From Greek Conqueror to Muslim Prophet: Alexander the Great in Islam
Hosted By: The National Library of Israel (NLI)
Alexander the Great’s conquest of the known world lasted only eleven years from 334 to 323 BCE, but the legacy of that almost unbelievable achievement – building an empire stretching from Greece to India before the age of thirty – continued to reverberate throughout the centuries.
In the Islamic sphere, the portrayal of Alexander took a surprising and unexpected turn. Alexander’s figure is already hinted at in the Qur’an in the description of the “two-horned one”. However, the later tradition, especially the work of medieval Persian poets, gives us an Alexander driven not by conquest but by justice; having attained perfect philosophical wisdom, the Macedonian warrior became a monotheistic prophet.
Join us online for a discussion of the changing figure of Alexander, from ancient Greece to Medieval Iran:
“From Greek Conqueror to Muslim Prophet: Alexander the Great in Islam”
With Dr. Sam Thrope, curator of the Islam and Middle East Collection at the National Library of Israel
Monday, April 25th
8 pm Israel / 7 pm CET / 6 pm UK / 1 pm EST
The event listed here is hosted by a third party. My Jewish Learning/70 Faces Media is not responsible for its content or for errors in the listing.
