alexander in the Quran

[saif]

Hi my name is saif and I admire your web site it is great and very useful for people who like to read about history like me , first of all my English is not that good so I hope that you will understand what I write in this message .Alexander the great become some kind of myth and as I understood the only biographies about him which exist came from some writings which are more than 300 years after AlexanderGÇÖs death .. so it could have a lot of things which are not true . but since they are the only sources we cannot do much about.
It mentioned in the quran a story about a man called THU ALQARNEEN (Zulqarneyn) which means The man with two horns it is mentioned in the religion section of this site, I just want to make some notes form my reading through some old Arabic books relating to that chapter in the quran.1- the quran didnGÇÖt mention the name or the time of thu alqarneen
2- some people at the prophet MohammedGÇÖs time mentioned something about t thu alqarneen and said that his name was iskander (Alexander) but not Alexander the great GÇô another Alexander_!! And some mentioned that his name was eshik son of selocus and another name was hyrmes son of myton son of romi son of yonan. Alexander is the name most of them agreed on.
3- And both of them ( thu alqarneen and Alexander the great) were called thu alqarneen )
4- in these books it mentioned also that thu alqarneen the first was at AbrahamGÇÖs time which could have been in the century 18 BC
5- it al so mentioned that thu alqarneen reached the end of the world east and west ( may mean that he reached the pacific and the Atlantic oceans )
6- many argued about if it was some kind of mixing between the two Alexanders which the first one is unknown , and it said that the first one was a believer of one god while Alexander the great was not .
7- also that the first one ruled the world east and west while Alexander the great ruled Macedonia and the pervious Persian empire and small part on north India
8- the suggestions that thu alqarneen was Cyrus or Gilgamesh was never mentioned in the early Arabic books.I think many people didnGÇÖt know the above.

[jona]

Thank you very much for your information!Jona

[Taphoi]

Dulkarnein (two-horned lord) is especially likely to be Alexander, because the coins (tetradrachms) of the Diadochi (Successors) depicted a deified Alexander wearing various types of horns. The most famous are the spectacular coins of Alexander's Somatophylax (Bodyguard) Lysimachus, where Alexander wears the ram's horns of Zeus-Ammon. He also wears ram's horns on the tetradrachms of Ptolemy Soter as satrap, but the tusks of the elephant-scalp headdress are more prominent. There are also the rarer tetradrachms of Seleucus Nicator, where the head wearing a helmet with bull's horns may be Alexander. The coins of Ptolemy actually have the legend "Alexandrou" (of Alexander) in Greek. John Chrysostom rails against the citizens of Antioch for wearing portrait coins of Alexander as sacred charms round their heads and feet in the late 4th century AD. It is very likely that they were still being treated in a similar way in early 7th century Arabia and stories and legends of Alexander would have been attached to them. Best wishes, Andrew

[Cyrus]

Zulqarnain was not Alexander, read here:
http://www.understanding-islam.com/rq/q-028.htm

[jona]

I am afraid this won't do. Every now and then, this theory (once proposed by a professor from Shiraz) surfaces, but it has been refuted several times. Here is a recent article:A. Shapur Shahbazi, "Irano-Hellenic Notes 3. Iranians and Alexander", in *American Journal of Ancient History* 2.1 (2003)This article is an excellent introduction to Iranian (and Islamic) evidence to Alexander; the author used to be the director of the Persepolis excavations. He knows what he's talking about.Jona

[saif]

Thank you for your comments but i think the coins of Alexander may made the confusion between the two persons. And the horns on these coins meant that Alexander was related to Zeus-Ammon or to the devil, it is possible that someone else wore horns before Alexander for similar or other reasons.
What I want to say that Alexander wasnGÇÖt the first one to wear horns.i copied the below article from WikipediaDhul-Qarnayn is mentioned in the Qur'an, and often regarded as a prophet; the name means 'one possessing two horns'. His identity is controversial; many medieval Arabs and modern historians identified him with Alexander the Great, who is depicted as having horns on ancient coins. However, there are many differences between the figure described in the Qur'an and the history of Alexander the Great. The fact that the latter was described as a homosexual also leads many to believe that he is not the individual spoken of in the Qur'an. Some have speculated that Dhul-Qarnayn is actually Cyrus the Great, or even linked him with Gilgamesh.and as i mentioned in my first message there are more than one reason to show that Alexandr not the one mentioned in the quran like his time his achivements his religion and his age too.

[beausefaless]

Thank you for your comments but I think the coins of Alexander may made the confusion between the two persons. And the horns on these coins meant that Alexander was related to Zeus-Ammon or to the devil, it is possible that someone else wore horns before Alexander for similar or other reasons. Greetings saif,
When you mentioned, "What I want to say that Alexander wasnGÇÖt the first one to wear horns."
Are there any hoards (coins) found of this someone else, if so, are there any plates published? Would you clarify please. Thanks for your time. PS I know for a fact that Arabia *did* produce coinage of Alexander after his death.

[saif]

Hi Andrew sorry for the delay, some time ago I saw some coins of people wearing horns and I was searching for them on the net and all I found is coins older than AlexanderGÇÖs coins but they were of what thought to be GodsGÇÖ or Horned GodsGÇÖ maybe that what I saw earlier so they are not persons which make it really difficult to prove that some ancient Gods were people before history was recorded or before some part of history thought to be part of mythology. Putting their stories aside it is hard to separate real people from the myth ones when you donGÇÖt have enough evidence that they exist (That what I think)
for example the Pharaoh Khufu whos the great pyramid named to him ,Some scholars believe that he was not a pharaoh, instead Khufu was a sign of the God of All Gods, or "the sun", so the Ancient Egyptians built the great pyramid in Giza to keep the worship to their god foreverIt is not enough to have some coins of alexander to prove that he is thu alqarneen or zualqarneen whatever it is written in English , in Arabic it is Thu alqarneen, thu as in THe.
The stories are different and many people from the early Islamic time mentioned about the difference between the two. Some said that the time difference between them is more that a thousand year or two thousand years.Well it is a possibility that Alexander the great is Thualqarneen and if we appreciate the time difference it is possible that Zues was Thualqarneen .regards
saif

[saif]

i just wanted to add something to make the last bit of my last message clear It is a possibility that Alexander the great was Thualqarneen in ONE condition if a big part of his known history not true.and i still think Alexander the great was a great commander a great young commander who achived alot in "few years"