Part 3
In the previous part, I presented with you some names to identify Surah Kahf’s Zulqarnain. I also discussed with you the very famous name from them means Alexander the Great, could he be Zulqarnain? We discussed the reasons why some believe he is Zulqarnain. And then discussed some arguments in front of you which prove that he is not Zulqarnain.
But apart from this Alexander the Great conquered half the world, the second name is the favorite of most people and maybe he could be Zulqarnain. Two and a half thousand years ago, a Persian passed into the empire, and the great King Cyrus the Great.
To the theory of Cyrus being Zulqarnain, over the past 200 years, there has been a lot of appreciation for this. And the main reason for this was a picture was found.
Cyrus was the king who built the Persian Empire. A great empire that today From Pakistan to Egypt or Libya and then spread to Greece, it was a huge empire. Like the Persian Empire, and in history there is another name Achaemenid Empire.
Never before in history has such a large empire been built.
Cyrus made the capital of this empire to city of Iran Pasargadae and this is the city where a photo was found.
A picture from where many people started to believe Cyrus to be Zulqarnain.
In this picture or as it is called in technical language, Bas-relief. In the picture, Cyrus the Great is wearing a crown with horns on her head.
So, Is Cyrus the King of Iran who was a great king of his time, is he Zulqarnain?
We will discuss this part about it and another very interesting thing with this.
You can guess how much history considers Cyrus the Great to be a great king from his titles. Titles are those names given to any person in history because of his achievements in the world. Do you know how many names were given to him by being inspired by the achievement of Cyrus? They are 10. Now read the titles here.
- King of Anshan
- King of Persia
- King of Media
- King of World
- King of Kings
- Great King
- The Mighty King
- King of Babylon
- King of Samarra and Achaia
- King of the four corners of the world
So, was Cyrus the king of kings, and was Zulqarnain?
There is no doubt that the empire of Cyrus extended from today’s Pakistan to Syria.
And regarding the justice of Cyrus, even his enemies testified that he was a very honorable king, just like Zulqarnain.
Maybe you remember about Bakht Nasar from Babylon.
I told you that after Hazrat Sulaiman (peace be upon him), a king named Bakht Nasr attacked Jerusalem by destroying the Temple of Suleman (Heikal-e-Sulemani) built by Hazrat Suleiman (peace be upon him) and he took almost 70,000 Jews captive with him and take them to Babylon and then it was King Cyrus who gave permission to freed them and sent them back to Jerusalem.
And then he allowed the Jews to build their second temple and also arrange the funds for it.
Based on the victories and justice of Cyrus, a great empire, and in this rock relief Cyrus wears these horns. It seems as if the character of Iran’s King Cyrus is a claimant to be the Zulqarnain mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. That he is a strong contender.
But the really interesting thing is that Cyrus also built the wall.
During the reign of this king of Iran, part of the Persian Empire was in today’s Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan.
Some wild tribes or semi-savage people mixed like Parthians or Scythians live there. (Like Yajooj and Majooj). These people used to attack the nearby areas for looting. So, to protect his people from these attacks, Cyrus built the walls in the mountains of Caucasus which are built to stop the enemy. It was such an action of Cyrus that after that people believed Cyrus to be Zulqarnain and these wild tribes were Yajooj and Majooj.
But I have not yet told you about the horned crown of Cyrus, and I am sure that after knowing this horned story, you will also think that Cyrus is the Zulqarnain of the Holy Quran.
These Horns of Cyrus are made in the relief, it’s like a crown. There is a lot of depth research related to this crown. What could be the reasons behind its wearing? It took me as far as the roots of the ancient Egypt.
Where a famous Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, A replica of this Hemhem crown was carved on Pharaoh’s golden throne.
And writing in the style of Ancient Egypt, we got to know that the name of the crown in Egypt is Atef means crown with 2 horns, and each horn used to be a symbol. One horn is the symbol of truth and the other horn is the symbol of justice
One who wears the horned king’s crown will consider truth and justice as the highest.
One of the biggest reasons is to believe Cyrus to Qur’anic Zulqarnain, On being the King with two horns. A king who also had a huge empire, a king who did justice and loved the truth, A king who built a wall to protect his people from warring tribes.
Regarding Cyrus being Zulqarnain, at first a German
Sir G M Wright presented the theory in 1855. “It seems like Cyrus is Zulqarnain.”
Now in the West, this theory has not gained much popularity, but some Indian and Pakistani scholars accepted it immediately.
Especially Maulana Abul kalam Azad. He emphasized enough on Cyrus being the Zulqarnain. A lot has been written about it.
And then after him, Molana Maududi, Dr Israr Ahmed, Allama Tabatabai, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, Naser Makarem Shirazi.
And big names like the almost-accepted Cyrus as Zulqarnain.
A small stone badly damages the whole theory of Cyrus being Zulqarnain.
Currently in London’s British Museum, Room Fifty-Two, a small stone is kept there, a small artifact, and the identification number is 90920. And in common language, we call it Cyrus Cylinder. Found during excavations in Iran in 1879, a small cylinder, from which we got to know the important thing about Cyrus.
Cyrus appealed to their god Marduk for blessings. He also called himself the priest of Esagila and Ezida Temples.
And this is the temple where fire used to be worshipped.
And then according to an instruction received from Iraq, Cyrus also says that the great gods (Devta) have given all the earth in my hands.
It was Cyrus who had the statue of Marduk repaired and reinstalled in the Temple. It was planted so that they could continue to be worshipped.
This act of Cyrus explains that The Great King Cyrus was a polytheist, which means believing in more than one God.
A person who considers fire as sacred. The Zulqarnain mentioned in the Quran was a Monotheist, who believed in only one God, and this is the reason that before Molana Abul Kalam Azad, none of the classical commentators ever mentioned in their theories Cyrus as a Zulqarnain.
Until now, we have told you about 2 names who were famous that they could be Zulqarnain, Alexander the Great, King of Greece, and Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire, but relatively few people know him. We have told you all the reasons why people believe that one of them can be Zulqarnain.
Then after that, we gave you the arguments that they cannot be Zulqarnain.
But, remember one thing these two names were being famous that they could be Zulqarnain. There is a long list of names About whom it is believed they were Zulqarnain. and from the list, one more name came forward, the name of the Arab’s King.
In this part, we will tell you about this Arab King Sa’b Zul Marasib
Two people who tell his name, itself a big name, Hazrat Wahb bin Munabbih and Ibn Hisham.
Wahb bin Munabbih (r.s) was a taabaieh, which means he received his teachings directly from the Companions.
Ibn Hisham was a great Islamic scholar who passed in the 9th century. He is the same scholar who made (rewritten) Ibn Ishaaq’s Seerah’s book easier.
You remember that Ibn Ishaaq wrote the history’s first Seerah book which we mentioned at the start of this series. And Ibn Hisham’s work considers the level of Imam Tabri’s work. He also presented his account regarding Zulqarnain. We found an interesting book written by him which is about Arab Kings the book’s name is Kitab al-Tijan li marifati muluk al-zaman fi akhbar Qahtan (The Book of Crowns, on the kings of yesteryear in the accounts of the Qahtanites)
Ibn Hisham told this in his book that once upon a time, in a place where there is Yemen today, there used to be an empire, called The Himyarite Kingdom.
A Kingdom that started 2500 years ago, and ended 2100 years ago.
We thought that rather than 2 names, Sa’b Zul Marasib’s name was accounted for if Zulqarnain. Now you will read why we are saying this.
Ibn Hisham said that one of the Yemeni kings passed Sa’b Zul Marasib and that the King could be Zulqarnain because he traveled to Jerusalem and met a person there named Khizer.
Khizer took Sa’b Zul Marasib to the different corners of the world for traveling. And after this journey, the name of the Sa’b Zul Marasib was Zul-Qarnain. But the most important fact of this account is the details of Khizer and Sa’b Zul Marasib’s journey. Which is surprisingly deep.
where it can be found. We got stunning information about it. By tracking that place we reached the same place Diyaar-e-Zulmaat. That place in today’s era is found in Turkey. For example, Khizer took Sa’b to the place whose name is Diyaar-e-Zulmat meaning The Land of Darkness. A place where virtuality is always dark. That place was tracked so we could find the place that Saab Zul Marasib mentioned.
The interesting thing is, once upon a time, the name of this place was called Forest of Abkhazia.
We found this forest name somewhere else too in a book.
The book was written in the 13th century, on a person’s travel memories. Kind of travelogue where he travels. What he saw in his journey. This book was very famous in the 13th century. And later, after inspiration from this book, Christopher Columbus and Marcopolo wrote their travelogue.
But why this book is based on one person? Why I did not tell you the author of this book? Because no one knows who wrote this book. If the author has told anything about himself, he has only told his name, Sir John Mandeville, and was a horseman born in England. But this was a fictitious name. His author didn’t mention his real name anywhere. We know this fact, that throughout the whole book author changes his name and keeps a new one again and again. But one thing is that the places mentioned in the book are 100% real. In this book, we have detailed information about the Forest of Abkhazia. Sir John wrote about Abkhazia the forest located in Turkey, no one goes there out of fear, but the people live nearby, they believe by heart that someone is living there. As per villagers, very horrible human sounds come from this forest. Then after this, Sir John wrote about villagers, they believed the residents of this forest, were a Persian King and his men, who used to persecute Christians. So, they were punished by God. King and his men were imprisoned in a dense forest behind a dark wall. From where no one could go out and no one could go inside.
Now the interesting thing is, that the book “The Syriac Legend” in which mentioned the life events of Alexander the Great. According to the book, this is the same place where information about the existence of water of life (Aab-e-Hayaat) is given.
Is Hazrat Khizr (a.s) take Yemen’s King Saab bin Marasib along with him to Turkey’s dense forest for traveling?
We can’t say anything because after this we couldn’t find any information regarding this. But, Arab’s this King can be Quranic Zulqarnain?
You will get the answer in the next part….
