Dhu al-Qarnayn
"The Owner of Two-Horns"[1]) is a leader who appears in the Qur'an, Surah al-Kahf (18), Ayahs 83–101, as one who travels to the east and west and sets up a barrier between a certain people and Gog and Magog (Arabic: يَأْجُوجُ وَمَأْجُوجُ, romanized: Yaʾjūj wa-Maʾjūj).Other apocalyptic writings predict that their destruction by God in a single night will usher in the Day of Resurrection (Arabic: یوم القيامة, romanized: Yawm al-Qiyāmah).[5] The verses of the chapter reproduced below show Dhu al-Qarnayn traveling first to the Western limit of travel where he sees the sun set in a muddy spring, then to the furthest East where he sees it rise from the ocean, and finally northward to a place in the mountains where he finds a people oppressed by Gog and Magog: The story of Dhu al-Qarnayn is related in chapter 18 of the Qur'an, al-Kahf, revealed to Muhammad when his tribe, Al-Quraysh, sent two men to discover whether the Jews, with their superior knowledge of the scriptures, could advise them on whether Muhammad was truly a prophet of God.[14] Cyril Glasse writes that the reference to "He of the two horns" also has a symbolical interpretation: “He of the two Ages”, which reflects the eschatological shadow that Alexander casts from his time, which preceded Islam by many centuries, until the end of the world.[31] Ernst claims that Dhu al-Qarnayn finding the sun setting in a "muddy spring" in the West is equivalent to the "poisonous sea" found by Alexander in the Syriac legend.In the East both the Syrian legend and the Quran, according to Ernst, have Alexander/Dhu al-Qarnayn find a people who live so close to the rising sun that they have no protection from its heat.[42][43][44] In this account, King Ṣaʿb was a conqueror who was given the epithet Dhu al-Qarnayn after meeting a figure named Musa al Khidr in Jerusalem.Following a detailed analysis, Nagel instead defines the milieu in which this version emerged as that of South Arabians in early eighth-century Egypt,[50] and observes that Southern Arabs were one of two factions who vied for power in the Umayyad empire.[52] In modern times, some Muslim scholars have argued in favour of Dhu al-Qarnayn being actually Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire and conqueror of Persia and Babylon.The cylinder states that idols that Nabonidus had brought to Babylon from various other Babylonian cities were reinstalled by Cyrus in their former sanctuaries and ruined temples reconstructed.[61] Among Muslim commentators, it was first promoted by Sayyed Ahmad Khan (d. 1889),[55] then by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad,[62] and generated wider acceptance over the years.
Zulkarnain (footballer)Gog and MagogPersian miniatureFalnamaSafavid emperorTahmasp IChester Beatty LibraryArabicromanizedQur'anSurah al-Kahf (18)end of the worldDay of ResurrectionAlexander the Greatpre-Islamic ArabianSa'b Dhu MarathidHimyaral-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'manLakhmid kingdomCyrus the GreatDerbentSasanian EmpireGates of AlexanderMarmaduke Pickthallal-KahfAl-QurayshAl-QurtubiAl-SuhayliAbrahamtetradrachmZeus-AmmonTheories about Alexander the Great in the QuranSyriac Alexander LegendCaucasus MountainsScythiansal-TabariHellenisticGreat Wall of ChinaMuhammad al-IdrisiRoger II of SicilyMongoliaSasanianCaspian Seaal-AzraqiBeershebaAbimelechibn Kathiribn TaymiyyahNaser Makarem Shiraziworshipped only one GodHimyariteṢaʿb Dhu-MarāthidIbn HishamThe Book of Crowns on the Kings of HimyarWahb ibn MunabbihLand of DarknessAndalusia regionByzantiumdivision between the South Arabs and North ArabsBattle of Marj RahitPasargadaeHemhem crownAchaemenid EmpireDanielOld TestamentCyrus CylinderMardukPasagardaetutelary geniephilologistSayyed Ahmad KhanMaulana Abul Kalam AzadAl-BiruniThe Remaining Signs of Past CenturiesAfrīqiahonomasticsDhū NuwāsDhū YazanFereydunTarikhUmar bin KhattabImru'l-QaysLakhmidsMessiah ben JosephYemenite JewsDarius the GreatParthianAlexander the Great in Arabic traditionAlexander the Great in Islamic traditionAl-AndalusQissat DhulqarnaynHadith DhulqarnaynPersianAlexander's encounter with Indian sagestheologianal-GhazaliOne Thousand and One NightsMount QafIsrafilRaphaelHikayat Iskandar ZulkarnainMinangkabauCentral SumatraCholan emperorRajendra IMalay AnnalsIron Gate (Central Asia)ErgenekonMaududi, Syed Abul AlaGhamidi, Javed AhmedSeoharwi, Muhammad Hifzur RahmanShirazi, Naser MakaremWikisourceAgapiusCook, David B.Krämer, GudrunRowson, EverettWatt, W. MontgomeryBearman, P.Bianquis, Th.Bosworth, C.E.van Donzel, E.Heinrichs, W.P.CharactersAllāhbaqara