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The Syriac Alexander Legend (known in Syriac as Neṣḥānā d-Aleksandrōs; Syriac: ܢܨܚܢܐ, "The Victory of Alexander," named in the Budge edition as "A Christian Legend concerning Alexander" or the "Christian Syriac Alexander Legend" (CSAL)),[1] is a Syriac legendary account of the exploits of Alexander the Great composed in the sixth or seventh century. For the first time in this text, the motifs of Gates of Alexander, an apocalyptic incursion, and the barbarian tribes of Gog and Magog are fused into a single narrative. The Legend would go on to influence Syriac literature about Alexander, like in the Song of Alexander. It would also exert a strong influence on subsequent apocalyptic literature, like the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius composed in the late seventh century. In Quranic studies, the representation of Alexander in the Legend is also seen as closely related to the Quranic figure named Dhu al-Qarnayn (or the "Two-Horned One").[2][3]
Some consider the Legend to be independent of the Alexander Romance,[4] whereas others consider it to be a substantially reshaped form of it.[5] The Legend appears as an appendix in manuscripts of the Syriac Alexander Romance, but this is the work of later redactors and does not reflect an original relationship between the two.[4] The text is preserved in five late manuscripts, the oldest of which was compiled in 1708–1709.[6]
The old consensus, since Theodor Nöldeke, placed the provenance of the Syriac Alexander Legend in north Mesopotamia in around 629–630 CE, shortly after Heraclius defeated the Sasanians.[7] In recent years, many historians have conducted a reappraisal of the date of the text. The basis of the original dating has been a vaticinium ex eventu prophecy, whose termination was placed around the year 630. One reanalysis of the internal chronology of the text has placed the termination of this prophecy instead in 614.[8] A more common approach in recent years has been to re-emphasize a second, earlier vaticinium ex eventu prophecy which describes an event that occurred in 514/5. Several scholars have since argued that the text was originally composed in the aftermath of this event, from the early-to-mid-6th century CE (perhaps during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I), and that the second and later prophecy was a hastily made interpolation in the text in the context of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, potentially to propagandistically reignite its utility for the current war situation.[9][10][11][12]
Aside from the written date of the text, others have also argued that the contents of the legend likely circulated orally for several decades prior to its being placed into a written form.[13]
The plot of the Legend can be divided into three main sections:[14]
- First section. Alexander summons his council to declare his desire to explore the outermost part of the world. He is warned of the problems that he will encounter, but decides to go through anyways. He promises to God that he will bring the world into his dominion and gathers an army to Egypt where he enrolls blacksmiths and metalworkers. He then travels to the Fetid Sea but finds it impossible to cross. He finds the "window of heaven" which allows him to travel from the place where the sun sets to the place where the sun rises.
- Second section. Alexander travels from the place of the sunset to sunrise and the section begins when he is in the region of the sunrise, in the Far East. From there, he travels westward to Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. He sets up camp at a mountain but a local delegation of elders meets him to inform him that the region he has encamped at is under the dominion of Tūbarlaq, the Persian emperor. In dialogue with the elders, he asks them about what lies beyond the mountain. They describe to him the barbarian tribe known as the Huns, of whom Gog and Magog are listed as two of the kings. Deciding to seal away these tribes, he uses the help of the blacksmiths and metalworkers he had recruited back in Egypt to construct a wall between two mountains made of iron and bronze. After the construction is complete, Alexander relays a prophecy of two future dates, set at 826 AG (514–515 AD) and 940 AG (628– 629 AD), during which the Huns will break through the gate and initiate the apocalypse (end of the world). A world conflict will arise out of which the Romans will emerge victorious and conquer the entire world.
- Third section. The locals inform Tūbarlaq about where Alexander has set camp. Tūbarlaq summons an army and advances on Alexander; however, by divine intervention, Alexander is informed of Tūbarlaq's approach. Alexander prays to God for victory in spite of his vast numerical disadvantage, as his soldiers number one tenth of Tūbarlaq's. His prayer is granted, and during the battle God plays an active part in defeating the Persians. Tūbarlaq's astrologers prophesy that in the end of the world, Persia will be destroyed and the Romans will conquer. After his victory, Alexander travels to Jerusalem where he prays before God. Finally, he returns to Alexandria.
Gates of Alexander
The late antique Christian Syriac Alexander Legend transformed the Gates of Alexander into an apocalyptic barrier built by Alexander in the Caucasus to keep out the nations of Gog and Magog.[15] This development was inspired by some elements of the historical context of the time, including dread of the northern hordes, a variety of Persian fortifications meant to seal off the movement of steppe nomads, and eschatological thinking and attitudes of the time.[16] At its outset, the Syriac Alexander Legend (otherwise known as the Neshana) records Alexander constructing a wall of iron to prevent an invasion of the Huns that would result in the plunder of peoples and countries. Alexander commanded that the gate should be constructed out of iron and bronze, for which he recruited three thousand blacksmiths to work the latter and three thousand other men for the former. However, it was believed that the barbarian tribes would break through during the apocalypse.[17] The dimensions and features of the gate are described in detail, and Alexander was said to have placed an inscription on it which reads "The Huns will come forth and subdue the countries of the Romans and Persians; they will shoot arrows with armagest and will return and enter their country. Moreover, I wrote that (at) the end of eight hundred and twenty six years, the Huns would come forth by the narrow road..." (the inscription goes on for several more pages). This prophecy whereby the Huns break through the gates is linked to the invasion of the Sabir people in 515 AD as Syriac texts would use the Seleucid calendrical system which began in 1 October, 312 BCE; by subtracting 311 or 312, a date of 514/5 is arrived at, representing a vaticinium ex eventu. A second prophecy of an incursion appears for 940 SE, pinpointing to 628/9 AD and corresponds with the invasion of Armenia by the Turkic Khazars (not to be confused with a reference to the Turks which may not occur in this type of literature until the ninth century),[16] although this may have been an interpolation that was made into the text during the reign of Heraclius to update the narrative for a contemporary political situation.[18]
The description of the Gates of Alexander in the Syriac Alexander Legend influenced most subsequent Syriac literature describing these events.[19]
Horns of Alexander
The horns of Alexander are described twice in the Legend. The first is during a prayer by Alexander's[20]:
King Alexander bowed, and worshipping said: “Oh God, master of kings and judges, you who raise up kings and dismiss their power, I perceive with my mind that you made me great among all kings, and that you caused horns to grow on my head, so that I may gore with them the kingdoms of the world. Give me the power from the heavens of your sanctity so that I may receive strength greater than the kingdoms of the world, and I will humiliate them and glorify your name forever, oh Lord!
The second reference occurs towards the end of the text as God speaks to Alexander and tells him that he gave him two horns to use them as a weapon against other worldly kingdoms[21]:
I made you great among all kings, and I caused horns of iron to grow on your head, so that you may gore with them the kingdoms of the world.
The two-horned imagery of the Syriac Alexander Legend draws together elements from the Peshitta of 1 Kings 22:11/2 Chronicles 18:10, Micah 4:13, and the two-horned ram in Daniel 8. In particular, the term used in the Legend for two horns, qrntʾ, is likely to be inspired by the appearance of qrntʾ in the Peshitta (standard Syriac translation) of Daniel 8:3.[21]
Gog and Magog
—Thomas de Kent's Roman de toute chevalerie, Paris manuscript, 14th century
The Legend is considered the first work to connect the Gates of Alexander with the idea that Gog and Magog are destined to play a role in the apocalypse.[22] In the Legend, Gog (Syriac: ܓܘܓ, gwg) and Magog (Syriac: ܡܓܘܓܵ, mgwg) appear as kings of Hunnish nations.[a][23] The Legend claims that Alexander carved prophecies on the face of the Gate, marking a date for when these Huns, consisting of 24 nations, will breach the Gate and subjugate the greater part of the world.[b][24][25]
The Gog and Magog material, which passed into a lost Arabic version,[26] and the Ethiopic and later Oriental versions of the Alexander Romance.[27][c] It has also been found to closely resemble the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn in the Quran (see: Alexander the Great in the Quran).
The Pseudo-Methodius, written originally in Syriac, is considered the source of the Gog and Magog tale incorporated into Western versions of the Alexander Romance.[28][29] The Pseudo-Methodius (7th century[30]) is the first source in the Christian tradition for a new element: two mountains moving together to narrow the corridor, which was then sealed with a gate against Gog and Magog. This idea is also in the Quran (609–632 CE[31][32]), and found its way in the Western Alexander Romance.[33]
Western Alexander romances
This Gog and Magog legend is not found in earlier versions of the Alexander Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes, whose oldest manuscript dates to the 3rd century,[d] but an interpolation into recensions around the 8th century.[e][35] In the latest and longest Greek version[f] are described the Unclean Nations, which include the Goth and Magoth as their kings, and whose people engage in the habit of eating worms, dogs, human cadavers and fetuses.[36] They were allied to Belsyrians (Bebrykes,[37] of Bithynia in modern-day North Turkey), and sealed beyond the "Breasts of the North", a pair of mountains fifty days' march away towards the north.[g][36]
Gog and Magog appear in somewhat later Old French versions of the romance.[h][38] In the verse Roman d'Alexandre, Branch III, of Lambert le Tort (c. 1170), Gog and Magog ("Gos et Margos", "Got et Margot") were vassals to Porus, king of India, providing an auxiliary force of 400,000 men.[i] Routed by Alexander, they escaped through a defile in the mountains of Tus (or Turs),[j] and were sealed by the wall erected there, to last until the advent of the Antichrist.[k][39][40] Branch IV of the poetic cycle tells that the task of guarding Gog and Magog, as well as the rule of Syria and Persia was assigned to Antigonus, one of Alexander's successors.[41]
In the late 19th century, Theodor Noldeke proposed that traditions of the Syriac Alexander Legend played a role in the formation of traditions about an enigmatic figure named Dhu al-Qarnayn ("The Two-Horned One") in the Quran. Forgotten, this thesis would be revived in the field of Quranic studies by Kevin van Bladel in a 2008 article.[2] Since then, the thesis has been further developed by publications from Tommaso Tesei.[3][10] Some of the main combination of motifs that have been related between the two texts involve an apocalyptic incursion, Gog and Magog, and Gates of Alexander.[42] According to Marianna Klar, this thesis overemphasizes the similarities and downplays the differences. She argues that a direct relation between the two traditions has been assumed but not yet established.[43] In turn, Tesei has argued that the narrative differences are minor compared to the coherence between the texts, and that a direct relationship is bolstered by the presence of many elements unique to the Legend in the account of Dhu al-Qarnayn.[44]
- The first invasion, prophesied to occur 826 years after Alexander predicted, has been worked out to fall on 1 October 514; the second invasion on A.D. 629 (Boyle 1979, p. 124).
- The Ethiopic version derives from the lost Arabic version (Boyle 1979, p. 133).
- The oldest manuscript is recension α. The material is not found in the oldest Greek, Latin, Armenian, and Syriac versions.[34]
- Gog and Magog being absent in the Alexandreis (1080) of Walter of Châtillon.
- "Tus" in Iran, near the Caspian south shore, known as Susia to the Greeks, is a city in the itinerary of the historical Alexander. Meyer does not make this identification, and suspects a corruption of mons Caspius etc.
- Branch III, laisses 124–128.
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