Timeline of Main Arabic/Persian Sources writing about Alexander

Complementary to my previous blog post: Persia's Historical Memory of Alexander, a new Chapter in Robbert Bosschart's Updated Version 2023 to his book All Alexander's Women, it is helpful to consult the following Table. 

It contains a list of the foremost Persian and Arabic authors who, in their works, referred to Alexander the Great. They were far away from the historical figure we know, but it remains impressive how, so many centuries later, the king's name still lived on in their tales and imagination.

TIMELINE OF MAIN ARABIC/PERSIAN SOURCES
(in order of publication date)
 

—622-750 AD: Ibn-al Muqaffa (720-756), a Persian intellectual in Fars, translates the last version of the Khoday-Nama (compiled by Zoroastrian clerics on orders of the Sassanid king Khosrow II, and published in 622 AD) into Arabic in 750 AD.

 

—670-800 AD: Ibn Abbas, governor of Basora c. 670 AD, and other authorities after him, order Arabic translations to be made of (parts of) the Alexander Romance written by the pseudo-Kallisthenes in the 3rd century BC, and later edited in Syriac; these are the texts that allow

 

—c 800 AD: Abu Zayd Umara (c 750-815) to compile his book Qissat al-Iskandar Dhu’l Qarnayn. He has also used oral sources, but at least half of his text contains the material from these earliest Arabic versions of the Alexander Romance. Afterwards more Arabic translations of Greek or Syriac texts on Alexander become available in the Abassid caliphate, especially under al-Mamun (813-833).

 

—820-850 AD: Ashmaí (Basora, 740-828 AD), the first lexicographer in Arabic Mesopotamia, composes a text titled Nihaya. One generation later, this text is revised by a so-called pseudo-Ashmaí, who says he has also used Muqaffa's work. The resulting 'extended Nihaya' contains a 46-page chapter on Alexander with 1336 verses, making it by far the most complete Alexander tale of those times. The Persian influence shows through in the fact that this Nihaya already endows Alexander with a Persian pedigree (kinship with the royal dynasty) – but at the same time warns: "Not all Arabic authors are agreed on this".

 

—870-920 AD: Abu Hanifah Dinawarí, (815-896 AD), prolific Persian writer on many different themes including History, states that the opinions of his various sources remain divided: "Some of them make him a descendant of the Persian dynasty, but others say he was the son of Philip of Makedon". Most negative on Alexander is Abu Jafar Muhammad al-Tabarí (839-923 AD), a famous Muslim Persian savant who publishes a History of the Prophets and the Kings that copies the condemnation of 'Alexander of Rum' from the Sassanid Khoday-Nama translated by Muqaffa.

 

—c 930 AD: Abu al-Hasan al-Masudí (Baghdad, 896 - Cairo, 951) geographer and historian who, on a long journey in 915 through Persia has also found -in Estakhr- some books with historic content about bygone eras of the country, publishes the first Arabic manuscript that correctly places Alexander's rule in Persia within the framework of a World History.

 

—957 AD: Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Razzaq, governor in the Persian city of Tus, orders a committee of 'book-owners' (including both Muslim and Zoroastrian savants) to compile a history book out of all their material. By its varied provenance, their end product inevitably contains texts that contradict each other, like pre-Islamic ánd Arabic translations of the Alexander Romance on one hand, and the Sassanid Khoday-Nama on the other. Some of their material even has roots in the tradition of Parthian minstrels. They complete their work in 957. Their text in Persian, known as 'the Prose Shah-Nama', is no longer extant.

 

—1010 AD: Hakim Abu-l-Qasem Ferdowsi from Tus (935-1020 AD), the poet who is still today revered as a national celebrity in Persia, publishes his 'national epic' Shah-Nama. As he states in the Preface, he has versified the 'Prose Shah-Nama' but also added other material. His saga counts over 100,000 verses, of which only 2458 refer to Alexander. They first ascribe a legitimate Persian pedigree to him, but later (following the Khoday-Nama tradition) turn Alexander into a bloodthirsty foreign conqueror.

 

—c. 1015 AD: in times of sultan Mahmud in Ghazna, an erudite at his Court writes out a compilation of local storytellers' stock tales about Alexander, now known as the Eskandar-Nama. This popular text keeps close to Arabic/Persian translations of pseudo-Kallisthenes' Alexander Romance, but adds some episodes from other sources: it includes tales that are not found in any other work. It has Alexander in the sole starring role, and calls him by the much-respected Islamic name of "Dhu’l Qarnayn". But to entertain the audience, it humanizes him by turning him into the comical figure of the man with multiple wives and all the ensuing (sex) problems. The author of this Eskandar-nama remains unknown, as the initial part of the manuscript has been lost. The oldest copy, dated to the 14/15th century, is held in the private collection of Sa'id Nafisi in Tehran. It was edited by Professor Iraj Afshar in 1964, and translated into English by E. Venetis in 2017.

 

—1030-1100 AD: Abu Taher bin Musa al-Tarsusí publishes, at some yet unknown point in this period, a written version of the Persian storytellers' rendition of a popular folk tale known as the Darab-Nama. His text leaves the negative Sassanid/Zoroastrian propaganda aside. It gives Alexander a 'co-star' role in a Persian national epic in which a fictional "princess Buran-dokht" shines forth as the main character. She is gradually revealed as a stand-in for the ancient Persian goddess Anahita, 'She who grants the monarchy'.

Most episodes in the text are stock tales of local storytellers, but the Darab-Nama also preserves some ancient material inherited from Parthian minstrels and reminisces factual deeds of the historic Alexander in Persia. Various extant manuscripts were collated by Professor Zabihollah Safa to produce his definitive edition of the Darab-Nama in 1965-68. 

—1203 AD: Abu Muhammad bin Yusuf, «Nizami Ganjavi» (1141-1209 AD), still a much-admired Persian author, publishes his Sikandar-Nama, the 'canonic' version of Persia's literary sagas on Alexander. He embellishes the well-known Arabic/Persian versions of the Romance, but also includes details from Greek-sourced historical writings about Alexander.

The second part of Nizami's saga, usually called the Iqbal-Nama, situates the Alexander' Dhu’l Qarnayn' of Koranic fame clearly within the Oriental' Wisdom Literature' tradition. 

—1466 AD: as researched by Professor Faustina Doufikar-Aerts, the manuscripts (dated to Hegira 871=1466 AD) numbered 3003 and 3004 of the Aya Sofya collection in Istambul, confirmed the existence of a popular Arabic Sirat Al-Iskandar tradition. Its manuscript texts are attributed to many different storytellers. In the case of the Aya Sofya manuscripts, the narrator is an Ibrahim ibn Mufarij as-Shuri from Tyre. His version does include the theme of Alexander's 'legitimate' Persian pedigree, but for the rest basically represents the latest Arabic evolution of a Wisdom Literature concerning Iskandar "Dhul’l Qarnayn". These texts do not contribute any new data to the known biography of the historical Alexander.