The tafsir notes that Dhul-Qarnayn's name was Alexander and also indicates that Dhul-Qarnayn was not a prophet:
And they, the Jews, question you concerning Dhū’l-Qarnayn, whose name was Alexander; he was not a prophet. Say: ‘I shall recite, relate, to you a mention, an account, of him’, of his affair.[23]
The commentators of the Qur'an debated on whether or not Dhul-Qarnayn was a prophet of Islam; some concluded that he was not a prophet but was a holy man or a "friend of God" since he is mentioned favorably in the Qur'an. In Islam it is ambiguous as to whether or not Dhul-Qarnayn is a full-fledged prophet.
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149-1209 AD), in Tafsir al-Kabir also comments that Dhul-Qarnayn is Alexander the Macedonian. He provides a vague justification, saying that the Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned in the Qur'an travelled to the east and the west achieving victories and so he must be Alexander:
While a survey in the history we do not find anybody other than Macedonian Alexander, therefore, the Dhul Qarnayn is the same Macedonian Alexander.[24]
[edit] Other Islamic literature
Aristotelian Muslim philosophers, such as al-Kindi (801–873 AD), al-Farabi (872-950 AD), and Avicenna (980 - 1037 AD), enthusiastically embraced the concept of Dhul-Qarnayn being an ancient Greek king. They stylized Dhul-Qarnayn as a Greek philosopher king. Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 AD) objected to the identification on the basis that Alexander was a pagan idolater, and he accused the Aristotelian Muslim philosophers such as Avicenna of making the "mistaken" identification:
...Thus, the sages of the Persian Zoroastrians are all kafir [infidels], as well as the sages of Greece such as Aristotle and those like him. They were associationists, worshipping idols and the planets. Aristotle was before 'Isa (Jesus) by three hundred years, and was a minister for Alexander son of Phillip the Macedonian, who is mentioned in the histories of Rome and Greece, as well as the histories of the Christians and the Jews. He is not, however, the same as the man named Dhu-l-Qarnain who Allah mentioned in His book, as some imagined. Some people mistakenly thought that Aristotle was a minister for dhu-l-qarnain, when they saw that (the one found in the Western histories) was named Alexander, and the names are similar, they thought that they were one and the same man. This mistaken view has been promulgated by Ibn Seena [Avicenna] and some others with him.[25]
The Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442 AD) claimed in his book Al-Khotatt that Dhul-Qarnayn was a Yemenite king named Sa'b and wrote:
Those who claim that he [Dhul-Qarnayn] was Iranian, Roman, or that he was Alexander of Macedon, are wrong.[verification needed]
In his famous English translation and commentary of the Qur'an, Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872–1953 AD) supported the notion of Dhul-Qarnayn being Alexander the Great and he indicated an extensive knowledge of the legends concerning Alexander:
Another suggestion was made that, Quranic Zul-qarnain was an ancient king of Persia. A king of Persia is referred to as a Ram with two horns in the Book of Daniel (viii. 3) in the Old Testament. But in the same Book, the Ram with the two horns was smitten, cast down to the ground, and stamped upon by a he-goat with one horn (8:7-8). But there is nothing in our literature to suggest that Zul-qarnain came to any such ignominious end. ... If it is argued that it was some old prehistoric Persian king who built the Iron Gates (18:96) to keep out the Gog and Magog tribes (18:94), this is no identification at all. ...
Another suggestion made is that it was some old prehistoric Himyarite king from Yemen, about whom nothing else is known. This, again, is no identification at all. ...
Personally, I have not the least doubt that Zul-Qarnain is meant to be Alexander the Great, the historic Alexander, and not the legendary Alexander...[26]
In his commentary of the Qur'an, Abul Ala Maududi (1903–1979 AD) noted that historically most Muslim scholars had endorsed the identification of Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great, but recent commentators have forwarded an alternative theory that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great:
The identification of Zul-Qarnain has been a controversial matter from the earliest times. In general the commentators have been of the opinion that he was Alexander the Great but the characteristics of Zul-Qarnain described in the Qur'an are not applicable to him. However, now the commentators are inclined to believe that Zul-Qarnain was Cyrus, an ancient king of Iran. We are also of the opinion that probably Zul-Qarnain was Cyrus, but the historical facts, which have come to light up to this time, are not sufficient to make any categorical assertion.[27]
Philological evidence
Philologists, studying ancient Christian legends about Alexander the Great, have come to conclude that the Qur'an's stories about Dhul-Qarnayn closely parallel certain legends about Alexander the Great found in ancient Hellenistic and Christian writings. There is some numismatic evidence, in the form of ancient coins, to identify the Arabic epithet "Dhul-Qarnayn" with Alexander the Great.[28] There is also a long history of monotheistic religions co-opting the historical Alexander. 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 Qur'an. This leads to the theologically controversial conclusion that Qur'an refers to Alexander in the mention of Dhul-Qarnayn.
