Alexander’s Oriental Afterlife

This is the title of one of the many intriguing chapters in Robbert Bosschart’s book “All Alexander’s Women”. Beyond the widespread descriptions of Alexander’s life in our Western literature, the author hunted for Eastern sources. There are two key figures to consider, Ferdowsi and Nizami (see: Timeline of Main Arabic/ Persian Sources writing about Alexander). 

Ferdowsi is a Persian poet from the 10^th century who is still very much revered in Iran today famous for his Shah-Nama, one of the longest epic poems in the world. It tells the (partially mythical) history of the Persian Empire from its creation until the end of the Sassanid rule in the 7^th century. 

The other prominent figure is Nizami, known as the greatest romantic poet in Persian literature. He lived in the 12^th century and described Alexander as a philosopher king and sage. 

It is not surprising that the Persians looked at Alexander from a very different angle as highlighted by R. Bosschart. Here are a few such examples, excerps from his book: 

The vast popularity attained by the Alexander Romance over the centuries means that thousands of local storytellers have entertained millions of listeners in countless places with a marvelous or terrifying Alexander, made to measure for the taste of the audience.

But their tales were based on a very limited number of source texts. That is, whatever version of the Life and Deeds they might have heard or read, plus some (snippets of) local literature. For example, the 170 fake Alexander letters that circulated in Egypt from Ptolemaic times; or, in Persia, one of the contradictory Alexanders described in Ferdowsi’s Shah-Nama.

By the time this oral folklore became fixed in writing (a process that took obscure propaganda hacks and famous poets quite some centuries), an astonishing variety of Alexanders were living a fascinating afterlife. Most of them, just as an entertaining or educational sample of literary fantasy; but at least in two cases, with a profound social-political significance.

I am referring to the way in which the storytellers of Egypt and Persia appeased the bad conscience of their patriotic audience over the fact that their nation, with its ages-old, proud civilization, had submitted so meekly or even zealously to that young barbarian Alexander. Their solution was simple: they converted him to a ‘hidden’ son of a respectively Egyptian or Persian monarch, so that he could be welcomed back in ‘his true homeland’ as a liberator with full birthright to the throne.

…

The marriage of the daughter of Persia’s previous king to Alexander is a historical fact. During their negotiations after his first defeat, Darius III tells Alexander he can marry «one of my daughters». Years later, Alexander moreover receives the public approval of queen-mother Sisygambis to marry her granddaughter, the princess Barsine/Stateira.

But in his literary afterlife, the bride always is another princess: the insignificant Roxane, in the multiple versions based on the pseudo-Kallisthenes; or the magnificent, ‘divine’ Buran-dokht in a Persian tradition. However, in all these fantasied romances without exception, the reason why he marries her is the plea of the routed king Darius, who, with his dying breath, asks him to do so.

Only in the Persian version, Darius/Darab adds another petition to his deathbed plea. In Ferdowsi’s Shah-Nama, the routed king whispers in Alexander’s ear: «…Ask for my daughter’s hand in marriage; look after my children, my family, and my veiled wise women».

Who or what these wise women would be —so important that the High King in his last words before his death desperately wants to make sure they will be respected by the future ruler—, Ferdowsi sees no need to explain: he is sure that the (Persian) audience will understand.

This signifies two things. One: that wise women in the age of the Achaemenid empire were highly considered, and their rights were deemed worthy of the maximum protection. And two: as this oral tradition has been created to justify, to the eyes of a Persian audience, events in Alexander’s deeds which they recognized but needed to get explained, it follows that they knew that Alexander had wise Persian women at his side, and respected women’s rights. After all, such national sagas like the Shah-Nama and the Darab-Nama were intended as a reminder so that the Persians would not forget their glorious past.

… we are presented with an Oriental legend. Or rather, an embroidered version of a historic fact known to every Persian in the Achaemenid empire — and to many Jews, who revered Cyrus the Great because he had freed them from slavery in Babylon and sent them home to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem.

The fact is that in 530 BC Cyrus went to war against queen Tomyris of the Massagetai — and lost.

…

Tomyris sends a herald to Cyrus with her message: «Stop this war effort, because you cannot know if in the end it will do you any good. Be content to rule in peace over your own kingdom, and let me reign in mine. But of course, you will refuse my advice».

Cyrus indeed refuses to listen to her wise words, attacks – and dies on the battlefield. Now, it is a well-known theme that Alexander always tries to (and succeeds in) surpassing the feats of Cyrus. So here the Jews —who maintained good relations with Alexander throughout his reign, acting as loyal subjects— award him another victory: Alexander comes out a winner where Cyrus failed.

This is the beginning of a literary tradition – later represented so brilliantly by Nizami’s Iqbal-Nama— that describes Alexander as a philosopher king, Seeker of Knowledge, a sage whose only real aim is to learn wisdom.

...

Persia’s historical memory, as explained by the saga “Darab-Nama”, also remembers Alexander’s decision to promote mass-marriages for the better integration of conquerors and conquered into one realm. This is how the story in this popular saga was told to audiences all over Persia: 

Alexander and his army happen upon an island of women, and thousands of these invade the camp «searching for men». Alexander first suspects that they may be hostile, but soon understands they only want to make love —and then fears that his own men will “go berserk”, causing even worse problems. So he allows his wise chancellor –whose name is given as Plato— to apply a miracle-working solution.

Alexander and his wise chancellor Plato receive queen Sabaterah.

She reigns over an island where only women live, who all want

sex with men. Plato will ensure that they become legal spouses.

(Miniature from a 1720 AD manuscript of the Darab-Nama)

[Graciously shared by Robbert Bosschart]

Plato calls upon the women and asks them: «By the will of God, and so be all the Angels your witnesses, will you give yourselves in legal union to the men that will enter your city?» They agree. The storyteller concludes: «When the women were trying to seduce the men, it was the work of the Devil; but as soon as they were conveniently and legally married, it became God’s work, and Alexander could no longer be held responsible for any problems arising of their arrival».

Clearly, this is a remembrance of the mass-marriages (in reality, the legalization of de facto marriages) that Alexander organised in parallel with his double wedding at Susa in 324 BC. Out of his own purse, as Arrian reports in VII, 4, 8, he paid dowries for the Persian and other Oriental women who had taken up with his officers and soldiers, so they could be legally married. The list totalled some 10,000 dowries, and the classical sources say that Alexander disbursed over 10,000 talents of silver for them; an amount equivalent to 150 million dollars of today. It is understandable that these marriages, converting thousands of concubines into legal wives, left an indelible memory among the Persians.

Just as important was Alexander’s pledge that he would care for their offspring. Arrian notes in passing that he promised his veterans that their children from Oriental partners “will be educated as Macedonians”. But Diodoros tells more: he registers (in his Book XVII, 110, 3) that Alexander has set up a specific fund and appointed the necessary teachers to ensure that the 10,000 children his men have had with “women who were taken in war” will be educated “as is the right of free men”.

In Book XVIII, Diodoros adds that Alexander had decided to apply his integration policy on a much broader scale: «…he intended to establish cities and to transplant populations from Asia to Europe and in the opposite direction from Europe to Asia, in order to bring the largest continents to common unity and to friendly kinship by means of intermarriages and family ties».

Alexander’s intermarriage policy found lasting approval in Persia, as shown by the positive comment in the Darab-Nama on the “miraculous solution” devised by Plato.

For over a thousand years, Persian audiences have been listening again and again to this story in theaters, bazaars, harems and taverns. They must have agreed: after all, no storyteller makes a living by irritating his public.