Dhul-Qarnayn: Cyrus the Great?

By Wali Khan

Foreword
The following document is simply theoretical and cannot be proven
completely. However, the information comes from the research of both me and
other scholars, so the claims are not unfounded.

Introduction
"The Quraysh sent An-Nadr bin Al-Harith and `Uqbah bin Abi Mu`it to the
Jewish rabbis in Al-Madinah, and told them: `Ask them (the rabbis) about
Muhammad, and describe him to them, and tell them what he is saying. They are
the people of the first Book, and they have more knowledge of the Prophets than we
do.' So they set out and when they reached Al-Madinah, they asked the Jewish
rabbis about the Messenger of Allah . They described him to them and told them
some of what he had said. They said, `You are the people of the Torah and we have
come to you so that you can tell us about this companion of ours.' They (the rabbis)
said, `Ask him about three things which we will tell you to ask, and if he answers
them then he is a Prophet who has been sent (by Allah); if he does not, then he is
saying things that are not true, in which case how you will deal with him will be up
to you. Ask him about some young men in ancient times, what was their story for
theirs is a strange and wondrous tale. Ask him about a man who travelled a great
deal and reached the east and the west of the earth. What was his story. And ask
him about the Ruh (soul or spirit) -- what is it 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.'” Tafsir Ibn Kathir

In response the second challenge of the Jews, Allah revealed verse 83-98 of
the eightieth chapter of the Quran, Surah Al-Kahf, about the great and mighty king
called Dhul-Qarnayn. The identity of Dhul-Qarnayn has been the topic of discussion
and debate for fourteen centuries, with many believing that this great king was no
other then Alexander the Great. However there are problems with this theory, which
leads to another highly possible candidate, one in my opinion has a higher chance
of being Dhul-Qarnayn then Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great of Persia.

Dhul-Qarnayn
The name itself roughly translates to “one who possess two horns” another
possible translations of the name means “one of two kingdoms”, some possible
explanations to this name have been, that the king had an empire so big that the
sun would be rising in one end of the kingdom and the moon would also be rising at
the other end of his kingdom. Another possible explanation is that the king wore a
helmet that may have had a pair of horns. The king may have also been a king of
two realms which would match the second meaning of the name. Finally it could be
a metaphor for a king with immense wisdom and a passion for justices. In order to
explore the identity of this great person, it is important to know who he was based
on what the Quran says about him. In the Quran 18:83-98 it says,

“They will ask you of Dhul-Qarnayn. Say: ‘I shall recite unto you a remembrance of
him.’ Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways and the
means to all ends. And he followed a road, until when he reached the setting-place
of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout.
We said: ‘O Dhul-Qarnayn! Either punish or show them kindness.’ He said: ‘As for
him who doeth wrong, we shall punish him, and then he will be brought back unto
his Lord, Who will punish him with awful punishment! But as for him who believeth
and doeth right, good will be his reward, and We shall speak unto him a mild
command.’ Then he followed another road until when he reached the rising-place of
the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter from
the sun. He left them as they were: We completely understood what was before
him. Then he followed another road, until he reached a pass between two
mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who scarcely understood a word he
said. They said, ‘O Dhul-Qarnayn, indeed Gog and Magog do great mischief in the
land. So may we pay you a tribute so that you might make between us and them a
barrier?’ He said: ‘That in which my Lord has established me is better, therefore you
only help me with workers, I will make a fortified barrier between you and them,
bring me sheets of iron’ - until, when he had leveled them between the two
mountain walls, he said, "Blow [with bellows]," until when he had made it like fire,
he said, ‘Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten metal.’ So Gog and Magog were
unable to pass over it, nor were they able [to effect] in it any penetration. He (Dhul-
Qarnayn) said:’ This is a mercy from my Lord, but when the promise of my Lord
comes to pass He will make it level with the ground, and the promise of my Lord is
ever true.’”

From these verses of the Quran we can say this much about Dhul-Qarnayn:
he was a just and fair king whom Allah favored, he expanded his empire in three
cardinal directions (north, east, and west), and finally that he created a wall to
protect a weak tribe or people from the armies of Gog and Magog. Traditionally
many thought that Dhul-Qarnayn was the great Greek conqueror, Alexander the
Great. Alexander was a great conqueror whose territory included the Balkans,
Anatolia, Greater Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt, and parts of India. However, using both
religious and historical evidence, the likelihood of him being the great king
mentioned in the Quran is slim at best. First I will explore why Alexander is not a
likely candidate, and then I will present the candidate who, in my opinion, is more
likely to be Dhul-Qarnayn.
Why Alexander fails the Dhul-Qarnayn test
The first reason is that Alexander was a confirmed polytheist who worshiped
various Greek gods and built temples in their honor. He tried to parallel the Greek
gods and the Egyptian gods and claim lineage from them. The sin Allah hates most
and the one He will not tolerate is worshiping another god or associating someone
with Him. The second reason is that it is a high possibility that Alexander was
bisexual (as were many Greeks of his time where it was quite common), who may
have had relations with his close friend Hephaistion. The third reason was that Dhul-
Qarnayn expanded his empire to the north, west, and east, but not to the south.
Alexander on the other hand continuously expanded his empire to the south as the
map below shows.

Finally the last reason is that there are similar stories in the collection of stories
attributed to Alexander the Great, called the Alexander Romance. These stories
were readily available throughout the world and many of them false. If Dhul-
Qarnayn was indeed Alexander, it would be easy to say that the Quran copied from
another source, furthermore since many of the stories in this collection are false,
the Quran would also be false if it indeed copied from these stories. So with
Alexander out of the race, who is the most likely candidate to be Dhul-Qarnayn? I
would now like to introduce to you the most likely candidate in the opinion of Abul
Ala Maududi, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, and many other including
myself, the great Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great.

Who was Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia. He was
a tolerant and generous king, and an extremely effective ruler, whose rule was
marked by a period of enormous territorial gain and prosperity. He is known for
freeing the Jews of their captivity in Babylon and even paid to have their temple
restored, which earned him the title of “messiah,” being the only Gentile to be given
this honor. He was also the first Zoroastrian king of Persia, which could have
originally been a purely monotheistic religion from Allah, which I will explain later.

Why Cyrus?
The first reason why I believe that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great is
because of what the Bible says about him. In Isaiah 44:28 it say, “That said of
Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to
Jerusalem, You shall be built; and to the temple, Your foundation shall be laid.” In
the following chapter it goes on to call him “messiah”, which means the anointed
one, “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held,
to subdue nations before him; and I will loosen the loins of kings, to open before him
the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” Isaiah 45:1. From these
verses it is clear that Cyrus is a great man of character and is favored by God, and
is the only non-Jew to be called messiah. Finally the book of Daniel 8:22 it says,
“The ram which you saw having two horns is the king of Media and Persia.”
Remember the second translation of the name Dhu-Qarnayn? It meant “possessor
of two kingdoms and historically Cyrus was the king of Persia and Media. The most
interesting thing about this verse is that in the Arabic Bible it actually calls this
king/ram Dhul-Qarnayn!

The second reason is that unlike Alexander who constantly expanded to

south, Cyrus never expanded to the south, instead he expanded in the directions
that Dhul-Qarnayn did, north, west, and east. The Achaemenid Empire only
expanded to the south after the death of Cyrus as demonstrated on the maps
below.
 The third reason would be the actual geographical directions Cyrus took in his
conquests. In the Surah mentioned above it first talks about Dhul-Qarnayn’s travels
to the west. It says, “And he followed a road, until when he reached the setting-
place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people
thereabout. We said: ‘O Dhul-Qarnayn! Either punish or show them kindness.’ He
said: ‘As for him who doeth wrong, we shall punish him, and then he will be brought
back unto his Lord, Who will punish him with awful punishment! But as for him who
believeth and doeth right, good will be his reward, and We shall speak unto him a
mild command.” These verses clearly indicate that Dhul-Qarnayn travelled to the
west and came to a place of a large body of water, and there are several
possibilities all of which can correlate with Cyrus. The first suggestions are either
Lake Van, Lake Urmia, or the Black Sea all of which were conquered from the
Median Empire. The Median Empire at that time was ruled by Cyrus’ grandfather,
who tried to kill him as a child. Still it is said Cyrus pardoned him and his subjects
and treated them well.

The next possible location would be the Aegean Sea, which was taken from
the empire of Lydia. The Lydians declared war on Cyrus after he defeated his
grandfather. It took a lot of effort but in the end Cyrus and his armies defeated
Lydia and conquered it.

The final possibilities would be either the Persian Gulf, Red Sea,
Mediterranean Sea, or the Marshes of Iraq, all of which would have come from the
Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Neo-Babylonians were the people who had destroyed
Jerusalem’s temple and sent the Jews into exile. When Cyrus conquered them he
allowed the Jews to go home.

During all of his conquests in the west, Cyrus was said to be just, merciful,
and kind to his conquered subjects, which would correspond with what Dhul-
Qarnayn said when Allah gave him the authority to do with as he willed on the
people, “We said: ‘O Dhul-Qarnayn! Either punish or show them kindness.’ He said:
‘As for him who doeth wrong, we shall punish him, and then he will be brought back
unto his Lord, Who will punish him with awful punishment! But as for him who
believeth and doeth right, good will be his reward, and We shall speak unto him a
mild command.’”

In regard to Dhul-Qarnayn’s travels to the east it says, “Then he followed

another road until when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on
a people for whom We had appointed no shelter from the sun. He left them as they
were: We completely understood what was before him.” Modern Iran and Pakistan
share a border which has always been sparsely populated, mostly by desert
nomads. It would have been in the best interest of any ruler of the area to leave
these tribes alone. That is what both Cyrus and Dhul-Qarnayn did both, which would
be an evidence that they were one and the same.

The next point concern’s the Wall of Dhul-Qarnayn which is mentioned in his
travels to the north, “Then he followed another road, until he reached a pass
between two mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who scarcely
understood a word he said. They said, ‘O Dhul-Qarnayn, indeed Gog and Magog do
great mischief in the land. So may we pay you a tribute so that you might make
between us and them a barrier?’ He said: ‘That in which my Lord has established
me is better, therefore you only help me with workers, I will make a fortified barrier
between you and them, bring me sheets of iron’ - until, when he had leveled them
between the two mountain walls, he said, "Blow [with bellows]," until when he had
made it like fire, he said, ‘Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten metal.’ So Gog
and Magog were unable to pass over it, nor were they able [to effect] in it any
penetration. “

Alexander’s Gates which are today found in the city of Derbent in Russia are
thought by many to be the Wall of Dhul-Qarnayn. Though tradition says Alexander
built it modern science and archeology tells that is false, it was built by the
Sassanian Empire of Persia which fell a few years after the death of our beloved
Prophet (SAW). However, it is highly possible that Cyrus built it first but it was
simply rebuilt by the Sassanians. This is how the Great Wall of China was built, by
linking several already existent walls. Also Alexander himself never went that far
north, so the encounter with the people who did not understand him could not have
happened. I should also mention that Cyrus never conquered the area and in my
opinion I don’t think he had any intention to. The area is in the Caucus Mountain
Range. It is lightly populated and mountainous, it would not have been
advantageous for Cyrus to invade this area, but it would have made sense that he
would seek a tribute from these people. Remember that Dhul-Qarnayn was offered
a tribute in exchange for his protection, which he waived. During this time the
Scythian and Messagate tribes were nomadic tribes that were famous for raiding
and plundering their neighbors, which included both the people of the Caucus and
Cyrus’s Persia. They were seen as the Gog and Magog of their day, some even
saying they were decedents of those two groups. It would have made sense that if
Cyrus was Dhul-Qarnayn that he would have such a wall built to first protect these
tributary people in the mountains from their raids and to keep these raiders from
invading Persia from the Caucus passes.

Another point is that on many of the reliefs of Cyrus it depicts him with what
looks like a pair of antlers, which could help explain the name Dhul-Qarnayn as the
image below shows.
 The last reason is completely speculative but it may be the most important,
but in order to explain it I must briefly touch upon the religion of Zoroastrianism.
Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion that was begun by a Persian man, named
Zoroaster who taught there are two gods fighting for your soul. Those who follow
the god of good and truth called Ahura Mazda will receive a paradise in the next
world, while those who follow Angra Mainyu, shall be burned in a pit of fire. This
concept of is very similar to what all our prophets said, that those who follow Allah
will receive Heaven and those who follow Shaytan will burn in hell. In my humble
opinion I believe Zoroaster may have been a Prophet of Allah, and the idea is not a
very farfetched one since Allah says in the Quran, “And certainly We raised in every
nation a messenger saying: Serve Allah and shun the Shaitan. So there were some
of them whom Allah guided and there were others against whom error was due;
therefore travel in the land, then see what was the end of the rejecters. “ 16:36.

Another evidence that may indicate that Zoroaster may have been a prophet
of Allah is this following hadith.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Jafar ibn Muhammad ibn Ali from his
father that Umar ibn al-Khattab mentioned the Zoroastrians and said, "I do not
know what to do about them." Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf said, "I bear witness that I
heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say,
'Follow the same sunnah with them that you follow with the people of the Book . ' “
–Muwatta of Imam Malik Book 17, Number 17.24.43

I believe that if Zoroaster was indeed a true Prophet of Allah then he was
preaching the same message as all of the Prophet, the message of Tawhid, the
Oneness of Allah, but like so many Prophets before him, his message was changed
and corrupted, with Azubillah Shaytan being called a god and other gods being later
added. For the sake of theory let us assume that Zoroaster was a Prophet of Allah.
Remember Cyrus was an early Zoroastrian and the first Zoroastrian king of Persia,
this might mean that he was a monotheist. Allah makes it clear many times in the
Quran that the polytheists are cursed, so He would not be pleased with them. If my
theory proves to be correct then as an early Zoroastrian monotheist Allah would
have indeed blessed him.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe Cyrus the Great has a higher chance of being Dhul-
Qarnayn then Alexander the Great. If this article has interested you then Allah credit
is due to Allah, only the mistakes are mine.