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   » » Wiki: Dhu Al-qarnayn
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, (, ; "The Owner of Two-Horns"

(2025). 9783110702712, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. .
) is a leader who appears in the , , 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 tells how the end of the world will be signaled by the release of Gog and Magog from behind the barrier. Other apocalyptic writings predict that their destruction by God in a single night will usher in the Day of Resurrection ().

Dhu al-Qarnayn has most popularly been identified by Western and traditional Muslim scholars as Alexander the Great.: "It is generally agreed both by Muslim commentators and modéra sic occidental scholars that Dhu ’l-Ḳarnayn ... is to be identified with Alexander the Great." : "... (usually identified with Alexander the Great) ...". Historically, some tradition has parted from this identification

(2018). 9789004277649, BRILL.
(2025). 9789004355996, Brill.
in favor of others, like pre-Islamic Arabian kings such as the (mythical) Sa'b Dhu Marathid of
(2025). 9780700716036, Psychology Press. .
(2017). 9781786731319, Bloomsbury Publishing.
or the historical figure al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man of the (d. 554). Cyrus the Great has also gained popularity among modern Muslim commentators.Tabatabai, Muhammad Hussein. "Al-mizan." Beirut: Academic Press Co 1403 (1995): 353.


Quran 18:83–101
.]]The verses of the chapter reproduced below show Dhu al-Qarnayn traveling first to the Western limit of travel 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:


Quranic exegesis

Occasion of revelation
The story of Dhu al-Qarnayn is related in chapter 18 of the Qur'an, , revealed to Muhammad when his tribe, , sent two men to discover whether the , with their superior knowledge of the scriptures, could advise them on whether Muhammad was truly a prophet of God. The rabbis told the Quraysh to ask Muhammad about three things, one of them "about a man who travelled and reached the east and the west of the earth, ask what his story was. 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." (Qur'an 18:83-98).


Qarnayn
A well known narration from a Companion of Muhammad, denies that the term "Qarnayn" literally meant horns. He instead narrates that the term "Dhul Qarnayn" was not a literal term but instead referred to injuries that took place on the two sides of the head of the ruler. Musnaf Ibn Abi Shaybah: 6/346

Al Ahaad wal Mathani by Ibn Abi Asim: 141

Jami' Bayan al Ilm by Ibn Abd al Barr: 464

Al Mashyakha al Baghadadiyya by Abi Tahrir al Silafi: 27

Cyril Glasse writes that the reference to "He of the two horns" also has a symbolical interpretation: “He of the two Ages”, which reflects the eschatological shadow that Alexander casts from his time, which preceded Islam by many centuries, until the end of the world. The Arabian word qarn means both "horn" and “period” or “century”. Classical commentary from has reported the narration from commentaries that he favored the identification that Dhu al-Qarnayn were actually two different persons, where one lived during the time of , while the other has lived during the time of .


Gog and Magog
Regarding the Gog and Magog, a minority of Muslim commentators argue that 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. Modern Islamic apocalyptic writers put forward various explanations for the absence of the wall from the modern world, such as "not everything in existence can be seen", similar to human intelligence and angels, or that God has concealed the Gog and Magog from human eyes.


People identified as

Alexander the Great
According to most historians, the story of has its origins in legends of Alexander the Great current in the Middle East, namely the Syriac Alexander Legend. The first century Josephus repeats a legend whereby Alexander builds an iron wall at a mountain pass (potentially at the Caucasus Mountains) to prevent an incursion by a barbarian group known as the , whom elsewhere he identified as Magog.
(2025). 9789004174160, Brill.
(2025). 9783161475207, Mohr Siebeck.
The legend went through much further elaboration in subsequent centuries before eventually finding its way into the Quran through a Syrian version. However, some have questioned whether the Syriac Legend influenced the Quran on the basis of dating inconsistencies and missing key motifs, although others have in turn rebutted these arguments.
(2023). 9780197646878, Oxford University Press. .

While the Syriac Alexander Legend references the horns of Alexander, it consistently refers to the hero by his Greek name, not using a variant epithet.

(2017). 9781786731319, Bloomsbury Publishing.
The use of the Islamic epithet "Two-Horned", first occurred in the Quran.
(2025). 9781442644663, University of Toronto Press.
The reasons behind the name "Two-Horned" are somewhat obscure: the scholar (839-923 CE) held it was because he went from one extremity ("horn") of the world to the other, but it may ultimately derive from imagery of the horns of Alexander, inspired by the tradition of his descent from the ram-god , as popularised on coins throughout the Near East.

The wall builds on his northern journey may have reflected a distant knowledge of the Great Wall of China (the 12th-century scholar Muhammad al-Idrisi drew a map for Roger II of Sicily showing the "Land of Gog and Magog" in ), or of various walls built in the region against the northern barbarians, or a conflation of the two.

also journeys to the western and eastern extremities ("qarns", tips) of the Earth. Ernst claims that  finding the sun setting in a "muddy spring" in the West is equivalent to the "poisonous sea" found by Alexander in the Syriac legend. In the Syriac story Alexander tested the sea by sending condemned prisoners into it, while the Quran refers to this as an administration of justice. In the East both the Syrian legend and the Quran, according to Ernst, have Alexander/ find a people who live so close to the rising sun that they have no protection from its heat.
     

Some exegetes believed that Dhu al-Qarnayn lived near the time of following accounts by and Ibn Abi Hatim. To avoid this chronological discrepancy, several medieval exegetes and historians did not identify Dhu al-Qarnayn with Alexander. inferred that there were two Dhu al-Qarnayn's: the earlier one, called Dhu al-Qarnayn al-Akbar, who lived in the time of , and the later one, who was Alexander.

(2016). 9789004307728, BRILL.
In one account concerning Abraham building a well at , Dhu al-Qarnayn seems to have been placed in the role of as described in Gen 21:22–34.

Other notable Muslim commentators, including ,:100-101 ,:101 and Naser Makarem Shirazi, have used theological arguments to reject the Alexander identification: Alexander lived only a short time whereas (according to some traditions) lived for 700 years as a sign of God's blessing, though this is not mentioned in the Quran, and Dhu al-Qarnayn , while Alexander was a polytheist. Due to this, most modern deny that Alexander the Great is Dhu al-Qarnayn


Ṣaʿb Dhu-Marāthid
The various campaigns of mentioned in Q:18:83-101 have also been attributed to the South Arabian Himyarite King Ṣaʿb Dhu-Marāthid (also known as al-Rāʾid).
(1998). 9780415185714, Taylor & Francis.
gives an extensive forty-five page account of King Ṣaʿb in his work The Book of Crowns on the Kings of Himyar, relying on the Yemeni author Wahb ibn Munabbih (b. 655 CE). In this account, King Ṣaʿb was a conqueror who was given the epithet Dhu al-Qarnayn after meeting a figure named Musa al in Jerusalem. He then travels to the ends of the earth, conquering or converting people until being led by al Khidr through the Land of Darkness. Other elements include a journey to a valley of diamonds,
(2025). 9789004335066, Brill. .
a castle with glass walls, and a campaign as far as the Andalusia region (classical era Spain).
(2025). 9780199324538, OUP USA. .
However, according to , the original opinion of Wahb ibn Munabbih identified the legendary conqueror as a Roman, contradicting Ibn Hisham's commentary.
(2025). 9780826449573, Bloomsbury Academic. .
also reports that Wahb believed Dhu al-Qarnayn was a man from named Iskandar.

Academic scholars consider the Sa'b story to be an appropriation of the Syriac Alexander Legend. While Ibn Hisham's book made use of Wahb's material, Tilman Nagel doubts that Wahb's text included this particular story given Ibn Hisham's sceptical attitude to the claims of Southern Arabians, and notes that al-Tabari relied on Wahb's Alexander story yet included no Himyarite (South Arabian) elements. Following a detailed analysis, Nagel instead defines the milieu in which this version emerged as that of South Arabians in early eighth-century Egypt, and observes that Southern Arabs were one of two factions who vied for power in the Umayyad empire.

Richard Stoneman notes that Wahb was known for the composition of qisas, in which folklore is served up as history. According to Stoneman, the South Arabian legend was composed within the context of the division between the South Arabs and North Arabs that began with the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684 AD and consolidated over two centuries. He too dates the story to the 8th century CE, intended to give a parallel for, and to justify, the Islamic conquests in the west, representing a glorification of the South Arabian traditions and their conquests in Egypt. Anna Akasoy agrees with Alfred Beeston that Sa'b's entire existence is fictional and a product of Yemeni chauvinism, noting that later Yemeni Kings whose existence is confirmed were assigned similar exploits borrowed from legends of Alexander. According to Wheeler, it is possible that some elements of these accounts that were originally associated with Ṣaʿb have been incorporated into stories which identify Dhu al-Qarnayn with Alexander.


Cyrus the Great
In modern times, some Muslim scholars have argued in favour of being actually Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire and conqueror of Persia and Babylon. Proponents of this view cite Daniel's vision in the where he saw a two-horned ram that represents "the kings of Media and Persia" (). They also cite the (a type of ancient Egyptian crown mounted on a pair of long spiral ram's horns) of the , once thought by some to be a representation of Cyrus,
(2021). 9781119174288, John Wiley & Sons.
though this is no longer accepted.

This theory was proposed in 1855 by the German G. M. Redslob, but it did not gain followers in the west.

(1994). 9780801846199, Johns Hopkins University Press.
Among Muslim commentators, it was first promoted by Sayyed Ahmad Khan (d. 1889), then by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, whose commentary became popular in 1970s ,
(2025). 9780199359363, Oxford University Press.
and generated wider acceptance over the years.
(2016). 9781317294764, Routledge.

Brannon Wheeler argues that it would be possible to make that identification based on what is known of the conquests of Cyrus. However, the Arabic histories did not view Cyrus as a conqueror in the sense described in Q 18:83-102, and the early Quran commentaries did not identify Cyrus with Dhu al-Qarnayn.


Others
Other persons who either were identified with the Quranic figure or given the title :

  • Afrīqish al-Ḥimyarī, king of . in his book, The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries, listed a number of figures whom people thought to be Dhu al-Qarnayn. He favoured the opinion that Dhu al-Qarnayn was the Yamani prince Afrīqish, who conquered the Mediterranean and established a city called Afrīqiah. He was called because he ruled the lands of the rising and setting sun. To support his argument, al-Biruni cited Arabic , noting that compound names beginning with , such as and , were common among the kings of Himyar.
  • . According to 's Tarikh, some say Dhu al-Qarnayn the Elder ( al-akbar), who lived in the era of , was the mythical Persian king Fereydun, who al-Tabari rendered as Afrīdhūn ibn Athfiyān.
  • In an account attributed to Umar bin Khattab, Dhu al-Qarnayn is said to be an or part angel.
    (2022). 9789004528765, BRILL.
  • Imru'l-Qays (died 328 CE), a prince of the of southern Mesopotamia, an ally first of Persia and then of Rome, celebrated in romance for his exploits.
  • Messiah ben Joseph, a fabulous military saviour expected by .
  • Darius the Great.Pearls from Surah Al-Kahf: Exploring the Qur'an's Meaning, Yasir Qadhi Kube Publishing Limited, 4 Mar 2020,
  • Kisrounis, king.Agapius, Kitab al-'Unvan Universal, p. 653


In later literature
Dhu al-Qarnayn, the traveller, proved a popular subject for later writers. In , for instance, an Arabic translation of the Syriac Alexander Legend appeared, entitled Qissat Dhulqarnayn. This work explores Dhu al-Qarnayn's life – his upbringing, journeys, and eventual death. The text identifies Dhu al-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great and portrays him as the first person to complete the Hajj pilgrimage.
(2025). 9781603295161, Modern Language Association of America.

Another Hispano-Arabic legend featuring Dhu al-Qarnayn, representing Alexander, is the Hadith Dhulqarnayn (or the Leyenda de Alejandro). In one of the many Arabic and versions depicting Alexander's encounter with Indian sages, the Persian Sunni Sufi (1058–1111) describes a scene where Dhu al-Qarnayn meets a people who own nothing but dig graves outside their homes. Their king explains that death is life's only certainty, a reason for their practices. Ghazali's interpretation found its way into the One Thousand and One Nights.

The esteemed medieval Persian poet (1207-1273) wrote about Dhu al-Qarnayn's eastward travels. Here, the hero climbs , the emerald 'mother' of all mountains encircling the Earth, its veins spreading below every land. Upon Dhu al-Qarnayn's request, the mountain reveals how earthquakes occur: when God wills it, one of its veins pulsates, triggering a tremor. Atop this grand mountain, Dhu al-Qarnayn encounters (archangel Raphael), prepared to sound the trumpet on Judgement Day.

The Malay epic Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain links several Southeast Asian royal lines to Iskandar Zulkarnain;

(1999). 9789839572278, Balai Seni Lukis Negara. .
this includes the Minangkabau royalty of Early Modern History page 60 and the in the .
(2025). 9789796855247, Pusat Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan Nasional. .
(2025). 9789834203115, Wasilah Merah Silu Enterprise. .


See also
  • Gates of Alexander
  • Iron Gate (Central Asia)
  • Ergenekon
  • Alexander the Great
  • Cyrus the Great


Sources

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