Ideas Inspired by the Qur'an

My ‘Iskandar’ Problem (Part 3)

“The story of Dhū al‑Qarnayn in the Qur’an is clearly legendary in character.” (A.F.L. Beeston) / “The Qur’anic account of Dhū al‑Qarnayn is not historical but belongs to the cycle of Alexander legends current in Late Antiquity.” (W. Montgomery Watt) / “The figure of Dhū al‑Qarnayn is to be identified with the legendary Alexander of the Romance, not with the historical Macedonian king.” (Richard Bell) / “The Dhū al‑Qarnayn narrative is a reworking of legendary material, not a historical account.” (John Wansborough) / “The Qur’anic story of Dhū al‑Qarnayn reflects legendary motifs known from the Alexander Romance.” (Andrew Rippin) / “The Qur’anic Dhū al‑Qarnayn narrative is best understood as part of the legendary Alexander tradition circulating in Syriac and other languages.” (Kevin van Bladel) / “The Qur’anic Dhū al‑Qarnayn belongs to the mythic Alexander of Late Antique lore, not to the historical conqueror.” (/G.W. Bowersock) / “The Dhū al‑Qarnayn episode is drawn from legendary material about Alexander, adapted for Qur’anic purposes.” (Patricia Crone) / “The Qur’anic account of Dhū al‑Qarnayn is part of the legendary cycle of Alexander stories.” (Carl Ernst) / “The Qur’an’s Dhū al‑Qarnayn narrative reflects motifs from the Alexander Romance tradition.” (Gabriel Said Reynolds)

This story, like virtually all narrations in the Qur’ān, works at various levels. At one level, it serves as divine revelation in response to a question (They ask you …) posed to Muḥammad (GOD bless him and give him peace) to test his knowledge and prophethood. The Alexander Romance extant throughout Western Asia in Muḥammad’s day identified Dhāl-Qarnain as Alexander, whose extraordinary conquests and legendary successes made him a natural magnet for popular tales. The Romance had Alexander travelling far to the west (though he did not), far to the east (which he did), and building a wall to keep out the Biblical tribes of Gog and Magog. (Alexander never erected a wall of any note.)

The answer to this fictional Alexander was to reframe the elements of the story within the greater picture of the Qur’ān’s emphasis on just government, Divine Power, and the fusion of the two when the Last Day arrives, human affairs collapse, and all deeds are judged by GOD. The standard narrative is thereby directed up to a higher level of political and ethical action accompanied by and then consumed by the ultimate dominance of religious faith. At that level, it can best be understood as a major contribution to the issue of Legitimacy, which I discuss in my essay by that name. But here my purpose is to step down one level and consider how this tale fits or does not fit our modern understanding of history and its normal constituents, such as accuracy and relevance. Does this odd tale make historical sense? And does our modern conception of history make sense from a Qur’anic perspective?

First of all, if GOD, Who normally governs His world by the rules He makes, can break them at His Will for whatever reason pleases Him, why does it matter if the story of Dhīl-Qarnain is historical or not? I asserted earlier that whatever ‘impossible’ event we find described in the Qur’ān can be accepted as true, simply on the basis that we believe in a GOD Whose Word is true and Whose Power is absolute. So why do we not just ignore the question of this tale’s historicity?

Many modern non-Muslim commentators, such as Wansborough, Crone, van Bladel, Reynolds, and Rippin, see no problem in opining that the story of Dhīl-Qarnain is literary rather than historical and theological rather than factual. Because it is based on a legend, it can remain legendary, but with improved Islamic motifs. Modern Muslim commentators, while not disputing its reliability, regard the story’s historicity as irrelevant – a distraction from its ethical and eschatological message.

One can always argue that the meaning of the Qur’ān is more important than a particular term or detail in a narration of events. It may not be important, for example, what the names of the angels at Bābil (Babylon) in Q2:102 were, or that the number of ewes mentioned in Q38:23 is ninety-nine instead of thirty-nine. The exact wording of speeches by various prophets need not be totally accurate, given that they did not speak the Hijāzī dialect of 7th-century-CE Arabia. The Qur’ān itself downgrades such details, as when it cites the various reports in circulation regarding the number of ‘sleepers’ in Q18:22 – three, or five, or seven? – and cedes the knowledge of it to GOD.

There is a difference, however, between demoting details and dismissing them, or between extending the cosmic reach of a symbol and departing the launchpad of history altogether. If everything in the Qur’ān is valued only by its being metaphorical, universal, or moral, does that imply that plain, hard, down-to-earth facts have no value? If we discount the story of Dhīl-Qarnain as literary or legendary, where does that leave the stories of the prophets? Are they also freed from the need for a place, a timeline, and our sense of things actually happening? Can we loft them all into clouds of spiritual significance and come away with the feeling that everything mentioned in the Qur’ān was never really seen or heard by anyone, that it was told to us merely to test our imaginative faculty? In short, can GOD’s Truth be disconnected from historical fact?

The answer should be a resounding ‘No!’ And He it is Who did create the heavens and the earth with truth, and on the day He says [to something] “Be!” and so it is, His Word is true. (Q6:73) The occurrences He produces moment by moment are true, and so is His Word; they align with and confirm each other. Truth in creation is what we experience as ‘fact.’ No amount of symbolism or interpretation can build a wall of a measurable height or produce a speech without the use of human vocal cords and a definite volume of air. The Qur’ān is the good word, described in Q14:24, whose roots are firm and whose branches reach the sky. Symbolism connects the heavens of imagination and intellect with the dark soil of things taking place in a solid world. This is how truth works for us, vertically, and this is how we identify it – by mental gymnastics weaving clouds in the sky, by the miniature world of our own bodies sensing material events, and by our feet planted firmly on the earth. When we say something is true, we mean it in every way possible – all the way up, all the way down, inside, outside, all around, and in real time.

Yes, the story of Dhīl-Qarnain is valuable mainly for its meaning, but that meaning will evaporate into the atmosphere of fable, doubt, and eventual disbelief if we allow each interpreter to play with metaphors while ignoring the ordinary reader’s need to know that this is true, i.e., it actually happened. If the Qur’ān does not specify something, such as Dhīl-Qarnain’s historical identity or precise locations on a map, we need not – no, should not – pursue it. But when it provides details that specify events and connect them to specific people, such as Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj (Q18:94), we need to sit up and take notice. These things matter … and they were material. There are no miracles in this tale of Dhīl-Qarnain, giving us all the more reason to believe that AL-LĀH intends that we take it at face value – as eventful and consequential, and not only instructive.

To be continued next week, GOD willing ...

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