The Qur'an in its historical context (pdf - Islam and Christian-Muslim ...

ALEXANDER LEGEND IN THE QUR’AN
all came, however, the waves of the sea flooded over and struck it down
and destroyed it to its foundations at the very outset.
(Movses Dasxuranc‘i, trans. Dowsett, History of
the Caucasian Albanians, 83)
These waves are not real waves of the Caspian but rather attackers from the north.
The text immediately next describes the physical appearance of the Türk invaders,
portrayed as monstrous, whom Heraclius had invited to war as his allies. It is striking
that this author, a resident of Caucasian Albania, the territory immediately south of
these walls, reports that the Türks actually destroyed the wall (i himanc‘ tapaleal,
“demolished it to the foundations”), 72 just as Alexander’s Syriac prophecy in the
Legend said that they would be destroyed. The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes
also states that, at the beginning of their invasions, “the Khazars broke through the
Gates of the Caspian” (diarrhéxantes tàs Kaspías púlas). 73 Just so, in the Qur’an
(18:98), Dhu l-Qarnayn prophesies that God will make the barrier a heap of earth
at the time of his promise, the final judgment (fa-idha ja’a wa‘du rabbi ja‘alahu
dakka’a). But the difference in the Armenian source is that in it the breaking of the
wall by the Türks was identified as part of the fulfillment of Jesus’ words.
There are not many other surviving reports about these Türk invaders and their
passage through the wall. That is why it is especially striking that one of the few
other authors to mention it, the contemporary Frankish chronicler known as
Fredegarius (wr. ca 660) describes the gates as having been built out of bronze
(aereas) by Alexander propter inundacione gentium sevissemorum (sic), “on
account of the surging wave of most savage nations.” Here again the invaders are
described as a surging wave, an inundacio of nations, held back by the gates that,
Fredegarius goes on immediately to say, Heraclius himself ordered to be opened:
easdem portas Aeraglius aperire precipit (sic). 74 In light of the description of the
Armenian 682 History, which was explicitly connected with the prophecies of
Jesus, it seems likely that Fredegarius was drawing from a source that made a
similar allusion to the waves of nations, paraphrasing Jesus’ prophecy in Luke
21:25. Moreover, this Latin chronicle’s association of Heraclius with the opening
of the gates of Alexander that held back savages brings together most of the
parts of the Alexander Legend. It is in fact the earliest known association of
Alexander specifically with the wall at Darband (and not the wall at the Darial
pass or another, unspecified place, as in the Alexander Legend). 75 What is
missing in Fredegarius is reference to Gog and Magog. But in his confusion that
chronicle’s author bizarrely thinks that the Hagarene Saracens were admitted by
this gate, not the Türks. This implies that he identified the Arabs as the people of
Gog and Magog, though it is not explicitly stated.
Now, the description of the Hun invaders as waves is not found in the Syriac
Alexander Legend. However, as shown earlier, God is portrayed as saying in the
Qur’an 18:99, “And We shall leave them on that day surging like waves (yamuju)
against each other” when the wall holding back Gog and Magog is demolished.
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