Cyrus the Great in the Quran

Cyrus the Great in the Quran is a theory that identifies Dhul-

Qarnayn, a figure mentioned in verses 18:83-98 of the
Quran, with Cyrus the Great.[1] (He is most commonly
identified with Alexander the Great).[2] Proposed by the
German philologist G. M. Redslob in 1855, it failed to gain
followers among Western scholars,[3] but was taken up by
several traditional Pakistani and Iranian scholars and
commentators, including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Israr
Ahmed, Maududi, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, Allameh
Tabatabaei (in Tafsir al-Mizan)[4], Naser Makarem Shirazi (et
al., in Tafsir Nemooneh)[5] and Muhammad Ali.[6]

Dhul-Qarnayn: Surat al-Kahf (surah 18),

verses 83–101

The C
the Sa
The story of Dhul-Qarnayn is related in chapter 18 (Surat al-
Kahf, "The Cave") of the Quran. This chapter was revealed to
Muhammad when his tribe, Quraysh, sent two men to
discover whether the Jews, with their superior knowledge of
the scriptures, could advise them on whether Muhammad
was a true prophet of God. The rabbis told them to ask
Muhammad about three things, one of them "about a man
who travelled and reached the east and the west of the
earth, what was his story". "If he tells you about these
things, then he is a prophet, so follow him, but if he does not
tell you, then he is a man who is making things up, so deal
with him as you see fit."

The verses of the chapter reproduced below show Dhul-

Qarnayn traveling first to the Western edge of the world
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:
 Verse Abdullah Yusuf Ali Pickthall

They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain Say, "I will rehearse to They will ask thee of Dhu'l-Qarneyn. Say: "I shall recite unto
18:83.
you something of his story." you a remembrance of him."

Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him Lo! We made him strong in the land and gave him unto
18:84
the ways and the means to all ends. every thing a road.

18:85 One (such) way he followed, And he followed a road

Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found
in a spring of murky water: near it he found a people: We it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout.
18:86
said: "O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority), either to punish We said: "O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them
them, or to treat them with kindness." kindness."

He said: "Whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then He said: "As for him who doeth wrong, we shall punish him,
18:87 shall he be sent back to his Lord; and He will punish him and then he will be brought back unto his Lord, Who will
with a punishment unheard-of (before). punish him with awful punishment!"

"But whoever believes, and works righteousness, he shall

"But as for him who believeth and doeth right, good will be
18:88 have a goodly reward, and easy will be his task as we order
his reward, and We shall speak unto him a mild command."
it by our command."

18:89 Then followed he (another) way. Then he followed a road

Until, when he came to the rising of the sun, he found it Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it
18:90 rising on a people for whom We had provided no covering rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter
protection against the sun. therefrom.

(He left them) as they were: We completely understood

18:91 So (it was). And We knew all concerning him.
what was before him.

18:92 Then followed he (another) way. Then he followed a road

Until, when he reached (a tract) between two mountains, he Till, when he came between the two mountains, he found
18:93 found, beneath them, a people who scarcely understood a upon their hither side a folk that scarce could understand a
word. saying.

They said: "O Zul-qarnain! the Gog and Magog (people) do

They said: "O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Lo! Gog and Magog are
great mischief on earth: shall we then render thee tribute in
18:94 spoiling the land. So may we pay thee tribute on condition
order that thou mightest erect a barrier between us and
that thou set a barrier between us and them?"
them?"

He said: "(The power) in which my Lord has established me He said: "That wherein my Lord hath established me is
18:95 is better (than tribute): help me therefore with strength (and better (than your tribute). Do but help me with strength (of
labour): I will erect a strong barrier between you and them: men), I will set between you and them a bank."

"Bring me blocks of iron." At length, when he had filled up

"Give me pieces of iron" – till, when he had leveled up (the
the space between the two steep mountain sides, he said,
gap) between the cliffs, he said: "Blow!" – till, when he had
18:96 "Blow (with your bellows)" then, when he had made it (red)
made it a fire, he said: "Bring me molten copper to pour
as fire, he said: "Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten
thereon."
lead."

Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through And (Gog and Magog) were not able to surmount, nor could
18:97
it. they pierce (it).

He said: "This is a mercy from my Lord: but when the He said: "This is a mercy from my Lord; but when the
18:98 promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will make it into promise of my Lord cometh to pass, He will lay it low, for
dust; and the promise of my Lord is true." the promise of my Lord is true."

On that day We shall leave them to surge like waves on one And on that day we shall let some of them surge against
18:99 another: the trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect others, and the Trumpet will be blown. Then We shall gather
them all together. them together in one gathering.

And We shall present Hell that day for Unbelievers to see, On that day we shall present hell to the disbelievers, plain to
18:100
all spread out,- view,

(Unbelievers) whose eyes had been under a veil from

Those whose eyes were hoodwinked from My reminder, and
18:101 remembrance of Me, and who had been unable even to
who could not bear to hear.
hear.

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire,
the first Persian Empire.[7] Under his leadership the
Persians, until that time an unimportant people in the hill
country east of the plains of Mesopotamia, became a great
empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indus and
north into Central Asia.[7] This was the largest empire the
world had yet seen.[8]

Parallels between Dhul-Qarnayn and Cyrus

The relief of Cyrus the Great near his tomb in Pasargadae, former capital of
the Persian Empire. The two horns have been related to the name "Dhul-
Qarnayn".

Dhul-Qarnain ("The Two-Horned") must have been familiar to

the Jews, for it was at their instigation that the disbelievers of
Mecca put their question to Muhammad.

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 8, says:

In the vision I was looking and saw myself in Susa the

capital, in the province of Elam, and I was by the river Ulai.
3 I looked up and saw a ram standing beside the river. It
 had two horns. Both horns were long, but one was longer
than the other, and the longer one came up second. 4 I
saw the ram charging westward and northward and
southward. All beasts were powerless to withstand it, and
no one could rescue from its power; it did as it pleased
and became strong. 5 As I was watching, a male goat
appeared from the west, coming across the face of the
whole earth without touching the ground. The goat had a
horn between its eyes. 6 It came toward the ram with the
two horns that I had seen standing beside the river, and it
ran at it with savage force."

Gabriel then gives the interpretation: "As for the ram that
you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media
and Persia." The Jews had a high opinion of Cyrus the Great,
because it was his invasion which brought about the
downfall of the kingdom of Babylon and the liberation of the
Israelites, and horns were a familiar symbol of power in the
kingdoms of Mesopotamia.

Dhul-Qarnayn must have been a great ruler whose conquests

spread from the East to the West and to the North.

The conquests of Cyrus spread to Syria and Asia Minor in

the West and to the Indus in the East, and his kingdom
extended to the Caucasus in the North.

Dhul-Qarnayn must be a ruler who constructed a strong wall

across a mountain pass to protect his kingdom from the
incursions of tribes or nations Gog and Magog.

Gog and Magog were the wild tribes of Central Asia who
were known by different names, Scythians, Parthians,
Tartars, Mongols, and Huns, who had been making
incursions on various kingdoms and empires from very
ancient times. Strong bulwarks had been built in southern
regions of Caucasia, though it has yet to be determined
historically whether these were built by Cyrus.

Dhul-Qarnayn should be a monotheist and a just ruler, since

the Quran has stressed these characteristics.

Even his enemies praised Cyrus for his justice, and Ezra
asserts that he was a God-worshiper and a God-fearing king
who set free the Israelites because of his God-worship, and
ordered that the Temple of Solomon be rebuilt for the
worship of God.

The three journeys

Journey towards the West Edit

According to Ibn Kathir, it means that he followed a route to

the West of the earth until he reached the last boundary of
the land, beyond which there was ocean. Verse 18:86 says:
"He found it setting in a muddy spring" (Pickthall). If Dhul-
Qarnain was Cyrus, then that place would be the western
limit of Asia Minor and the "muddy spring" (or "warm spring"
according to some hadiths[9]) would be the Aegean Sea. The
word "`ain" in Quran verse 18:86 means spring or source of
water from the ground, as in other verses according to
Lane's Lexicon:

The place [or aperture] whence the water of a ‫[ َﻗﻨَﺎة‬i.e. pipe

or the like,] pours forth : (K, TA:) as being likened to the
organ [of sight] because of the water that is in it. (TA.) And,
(K, TA,) for the same reason, (TA,) ‡ The place whence
issues the water of a well. (TA.) And, (S, Msb, K, &c.,) for the
same reason, as is said by Er-Rághib, (TA,) ‡ The ‫( ﻋَ ْﻴﻦ‬S,
Msb,) or source, or spring, (K, TA,) of water, (S, Wsb, K, TA,)
that wells forth from the earth, or ground, and runs : (TA:
[and accord. To the Msb, it app. Signifies a running spring:]
of the fem. gender[10]

The word "bahr" (not used in this verse) means sea or large
body of water[11] and appears in many other verses in the
Quran to mean sea.

Journey towards the East Edit

That is, when he advanced towards the East in Babylon, the

people, who had no shelter were the captured tribes of
Israel. The reason the Quran mentions no more on the topic
is because the whole epic is written in the Book of Kings, of
the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The Quran simply says at 18:90,
"To the extent that when he reached the rising-place of the
sun, he found it rising upon a nation for which We had not
kept any shelter from it."[12]

Journey towards the North/Gog and Magog Edit

The "two mountains" must have been parts of that

mountain range which runs between the Caspian Sea and
the Black Sea. This must be, for beyond them was the
territory of Gog and Magog. "It was difficult to communicate
with them: their language was almost foreign to Dhul-
Qarnain and his companions, and, as they were quite
barbaric, none could understand their language, nor were
they acquainted with any foreign language."

As has already been pointed out, Gog and Magog were the
wild tribes of North Eastern Asia which, from the very early
times had been making inroads on settled kingdoms and
empires in Asia and Europe and ravaging them. According
to Genesis (Chapter 10), they were the descendants of
Japheth, the son of Noah, and the Muslim historians have
also accepted this. And according to the book of Ezekiel
(Chapters 38, 39), they inhabited the territories of Meshech
(Moscow) and Tubal (Tubalsek). According to the 1st
century CE Israelite historian Josephus, Magog were called
Scythians by the Greeks,[13] and their territory spread to the
north and the east of the Black Sea. However, Josephus
also says that the Scythians had been shut up behind an
iron gate built across a passage by Alexander [the Great].[14]
According to Jerome, Magog inhabited the territory to the
north of Caucasia near the Caspian Sea:

The hordes of the Huns had poured forth all the way from
Maeotis (they had their haunts between the icy Tanais and
the rude Massagetae, where the gates of Alexander keep
back the wild peoples behind the Caucasus)[15]

Wall of Cyrus to protect from Gog & Mogog

He said: "Though I have built a very strong iron-wall, as far
as it was possible for me, it is not ever-lasting, for it will last
only as long as Allah wills, and will fall down to pieces when
the time of my Lord's promise shall come. Then no power in
the world shall be able to keep it safe and secure."

Some people have entertained the misunderstanding that

the wall attributed here to Dhul-Qarnain refers to the famous
Great Wall of China, whereas this wall was built between
Derbent and Dar'yal, two cities of Daghestan in the
Caucasus, the land that lies between the Black Sea and the
Caspian. There are high mountains between the Black Sea
and Dar'yal having deep gorges which cannot allow large
armies to pass through them. Between Derbent and Dar'yal,
however, there are no such mountains and the passes also
are wide and passable. In ancient times savage hordes from
the north invaded and ravaged southern lands through
these passes and the Persian rulers who were fearful of
them had to build a strong wall, 50 miles long, 29 feet high
and 10 feet wide, for fortification purposes, ruins of which
can still be seen (e.g. Great Wall of Gorgan).[16] Though it
has not yet been established historically who built this wall
in the beginning, Muslim historians and geographers assign
it to Dhul-Qarnain because its remains correspond with the
description of it given in the Quran, despite the fact that the
wall is in fact Sassanid in origins, and thus is about 1000
years too late to have been built by Cyrus. "The OSL and
radiocarbon samples demonstrated conclusively that both
walls had been built in the 5th or, possibly, 6th century
AD".[17]

Ibn Jarir Tabari and Ibn Kathir have recorded the event, and
Yaqut al-Hamawi has mentioned it in his Mujam-ul-Buldan
that: when after the conquest of Azerbaijan, Umar sent
Suraqah bin `Amr, in 22 A.H. (643CE) on an expedition to
Derbent, the latter appointed `Abdur Rahman bin Rabi`ah as
the chief of his vanguard. When 'Abdur Rehman entered
Armenia, the ruler Shehrbaz surrendered without fighting.
Then when `Abdur Rehman wanted to advance towards
Derbent, Shehrbaz informed him that he had already gathered
full information about the wall built by Dhul-Qarnain, through a
man, who could supply all the necessary details and then the
man was actually presented before `Abdur Rehman. (Tabari,
Vol. III, pp. 235–239; Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah, Vol. VII, pp.
122–125, and Mu'jam-ul-Buldan, under Bab-ul-Abwab:
Derbent).
Two hundred years later, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Wathiq
dispatched a party of 50 men under Sallam-ul-Tarjuman to
study the wall of Dhul-Qarnain, whose observations have
been recorded in great detail by Yaqut al-Hamawi in Mu jam-
ul-Buldan and by Ibn Kathir in Al-Bidayah. They write:

this expedition reached Samarrah from where they reached

Tbilisi and then through As-Sarir and Al-Lan, they reached
Filanshah, from where they entered the Caspian territory.
From there they arrived at Derbent and saw the wall. (Al-
Bidayah Vol. II, p. 111, Vol. VII, pp. 122–125; Mu jam-ul-
Buldan: under Bab-ul-Abwab). This clearly shows that even
up until the tenth century, Muslim scholars regarded this
wall of the Caucasus as the wall of Dhul-Qarnain.

Yaqut in his Mu jam-ul-Buldan has further confirmed the

same view at a number of places. For instance, under
Khazar (Caspian) he writes:

"This territory adjoins the Wall of Dhul-Qarnain just behind

Bab-ul-Abwab, which is also called Derbent." In the same
connection, he records a report by Ahmad bin Fadhlan,
the ambassador of Caliph Al-Muqtadir, who has given a
full description of the Caspian land, saying that Caspian is
the name of a country whose capital is Itil (near the
present Astrakhan) right through which flows River Itil,
which joins the Caspian front Russia and Bulghar.

Regarding Bab-ul-Abwab he says that this city is called both

Al-Bab and Derbent, which is a highly difficult passage for
the people coming from the northern lands towards the
south. Once this territory was a part of the kingdom of
Nausherwan, and the Persian rulers paid particular attention
to strengthening their frontiers on that side.

About Dhul-Qarnain, Muhammad Ali says (p586): The word

qarn means a horn, as also a generation or a century and
dhul qarnain literally means the two-horned one, or one
belonging to the two generations or two centuries. The
reference here seems to be to the two horned ram of
Daniel's vision (Dan. 8:3), which he interpreted as the
Kingdoms of Media and Persia, which were combined into a
single kingdom under one ruler, Cyrus, who is erroneously
called Darius in the Bible. The reference in Daniel's vision is,
however, not to Cyrus but to Darius I Hystaspes (521-485
B.C.), "who allowed the Jews to rebuild their temple, and is
referred to in Ezra 4:5,24;5:5;6:1;Hag1:1;2:10;Zech. 1;7, and
probably in Neh. 12:22. His liberality towards the Jews is in
complete accord with what we know otherwise of his
general policy in religious matter towards the subject
nations"

Maududi says: {Early commentators on the Quran were

generally inclined to believe that it referred to Alexander.
The characteristics attribute to Dhul-Qarnayn, however,
hardly apply to Alexander. In the light of the latest historical
evidence, contemporary commentators on the Quran are
inclined to believe that Dhul-Qarnayn signifies the Persian
Emperor, Cyrus. This, in any case, seems more plausible.
Nevertheless, the info available to date does not enable one
to form a definitive opinion concerning Dhul-Qarnayn's
identity.

Key points:
1. The title "The Two-Horned' was at least familiar to the
Jews. This is evident from the fact they had instigated
the Meccan unbelievers to ask the Prophet about him.
One must, therefore, inevitably turn to Jewish literature
or oral traditions from the time of Muhammed to find
out who this person was or to establish what was the
kingdom known as 'The Two-Horned.'
2. (in summary of Maududi) there are only a few people
who fit this description
3. The title of Dhul-Qarnayn may be used for a ruler who,
being concerned with the defense of his kingdom from
the assaults of Gog and Magog, had a strong
protective wall constructed across a mountain pass.
4. He is a God conscious person.

Further indications
The book Iranians in the Qur'an and Traditions by Ali
Abtahi[18] mentions that a wall with characteristics
mentioned in the verses of the Quran exists in the Dariel
passage in the Caucasus mountains, and that there is
 even a stream nearby which is called "Saeres"[19] by the
locals. According to this source, local Armenians called
this wall "Behag Gurai" (meaning "The passage of Cyrus").
In Arabic translations of the Old Testament, the word
"Dhul-Qarnayn" (Hebrew: Ba`al Haqqərānayim ‫בעל‬
‫ )הקרנים‬appears once in the Old Testament, in the Book
of Daniel 8:20:
“ [20]‫و َﻓﺎرس‬
ِ ‫�ا �ﻣﺎ ْاﻟﻜ َ ْﺒ ُﺶ �اﻟ ِﺬي َر �اﻳْ ﺘَ ُﻪ َذا ْاﻟ َﻘ ْﺮ َﻧ ْﻴ ِﻦ َﻓ ُﻬ َﻮ ُﻣ ُﻠﻮكُ َﻣ‬
َ ِ َ ‫ﺎدي‬
Translation: The ram that you saw, the one with the
two horns, represents the kings of Media and
Persia.[21] ”
Dhul-Qarnayn expanded his empire in three directions
(east, west and north), which is the same as Cyrus'
expansions, where he did not make southern expansions
(Achaemenid southern expansions began after Cyrus).

See also
Alexander the Great in the Quran
Cyrus in the Judeo-Christian tradition
Gates of Alexander
Great Wall of Gorgan
Gog and Magog in Islam

References

Citations Edit

1. Azad 1990, p. 205.

 2. Wheeler 2006, p. 182.
3. Tatum, James (1994). The Search for the ancient novel .
Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 342 .
ISBN 978-0-8018-4619-9.
4. In his Vol 26 of his Opus Magnum, Tafsir al-Mizan
5. In his Bargozideh Tafseer-i Nemuneh (‫)ﺑﺮﮔﺰﯾﺪه ﺗﻔﺴﯿﺮ ﻧﻤﻮﻧﻪ‬,
Vol 3, p69
6. Raheem, M. R. M. Abdur (1988). Muhammad the
Prophet . Pustaka Nasional Pte Ltd. p. 231.
ISBN 978-9971772239.
7. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty)
8. Kuhrt, Amélie (1995). "13". The Ancient Near East: c.
3000–330 BC . Routledge. p. 647 . ISBN 0-415-16763-9.
9. Some hadiths have warm instead of muddy - the words
are very similar - or even black mud, and al-Tabari also
discusses the variant readings See here for discussion
and endnote 76 for Arabic citation , and here for
another hadith that comes in both versions
10. Lane's Lexicon book 1, page 2215
11. Lane's Lexicon book 1, page 156
12. "Surah Kahf" . Surah Kahf Translation.
13. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Book 1,
Chapter 6, verse 1 Project Gutenberg
14. Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book VII,
Chapter VII, Verse 4 Project Gutenberg
 15. Letter 77 "To Oceanus", 8, Jerome
16. UC Berkeley's page on archaeologist David Stronach:
"Archived copy" . Archived from the original on
2005-11-08. Retrieved 2005-11-08.
17. Omrani Rekavandi, H., Sauer, E., Wilkinson, T. &
Nokandeh, J. (2008), The enigma of the red snake:
revealing one of the world’s greatest frontier walls,
Current World Archaeology, No. 27, February/March
2008, pp. 12-22
18. ,‫ ﻧﺸﺮ ﺑﻪ آﻓﺮﯾﻦ‬,‫ ﺳﯿﺪ ﻧﻮراﻟﺪﯾﻦ اﺑﻄﺤﯽ‬,‫اﯾﺮاﻧﯿﺎن در ﻗﺮآن و رواﯾﺎت‬
1383, ISBN 964-6760-40-6
19. The exact Latin spelling is unclear for this writing. The
word appears from the original Persian (‫ )ﺳﺎﯾﺮوس‬for this
article.
20. http://www.arabicbible.com/bible/word/27-Daniel.doc
21. Daniel - Chapter 8 - Daniel

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Bietenholz, Peter G. (1994). Historia and fabula: myths
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van Bladel, Kevin (2008). "The Alexander Legend in the
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Van Donzel, Emeri J.; Schmidt, Andrea Barbara (2010).
Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Christian and Islamic
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Wasserstrom, Steven M. (2014). Between Muslim and
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Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400864133.
Wheeler, Brannon (2006). "Dhu Al-Qarnayn" . In Leaman,
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External links
Who Was Zulqarnain?
On The Sources Of The Qur'anic Dhul-Qarnayn

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