Booty of war, a rare case

Speaking of the booty of war raises images of soldiers plundering palaces or the houses of the wealthy citizens in the territory they just conquered. In antiquity, the booty was the soldier’s pay or the common citizen’s way to take revenge on their lords for the suffering they had endured. 

Philip II, Alexander’s father, was the first to introduce a regular professional army and pay his soldiers for their services. Alexander followed suit, but old habits are hard to break, and his soldiers did not shy away from helping themselves to the enemies’ wealth when the opportunity arose. 

There were cases where Alexander forbade his troops from appropriating the treasures they found (see: Fire over Persepolis) and restrained his army from looting Babylon and Susa. But once they arrived in Persepolis, he let them loose to rampage the city, all but the palace. The Macedonians were unstoppable in their insatiable greed, storming through the houses and plundering the premises. The Persian wealth had rubbed off onto the common people, and it was said they possessed much silver and gold. Diodorus speaks of an “orgy of plunder”. Alexander’s proud army definitely was drunk with craving. The rampage became so outrageous that Alexander had to intervene in person.  

Today’s warfare is totally different from antiquity and can hardly be compared, but looting still exists. 

Let me, for instance, stop the time clock at WW2. Although it is hardly 80 years ago, it is difficult to separate looting from saving an artifact from bombed or burned buildings. If it happens to be a museum, we can speak of looting when the precious content is carried off as a trophy. However, it can be labeled as stolen when it is taken illegally out of the country of origin, although it may be retrieved for safekeeping. 

No matter the qualifier used, the object has been removed unknowingly from its established and documented environment. 

[Picture from Smithsonian Magazine]

Recently, an intriguing case made headlines. A Roman tombstone from the 2nd century AD was found in a garden in New Orleans, USA. The fine marble slab carried an inscription in Latin, reading: “To the Spirits of the Dead for Sextus Congenius Verus, soldier of the praetorian fleet Misenensis, from the tribe (natio) of the Bessi [i.e., a Thracian], (who) lived 42 years (and) served 22 in the military, on the [trireme] Asclepius. Atilius Carus and Vettius Longinus, his heirs, made (this) for him well deserving.” 

The tombstone was clearly out of place and out of its context. After further in-depth research, the New Orleans owners discovered that this artefact had been reported missing from the Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, near Rome, after it was bombed by Allied forces during WW2. In the process, the museum and its collection were destroyed. The museum reopened as late as 1970. 

The tombstone had been part of an ancient cemetery in Civitavecchia that contained some twenty graves of Roman soldiers. It had been discovered in the 1860s, and its Latin inscription had been carefully recorded in a catalogue from 1910 before the stone was moved to the local Archaeological Museum. This being established, and with the help of professionals, the American and Italian authorities are presently in the process of returning the stone to Civitavecchia. 

How exactly this tombstone ended up in New Orleans is another story. The previous owners of the house came forward when the media reported on this odd discovery. The lady of the house had received the plaque from her grandparents, who lived in Italy during WW2. Her grandmother was Italian, and her grandfather was from New Orleans. 

Our world is not perfect, as we are still debating whether the Parthenon friezes, now at the British Museum, should be returned to Athens. In antiquity, the strongest or the most powerful party simply took what they wanted. 

I developed the concept of looting in antiquity in an earlier post entitled, Wartime looting in antiquity. We have come a long way since then, yet not long enough.

Iran’s cultural heritage endangered

There should be a law to protect our cultural heritage from war. Well, yes, there is, but who is enforcing it?
 
After the barbaric destruction carried out for several years since 2014 by IS, the Islamic State, in countries like Syria, Iraq, and Libya, we are now seeing similar damage inflicted by our ‘civilized’ world on Iran. By the end of March 2026, 120 museums and heritage sites in Iran had been damaged, whether they were UNESCO World Heritage Sites or not.
 

I held my breath, fearing for sites like Susa, Hamadan, Persepolis, and Pasargadae, although there are no nearby towns or industrial plants to justify an attack. So far, I had not heard anything about bombing ancient sites in Iran until I came across this article, “Severed Spaces: Documenting Cultural Heritage at Risk in Iran,” published by The Ancient Near East Today (Neumann, K. 2026).

 

The article tells of destruction all over Iran, but I concentrated on the capital, Tehran, and on the world-renowned city of Isfahan. Yes, I am drifting away from Alexander, but after all, Iran remains part of his ambitious heritage!

 

The first picture after a panoramic view of Maidan Square in Isfahan is that of the shattered Hall of the Marble Throne in Golestan Palace, Tehran, whose unique mirror walls and ceilings I recognized immediately. 

Before

After [picture from ANEToday]

Mirrors with perfect reflection were invented by the Venetian artisans of Murano, who created clear glass backed with an amalgam of tin and mercury. They jealously kept their manufacturing secret until the 17^th century. This is exactly when the Golestan Palace was built, using tiny hand-cut mirror mosaics to create geometric and floral patterns. A most expensive work of art, now lying in shatters all over the floor.

Inside Ali Qapu Palace

The gem of Isfahan is Maidan Square (Naqsh-e Jahan Square), measuring 160 x 560 meters, that counts several unique buildings on the UNESCO World Heritage List that have been damaged by military strikes. 

They include the Royal Mosque, famous for its wonderful acoustics, and the Ali Qapu Palace, which occupies a commanding position in the middle of the long side of the square opposite the Lotfollah Mosque. All noteworthy buildings at the very heart of Isfahan.

Inside the Pavilion of 40 Columns

One block to the west lies the Chehel Sotou or Pavilion of 40 Columns, which has suffered damage from shockwaves as well.

 
Beyond the damage and destruction of buildings, there is the danger of looting once the walls of palaces, mosques, museums, and other public buildings have crumbled down. It is so easy to smuggle small(er) antiquities out of the city and out of the country over the roads of the black market. 

With the economic decline in a country at war, illegal trade is a simple way to survive. That is understandable, but it does not justify the means.

Shushtar’s waterworks in Iran

Lately, pictures of the Shushtar waterworks in Central Iran keep circulating, underscoring that they are registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. More importantly, they have been dated back to the 5^th century BC and were probably initiated by King Darius the Great. 

[Picture from Wikipedia]

Localizing Shushtar on a map is one thing, but linking it to a known city or river is another matter. Then I read that the water was diverted from the Karun River using manmade canals dug through the natural rock. 

The Karun River rings a bell as I spent a night in the city of Ahwaz, not far from Susa, and could see this river from my hotel room (see: The Zagros Mountains and the Persian Gates in Alexander’s footsteps). The memorable city of Susa (see: Susa with its unique glazed brick walls), where Alexander organized his lavish wedding ceremony in 324 BC, lies no more than three kilometers away from the Karun River (Pasitigris in antiquity), and joins the Tigris River further south. In those days, these waterways were navigable and a priceless connection to the Persian Gulf. 

The above makes me believe that Alexander must have seen this intricate water complex. Thanks to a systems of qanats (see: The qanats, one of the greatest inventions of mankind), the river provided water for domestic use and irrigation of the surrounding agricultural fields. Surprisingly, the main crop was sugar cane. 

Over the centuries, the infrastructure was improved with more canals, tunnels, dams, and watermills. In the early years of the Sassanid Empire, starting in 224 AD, Shushtar occupied an island in the middle of the Karun River and became the summer capital of the kings. The city was reachable from the east, west, and south through entrance gates and bridge crossings. 

Three large dams were built by the Sassanids between 224 and 651 AD. They regulated the river and the manmade channel’s flow to supply water to the city and cultural land around it. 

The largest dam, constructed by Roman soldiers and engineers, was about 500 meters long. It dates from 260 AD, shortly after the glorious victory of King Shapur I over the Roman Emperor Valerian (see: Sassanid reliefs tell a story of their own). The dam was the core structure of the Shushtar Water System. It is said to be the most eastern Roman construction of its kind. The bridge with Roman arches supported the road that led from Pasargadae to Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanid Empire (now in Iraq). 

To prevent erosion, the riverbed above the dam was paved with large slabs tied together with iron clamps. 

[Picture from Tehran Times]

The pictures of Shushtar reveal how impressive these waterworks were. Later Arab conquerors defined Shushtar as one of the wonders of the world.

Equality of women and men in ancient Persia

The thought alone causes most people to frown their eyebrows and stare at me in utter disbelief. Who says this? 

Well, obviously not our Greek and later Roman historians for whom the Persians were the enemy. Persian sources, however, describe their women as enterprising, independent, and resolute. This has been widely researched by Robbert Bosschart in his book All Alexander’s Women on which I commented repeatedly (see: Persia’s historical memory of Alexander). An updated version, his 5^th edition is now available on Amazon. 

His study, based on the in-depth research published by such experts as professors Amélie Kuhrt, Maria Brosius, Jozef Wiesehöfer, Wouter Henkelman, and others is concentrated on the clay tablets found at Persepolis (see: Fire over Persepolis) and saved by the fire as mentioned in his chapter Biographical/Geographical Notes: 

“An unintended consequence of these fires was the preservation of clay archive tablets, cooked and hardened. About a hundred Treasury Archive texts from Persepolis, recording royal payments in silver in 492-458 BC were made available between 1948 and 1965. Other texts, published in 1970, were written in Aramaic. This coincided with the biggest windfall: the discovery of over 8,000 texts, dated between 509 and 493 BC and found on tablets in the Persepolis Fortification Archive. They deal with the royal administration of food commodities. About 7,000 are written in the Elamite language of Susa, with some incrustations of Old Persian. Another thousand were written in Aramaic, but there is also one in Greek, one in Frygian, and a few in Neo-Babylonian.” 

He further underscores how and where women are mentioned performing tasks we would expect were those of men:

 … “the archive tablets routinely register travel rations of wine, beer and grain issued to royal women for extensive journeys throughout the empire on their own behalf. And … to commoner women ... For example, one tablet (… dated to 493 BC), registers a journey by a woman employee from Susa, Mizapirzaka, who has to carry a letter to Persepolis. The text adds that she carries a personal seal (…) that authorizes her to claim provisions at the waystations.” 

Until recently, the ruling opinion was that the Greeks doubted how women “could obtain and exercise power in the Achaemenid monarchy.  How could an empire be ‘well ruled’ if women were influential and even exercised power over the king himself?”…

.. “with the publication, around 1970, of numerous tablet texts from the Persepolis Fortification site … Dr Maria Brosius identifies a particular category of women officials who carry the title of Arashara.  … specifically mentions four Arasharas by name: Dakma, Harbakka, Matmaba and Sadukka. Meat rations are rare, so the issuing of 4 complete sheep to each of these women supervisors confirms their important payment level. …

At least ten more tablets refer to the salary of Arasharas, showing that these highly qualified women were better paid than male personnel of lower professional rank. …

[Achaemenid, maybe Arashara statuette

from Bosschart's book]

750 measures of wine among 65 employees; three Arasharas receive 30 measures each, whereas a male scribe at the same workplace gets only 20. On another tablet we even see an Arashara being issued 50 measures. The sliding scale of payment in order of professional qualification (and not by gender distinction) … distributes wine rations: two men who are called ‘manual workers’ get 10 measures each; two other men who are “doorkeepers” by profession, get 20 measures each; and the Arashara is allotted 30 measures. The highest payment (in grain) of all the tablets in the archive also goes to an Arashara: 75 quarts per month…

… an exceptionally high number of Arasharas worked at the service of queen-mother Irdabama. The circa 7,000 archive texts that have been translated so far mention some 150 places in the region of Persepolis (and in a few cases, beyond) where royal ladies had storehouses or workshops. Usually the personnel working there was overseen by Arasharas.”

...

"The tablets show women in a wide range of occupations in Persepolis: woodworkers and stoneworkers, artisans, winemakers, furniture makers, treasury clerks, storekeepers, carriers, grain handlers. A tablet dated to 502 BC refers to ‘Indukka, mother of Tuku’, stating that she is “the chief of the merchants”. It registers the amount of tax she has paid -in silver- on “the business deal that she has managed”.

 

… “Irdabama regularly orders greater amounts of foodstuffs to be delivered at the palace from her own … storehouses … Irdabama has more personnel working at her various factories. On top, she can direct the royal treasury to make payments in silver” …

As Alexander traveled in the company of Queen-mother Sisygambis from Issus to Susa the equality of royals and commoners must have become apparent. His close company with Barsine undoubtedly confirmed and enhanced the role of women. Dr. Maria Brosius further writes:

“Persian queens were much more than consorts, or than queen-mothers supposedly ruling a palace harem. They had a huge influence in decisions about whom to promote, whom to punish, whom to execute, or whose life to spare. Sisygambis, queen-mother of Darius III, also wielded such power, even after her son had been replaced on the throne by Alexander the Great. He pointedly upheld her status as the most prominent woman in the empire, and treated her as if she were his own mother.” 

There is little doubt about the real meaning behind the mass-wedding in Susa as arranged by Alexander in 324 BC (see: Susa with its unique glazed brick walls). Lacking time and knowledge, he could not personally choose the brides-to-be for his Companions and close friends but Sisygambis could and did. The brides, many of them princesses in their own right, were selected with care, and probably well-prepared by Sisygambis for their new role as wife of one of Alexander’s marshals. Their independence would inevitably trickle down to their children and children’s children. What an ambitious vision! 

Alexander always led by example. His wedding with Stateira, the eldest daughter of King Darius III, and Parysatis, the youngest daughter of King Artaxerxes III was celebrated at the same time as that of 90 court members. Each of the newlywed couples received a dowry from the king and on this happy occasion, Alexander granted a gratuity to his Macedonians who had taken Asian wives during his campaigns. He paid out of his own pocket for the proper education of their children. 

The Susa celebration was Alexander’s first step towards uniting West and East, not limited to Greece and Persia but encompassing the entire then-known world. He laid the basis for one single world in which everybody was equal, East or West, man or woman. What we call today an emancipated woman existed for 2,500 years, not as a dream but a reality! So much time has been lost on the subject! 

Alexander was a visionary, but none of his generals or friends understood his vision. The one exception was Hephaistion, but he died shortly after the wedding, poisoned no doubt. As a result, Alexander’s plans were muffled and erased from history. 

When the king died one year later, his world died with him. Had Alexander lived long enough, we would all speak Greek. What’s more, for 2,500 years our world would have been one where men and women lived on the same foot, with the same rights and the same status. 

Inventions by Hero of Alexandria

The best-known works by Hero of Alexandria are his Pneumatica and Mechanica in which he described how “Automata” actually works. “Automata” is a Greek word meaning as much as “self-moving”, “self-acting” or “self-willed” which is familiar in our modern world. It may be debated whether the inventions were truly his or if he collected them from other sources available at the Library of Alexandria.  

[Reconstruction inside of Alexandria's Library]

Hero lived in the 1^st century BC, and his Pneumatica was widely read far into the Middle Ages. More than 100 manuscripts have survived, illustrating how ancient texts can live a long life. The earliest surviving copy is kept in the Bibliotheca Marciana in Venice, Italy, and dates from the 13^th century, i.e., 1400 years after it was initially written! 

The inventor’s Mechanica has survived thanks to one single Arabic translation made between 862 and 866 AD, preserved at the Library of Leiden University, the Netherlands. 

His most striking invention, in my eyes, is his steam engine, which I already developed in a separate post, A steam engine in antiquity. 

Another of his inventions is a coin-operated dispenser for Holy Water in Egyptian temples. Worshippers who visited the temple needed this water for their ritual washing. Dropping a coin into the slot of the dispenser would set a chain reaction into motion. The weight of the coin would tilt a metal lever which would open a valve through which the water flowed into the cup held by the worshiper. As the coin slipped off the lever, the valve was closed. This invention eventually led to the modern vending machine. 

Hero took his ingenuity one step further when he conceived a series of mechanisms for the Greek theater. He orchestrated a mechanical puppet show using a system of ropes, knots, and simple machines operated by a rotating cylindrical cogwheel. To add the sound of thunder, he used metal balls released at timed intervals onto a hidden drum. 

Another marvel Hero described in detail is the automatic temple door opener (see: Automatic doors, a 2,000-year-old invention), another way for the priests to collect money. 

He also invented the first wind-powered organ using a small wind wheel, probably not unlike the windmills used by the early modern colonists in Australia and the American Far West. The wind wheel powered a piston and forced air through the organ pipes creating sounds resembling a flute.

This mechanism includes the ‘hydraulis,’ which first appeared in Alexandria also, said to have been built by Ctesibius. It was operated by compressed air channeled through a container of water to equalize the pressure. A row of pipes of different lengths produced the sound. More control was acquired with the keyboard-wind instrument as replicated at the Museum of Dion, Greece (see: Close encounter with an ancient Water-Organ). 

I’d like to pick out one more of Hero's inventions from a list that may have counted up to 80, the syringe. The device is much larger than the one we know today since its purpose was entirely different. It was used to control the delivery of air or fluid with precision. Yet the principle of the antique version is the same: the plunger forced the liquid or air out in a controllable quantity. Something to remember next time we get an injection!

We will never know if the concept of creating a center of knowledge in Alexandria was Alexander’s idea or a later addition by Ptolemy. In my opinion, the concept was too vast for Ptolemy while it would perfectly fit Alexander’s thrive to melt East and West together as initiated at the Susa Wedding. 

We cannot imagine the impact of the Museum of Alexandria and its Library on the world’s history. Philosophers, mathematicians, botanists, writers, poets, historians, physicists, anatomists, astrologists, investors, and engineers from all over the then-known world would mingle and exchange their scholarship and wisdom. No other city in the world has ever reunited so many bright minds, not even in the Renaissance. Today’s digital world is the first to come close to attaining this level of universality.

Another aspect of Alexander’s personality?

Life is full of surprises and Alexander’s life is no exception. Our best sources are extant books by Arrian, Diodorus, Curtius, Plutarch, and Justin, but contemporary documents are far more difficult to find (see: Eyewitness accounts of Alexander's life). Alexander’s Royal Journals carefully kept by Callisthenes and Eumenes have not survived, except for some rare fragments whose origins cannot be verified with certainty.

Browsing through Robinson’s book, The History of Alexander the Great and the Ephemerides of Alexander’s Expedition, I was intrigued by the few lines that survived Ephippus’ writing. 

Ephippus of Olynthus was a historian and contemporary of Alexander. It is unclear whether this man is the same as Ephippus of Chalcis, mentioned by Arrian as one of the superintendents Alexander installed in Egypt. The reason to link both names is that the city of Olynthus is part of Chalcis. Otherwise, our Ephippus may well have lived at the king’s court or shortly after his death. 

He is known as the author of a lost pamphlet “On the death (or funeral) of Alexander and Hephaistion,” as mentioned by Athenaeus of Naucratis, who lived about the end of the 2^nd/beginning of the 3^rd century AD. The document held an account of the burial of Hephaistion and Alexander as well as of the king’s death. 

Robinson is quoting Athenaeus in several separate issues, shedding a different light on Alexander than what other, usually Greek, sources tell us. 

According to Ephippus, Alexander spent one hundred minas on a dinner with his friends, i.e., sixty or seventy of them. It seems the author is reacting to some critics about Alexander’s expenses compared to those of the Persian king, who spent four hundred talents for his 15,000 invites. Converting the currencies, however, both expenditures come to the same amount per capita.

Another observation made by Ephippus is that the Macedonians never understood how to drink in moderation, but drank a lot of wine at the beginning of a feast. The case of Proteas of Macedonia, who was a sturdy guy, is highlighted because he drank a great deal all his life. Alexander, Ephippus said, once ordered a six-quart cup of wine, and after a drink, toasted Proteas, thereby extending a challenge to him. Proteas took the cup, sang praises to his king, and drank the rest of the wine under the wide applause of those present. A little later, Proteas ordered another such cup, toasted the king, and took a drink. Alexander then (accepting the challenge) took it but could not hold it, falling back on his cushion and dropping the cup from his hands. The king fell ill and died. 

This scene inspired Oliver Stone in his Alexander movie during a scene played in India. However, this is not how the king died, and the text puts serious question marks behind the assumption that Ephippus lived at Alexander's court at the time of his death. The truth about Alexander’s death, for me, lies elsewhere as I discussed on previous occasions (see: A personal approach to the cause of death for Alexander).

Regarding the luxury of Alexander, Ephippus tells us that the king had a golden throne, and couches with silver feet “on which he used to sit and transact business with his companions”. These couches are known from the Susa wedding party, but the link is not made in this text. 

Ephippus continues by stating that Alexander also wore “sacred vestments”, such as the purple robe, cloven sandals, and horns of Ammon as if he were a god. At times, he would imitate Artemis, wearing her dress while driving his chariot. Alexander also had a Persian robe and displayed the bow and javelin of the goddess above his shoulder. Sometimes, he dressed as Hermes, and sitting with his friends, he wore the god’s sandals and the petasus, holding the caduceus in his hand. In everyday use, he would appear wearing a purple riding cloak and a purple tunic with white stripes, and the Macedonian causia holding the royal diadem. Referring to Heracles, Alexander would wear a lion’s skin and carry the god’s club. 

To my own astonishment, Ephippus also says that Alexander used to have the floor sprinkled with perfumes and fragrant wine, while incense and myrrh were burnt in his presence. If this is true, I presume it would happen only while the king resided in one of the Persian palaces? The bystanders are said to remain silent out of fear of his violence, “with no regard for human life.” 

Athenaeus further quotes Ephippus, saying that Alexander arranged a festival for Dionysus at Ecbatana. He does not tell us when this sacrifice occurred but I would assume it was in 324 BC, maybe around the death of Hephaistion. 

The local satrap Satrabates had invited all the troops (just try to picture the scene!) for his lavish feast, and many speeches of praise and flattery were made to impress Alexander. As in Samarkand, some of these praises turned into insolence. However, with the king’s complicity one of his armorers totally went overboard by having the herald announce that he, Gorgus, would shower the son of Ammon with 3,000 gold coins; and whenever Alexander would besiege Athens, he would add 10,000 full suits of armor and as many catapults and other missiles needed for the war. 

Such words clearly illustrate how preposterous and absurd these flatteries of Alexander were! Freedom of speech? 

Shifting through Ephippus' lines, it is difficult and even impossible to determine what is correct and what is not. As always, opinions are divided. Ephippus’ version of the facts is examined in detail by Antony Spawforth in his article The Pamphleteer Ephippus, King Alexander and the Persian Royal Hunt.

Persia's Historical Memory of Alexander

Robbert Bosschart has published an Updated Version 2025 to his book All Alexander’s Women, which deserves special attention.

Of particular interest is this newly reworked Chapter, Persia's Historical Memory of Alexander, where the author focuses on the Persian side of history. The Achaemenids did not have a counterpart for the Greek writers and chroniclers and relied instead on the verbal transmission of Alexander’s life and deeds by way of mouth by their storytellers.

This new information is too good to be kept hidden in the dust of time, and I am very happy to share hereafter the most important information together with some of the magnificent illustrations. 

Persia's Historical Memory of Alexander

For Persia’s own first-hand memories of Alexander perforce we have to rely on oral history: all the published testimonies available today originated from texts of local storytellers, later written down and ‘enriched’ by scribes, poets or translators.

...

Early Persian/Arab authors who included history themes in their writings, based their texts both on oral history accounts and on written documents. From Umara in the 7th century AD up to Masudí in the 10th century they used all sorts of sources, including the first Arabic translations of the pseudo-Kallisthenes’ Alexander Romance.

As times went by, the most popular versions of Alexander’s exploits became more and more sensational and sexy, big adventure tales usually known as the Iskandar-Nama, the Book of Alexander. As a result, their reports about Alexander’s reign are quite entertaining literature, but in historical accuracy ‘few and far between’.

Therefore it is interesting to find that the only text with specifically Persian memories of Alexander’s life and deeds is, again, that of a simple storyteller. Or not exactly ‘simple’, for Abu Taher al-Tarsusí describes himself as «a compiler of histories and narrator of mysterious facts». The saga that Tartusi published under the title of Darab-Nama (‘Tale of Darius’) was a written version of an ancient folk story. From the 12th century AD on it became very popular.

The oldest manuscript we have is dated to 1580 AD, in an edition illuminated with precious miniatures made in India for the Mughal emperor Akbar. Painstaking research on this and other, later versions finally yielded in 1965 the definitive edition of the Darab-Nama. In his introduction, Professor Zabiholla Safa underlined that the text is based on oral source material that is much older than the Arabic translations of the Alexander Romance. In other words, the Darab-Nama reflects Persia’s own historical memory. 

Its title is rather misleading, because only 386 of the 1159 known pages concern Persia’s glory years under the revered figures of Darius the Elder and his successor. But the bulk of the text, 773 pages long, displays an elaborate tale of how his fictional granddaughter, princess ‘Buran-dokht’, first opposes, but finally permits Alexander’s conquest of Persia. 

A unique characteristic of the Darab-Nama is that here, Alexander does not get the brilliant leading role. That privilege is reserved solely for the purely Persian personage Buran-dokht. As long as the story takes place in Persia, Alexander is even portrayed as a hotheaded, at times stupid or cowardly, and always vulnerable young man, with no special military talents. More than once, Buran-dokht has to come and save him. Only after the story has moved to foreign lands, Alexander is allowed to become a brilliant warrior and wise statesman.

The Iskandar-Nama became a popular (and often hilarious) 

adventure tale with lots of action and sex

Of course, like many other works of oral literature, the Darab-Nama has been compiled over the centuries by successive storytellers. This makes it even more impressive that in Tarsusí’s final version, the text still manages to retain Persia’s popular memory of three historical facts concerning Alexander. 

The most extensive of the three is the (re)appearance of a goddess from a legendary past, Anahita. Time and again she intervenes to promote and protect Alexander’s kingship. To begin with, as Nahid, Alexander’s secret mother, who succeeds in placing him on the throne of the Western empire called “Rum“. Then she pops up briefly as queen Aban-dokht, who becomes his lover, and presents him with the capital of Persia, Estakhr. Finally she shines forth on hundreds of pages as the divine Buran-dokht, who ends up marrying him and setting him on the throne of the empire. Which means that even in islamic Iran, popular folklore still remembered –from 1500 years back!– the goddess Anahita, her role as Giver of Kingship, and her blessing for Alexander.

The second historical fact reported about Alexander in the Darab-Nama refers to his double Persian marriage «according to core royal usage»; that is, the multiple political marriages practised by Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great in the 6th century BC. This is told as follows:

«Buran-dokht took Alexander by the hand, made him sit on the throne and saluted him as King of Iran. Then they sent messengers and letters from Estakhr to all the provinces to announce that Buran-Dokht and Alexander had married. 

The gates of the treasuries were opened, gold was distributed profusely, and with both of them installed on their thrones on equal footing, they had seven months of celebrations. In accordance with the core royal usage, Alexander was also given in marriage the daughter of King Shahush».

So here Alexander marries a daughter of king Darab and a daughter of a king called Shahush. History tells us that in Susa, in 324 BC, Alexander married princess Barsine/Stateira, daughter of Darius III, and the princess Parysatis, last daughter of a king we know as Artaxerxes III Ochus, but who was called ‘Vahush’ in Old Persian. So the «daughter of King Shahush» in the Darab-Nama evidently is the daughter of Shah Vahush, as Artaxerxes III was known to his court.

The Persian warrior-queen Buran-dokht repeatedly 

saves Alexander from his enemies. 

Here she defeats the Indian king Poros, when she grabs 

his war elephant by the trunk and overturns him.

(Miniature illustrating a Darab Nama manuscript of 1720 AD, 

now in the Statsbibliothek of Berlin)

The third popular memory of a historical fact embedded in this saga recounts Alexander’s decision to promote mass-marriages for the better integration of conquerors and conquered into one realm; a theme that takes up some 20 pages in the Darab-Nama. This is how the story goes:

Alexander and his army happen upon an island of women, and thousands of these invade the camp «searching for men». Alexander suspects that in reality 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.

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 Makedonians”. 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”.

Alexander and his wise chancellor Plato receive Queen Sabaterah, 

who reigns over an island where only women live, 

and they all want sex with men. 

Plato will ensure that they become legal spouses.

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

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 of the storyteller in the Darab-Nama on the “miraculous solution” devised by Plato. In fact, all three of Tarsusí’s historical storylines, repeated again and again in the saga, must have met with notable approval of his Persian audience. After all, no storyteller makes a living by irritating his public.

Around the year 1000 AD, the prominent court poet Farrukhi Sistaní affirmed: “The story of Alexander’s exploits and his travels has found listeners everywhere, and everybody knows those tales by heart”. So Tarsusí and the storytellers before him had to take into account that among their public, there always would be people who remembered some previous version of the Alexander Romance.

As a case in point, their public in Ghazna could perfectly well remember an Eskandar-Nama compiled around 1015 AD out of stock tales of Persian storytellers that simply copied episodes from the pseudo-Kallisthenes Romance, with some fancy (and errors) added. In that text, Alexander is the undisputed hero of the saga. But to entertain the audience, this Eskandar-nama turns him into a comical figure who not only conquers kingdoms, but also women galore. He seduces princesses, amazons, warrior beauties, servant girls, widow queens, noble dames and even fairy queens (!) far and wide. With the result that this Alexander suffers all the problems of a bumbling man with too many wives and/or concubines.

When Alexander is listening to the deathbed pleas of king Darab, who begs him to treat his family well, Roxana makes her appearance in this Eskandar-Nama. “She is still young, you could marry her,” suggests Darab. (Here, Roxana is said to be not a daughter, but one of the wives of the Persian king.) Alexander answers hastily that this is a petition he will not agree to:

“God forbid that I should desire your wife, for I already have four wives, all free women, plus 40 concubines from here and from Greece.”

Roxana is an unavoidable heroine in all the Oriental translations of Romance episodes. So she also has to appear in the Darab-Nama. Well, more or less. When introducing his top star the princess Buran-dokht, Tarsusí takes the precaution of telling his public that «elsewhere she was also called Roshanak».

In other words, despite the fact that the following 773 pages prove without a shadow of doubt that his majestic Buran-dokht has nothing in common with the insignificant Roxana, Tarsusí still thought it wise to bow –if only once– to the Alexander Romance.

For my comments on Robbert Bosschart’s Third Edition, please refer to my earlier blog post: All Alexander's Women.