Jump to content

Dhu al-Qarnayn

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great shown wearing the horns of the ram-god Zeus-Ammon. Alexander the Great is most frequently identified with Dhu al-Qarnayn.

The story of Dhu al-Qarnayn (in Arabic: ذو القرنين, literally "The Two-Horned One"); is mentioned in Surah Al-Kahf, Ayahs 83–101 of the Qur'an.[1] Dhu al-Qarnayn appears in the Qur'an as one established with power on earth by Allah, who reaches the setting and rising of the sun and sets up a barrier between a certain people and Gog and Magog. Elsewhere the Qur'an tells how the end of the world will be signaled by the release of Gog and Magog from behind the barrier. Dhu al-Qarnayn is identified by most Western and traditional Muslim scholars as a reference to the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon Alexander the Great.[2][3][4] Ancient Ethiopic texts written by Jewish and Christian scribes have also referred to Alexander the Great as Dhu al-Qarnayn.[5]

References

[change | change source]
  1. "Surah Al-Kahf Verse 84 | 18:84 الكهف - Quran O". qurano.com. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  2. Bietenholz, Peter G. (1994). Historia and fabula: myths and legends in historical thought from antiquity to the modern age. Brill. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-9004100633.
  3. Stoneman 2003, p. 3.
  4. EI2, p. 127.
  5. https://books.google.com/books?id=fZ9NAAAAQBAJ&dq=alexander+dhu+al-qarnayn&pg=PA407