The eleventh-century ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

'' of

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

(d. 1020) preserves the earliest version of the '' Alexander Romance'' in the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

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 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 ...

. Although the ''Shahnameh'' is a much larger text and contains legends of many other rulers of

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 ...

, 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 Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

. 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 Alexander from this period have influenced the Shahnameh.

Synopsis

The first two sections describe the birth of Alexander, his ascent to the throne, and then his wars against

Darius Darius may refer to: Persian royalty ;Kings of the Achaemenid Empire * Darius I (the Great, 550 to 487 BC) * Darius II (423 to 404 BC) * Darius III (Codomannus, 380 to 330 BC) ;Crown princes * Darius (son of Xerxes I), crown prince of Persia, ma ...

in which he emerges victorious and conquers

. In the story, Alexander is represented as a legitimate heir to the Persian throne by virtue of his descent from Darab (= Darius III), and so comes from a line of legitimate Persian

shahs Shāh (; ) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.Yarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989) Though chiefly associated with the monarchs of Iran, it was also used to refer to the leaders of numerous Per ...

. In the third section, Alexander conquers the entire world and is in a search in pursuit of the

Fountain of Youth The Fountain of Youth is a mythical Spring (hydrology), spring which supposedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks or bathes in its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted around the world for thousands of years, appearing in t ...

. This part describes his war against the domain of the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

king, a pilgrimage to

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, his journeys through Egypt and meeting with Qeydâfe, the queen of

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

(who represents the equivalent to the Ethiopian

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 (, ''Kandakē''), was the Mer ...

in the original Greek ''Romance''). He also reaches the Land of

Amazons 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 Hercules, Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. ...

and the

Land of Darkness The Land of Darkness (Arabic: ديار 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 so ...

. In the latter, he searches for the

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 suc ...

. He erects a barrier 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 ...

in the east. Over the course of his journeys, he receives repeated and stronger hints of his coming death. Eventually, he dies in Iraq, after having sent a letter to his mother containing instructions about how to proceed with affairs after his enclosing demise.

Sources and influence

It is thought that most of the episodes of Alexander in the ''Shahnameh'' rely on an Arabic intermediary of the ''

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 s ...

'', which itself is now thought to be a translation of the original ''Alexander Romance'' into Syriac. The representation of Alexander in the ''Shahnameh'' had a profound influence on the subsequent Alexander romance literature in Persian, including on the ''Iskandarnameh'' of Nizami, the '' Ayina-i Iskandari'' of

Amir Khusrau Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau, sometimes spelled as, Amir Khusrow or Amir Khusro, was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar, who lived during the period of the Delhi Sult ...

, and others.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Alexander the Great in Firdawsi's Book of Kings - Asian and African studies blog
11th-century literature Alexander Romance Shahnameh

Synopsis

Sources and influence

See also

References

External links