CHAPTER 5

Alexander in the Iqbālnāma of Niẓāmī Ganjavī

  From the water of immortal life his fate

  And lot were but the rust of pitch-black night

  Once Alexander turned his face to gaze

on Fortune's looking glass.

Ṣā'ib Tabrīzī (d. 1676)¹

Introduction

The Iqbālnāma (Book of Fortune),² otherwise known as the Khiradnāma-yi Iskandarī (Book of Alexandrian Wisdom), contains the new and ongoing adventures of Alexander. However, in this poem Niẓāmī presents him as a seeker of Truth, not as a conqueror as in the Sharafnāma. With about 3,680 couplets, the Iqbālnāma is a little over half the length of the Sharafnāma, which is 6,800 couplets long.³

The Iqbālnāma is a heroic romance, which, as discussed in the previous chapter, should be read (at least on a purely literary level) as part of the mirror for princes genre, to which all of Niẓāmī's mathnawīs belonged.⁴ At the same time, the poem's mystical dimensions quite transcend the limitations of that genre, providing yet another perspective on its protagonist's actions by conveying his inner spiritual experiences. The Iqbālnāma also focuses on the problem of spiritual kingship and the manner in which this is established in the course of Alexander's quest to become the Perfect Man.⁵ For this reason, the tale is organised around this theme and divided into two principal parts. The first part is dominated by lengthy philosophical discourses delivered by Niẓāmī or the philosophers in his retinue, as well as extensive dialogues in which the characters declare their thoughts. Interspersed with such passages of discourse are marginal tales,⁶ through which Alexander is inculcated with the required wisdom that will eventually enable him to become a prophet.

The second part of the poem consists of Alexander's further adventures and his voyages around the world, made in order to call people to the true monotheistic faith. His quest here is to find Utopia, the perfect kingdom.⁷ His adventures contain tales from what is commonly known as the ‘marvels of the world’ (mirabilia) or ‘Ajāyib genre,⁸ much of which is derived from the Hellenic–Syriac tradition as will be discussed below.

In what follows, we will survey the key stories and motifs related to Alexander in the Iqbālnāma, analyse Niẓāmī's probable sources for each of them and attempt to highlight the poet's original contribution to the elaboration of the Alexander Romance. In order to put this analysis of the poem in context, a brief (but by no means comprehensive) ‘table of contents’ of the various stories therein is presented here:

(1)The poem begins with a discussion of why Alexander is identified with the prophet Dhū'l-Qarnayn (Bicorn or the Two-Horned One).

(2)An encounter takes place between Alexander and Socrates.

(3)There is a dialogue between Alexander and the Indian sages.

(4)There is a symposium on the Creation of the World with seven philosophers: Aristotle, Wālīs (Vettius Valens),⁹ Balīnās (Apollonius of Tyana), Socrates, Furfūrīyus (Porphyry),¹⁰ Hermes and Plato.

(5)Alexander becomes a prophet, and each of his three philosophers (Aristotle, Plato and Socrates) dedicates a Book of Wisdom (Khiradnāma) to him.¹¹

(6)Alexander begins his journey around the world in order to summon people to monotheism. He comes across many wonders and marvels during his journey.

(7)Alexander travels south, where he encounters skull worshippers (sar-parastān).

(8)Alexander returns to India and China, where he sails the seas and encounters marvellous marine wonders, and also enters and escapes from deadly deserts.

(9)Alexander travels north and builds a wall against Gog (Magog is not mentioned).

(10)Alexander visits a utopian city in which everything is perfect and whose inhabitants live in harmony with their neighbours.

(11)Alexander receives God's message to return from the north to Greece.

(12)Alexander becomes ill and writes his will.

(13)Alexander writes a letter of consolation to his mother.

(14)Alexander dies in Shahrazūr, near Babylonia.

(15)Alexander's son, Iskandarūs, weeps for his father's death and abandons his kingship.

(16)The deaths of Alexander's seven philosophers (Aristotle, Hermes, Plato, Valens, Apollonius of Tyana, Porphyry and Socrates) are recounted.

(17)Niẓāmī closes the poem with a discourse on his own age, finally dedicating it to his patron, Malik ‘Izz al-Dīn Mas‘ūd Ibn Arsalān, the Governor of Muṣūl.¹²

As we can see from this summary, the three key themes of the Iqbālnāma are separate yet related branches (which also figure as separate literary genres) of the Alexander Romance. The first of these is ‘Alexander in wisdom literature’, the second is ‘Alexander in the Dhū'l-Qarnayn tradition’ and the third is ‘Alexander's adventures with the marvels of the world’, each of which will be examined in turn in this chapter. We will look at how Niẓāmī incorporated material from various historical and literary sources drawn from all three of these genres into his poem. Hence, a precis of the Iqbālnāma might take the following form:

(1)Niẓāmī first details how Alexander is prepared to become a prophet through his own efforts to achieve wisdom, and also by his assembling, associating with and consulting some of the greatest philosophers of the ancient world.

(2)After Alexander has mastered all the sciences of the world, including the occult sciences (‘ulūm-i nahān), he receives God's message telling him of his vocation, which is to travel throughout the world and liberate people from ignorance.

(3)During this journey, Alexander encounters and experiences many wonders, which ultimately lead him to the final step of discovering the ideal city (Utopia).¹³

(4)His spiritual quest now completed, and there being no reason for him to continue to wander around the world, Alexander is ordered by the Divine to return to Greece. However, he does not manage to return to his homeland; he dies near Babylon, in a city called Shahrazūr.

* * *

In what follows, the many motifs related to Alexander will be explored in order to highlight their influence on Niẓāmī's understanding of Alexander in the Iqbālnāma, and the probable sources accessible to Niẓāmī during the composition of his poem will be examined. We will also explore the development of Alexander's personality and discuss the meaning, historical background and sources of the various stories and anecdotes about divine kingship. Lastly, we will see how the Iqbālnāma has contributed to our knowledge of the Alexander Romance in world literature in general, and in Islamic literature in particular.

Alexander in Wisdom Literature

Traces of texts related to Alexander written in the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods in the genre known as ‘wisdom literature’ can be found in Syriac and Arabic literature.¹⁴ Wisdom literature is encapsulated in the terms andarz (precept, instruction, admonition, advice, or counsel) and pand (counsel, advice), and denotes a popular branch of Pahlavi literature that was continued in classical Persian literature.¹⁵ The ethical content of a great number of Persian works in this genre shows the wide dispersal of ideas common to Iranian and Greek thought.¹⁶ These fundamental ideas, especially those based on Aristotle's Politics, reflect the principle that a just ruler requires an advisor to produce a virtuous society, and that the aim of all politics and all laws is ‘to accomplish what is good’.¹⁷ The genre of the mirror for princes, to which Niẓāmī's Iskandarnāma belongs, is an important subcategory of this literature that comprises works explicitly designed for the instruction of rulers.¹⁸

There are three main sources among the wisdom literature that had an important influence on the creation of Alexander's image as a wise ruler:

(1)Yuḥanna Ibn al-Bitrīq's Sirr al-asrār,¹⁹ known in Europe under its Latin title, Secretum Secretoru.

(2)Ḥunayn Ibn Isḥāq's Kitāb Nawādir al-falāsifa,²⁰ which was translated into Spanish and introduced into Western literature as Libro de los Buenos Proverbios.²¹

(3)Ibn Fātiq's Mukhtār al-Ḥikām wa Maḥāsin al-Kalim,²² which was also translated into Spanish as Bocados de Oro, known in Latin as Liber philosophorum moralium antiquorum and in English as The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers, originally published in 1477.²³

Doufikar-Aerts has summarised and described the main texts of the wisdom literature in Arabic in which Alexander figures.²⁴ As she points out, some of the motifs in this genre later appeared in the Alexander Romance tradition.²⁵ According to Doufikar-Aerts, the great variety of Arabic texts on Alexander in the wisdom literature ‘must rest on a tradition that already existed in the Byzantine collections of apophthegmata, drawing a clear line between Byzantine gnomic literature and Arabic Wisdom Literature’.²⁶ The stories found in the Iqbālnāma implicitly or explicitly drawn from this genre include those of Alexander's library, Alexander and the philosophers, and the seven philosophers, which will now be discussed.

The Library of Alexander

Niẓāmī begins the Iqbālnāma by quoting ‘the head of the Greek philosophers’ (sar-i fīlsūfān-i Yūnān),²⁷ who relates that when Alexander comes back to Greece, he dedicates his life to knowledge and wisdom (dānish), with the guidance of a tutor.²⁸ In order to unveil the secrets of universe, Alexander commands that the philosophers of ‘the Greek, Pahlavī and Darī languages’ gather and translate every book regarding wisdom (dānish), including ‘that Persian Book of Kings’ (az ān Pārsī daftar-i Khusravān) and ‘even any Greek or Latin book’ (chi az jins-i Yūnān … chi Rūm).

Niẓāmī states that the fruits of Alexander's translations were three books: the Gītī-shinās (Cosmography), the Daftar-i ramz-i ruḥānīyān (Book of the Secrets of Divine Beings) and the Sifr-i Iskandarī (Alexandrian Tome).²⁹ In addition, he states that of all three translations only traces have survived in the work of ‘Antiochus’ (Anṭīyākhus).³⁰ Niẓāmī asserts that if Greece is well known for philosophy, this is thanks to Alexander's love of wisdom (ān Shāh-i dānish-pasand), for even ‘after passing its glorious period’ Greece has maintained its fame.³¹

The three works identified by Niẓāmī are probably general titles on geography/cosmography, occult science and philosophy. Regarding ‘Antiochus’, it is possible that the poet was referring to Antiochus of Ascalon, who had schools in Alexandria and Syria.³² However, since there were a total of 13 Seleucid kings who bore this name, it is probable that Niẓāmī's source related to the role of Seleucids in transmitting Alexander's legacy.

Alexander and the Philosophers

Niẓāmī had extensive knowledge of Greek philosophy in Arabic translation. At the time that he started to compose the Iskandarnāma the Aristotelian school predominated, but this was to be superseded by Neoplatonic Sufi movements represented by Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-‘Arabī (Shaykh al-Akbar, d. 638/1240) in the West and Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā Suhrawardī (‘Shaykh al-Ishrāq’, d. 1191) in the Persianate world.³³ Alexander's preparation to reach the degree of philosophy detailed by Niẓāmī in the Iqbālnāma effectively represents the conqueror's initiation into the judicious use of prophetic power and wisdom.

In the Iqbālnāma Niẓāmī has the opportunity to explore different philosophical discourses through the encounters he presents between Alexander and other philosophers and sages. Niẓāmī makes use of these encounters to discuss moral issues, and Alexander, who utters wise maxims to make his points, himself becomes a fertile source of exempla. The poet thus provides a positive evaluation of Alexander's kingship by admiring the depth of his wisdom and the scope of his achievements.

There is an encounter between Alexander and Socrates that recalls the meeting of Diogenes and Alexander.³⁴ The tale was well known in the Middle Ages and was retold in various versions.³⁵ In some versions, which Niẓāmī probably drew upon, Socrates is indeed substituted for Diogenes. For instance, the Disciplina Clericalis and the Gesta Romanorum present an encounter between an unnamed king and Socrates, and between Alexander and Socrates respectively.³⁶ Niẓāmī includes a dialogue between Alexander and Socrates that contains some remarkable similarities with the classical Greek and Latin sources.³⁷

Niẓāmī affirms that during the age of Alexander, the Greeks tended towards cultivating asceticism (zuhd).³⁸ They were dedicated to the philosophy of ascetical abstinence (rīyāḍat-garī) and ate very little. In the path of abstinence they reached such a stage of enlightenment that they vanished (because they did not have relations with women).³⁹ This affirmation is quite interesting, if not rather strange, because it is probable that Niẓāmī is referring to the Pythagorean ascetic tradition.⁴⁰ He may have come to know this tradition due to his interest in neo-Pythagorean philosophy⁴¹ or through Apollonius of Tyana,⁴² who appears in many episodes of the Iskandarnāma (both parts). Then again, there are also Greek sources that identify Alexander with views characteristic of the Cynic school,⁴³ though the Cynics did not abstain from sex.⁴⁴

Niẓāmī continues the tale as follows. One morning, Alexander commands that a banquet be prepared for an assembly of sages.⁴⁵ He issues a command that Socrates be brought to the symposium (he has been invited several times, but has always refused). At last, Alexander has no alternative but to visit him in person. He finds Socrates asleep, enjoying the sunshine. At this juncture, Niẓāmī offers a dialogue between the king and the philosopher, the theme of which is to illustrate the vanity of the conqueror, who is accustomed to boasting of his generosity. The message in this episode is that the less you possess in this journey (of life), the less you will suffer.⁴⁶ Socrates reproaches Alexander for his greed, telling him: ‘Although you possess this world, you would not be happy even if the entire tablecloth of the world belonged to you.’⁴⁷ He also affirms that he himself has great perseverance and high aspiration (himmat), while Alexander is a lowly slave of his own ambition and caprices. Socrates advises Alexander to polish his heart in order to realise ‘divine secrets’.⁴⁸ This is evidently an allusion to the Sufi practice of polishing the heart through divine invocation (dhikr), as was elaborated by Niẓāmī in the first part of the Sharafnāma (as discussed in the previous chapter; see the sections ‘Alexander's Mirror’ and ‘The Competition between the Byzantine and Chinese Painters’).

The ensuing tales in the Sharafnāma also provide instances of how Alexander achieves this ability to realise ‘divine secrets’ by putting Socrates's advice to ‘polish his heart’ into practice. He stops drinking wine because now ‘he sees that there is no permanence to the joys [of this world]’.⁴⁹ He gives so generously of his wealth to the people that poverty is eradicated throughout Greece (Rūm).⁵⁰ He reaches such a degree of wisdom that by the power of reason (khirad) he attains an intuitive understanding of the unseen realm.⁵¹ Niẓāmī's presentation of Alexander's personality as an inspired Sufi mystic rather than a philosopher becomes more visible in the subsequent tales of the Iqbālnāma.

The Seven Philosophers

According to Niẓāmī, there were seven philosophers in Alexander's retinue, and he was ‘the centre point of their compass’.⁵² The origin and provenance of the motif of seven philosophers/sages surrounding a king is both ancient and obscure. The earliest extant mention of it seems to be traced back to the Achaemenid period, when Artaxerxes reportedly had seven counsellors.⁵³ There is also mention of the Seven Sages of Hellas in the Greek tradition.⁵⁴ The Sindbādnāma (The Book of Syntipas, the Philosopher) additionally played an important role in the development of the motif of seven philosophers counselling a king, and may be the source of the motif of the so-called ‘Seven Sages of Rome’.⁵⁵

In the Iqbālnāma, the seven philosophers in Alexander's court are named as Aristotle, Wālīs (Vettius Valens), Balīnās (Apollonius of Tyana), Socrates, Furfūrīyus (Porphyry), Hermes and Plato.⁵⁶ However, it might be said that the origin of this motif is less important than its significance for the study and understanding of Alexander's personality in the Iqbālnāma. It is this last issue that we are principally concerned with here, since our focus here is on understanding why Niẓāmī's conception of Alexander in his poem places him in the realm of Sufi wisdom (ma‘rifa) and general wisdom (khirad) and effectively beyond the sphere of philosophy (falsafa in the Peripatetic sense of the word).

In this episode, a crucial characteristic that Niẓāmī establishes for Alexander is that his belief and faith are mystical, transcending rationalistic philosophical discourse. In this context, Alexander asks the seven philosophers to discuss the causes of the First Creation (āfarīnish-i nakhust). Each philosopher advances a different philosophical view, but Alexander trumps them all by humbly admitting his inability to understand either the ways of Providence or the causes of creation, proclaiming:

It's lacking in propriety to state more than this:

‘Without a Designer, no design in creation exists.’⁵⁷

According to Niẓāmī, Alexander had a pure enlightened heart (rawshan-dil),⁵⁸ and furthermore was able to see the Unseen World. Alexander's knowledge is the key to unlocking supernatural mysteries, being of a magical nature, for he is acquainted with the ‘occult sciences’ (‘ilm-hā-yi nahān).⁵⁹ This characteristic is well established during his encounter with the Indian sage (ḥakīm-e Hind),⁶⁰ during which Alexander's superiority becomes demonstrably apparent. The episode deals with certain theological questions that the Indian sage asks Alexander on the nature of creation and the Creator, on the world after death, the soul, dreams, the evil eye, fortune telling and the reasons for different skin colours (black and white), among other subjects. Alexander answers his questions in such a way that the Indian sage ‘became humbled’ (zabūn shud) before Alexander's wisdom. In this episode, Niẓāmī aims to show that practical worldly wisdom without divine knowledge has no merit. Alexander's wisdom represents a synthesis of knowledge and faith, and this is why he is superior to the Indian sage, who represents mere sophistry and casuistry.

Alexander's encounters with the chief of the Indians (Dandamis) and the Indian Brahmans form an important episode in the Alexander Romance (Pseudo-Callisthenes, 3.5 ff.); they also feature in the extant accounts given by all historians on Alexander.⁶¹ However, Niẓāmī's version of this episode is totally different from all other known historical accounts of Alexander, and from any known legends relating to the Alexander Romance. While in Greek sources it is always Alexander who poses a series of questions or riddles to the Indians, in Niẓāmī's Iqbālnāma, it is the Indian sage who asks the questions and Alexander who delivers the wise responses.

In brief, it is clear that in the first part of the Iqbālnāma Niẓāmī establishes Alexander's character: he is presented as an enlightened mystic and sage who has mastered the occult sciences – an adept whose wisdom transcends the sort of rationalistic discourses that are normally associated with Greek philosophy. The Alexander of the Iqbālnāma no longer questions the causes of creation; instead he seeks the Creator:

No longer did he talk of creation's causes

Because for him to seek the Creator sufficed.⁶²

As a result, he is deemed worthy of receiving God's message (waḥy), and he becomes a prophet.

Alexander in the Dhū'l-Qarnayn Tradition

In the Islamic tradition, Alexander is identified with the prophet Dhū'l-Qarnayn mentioned in the Qur'ān (Sūrah 18:82). This identification created an important branch of Alexander literature in Arabic, and consequently in Persian, which Doufikar-Aerts appropriately calls ‘the Dhū'l-Qarnayn tradition’.⁶³ This genre, in contrast to other branches of Alexander literature, which are mainly based on Byzantine and Greek works (such as Alexander wisdom literature and the Alexander Romance tradition), represents a separate and independent development within the framework of Arabic literature itself.⁶⁴ The main motif of the Dhū'l-Qarnayn tradition, which can also be partially traced back to the Alexander Romance tradition, is the wall built by the conqueror against Gog and Magog (mentioned in the Qur'ān, Sūrah 18:92–8).

More important than the identification of Dhū'l-Qarnayn himself, or the reliability of traditions ascribed to him, is the fact that in the Islamic world, Alexander was identified as the prophet Dhū'l-Qarnayn in both historical and Romance traditions from the ninth century AD onwards. According to Doufikar-Aerts, the Dhū'l-Qarnayn tradition reflects a development that can be traced back to previous Middle Eastern Alexander traditions (such as the Syriac Christian legend), alongside sub-recension γ of the Pseudo-Callisthenes and the oldest Arabic commentaries on the Qur'ān (for example, 18:82–98).⁶⁵

The first episode of the Iqbālnāma deals with the question of why Alexander was identified as Dhū'l-Qarnayn (Bicorn). Niẓāmī gives seven possible reasons, which take into account various connotations of the term qarn:

(1)Alexander is Dhū'l-Qarnayn because he reached both extremes (qarn) of the world: the East and the West.⁶⁶

(2)Alexander is Dhū'l-Qarnayn because he could fight with both hands (qarn as arm/hand).

(3)Alexander is Dhū'l-Qarnayn because he fastened his hair (qarn as hair) into braids on both sides of his head.⁶⁷

(4)Alexander is Dhū'l-Qarnayn because he dreamt that he held the two poles of the sun (qarn as pole).

(5)Alexander is Dhū'l-Qarnayn because his life spanned two different centuries (qarn as century).

(6)According to Abū Ma‘shar (Albumasar) in his book al-Ulūf (Book of Thousands)⁶⁸ when Alexander died, due to the great love the Greeks felt for him, they drew or painted a portrait of him with two angels bearing horns on either side of his head. When the Arabs saw this painting they incorrectly thought that these angels were Alexander himself, and thus came to call him ‘the Two-Horned One’ (ṣāḥib daw qarn).⁶⁹

(7)Alexander was called ‘the Two-Horned One’ because his ears were overlarge;⁷⁰ this was told to Niẓāmī by ‘a wise man’ (khudāvand-i hūsh).

In the verses in the first episode of the Iqbālnāma that discuss the epithet Dhū'l-Qarnayn given to Alexander, Niẓāmī offers a thorough summary of the long tradition of dispute over its meaning.⁷¹ Different writers have given similar summaries and explanations. For instance, Bīrūnī (d. after 1050) dedicates a whole chapter of his Kitāb al-Āthār al-bāqī'a ‘an al-qurūn al-khālī'a (Book of Vestiges from Past Centuries) to discussing ‘the different opinions of various nations regarding the king called Dhū'l-Qarnayn’.⁷² Although Bīrūnī does not endorse the theory that Alexander should be identified with the prophet Dhū'l-Qarnayn, it is worth noting that most of the themes relating to Alexander as a historical personage in Niẓāmī's Iskandarnāma can also be found in this chapter of Bīrūnī's work. The account given in Bal‘amī's History furthermore coincides with that of Niẓāmī regarding the different connotations of the epithet Dhū'l-Qarnayn; it also enumerates a number of historical persons who might be identified with him.⁷³

It is interesting that the seventh interpretation above, that of Alexander's ears being ‘overlarge’, soon developed into a legend in which Alexander was said to have had ears as long as a donkey's. The Persian poet Sanā'ī (d. c.1130) commented on this motif in his epic poem The Enclosed Garden of Truth (Ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqa).⁷⁴ Thus, two of the greatest Persian poets, Niẓāmī and Sanā'ī, affirmed that Alexander used to hide his overlong ears under his crown. According to the legend, the only person who knew Alexander's secret was his barber. One day, the barber went to a well and confided the secret of the conqueror's donkey-like ears to it. When reeds grew out of that well, a shepherd cut one of them to make it into a flute. The reeds, which had picked up the barber's words, exposed the secret: ‘King Alexander has donkey's ears.’ This legend is obviously based on the variant of the myth of King Midas, who was said to possess a donkey's ears.⁷⁵ During the transmigration of this legend into Persian poetry, Midas's long ears replaced Alexander's ‘horns’. Taking into account Niẓāmī's words ‘juz īn guft bā man’ (‘I was told in another manner’), we can deduce that his source was an oral one.⁷⁶

The Prophet Alexander

Niẓāmī informs us that once Alexander has mastered all the sciences, he realises that what he was seeking is not there. The above-cited verse merits repetition here:

No longer did he talk of creation's causes

Because for him to seek the Creator sufficed.⁷⁷

Niẓāmī emphasises the transcendental scope of Alexander's knowledge, which enables him to penetrate into the realm of the Unseen and apprehend what is beyond the ken of ordinary mortals:

In seeing the sights that are visible to the eye

His aim was but to find what was ‘impossible’.⁷⁸

Finally, his attempt to reveal ‘secrets’ bears fruit. Alexander receives a summons from God informing him of his vocation, which henceforth is to travel around the world, calling people to the true religion and releasing them from tyranny and ignorance.⁷⁹

When Alexander asks the angel (surūsh) who has brought him this news for some miracle that might serve as proof of his prophethood for those who may be sceptical of his mission, the angel answers that his miracle will be his wisdom, and that he will be able to speak and understand every language of the world:⁸⁰

You will be aided, given guidance so by inspiration

You'll have foreknowledge of all dialects of men.

In every land for every tongue you'll be a dragoman,

No lingo, no parole there'll be that you don't know.

Likewise, whenever you talk to men in Greek

They will decipher all you say without an interpreter.⁸¹

Niẓāmī then tells us how the three greatest philosophers of classical antiquity, namely Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, each writes a Book of Wisdom (khiradnāma) for Alexander. The contents of their tomes deal with the main themes of Islamic statecraft, natural philosophy and moral philosophy, and also feature typical advice on subjects drawn from the mirror for princes genre (such as justice, fear of God, sending wise ambassadors, how to keep the army satisfied, eating little and modesty).⁸²

In order to fulfil his mission as a prophet and invite people to the true path, Alexander leaves the throne to his son, Iskandarūs.⁸³ He abandons Macedonia and passes through Alexandria.⁸⁴ He reaches Jerusalem, and the people there ask Alexander to release them from the tyranny of their king, who is ‘an enemy to the friends of God’. Alexander accedes to their wishes, kills the tyrant and hangs him on the gate of Jerusalem.⁸⁵ After liberating the people of Jerusalem, he continues his journey towards the West (maghrib), and reaches Europe (afranja) and Spain (al-Andalus).⁸⁶

At this point, the Iqbālnāma details a number of Alexander's adventures that belong properly to the ‘ajāyib (mirabilia) genre. Niẓāmī narrates many of the marvellous adventures and wonders of the world that Alexander encounters during his travels as a prophet. The poet's recourse to the mirabilia genre here functions as a didactic device. The protagonist of the poem can only acquire knowledge, both of himself and of the supernatural divine realm, through strange encounters and marvellous experiences that transcend rational understanding. Such incredible experiences not only serve to further his quest for divine kingship, but ultimately enable him, in his role as prophet and spiritual guide of the people, to interpret the laws of the cosmos and uncover higher laws sustaining both the natural and supernatural realms. As stated in the Cosmography of Aḥmad Ṭūsī (possibly written between 1160 and 1177),⁸⁷ man should exert himself to study and contemplate God's wondrous and wisely conceived creation, in order to reflect upon it in wonder and astonishment and to understand as much as is possible. In this way, man will gain the delights of both this world and the hereafter.⁸⁸

Mirabilia: Alexander and the Marvels of the World

The last part of the Iqbālnāma contains tales from the ‘Ajāyib (mirabilia) genre, which was influenced in great part by Greek sources of the great Hellenic scientists and philosophers,⁸⁹ and also by the Qur'ān, which points out the marvels of creation as proof of God's power. Representative works of this genre in Persian and Arabic are mainly known under titles such as ‘Ajāyib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharāyib al-mawjūdāt (Prodigies of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing) or Cosmography,⁹⁰ or ‘Ajāyib al-Buldān (Wonders of the Lands).⁹¹ At the time that Niẓāmī was composing the Iqbālnāma, this genre had reached its peak in the Persian tradition at the hand of Aḥmad Ṭūsī in the twelfth century AD. The sources of Ṭūsī's Cosmography⁹² may also have been used by Niẓāmī, since it contains various wondrous tales about Alexander that also appear in the Iqbālnāma.

The marvels are found in two parts of the Greek Alexander Romance. Firstly, in the Epistola Alexandri Magni ad Aristotelem de mirabilibus Indiae (Alexander's Letter to Aristotle about the Wonders of India), which describes many monstrous beasts and strange races of men.⁹³ The Greek original of this text is lost, although it is preserved in abridged or truncated forms in all the Greek versions of the Romance.⁹⁴ Secondly, in the letter to Olympias (II, 23–40), which contains other marvellous adventures that took place mainly in Jerusalem and Egypt (sub-recension γ), while repeating adventures that take place in Book II, 8.⁹⁵

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

The first marvel that Alexander encounters in the Iqbālnāma is the Lighthouse of Alexandria, from which the Alexandrian people can see an approaching enemy fleet a month before it arrives. This lighthouse thus effectively enables them to protect the city against any seaborne enemy.⁹⁶ Niẓāmī attributes its construction to Alexander, who places his ‘mirror’ on the Pharos.⁹⁷ Curiously, Abū Ṭāhir Ṭarsūsī relates a similar story in the Dārābnāma about a tower with a mirror that offers a view all the way to Constantinople. According to Ṭarsūsī, Ptolemy first tried to build this tower, but failed. Then Plato resumed its construction, which is described quite extensively by Ṭarsūsī.⁹⁸ Aside from being one of several quasi-supernatural ‘marvels’ attributed to Alexander, the building of the lighthouse also demonstrates his military abilities, showing the conqueror as ‘a clever inventor of defensive stratagems which give him both knowledge and control of the world at large’.⁹⁹

The construction of the lighthouse of Alexandria also appears in the ‘Ajāyib al-makhlūqāt of Aḥmad Ṭūsī, but he distinguishes between ‘Alexander, son of Philip’ – to whom he attributes its construction – and ‘Alexander Dhū'l-Qarnayn.’¹⁰⁰

Marine Monsters and Deadly Deserts

Most of the other marvels related by Niẓāmī about Alexander deal with the wonders he experiences while crossing oceans and deserts. We are told that he navigates seas for three months and visits many inhabited islands. He comes across a desert that is composed entirely of sulphur, and crosses this desert for a month until he reaches an enormous sea, which ‘the Greeks call Uqyānūs [ocean]’.¹⁰¹ There is no sunset on this ocean. Being eager to unveil the secret of this ocean and to explore what lies beyond it, Alexander approaches it, only to find that its water is so dense that it does not evaporate and form cloud. It is also impossible to navigate the waters of this ocean. Experts warn Alexander that in this ‘silver’ water is a fearsome sea monster – a whale as terrible as a dragon, whose name is ‘the Killer’ (Qaṣṣāṣa).

He is also warned, however, that worse than this monstrous whale are the dangers of the shore of an island on the far side of the ocean. This is a shining shore on which lie colourful stones. However, if any man gazes on these stones, he immediately starts to laugh and cannot stop, until he laughs himself to death. For this reason it is called the ‘deadly shore’ (pahna-yi jānguzāy).¹⁰² To protect himself from the dangers presented by this deadly shore, Alexander uses a ruse. He orders blindfolded men mounted on drunken camels to go to the island and bring back some of its stones and its yellow soil. The stones are covered in canvas so they cannot hurt anyone's eyesight. Then he orders that a castle be built with them, covered with mud made from the yellow soil. As the years pass, the canvas wears away and the stones come to light. Everyone who enters the castle dies, for the stones capture life like a magnet attracts metal.¹⁰³

A very similar story is told in the Pseudo-Aristotelian De lapidibus, a sober geological treatise. This describes a stone called Elbehecte, which is yellow in colour, and makes anyone who looks at it completely witless and unable to stop gazing at it.¹⁰⁴ In the Persian literary tradition, this story is known as Shāristān-i rū'īn (the City of Brass) and in Arabic as Madīnat al-ṣifr.¹⁰⁵ At the end of this tale, Niẓāmī adds: ‘he heard that a ruler wanted to verify the existence of this city’. According to the author of the anonymous Mujmal al-tavārīkh, that ‘king’ was the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwān (d. 705), who, after finding a book in which this tale appeared, sent his troops to find the city.¹⁰⁶

When Alexander completes the construction of his deadly castle, he marches through deserts for a period of six months until he reaches the spring of the River Nile. He follows the flow of the river until he reaches a green musky mountain. The Nile cascades down from this mountain like a waterfall, but the mountain itself is unscalable and covered in thorns. Even if any climbers do manage to scale the mountain's peak, they invariably go to the other side of the mountain, where they disappear and never return. In order to solve the mystery of the mountain, Alexander sends out various men as scouts to its top, but none of them return. Eventually, he sends a father and son who are writers. The son follows his father, lagging a few steps behind him. When the man reaches the peak, he writes down everything he sees on the far side of the mountain and sends his son back with his report. However, the father himself does not return. The son gives Alexander the report, which reveals that what lies on the other side of the mountain is Paradise. Alexander refrains from divulging the content of the report, fearing that, if his followers heard about it, they would all go to this Paradise and never return.

In addition to the above legendary episode, Alexander's search for the source of the Nile is based on historical sources.¹⁰⁷ The legend that the source of the Nile was in Paradise has its origin in a ḥadīth attributed to the Prophet Muḥammad (and explained in the anonymous Mujmal al-tavārīkh), which relates the tale of a man in search of the source of the Nile.¹⁰⁸ The story of Alexander's visit to Paradise was first told in the Talmud, then in Arabic sources (Wahb Ibn Munabih), and was finally presented in a twelfth-century Western version in Latin as Alexander the Great's Journey to Paradise.¹⁰⁹

Niẓāmī continues the poem with another Paradise-like place. Alexander leaves the source of the River Nile, and traverses a desert until he reaches the Iram Garden.¹¹⁰ In this marvellous garden, he finds the tomb of Shaddād (the son of ‘Ād), on which there is an inscription carved in rubies warning the reader to beware of human mortality and death. This story seems to echo the episode of Alexander's encounter with the dead King Cyrus in the City of the Sun (related in Pseudo-Callisthenes, III, 28) and his concern about death. The content of the inscription in the Iqbālnāma also bears a great resemblance with that found on Cyrus's tomb.¹¹¹ This episode highlights the vanity of worldly goods and power. As Stoneman points out, ‘Alexander is the epitome of the man who has everything, yet it profiteth him nothing for he is doomed to die.’¹¹²

Niẓāmī next says that Alexander begins his journey through another desert, in which he encounters desert men who live in caves, and whose skin is blacker than tar. Their food is crocodile meat and they can survive without water. Alexander teaches them his customs and wisdom, and they guide him out of the poisonous desert towards a more prosperous land. Emerging from the desert, Alexander and his followers come to another sea. They build a ship for themselves and set sail. After a month's voyage, they reach a land where they rest for a month.

The Village of the Skull Worshippers (sar-parastān)

Next, Alexander marches south from the East, until he reaches a prosperous village that is ‘green as Paradise’. However, its inhabitants worship skulls and all look insane. They have no king, and everyone has a vat full of sesame oil. When they come across lost travellers, they kill them and put them in their vats. After 30 to 40 days, they cut off the dead person's head and ask the skull to foretell the future, which it does, through a prophetic voice that issues from it.¹¹³ When Alexander sees the evil of this practice, he realises that it is the work of demons (dīv). He orders that the vats be smashed and he removes the sesame oil from their houses. Then he teaches them the correct way to worship God.

A similar tale is described in the Fihrist (ch. IX) of Ibn Nadīm, who reports it as ‘Hikāyat al-ra's’ (‘the Skull's Tale’). Ibn Nadīm attributes this custom to the Ṣābi'ūn (Sabians), a name applied in Arabic texts to the pagans of ancient Greece and other polytheists.¹¹⁴ Ibn Nadīm explains:

The skull was that of a man whose appearance was that of Mercury, corresponding to what they believe regarding the appearance of stars. When they found a man whose appearance corresponded to that of Mercury, they captured him … and placed him in oil for a long time until his joints softened … They did this each year when Mercury was in ascension. Those people believed that the soul moved between Mercury and the skull, and thus could foretell the future and would respond to whatever one asked of it.¹¹⁵

Ibn Nadīm quotes a book called the Kitāb al-ḥātifī,¹¹⁶ in which these people and their customs regarding the use of skulls are mentioned. This tale is also mentioned in the Hermetic Ghāyat al-ḥakīm (Goal of the Sage) attributed to Majrīṭī,¹¹⁷ known in medieval Europe under its Latin title, Picatrix.¹¹⁸ ‘Talking heads’ were also used in Greek and Roman necromancy.¹¹⁹ However, Niẓāmī's reference to the sar-parastān and the notion of prophetic skulls might hark back to a Jewish tale, because the Teraphim consulted by the ancient Hebrews seem also to be dead heads.¹²⁰

Valley of the Diamonds

The Iqbālnāma presents Alexander as the first person to discover a diamond. In his Mineralogy,¹²¹ Bīrūnī called the diamond ‘the eagle-stone’, highlighting that it was discovered by Dhū'l-Qarnayn (whom he does not identify as Alexander) in the Valley of Diamonds. As is well known, all such tales of the discovery of diamonds have their origins in Alexander's Letter to Aristotle about India.¹²² Niẓāmī relates that Alexander and his army reach a mountain, which circumstances oblige them to cross. When the hooves of their animals are damaged by the hard stones, Alexander commands that they be wrapped in leather and felt. When his guides bring some of the mountain's stones to Alexander, he tries to strike them with his sword and its blade shatters into small pieces. None can break the stone except with lead, which in fact does not break it but only scratches it. Alexander names this stone almās (diamond).¹²³

When Alexander's men are urged to push on and scale the mountain, they are informed that this stone is the most precious of all minerals. Descending the mountain, they reach a valley full of diamonds and snakes. As Alexander meditates on a workable solution that might enable them to cross the valley, he notices black eagles with game in their beaks soaring in the air. He commands that some sheep be slain and their carcasses cut into small pieces. His men cast the mutton into the valley that is coated with diamonds, so that the diamonds stick to the meat like salt. At this point, the eagles descend into the valley and carry the meat up to the summit of the mountain. The eagles devour the meat, leaving behind the diamonds, which Alexander's men collect. In this manner, they manage to gather the diamonds without risking being bitten by the snakes.

Niẓāmī's account has certain resonances with the Greek Alexander Romance (II, 22), where we read that when Alexander and his army enter the Land of Darkness they pass through a valley where they pick up stones. Emerging from the darkness, they realise that they have picked up jewels. However, the story of the Valley of Diamonds in the Iqbālnāma is more likely to be based on a version of the tale known from the work of the Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis's De gemmis (On Gems), written in the fourth century AD.¹²⁴ The story is also retold by Qazwīnī in his ‘Ajāyib al-makhlūqāt (The Wonders of Creation),¹²⁵ and it eventually found its way into the Thousand and One Nights, where it is mentioned in the second voyage of Sindbād the Sailor.¹²⁶

After riding for a month, Alexander and his army reach a prosperous land in which they encounter a handsome young man working on a farm with a spade. Attracted by the nobility of his character and his simplicity, Alexander offers to redeem him from manual labour by elevating him to become the ruler of an entire kingdom.¹²⁷ The young farmer rejects the conqueror's proposal:

He said, ‘O you to whom all fame and fortune are subject

And by whom all unmanageable men are managed!

Let each one take up that task and work which best

Suits his nature, which requires of him no forethought.

If this gross flesh, adept at hard labour, were treated gently

It would be like using gummy frankincense for honey.’¹²⁸

The young farmer is obviously not an average manual labourer, for it transpires that he had foreknowledge of Alexander's arrival, after having dreamt of him. Alexander rests here for a night before continuing on his journey. He and his army then reach a green land, which is devoid of crops due to storms and floods that have afflicted the farmers. Alexander commands that a dam be constructed to irrigate the land, which he calls Iskandarābād, and declares its inhabitants free from payment of tribute and taxes.¹²⁹

Alexander's Return to India

Upon his return to India, Niẓāmī states that Alexander passes through a city that the Turks call Kang-Bihisht.¹³⁰ In this city is a temple called Qandahār, and in the temple is a huge golden idol as tall as the ceiling, its eyes two precious stones shining like lamps. Alexander orders that the idol be destroyed, but the inhabitants of the city beg him not to destroy it because of the ancient story behind the sculpture, which one of them relates as follows:

Before the temple's construction in its present form, there had been a damaged dome there. One day, two birds came to that dome with two precious stones in their beak[s]. They dropped the stones and left. In order to avoid the townsfolk battling over those stones, the people built the golden idol and used the stones for its eyes.

Taking heed of the idol's marvellous origins, Alexander decides not to destroy it and instead commands that an inscription be set at the top of it: ‘This is game hunted but let loose by Alexander.’¹³¹ The same story is told in the Tārīkh-i Bukhārā (The Chronicle of Bukhārā), which locates it in Bukhārā but makes no mention of Alexander.¹³²

The Wonders of the Black Sea¹³³

Niẓāmī then relates how Alexander is eager to set sail to behold the wonders of the seas, and embark on maritime adventures. He continues his journey until he reaches China. The Chinese Emperor (khāqān-i Chīn) receives him at his court, and the poet tells us that he accepts Alexander's religion.

Alexander asks the Chinese Emperor to accompany him on his sea voyage, and he agrees. Alexander chooses 10,000 men from his army, providing them with sufficient rations for the voyage, and they sail for 40 days until they reach the Black Sea (āb-i kabūd). They are informed that there is a land where mermaids (‘arūsān-i ābī) gather on the shore every night,¹³⁴ and sing and play music all night. However, at ‘the scent of the dawn’, they plunge back into the sea. Everyone who hears the mermaids’ songs is struck unconscious. In order to verify the truth of this tale, Alexander goes to the shore alone at night and sees the mermaids coming out of the sea. Their long, dishevelled hair, which they let down freely, covers their bodies entirely.¹³⁵ When he hears their song, Alexander starts to cry and laugh simultaneously. Having confirmed the veracity of the story and experienced for himself the strange thrills evoked by the mermaids’ nocturnal concert, he returns to his army.

In the Greek Alexander Romance, the Letter to Aristotle (22) features a similar encounter. This letter relates how women with long hair that covers their whole body emerge from a river and drag men from Alexander's army into the water. Niẓāmī's account of the legend seems to be based on recensions of this text (sub-recension ɛ 33, 3 and sub-recension γ II, 41 only) in which sirens emerge from a lake and dance around it during the night.¹³⁶

Talismanic Statues

The Alexander Romance tradition presents several examples of statues located in remote areas of the world, or erected by Alexander at a turning point in his career.¹³⁷ This motif seems to symbolise and indicate the conqueror's physical approach to the borders of the inhabited world. Such statues normally bear inscriptions or talismans that serve to draw attention to the existence of imminent danger if a traveller tries to continue towards the land or the sea beyond them. Indeed, one of the characteristics of Alexander as the prophet Dhū'l-Qarnayn is his reaching and surveying the farthest bounds of the earth.

The Iqbālnāma includes two episodes in which Alexander builds such statues. In the first, following his encounter with the mermaids, Alexander orders the captain of his vessels to set sail because he has foreknowledge that God wishes him to undertake a maritime mission. At the same time, knowing the dangers of the voyage, he orders the Chinese Emperor to stay on the shore and wait for him. Among the philosophers in his retinue, Alexander chooses only the wise magician Balīnās/Apollonius of Tyana to accompany him on his voyage. They sail towards the deepest part of the ocean, where there is nothing but a vast expanse of salty water. The strong current almost carries them away, so they have no choice but to return. The sailors, being scared, consult their maps, which show that they have reached the very ends of the earth. Suddenly, an island appears as shining like a light. Afraid of the strong currents, they rest on the island, where Alexander orders Balīnās to sculpt a talismanic statue of copper with an extended arm pointing to the dangerous area of the ocean. The statue warned all ships that it was not safe to sail beyond that island.¹³⁸ As they return from the ends of the earth, Alexander realises that it was divine Providence that bore him to that dangerous spot in order to place a talismanic statue there and thus save future sailors’ lives.

Alexander continues his journey for a period of ten days through a desert until he reaches a city as white as camphor, which has mines of gold and silver. However, the city has only a few inhabitants, and when Alexander asks why, he is informed that every dawn, such a horrible, frightening noise is emitted from the sea that everyone who hears it flees the city. To counteract this noise, Alexander orders the construction of a loud drum, which is to be struck vigorously every dawn until the sun rises, so the inhabitants will hear this and not the terrible noise from the sea.

There are two possible scientific reasons for the clamour from the depths of the ocean, Alexander claims. The first is that at dawn, the sunlight so heats the water that it turns the waves into domes. Thus, as the waves rise and fall, the crests of these dome-like waves smash against each other like mountains, making a horrible sound. His second explanation is that the water may contain mercury (sīmāb). Consequently, he speculates, when the water is heated by sunlight at dawn, the mercury floats to the surface. When the water cools, the mercury sinks and makes the terrible sound.¹³⁹ In this fashion, Alexander establishes the royal tradition of kings sounding the watches of day with drums in their courts.¹⁴⁰

In his Cosmography Aḥmad Ṭūsī quotes a book called Tārīkh-i Rūm (History of Byzantium) as the source of this tale. However, according to this version, the horrible sound is produced by strong winds blowing through some tall trees that stand on the shore. He adds that in these trees lives a kind of bird that has a human body and is decked out in exquisite colours.¹⁴¹

Alexander's Construction of the Wall of Gog

The episode of the construction of the wall against Gog in the Iqbālnāma is very brief. The probable reason for this is that Niẓāmī, as he himself affirms at the beginning of the Sharafnāma, does not want to repeat what Firdawsī has already put into verse. In the Iqbālnāma the episode takes place after Alexander leaves China and starts heading towards Kharkhīz.¹⁴² Niẓāmī describes how Alexander's army ‘marched for a month through a desert whose soil was silver (sīm) and whose water contained mercury (sīmāb)’,¹⁴³ such that many men in his army died of thirst.¹⁴⁴

Finally, they reach a land whose inhabitants, being ‘Muslims without a prophet’,¹⁴⁵ gladly accepted Alexander as their prophet.¹⁴⁶ Understanding him to be a king adept and skilful in providing solutions for various challenging circumstances, they reveal their problems to him in the hope of finding relief and remedy. They tell him that behind a mountain pass in a stony place nearby is a plain as wide as the sea, which is inhabited by a tribe known as the Yā'jūj (Gog).

Although the Gog are descendants of Adam, they have the appearance of demons. The poet describes them as having lions with hearts of iron and claws as sharp as diamonds; they look as wretched as evil wolves. Their hair stretches from head to toe and is draped over their entire bodies, making it impossible even to see their faces. They are semi-vegetarians who usually eat only plants (rastanī); in particular, they eat a plant as hot as pepper (pilpil) that is found in that land. However, lest his verse lack marvels, Niẓāmī describes how they also eat a dragon that falls out of the sky in springtime, which gives them their lusty vigour and strength. The Gog folk apparently never fall ill until they are close to death. They also possess miraculous powers of reproduction, with each of them spawning no less than 1,000 children! Niẓāmī reports that they also eat the corpses of their dead kinsmen. To protect other human beings against this demonic race of men, Alexander builds a wall of steel around them that will hold them in until the Day of Judgement.

The origin and many of the details of the tale of the Gog folk can be traced back to two Syriac works: the first is known as the ‘Christian Legend concerning Alexander the Great’, and the second simply as the ‘Syriac Poem’.¹⁴⁷ As the tale of the enclosure of Gog and Magog by Dhū'l-Qarnayn appears in the Qur'ān (Sūrah 18 (Kahf): 92–100), the story is one of the key characteristics of Alexander Romance literature in the Arabic tradition.

Alexander in Utopia

After building the wall against Gog, Alexander reaches a city that ‘many people seek, but few find’.¹⁴⁸ The city has no gate, and is full of decorated shops without doors or locks. Its inhabitants welcome Alexander and take him to a castle to entertain him and serve him food. Alexander asks them how they are not afraid to leave their shops and houses open, and why they leave their possessions unprotected and unguarded. They respond:

The truth of the matter is this: we're just one group

Inhabiting these hills and plains and dales. Although

A puny, weak and frail folk, yet still we don't

Swerve one hair's breadth from what is meet and right.

We'll never bend ourselves to follow crooked ways,

Nor have we knowledge of aught but what is fair and good.

We don't pursue the tortuous, errant ways of the world;

Our foliage grows up by such right graces in this world.

We'll never tell a single lie – black or white – and thus

We never have nightmares that haunt our dreams.

We never ask about something unless it serves our good;

We have no care for anything except that it please God.¹⁴⁹

Alexander has never encountered such a righteous and honest group of people, and is so impressed that he decides not to continue his journey, declaring that all he had ever wanted to learn through travel, he has now learnt from these people, and that the reason for all his voyages throughout the world, and his traversing across deserts and seas, has been simply to meet these people and learn their customs. The poet puts the following words into the mouth of the world conqueror:

I wish no more to travel throughout the world,

Nor place snares in the way to catch my prey.

What lore and savoir-faire I've learned from these men

Suffices me for labour and collaboration.

How fine it is that before the Lord of Judgement Day

The world remains in place through these good men!

The mission I set out upon – to cross desert and plain

Had but this one end: that I should meet such men.¹⁵⁰

The unworldly justice, righteousness and harmonious cooperation of this people depicted by Niẓāmī is truly remarkable. Several similar tales of a ‘City of the Blessed’ can be found in medieval Islamic and ancient Greek sources.¹⁵¹ Much the same story of a just and harmonious city, for instance, is told by Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī (d. 1126) in his Sufi commentary on the Qur'ān, Kashf al-asrār wa ‘uddat al-abrār (The Unveiling of Mysteries and Provision of the Righteous), in the section pertaining to the prophet Dhū'l-Qarnayn.¹⁵² The tale also recalls Alexander's encounter and colloquy with the Brahmans or naked philosophers of India,¹⁵³ versions of which are recounted in Greek historical works (such as Strabo 15.1.61 and Plutarch, Alex. 64–5).¹⁵⁴ Considering the fact that Niẓāmī locates this utopian city in ‘the north’, its residents also resemble the legendary Hyperboreans, the people who lived beyond the North Wind, according to Herodotus (Histories, IV, 32–6).¹⁵⁵

The Last Days of Alexander

The final episode of the Iqbālnāma deals with the last days of Alexander's life and the circumstances surrounding his death. Niẓāmī's account does not include many of the typical motifs concerning Alexander's death that are found in the Shāhnāma (such as the birth of a part-dead, part-living creature that is half-human and half-animal, and the philosophers’ lamentations over Alexander's tomb). However, it does include Alexander's final testament and his letter of consolation written to his mother. Instead of the philosophers’ lamentations, Niẓāmī adds a stroke of genius with an entirely new episode that describes the final moments of the lives of the seven philosophers in his retinue.

Niẓāmī recounts Alexander's last days as follows. Hearing an angel ordering him to stop his journeys and return to Greece (Yūnān),¹⁵⁶ Alexander turns back from ‘the farthest edges of the globe’. He finally reaches Kirmānshahān, and then enters Babylonia. When he reaches Shahrazūr, he falls ill.¹⁵⁷ Thinking himself poisoned, he falls into a delusion and experiences hallucinations that make his body burn. He sends a messenger to Greece to summon Aristotle to his court. Aristotle reaches Shahrazūr in the company of several wise men of Greece and Rūm. He feels Alexander's wrist for a pulse and orders doctors to make an appropriate medicine. However, Alexander's body burns, says the poet, because his corporeal being is like a piece of gold placed in an alembic to be purified and cleansed from the dross of this lower world.

The doctors in his entourage can find no remedy to cure Alexander, while the astrologers find that his star has waned. Since Alexander possesses the miraculous mirror mentioned in the last chapter, however, and is thus quite aware of his own fate and state,¹⁵⁸ he gathers all his friends about him and informs them of his coming death. He has wandered throughout every corner of the world yet still his curiosity is not quenched, Niẓāmī moralises:

This world, I've seen it all – far and wide, and high and low

And yet my eyes still hanker after more sights of this earth.

Not thirty-six years, not thirty thousand years suffice

My greed for lands and spaces, my thirst for sights.¹⁵⁹

Alexander knows that there is no cure for death. Neither Apollonius with his sorcery¹⁶⁰ nor any of his other philosophers can save him.¹⁶¹ At this juncture, Alexander orders a copyist to transcribe a letter to his mother in order to console her. He reminds her: ‘If there is anyone who remains alive forever in this world, then you can continue in your mourning for me.’¹⁶² He also suggests that she prepare a feast and invite ‘only people who had never lost any loved one to dine. If anyone does attend her feast, only then should she be permitted to mourn his death’.¹⁶³

The earliest appearance of the letter of consolation in Greek versions of the Alexander Romance is in the eighth-century manuscript L.¹⁶⁴ Stoneman suggests that it is possible that this motif entered the Greek tradition from Arabic sources, and not the other way around.¹⁶⁵ He also draws attention to the possibility that the detail about inviting to dinner those who have never known sorrow might originate in a Buddhist story. In this story, the Buddha tells a woman that he will restore her son to life if she will bring him a mustard seed from the house of one who has never known sorrow.¹⁶⁶

It is probable that Niẓāmī has Alexander make use of a number of commonplace wise adages about death found in Stoic philosophy,¹⁶⁷ which were inculcated by philosopher-kings such as Marcus Aurelius.¹⁶⁸ In two couplets, Niẓāmī finally delivers his moral to summarise the conqueror's death:

When Alexander removed his chattels from this house,

Above and beyond this earthly tent his throne was raised.

None matched his righteousness and virtue in this world:

The world nettled him, yet still its harshness he endured.¹⁶⁹

When Alexander is dead, his men put him in a golden coffin, deliberately leaving one arm hanging over its side. This is because in his last testament, Niẓāmī relates, Alexander decreed that one of his hands should be displayed empty and open outside his tomb in order to show that although he was the king of seven climes and possessed so many treasures, he left the world empty-handed.¹⁷⁰

Niẓāmī then informs us that Alexander's body was carried from Shahrazūr to Alexandria in Egypt.¹⁷¹ The poet also affirms that Alexander was not succeeded by one king, but by numerous princelings ruling divided kingdoms (mulūk al-ṭawā‘if), because Iskandarūs refused his father's throne.¹⁷²

Finally, Niẓāmī concludes the Iqbālnāma with a number of anecdotes on the deaths of the seven philosophers in Alexander's entourage. He also informs the reader that he himself is 63 years (and six months) of age when he finishes the poem. Apparently, Niẓāmī did not live long after the Book of Fortune reached completion.¹⁷³

Conclusion

As we have seen in this chapter, a vast field of myth, legend and history relating to the themes of Alexandrian wisdom literature, wonders of the world and prophetology is covered in Niẓāmī's account of the world conqueror in his Iskandarnāma.

Firstly, in order to expand his investigation into the mythology of the Dhū'l-Qarnayn traditions relating to Alexander, Niẓāmī draws attention to other genres such as wisdom literature and mirabilia, and makes them part of his own original mythopoetic vision of Alexander as a prophet. What links these various genres for the poet is their mutual use of similar ethical messages and morals embedded in political theories designed to produce an image of the ‘Perfect Man’, the ‘Perfect Monarch’, the ‘Wise Prince’, and so on.

Secondly, the various tales of the Iqbālnāma's narrative act as vehicles to broach and expatiate on the topos of the Perso-Islamic concept of the king as the ‘Shadow of God on Earth’. In this respect, the Iqbālnāma can be considered as a complex allegory containing various meanings and messages. In one sense, it can be read politically as a manual of moral advice; that is, simply as a mirror for princes. In another, it can be interpreted mystically as a poetic exegesis of the Sufi Path towards the ultimate goal of the acquisition of gnosis (ma‘rifat) and divine knowledge (khirad). The mystical–political advice contained in the Iqbālnāma thus establishes the communication of ideals on medieval statecraft through the esoteric and mystical writings of the Sufis. This is indeed the main contribution of Niẓāmī's Iqbālnāma to the development of the Alexander Romance in the Persian tradition. The Khiradnāma-yi Iskandarī (The Book of Alexandrian Wisdom) of the great Sufi poet Jāmī (1414–92) is the best representative of Niẓāmī's legacy in this regard.

In both parts of his Iskandarnāma (the Sharafnāma and the Iqbālnāma) Niẓāmī combines these two senses, merging spiritual and political counsel to create, in the figure of his ideal hero Alexander, a true vicegerent of God on earth, similar to a prophet who combines all the attributes of the Perfect Man. The tales and anecdotes in the Iqbālnāma indicate that achieving this degree of perfection requires that the ruler subdue his ego (nafs) by acquiring wisdom (khirad) and purifying his soul, just as Socrates advises Alexander to do. According to the political and spiritual wisdom that the figure of Alexander represents in Niẓāmī's poem, the true vicegerent of God is the ruler who combines political savoir faire and justice with the mystical qualities of a prophet (with knowledge of the Unseen World). Alexander thus serves as both a symbol of ideal kingship and an exemplar of the mystical philosopher and prophet who, being divinely guided, is a true vicegerent of God on earth.¹⁷⁴

As we have seen, Alexander's goal throughout his adventures in the Sharafnāma is largely intellectual and psychological: the acquisition of self-knowledge. In the Iqbālnāma, however, his quest has entirely spiritual ends: the attainment of wisdom or divine knowledge. Alexander's development as a prophetic hero, and his quest for divine kingship, could not have been completed and actualised in the Iqbālnāma without his acquisition of knowledge of God. Indeed, Alexander's various encounters with monsters, strange creatures, talismanic statues, inexplicable phenomena and other wonders serve to amplify his moral and spiritual understanding and actualise his perfection as a prophet.

* * *

We can now revisit and review some of the key points made in this chapter regarding Niẓāmī's sources for his Iqbālnāma. One of the major focal points has been to explore and, wherever possible, disclose the literary and historical origins of the tales and motifs used by Niẓāmī in his description of Alexander and the Alexander Romance in the Iqbālnāma. From our examination of the Iskandarnāma as a whole in this and the preceding chapter, it appears likely that while Niẓāmī was occupied in the composition of part one, the Sharafnāma, he used predominantly Sasanian sources, which is clear from the presence of Persian figures and names (such as Kay Khusraw and the Zoroastrian sorceress). However, in the Iqbālnāma – as we have seen throughout this chapter – he drew more upon Arabic lore and Islamic sources (as can be seen in Arabic names such as the whale Qaṣṣāṣa and the king Shaddād), which is not at all surprising since here he was largely concerned with the spiritual and Qur'anic dimensions of Alexander's personality.

In particular, Niẓāmī's depiction of Alexander seems to owe a great deal, and in fact to share considerable similarity to the portrayal of the conqueror in Bal‘amī's History and Bīrūnī's Āthār al-bāqīya. Both these authors coincide with Niẓāmī on when and where Alexander died, and on the different meanings of Dhū'l-Qarnayn, and both feature similar versions of the exchange of symbolic gifts between Darius and Alexander. It seems clear that this was due to the fact that Niẓāmī was as much concerned with the historical accuracy of his narrative as with its poetic beauty and literary appeal. Niẓāmī, like Bal‘amī and Bīrūnī, did not simply transmit what his sources contained, but instead carefully appraised and verified them.

However, the Jewish influence in the Iqbālnāma (such as the visit to Jerusalem and the liberation of the Jewish people there) and some motifs (such as the mermaids dancing on the shore) indicate that Niẓāmī had access to a version of the Romance close to sub-recension γ or ɛ. Indeed, he may have had access to such sources through the Jewish works themselves, as he affirmed at the beginning of the Sharafnāma.

In addition, among Niẓāmī's possible other sources one can trace Hermetic works in which Aristotle and Alexander play a crucial role.¹⁷⁵ In particular, we can point to the Hermetic Dhakhīrat al-Iskandar (The Treasury of Alexander);¹⁷⁶ Abū Ma‘shar Balkhī's (d. 886) al-Ulūf (The Thousands), which Niẓāmī mentions once in the Iqbālnāma;¹⁷⁷ and other ‘Talismanic Pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica’,¹⁷⁸ such as the Ghāyat al-ḥakīm (the Latin Picatrix), in which Alexander appears frequently.¹⁷⁹ Niẓāmī also mentions a source called Tārīkh-i Rūm (The History of Byzantium) in various parts of the Iskandarnāma (both in the Sharafnāma and the Iqbālnāma), which is also cited in Aḥmad Ṭūsī's Ajāyib al-makhlūqāt, but which so far remains unidentified among Greek, Latin and Arabic sources.

At the beginning of this chapter, attention was drawn to the similarity of the titles of Niẓāmī's Iqbālnāma (The Book of Fortune) and Plutarch's Fortune of Alexander (Moralia: De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute). The dominance of the motif of ‘Fortune’ in Alexander's career has always been highlighted in classical Greek sources (such as Quintus Curtius), and in fact underlies the long medieval and renaissance development of the idea.¹⁸⁰ It is unlikely that Niẓāmī had read any of Plutarch's works,¹⁸¹ but it is nonetheless worth noting that his attitude towards Alexander is similar to Plutarch's: both authors celebrate his great achievements. In his Iqbālnāma, like Plutarch in his Fortuna, Niẓāmī demonstrates that Alexander was not Fortune's child but the product of his own qualities and efforts. Niẓāmī also suggests that Alexander was superior to other sages who were mere ‘philosophers’ because his deeds spoke louder than their words. Niẓāmī's notion in the Iqbālnāma that the purpose of Alexander's prophethood was the emancipation of the masses from ignorance resembles Plutarch's idea of the ‘mission of civilization’ in his Fortuna.¹⁸² Both authors urge upon us the view that Alexander represented the virtuous man par excellence.