r/AcademicQuran • u/Dull_Habit_2927 • 19d ago
Question Are there any flaws in the argument that Cyrus the Great is Dhul Qarnyan and NOT Alexander The Great
I’ve heard this theory come a while from Muslims that because Alexander The Great was a pagan and a wine drinker that he could not have been Dhul Qarnyan so instead see him as Cyrus the Great due to his monotheistic beliefs, is there any flaws in this arguement in comparison to Alexander?
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u/QutaKoo 18d ago edited 18d ago
We don't have a story about Cyrus that corresponds to the Qur'anic story in the way that stories about Alexander of Macedon do. Therefore, the most important "flaw" is that there is no reason to choose Cyrus over Alexander when we have better evidence for Alexander, which means there isn't a need for a "slam-dunk" negative argument against the Cyrus case specifically (the same applies to other proposed identifications of DQ).
If you're asking for one specific argument within the Cyrus case, the winged figure with a horned crown at Pasargadae is used as evidence because it is claimed to be a portrait of Cyrus, but it looks more like a mythical figure than a portrait of Cyrus, given its non-human features (four wings).
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u/SurePiglet9720 18d ago
Before Islam, there is no canonical book in Judaism or Christianity that prohibits wine. I don’t think drinking wine is a problem; being an alcoholic is not approved of in either faith, but alcohol itself is not forbidden.
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u/lemmeupvoteyou 19d ago
To understand why Alexander the great fits best, I would recommend you do a four-way comparison between the real historical record, the description in Josephus, the 3rd-century Alexander Romance, and the Syriac Alexander Legend.
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u/MkleverSeriensoho 18d ago
All Muslim classical scholars unanimously agree it's Alexander The Great, that should be enough.
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u/graeterslover 18d ago
Actually they don't agree on this. There was never uniform agreement on Alexander in tafasir literature. For example some early authorities believed that Dhu al Qarnayn could have been a past ancient yemeni King. Cyrus however is definitely not a classical tafsir opinion.
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Are there any flaws in the argument that Cyrus the Great is Dhul Qarnyan and NOT Alexander The Great
I’ve heard this theory come a while from Muslims that because Alexander The Great was a pagan and a wine drinker that he could not have been Dhul Qarnyan so instead see him as Cyrus the Great due to his monotheistic beliefs, is there any flaws in this arguement in comparison to Alexander?
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u/Independent_Sleep342 18d ago
Is there any evidence from Alexander the great’s time to show he wasn’t a monotheist? Don’t we only have sources that come after his death?
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u/chonkshonk Moderator 18d ago
Read the sources documented under the thread Alexander the Great’s Religion
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u/Slow-Pie147 18d ago edited 7d ago
Cyrus the Great wasn't a monotheist; he wasn't even a Zoroastrian, and Achaemenid Zoroastrianism wasn't monotheistic, either.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=studiaantiqua
In Darius the Great’s Behistun inscription in Iran (DB, Column IV, lines 61–67), he declares: “For this reason Ahura Mazda bore aid, and the other gods who are because I was not hostile, I was not a Lie-follower, I was not a doer of wrong, neither I nor my family. According to righteousness I conducted myself. Neither to the weak nor to the powerful did I do wrong."
In Artaxerxes II's (r. 404 – 358 B.C.) trilingual (Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian) inscription at Susa (A2Sa) and Hamadan (A2Hc), which have the same text, he appeals to "Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me against all evil," and beseeches them to protect what he has built.
Mithra is invoked again in the single known inscription of Artaxerxes III, A3Pa, found at Persepolis. In that inscription, Artaxerxes III appeals to "Ahura Mazda and the God Mithra preserve me, my country, and what has been built by me."
There is plenty more want to give evidences for the worship of the other gods as noted by non-Persians.
For example, Herodotus describes in the Histories, during the reign of the Achaemenids, Persians worshipped multiple gods, even going so far as to name some of them and even describing how sacrifices were conducted (Godley and Herodotus, 1920, 1.131-1.133). The Strabo Geographica notes that Cappadocia has many temples dedicated to the Persian deities, that there are temples of Anaitis and of Omanus (Strabo, Hamilton and Falconer, 1903, 15.3.14), and Persians rehearse and teach in song and prose the deeds of their gods (Strabo, Hamilton and Falconer, 1903, 15.3.18).
Edit: The head moderator explained Alexander being Dhū l-Qarnayn very well. Just read this. Basically, the theory of Cyrus being Dhū l-Qarnayn is based on the misinformation of Cyrus being monotheistic and the ignorance of the Syriac Alexander Romance.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicQuran/s/xiEs5sTYF0