Critics argue that the Quranic story of Dhul-Qarnayn in Surah 18 borrows from the Syriac Alexander Legend, while traditional Islamic scholarship denies that Dhul-Qarnayn is Alexander the Great.
The debate involves several key arguments regarding texts, history, and theology.
THE CRITICAL CLAIM
• The Figure of Dhul-Qarnayn: In Surah 18 (verses 83–102) of the Quran, a righteous king named Dhul-Qarnayn (meaning "The Two-Horned One") travels to the ends of the earth.
• Striking Parallels: The Quranic narrative describes Dhul-Qarnayn travelling to where the sun sets in a muddy spring and building a barrier of iron and molten brass to trap the tribes of Gog and Magog.
- These details closely match older Christian and Syriac stories found in the Alexander Romance and the Syriac Alexander Legend, which depict Alexander as a pious king who built a copper-and-iron gate against apocalyptic nations.
- The Alexander Romance is a massive collection of fabulous, semi-mythical stories about Alexander the Great
- The Syriac Alexander Legend is a much shorter, distinct Christian apocalyptic text about his exploits.
WHAT IS THE ALEXANDER ROMANCE?
• Origins: It is a pseudo-historical biography compiled in Greek around the 3rd century CE. People later falsely attributed it to Callisthenes, a historian who travelled with Alexander, which is why scholars call the author "Pseudo-Callisthenes".
• Content: It mixes real history with wild fantasy. It describes Alexander's miraculous birth (falsely claiming he was the son of an Egyptian pharaoh and sorcerer named Nectanebo II), divine conquests, and bizarre journeys like diving into the ocean in a glass barrel or flying on giant birds.
• Spread: It became one of the most widely translated secular books of the ancient and medieval worlds, travelling into Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and European vernacular languages.
WHAT IS THE SYRIAC ALEXANDER LEGEND? (Neṣḥānā d-Aleksandrōs)
• Origins: Written in Syriac in northern Mesopotamia around the 6th or 7th century CE (often dated to the reign of Emperor Justinian I).
• Content: Known natively as Neṣḥānā d-Aleksandrōs ("The Victory of Alexander"), it portrays Alexander as a monotheistic, Christianized prophet and world conqueror.
• Key Motifs: It famously describes Alexander traveling from the setting sun to the rising sun and building a massive gate of iron and bronze in the Caucasus mountains to trap the unclean barbarian nations of Gog and Magog until the end of the world.
• Significance: This specific Syriac text heavily influenced later Middle Eastern literature and is widely believed by scholars to be the source for the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn found in the Quran.
• The Plagiarism Argument: Sceptics and academic critics state that because the Syriac Christian texts predate Islam by decades, the similarities prove human borrowing rather than divine revelation.
The Counter-Arguments and Islamic Tradition
• Rejection of Identity: Major traditional Islamic scholars state that Dhul-Qarnayn is not Alexander the Great. (GOOD TRY!) They note that historical Alexander was a pagan who died young, whereas the Quran portrays Dhul-Qarnayn as a dedicated monotheist.
• Chronological and Textual Disputes: Some researchers note that the exact dating and direction of influence between late antique texts and the Quran remain uncertain. Oral folklore circulated widely across the Middle East, meaning both traditions may have drawn from a shared regional pool of ideas rather than direct copying. (ANOTHER GOOD TRY)
• Theological View: Muslims view the Quran as the literal word of God. They reject the idea of plagiarism, maintaining that genuine historical truths or moral lessons can appear across different cultural narratives without invalidating divine origin. (OF COURSE THEY DO BUT IT IS IN THE KORAN)
