IDEA 65
My ‘Iskandar’ Problem (Part 4)
“Some of them said: It is the barrier that Dhū al‑Qarnayn built between two mountains of the Caucasus, on the side of the Khazar Sea (the Caspian), which stands between the people and Gog and Magog. They related that between the two barriers are two lofty mountains, and that he built between them a rampart of iron and copper, and that it lies in the region of Armenia and Azerbaijan. … Others said: It is what lies between Azerbaijan and Darband (Derbent), the Gate of Gates; Dhū al‑Qarnayn built it to repel the nations of the Turks. … They said: The two barriers are two mountains with a pass between them. It was through this pass that Dhū al‑Qarnayn traveled until he reached the space between them, and there he built the barrier. It is in the eastern lands, toward the territories of the Turks.” (At-Tabari, Jāmiʿ al‑Bayān)
We must be clear about what we know, what we do not know, and what cannot be known. Ancient commentators thought Dhāl-Qarnain was Alexander of Macedon and, until recently, some modern commentators linked him to Cyrus, the founder of the first Persian Empire. Both identities are surely incorrect, mainly because both historical figures were not monotheists – the only kind of just ruler that GOD would talk to and guide. Based on all we read from Q18:83-99, Dhūl-Qarnain does not match any figure known to history thus far. The name suggests that he was not an Arab, since ‘the two-horned one’ was not a familiar title for Arab kings, but appears to be a translation (calque) of a foreign epithet. Ibnu Kathīr in his tafsīr has concluded as much. The title may have been originally Greek, or Persian, but that alone does not allow us to conclude where the actual person was born or travelled. We can surmise that he was a prominent figure of the Old World (rather than an Olmec or Inca leader, for example), since his legend was circulating in West Asia, and that he lived no earlier than around 1200 BCE, when humans began using iron.
His travels took him to the west and to the east, but to where on the map can only be a matter of informed conjecture. Candidates for the end of his western foray include the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea (actually a lake, the world’s largest), and various smaller lakes in the region. In the east, on the other hand, it is the people lacking shelter from the sun who provide the only vague clue as to where the rising of the sun is. Various nomadic groups in Central Asia could be meant; again, we will never know. As for the people next to the mountain pass, we tend to look north, since most invasions of Western Asia have come from that direction. If we confine our assumptions to Western Asia, then the Caucasus Mountains and the rugged regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, western China, and the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia are possible locations. Given the lack of specificity, our imaginations may hover over a particular part of the world but can never definitely settle anywhere. None of this vagueness detracts from the sense that the people and places mentioned in the Qur’ān are real, even if we cannot locate them.
The most definite thing in the entire narrative is the wall. It may symbolize any number of things, and I will mention a few in this essay. At this point, however, I wish to emphasize that, if the Qur’ān is taken to be true not only metaphysically but also factually, there has to be a definite point on the globe where that wall was built. A town capable of producing iron and molten copper was located nearby, and a wilderness of some sort, inhabited by destructive tribespeople, was just beyond those mountains – far enough away that Dhūl-Qarnain could build his wall without disturbance. Archaeologists and geographers might be unable to locate it, perhaps due to forest cover or landslides, but it should still be there. The townspeople who could barely understand might be long gone by now, but the wall remains, given that the trumpet signalling the Last Day has yet to be blown. Without that sound at the end of history, the promise of my Lord has not yet come to pass, and so He has not yet decided to demolish that wall.
What about Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj? If the story is true, why have they vanished? Who are these people that were allowed to surge against each other? Since we do not know where the wall is, we also will not be able to identify these two peoples who have rhyming names, obviously derived from the same source that gave us ‘Gog and Magog.’ Being specifically named, they must represent historical tribes or ethnicities that used to be spreaders of corruption in the land – probably marauding nomads, but not necessarily. In any case, whatever they were doing then, they have stopped now, at least temporarily. Their subsiding, over millennia, into peaceful coexistence among the recognized peoples of the world today does not erase their original identities.
Whoever and wherever they are, we are waiting for them, following the Qur’ān’s prediction, to rise again and resume their course of destruction from thousands of years ago. Imagine, though, what it be like to undergo a state of affairs worse than the Mongol conquests of the 13th century CE. Imagine all that implies in terms of global economic collapse, even if they are using motor vehicles, airplanes, submarines, and missiles. The Qur’ān does not provide any sequence of events that would allow us to envisage all those steps towards catastrophe in detail. It does, however, mention one last barrier that must come down for all that chaos to take place – the wall.
To be continued next week, GOD willing ...
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