The ''Qiṣṣat al-Iskandar'' (fully the ''Qiṣṣat al-Iskandar wa-mā fīhā min al-amr al-ʿadjīb'', or "The story of Alexander and the wonderful things it contains") is the earliest narrative of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

in the tradition of the '' Alexander Romance'' genre in the Arabic language. It was composed by ‘Umara ibn Zayd (also spelled Omâre Ebn-Zeyd) (767-815) between the late 8th to the early 9th century as a

recension Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from the Latin ("review, analysis"). In textual criticism (as is the ...

on the Syriac Alexander Legend. It is not to be confused with the ''

Qissat Dhulqarnayn The Qiṣṣat Dhī ʾl-Qarnayn (''Qissat Dhulqarnayn'', "Story of Dhulqarnayn") is a Hispano-Arabic legend of Alexander the Great preserved in two fourteenth-century manuscripts in Madrid and likely dates as a ninth-century Arabic translation of ...

'' or the '' Sirat al-Iskandar''. The text offers a chain of transmission going back to the earliest days of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, claiming to rely on transmitters including

Ka'b al-Ahbar Kaʿb al-Aḥbār (, full name Abū Isḥāq Kaʿb ibn Maniʿ al-Ḥimyarī () was a 7th-century Yemenite Jew from the Arab tribe of "Dhī Raʿīn" () who converted to Islam. He was considered to be the earliest authority on Israiliyyat and S ...

Ibn Abbas ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās (; c. 619 – 687 CE), also known as Ibn ʿAbbās, was one of the cousins of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, prophet Muhammad. He is considered to be the greatest Tafsir#Conditions, mufassir of the Quran, Qur'an. ...

Hasan al-Basri Abi Sa'id al-Hasan ibn Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as al-Hasan al-Basri, was an ancient Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, and judge. Born in Medina in 642,Mourad, Suleiman A., “al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī”, in: ''Encyc ...

Ibn Ishaq Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (; – , known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic proph ...

and others.

Synopsis

In the Qissat al-Iskandar,

is depicted as a civilizing hero and monotheist that travels across the world, builds the Wall against

Gog and Magog Gog and Magog (; ) or Ya'juj and Ma'juj () are a pair of names that appear in the Bible and the Quran, Qur'an, variously ascribed to individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land. By the time of the New ...

, searches for the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth), and encounters angels who give him a "wonder-stone" that both weighs more than any other stone but is also as light as dust. This text contains the core traditions of the Alexander Romance including Alexander's campaigns against

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, the

Amazon women The Amazons (Ancient Greek: ', singular '; in Latin ', ') were a people in Greek mythology, portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. They were female wa ...

, etc.; 'Umara follows the Greek tradition closely on these narratives, though he also provides extensive glosses to the Quranic account. However, it excludes the initial parts of the Romance and, like many later Islamic renditions of Alexander legends, begins with Alexander's confrontations with Darius of Persia. The text also contains uniquely Arabic and Islamic material, including an identification of the protagonist, Alexander, with the figure named

Dhu al-Qarnayn , (, ; "The Owner of Two-Horns") is a leader who appears in the Qur'an, Surah al-Kahf (18), Ayahs 83–101, as one who travels to the east and west and sets up a barrier between a certain people and Gog and Magog (). Elsewhere, the Qur'an t ...

whom appears in Surah Al-Kahf in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. The people who live where the sun sets described in the Quran are identified by 'Umara as the Jābalqā people. Then, Alexander appears in the place of the rising sun, where he meets the people known as Jābarsā. The people who barely communicate between two mountains are identified as the Hāwīl, whose counterpart is the Tāwīl. The story describes the construction of the iron and clad wall at this location in detail. On these journeys encountering many groups of people, God grants Alexander proficiency in all languages. The story continues and speaks of a great number of more tales.

Manuscripts

The composition is found in one sixteenth-century (1504) manuscript spanning 80 folios (or 160 pages) and was written by the scribe ‘Ubayd Allah Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Mun’im b. Muḥammad al-Anṣarī al-Khazrajī al-Malikī. It is currently being held at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

as British Museum Add. 5928.

References

{{Reflist 9th-century Arabic-language books 9th-century literature Alexander Romance Dhul-Qarnayn