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Alexander The Great In The Shahnameh
The eleventh-century ''Shahnameh'' of Ferdowsi (d. 1020) preserves the earliest version of the '' Alexander Romance'' in the Persian language, following closely the text in its Syriac translation. The ''Romance'' genre functioned to preserve and describe the legends and exploits of Alexander the Great. Although the ''Shahnameh'' is a much larger text and contains legends of many other rulers of Greater Iran, three consecutive sections of it cover Alexander (who the text refers to as "Sekandar"), amounting to ~2,500 verses. Furthermore, the sections about Alexander act as a bridge between the narratives of the kings before and after him, representing a transition from a realm of mythological kings and exploits to the historical kings of the Sasanian Empire. The ''Shahnameh'' is much less polemical towards Alexander as compared with representations in the Middle Persian and Zoroastrian pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that negative portraitures of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 "distichs" or couplets (two-line verses), the ''Shahnameh'' is one of the world's longest epic poems. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the greater region influenced by Persian culture such as Armenia, Dagestan, Georgia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan celebrate this national epic. The work is of central importance in Persian culture and Persian language, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of the ethno-national cultural identity of Iran. It is also important to the contemporary adherents of Zoroastrianism, in that it traces the hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kandake
Kandake, kadake or kentake ( Meroitic: 𐦲𐦷𐦲𐦡 ''kdke''),Kirsty Rowan"Revising the Sound Value of Meroitic D: A Phonological Approach,"''Beitrage zur Sudanforschung'' 10 (2009). often Latinised as Candace ( grc, Κανδάκη, ''Kandakē''), was the Meroitic term for the sister of the king of Kush who, due to the matrilineal succession, would bear the next heir, making her a queen mother. She had her own court, probably acted as a landholder and held a prominent secular role as regent. Contemporary Greek and Roman sources treated it, incorrectly, as a name. The name Candace is derived from the way the word is used in the New Testament (). Archaeological sources The Kandakes of Meroe were first described through the Greek geographer's Strabo account of the "one-eyed Candace" in 23 BCE in his encyclopedia Geographica. '' ''There are at least ten regnant Meroitic queens during the 500 years between 260 BCE and 320 CE, and at least six during the 140 periods between 60 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
11th-century Literature
The 11th century is the period from 1001 ( MI) through 1100 ( MC) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. There was, after a brief ascendancy, a sudden decline of Byzantine power and a rise of Norman domination over much of Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe of notably influential popes. Christendom experienced a formal schism in this century which had been developing over previous centuries between the Latin West and Byzantine East, causing a split in its two largest denominations to this day: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. In Song dynasty China and the classical Islamic world, this century marked the high point for both classical Chinese civilization, science and technology, and classical Islamic science, philosophy, technology and literature. Rival political factions at the Song dynasty court created st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qissat Al-Iskandar
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 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 on the Syriac Alexander Legend. It is not to be confused with the '' Qissat Dhulqarnayn'' or the '' Sirat al-Iskandar''. The text offers a chain of transmission going back to the earliest days of Islam, claiming to rely on transmitters including Ka'b al-Ahbar, Ibn Abbas, Hasan al-Basri, Ibn Ishaq and others. Synopsis In the Qissat al-Iskandar, Alexander the Great is depicted as a civilizing hero and monotheist that travels across the world, builds the Wall against Gog and Magog, searches for the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth), and encount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander The Great In Islamic Tradition
Alexander the Great was a king of ancient Greece and Macedon who forged one of the largest empires in world history. Soon after his death, a body of legend began to accumulate about his life and exploits. With the Greek '' Alexander Romance'' and its translation into numerous languages including Armenian, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, and more, an entire genre of literature was dedicated to the exploits of Alexander in both Christian and Muslim realms. Alexander was also the one most frequently identified with Dhu al-Qarnayn (Arabic: ذو القرنين; lit. "The Two-Horned One"), a figure that appears in Surah Al-Kahf in the Quran, the holy text of Islam, which greatly expanded the attention paid to him in the traditions of the Muslim world. Arabic tradition Most Islamic exegetes and commentators have identified the Quranic figure of Dhu al-Qarnayn () with Alexander the Great. Following this, Alexander would quickly feature prominently in early Arabic literature often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amir Khusrau
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was a mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, India. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. A vocabulary in verse, the ''Ḳhāliq Bārī'', containing Arabic, Persian and Hindavi terms is often attributed to him. Khusrau is sometimes referred to as the "voice of India" or "Parrot of India" (''Tuti-e-Hind''), and has been called the "father of Urdu literature." Khusrau is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (a devotional form of singing of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent), and introduced the ghazal style of song into India, both of which still exist widely in India and Pakistan. Khusrau was an expert in many styles of Persian poetry which were developed in medieval Persia, fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayina-i Iskandari (Amir Khusrau)
The ''Ayina-i Iskandarī'' (''Alexandrine Mirror'') is a Persian legend of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great composed by the poet Amir Khusrau (d. 1325), completed in 1299/1300 during the reign of Muhammad II of Khwarazm. It is presented in the form of 35 discourses, running at 4,416 verses in the 1977 edition of the text produced by Jamâl Mirsaydof. Like his predecessor Nizami Ganjavi, Amir Khusrau's Alexander legend formed the fourth part of his ''Khamsa'' (a collection of five of his major works), and it was the first response to Nizami's Iskandarnameh. The text expresses a wish for the peace and stability brought about by Alexander as opposed to the period of instability and political turnover of his own time, and makes frequent reference to the "second Alexander" as a means of addressing his ruler Muhammad II, who assumed that title for himself during his reign. Mirrors are used to play an important role across the Ayina. First of all, Alexander invents two mirr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iskandarnameh Of Nizami
The ''Iskandarnameh'' (''Book of Alexander'') is a poetic production in the '' Alexander Romance'' tradition authored by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (d. 1209) that describes Alexander the Great as an idealized hero, sage, and king. More uniquely, he is also a seeker of knowledge who debates with great philosophers Greek and Indian philosophers, one of them being Plato. The poem is the fourth part of the Khamsa of Nizami, a posthumous collection of five of Nizami's major works. It consists of two main and independent parts: the ''Sharaf-nama'' (Book of Glory) followed by the Iqbal-nama (Book of Fortune) (though the names are reversed in some copies). Both are written in rhymed couplets. In India, the two sections are known as the ''Eskandar-(''or ''Sekandar-) nāma-ye barrī'' and ''baḥrī'' respectively. It was likely completed by 1194. Narrative Summary The Sharaf-nama discusses the birth of Alexander, his succession to the throne of Rum (Greece), his wars against Afri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syriac Alexander Romance
The ''Syriac Alexander Romance'' (known in Syriac as the ''Tašʿītā d̄ʾAleksandrōs'') is an anonymous Christian text in the tradition of the Greek '' Alexander Romance'' of Pseudo-Callisthenes, potentially translated into Syriac the late sixth or early seventh century. Just like the ''Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis'' of Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius, the ''Armenian Alexander Romance'' and the ''Historia de preliis'' of Leo the Archpriest, the Syriac ''Romance'' belongs to the α recension of the Greek ''Romance'', as is represented by the Greek manuscript A (''Paris''. 1711). Another text, the ''Syriac Alexander Legend'', appears as an appendix in manuscripts of the ''Syriac Alexander Romance'', but the inclusion of the ''Legend'' into manuscripts of the ''Romance'' is the work of later redactors and does not reflect an original relationship between the two. The Syriac ''Romance'' had an enormous influence, with versions of it being produced across late antiquity, the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gog And Magog
Gog and Magog (; he, גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג, ''Gōg ū-Māgōg'') appear in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran as individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land; in Genesis 10, Magog is a man and eponymous ancestor of a nation, but no Gog is mentioned; by the time of Jewish tradition had long since changed Ezekiel's "Gog ''from'' Magog" into "Gog ''and'' Magog". The Gog prophecy is meant to be fulfilled at the approach of what is called the "end of days", but not necessarily the end of the world. Jewish eschatology viewed Gog and Magog as enemies to be defeated by the Messiah, which would usher in the age of the Messiah. Christianity's interpretation is more starkly apocalyptic, making Gog and Magog, here indicating nations rather than individuals, allies of Satan against God at the end of the millennium, as described in the Book of Revelation. A legend was attached to Gog and Magog by the time of the Roman period, that the Gat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fountain Of Life
The Fountain of Life, or in its earlier form the Fountain of Living Waters, is a Christian iconography symbol associated with baptism and/or eucharist, first appearing in the 5th century in illuminated manuscripts and later in other art forms such as panel paintings. Baptismal font The symbol is usually shown as a fountain enclosed in a hexagonal structure capped by a rounded dome and supported by eight columns. The fountain of living waters, ''fons vivus'' is a baptismal font (a water fountain in which one is baptized, and thus reborn with Christ), and is often surrounded by animals associated with Baptism such as the hart. The font probably represents the octagonal Lateran Baptistery in Rome, consecrated by Pope Sixtus III (432-440), which was iconographically associated with the fountain of the water of life mentioned in . The best examples date from the Carolingian period: the Godescalc Evangelistary made to commemorate the Baptism of the son of Charlemagne in 781, and in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Of Darkness
The Land of Darkness (Arabic: دياري الظلمات romanized: ''Diyārī Zulūmāt'') was a mythical land supposedly enshrouded in perpetual darkness. It was usually said to be in Abkhazia, and was officially known as Hanyson or Hamson (or some variation; the name apparently comes from the Hamshen area of Turkey), or simply the Forest of Abkhazia. The Land of Darkness enjoyed popularity in medieval travel literature such as the '' Alexander Romance'' and the ''Travels of Sir John Mandeville''. According to Mandeville, no one ventures into Hanyson out of fear, but the people in the surrounding area know it to be populated, as they can hear human voices inside. The residents of Hanyson are the descendants of Persian Emperor Saures (Shapur II) and his men, who were trapped there forever by a miracle of God. Saures had been persecuting his Christian subjects in Abkhazia, and had cornered them on a plain. They prayed to God, and God responded by surrounding the king's armies in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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