When we read the Quran about Thul Qarnayn we can notice that he is a great man who “conquered the world” we can also add that the name mentioned above was just his surname and not his real name.
However for most of us, he is unknown, that is why each nation says he belongs to us
1-The Europeans say that he is Alexander the Great
2-The Egyptians say that he is Akhenaton
3-The Persians say that he is Cyrus the Great
In this essay, we will focus on all of these three points and then we will discuss the real identity of Thul Qarnayn
The Europeans say that he belongs to them and that he is Alexander the Great, this latter is very known in history. However their theory can be repealed very quickly because Alexander the Great was a pagan who were worshipping the Roman/Greek deities such as Apollon and Zeus and in his last days, he proclaimed that he is a half God. So he can’t be Thul Qarnayn because as the Quran tells us that he was a believer. So it is impossible that Alexander could be Thul Qarnayn.
As for Akhenaton, it is also impossible that he could be Thul Qarnayn because of he changed the religion of the Egyptians into worshipping the Sun God and for whom he built too many temples.
The last and not the least, Cyrus the Great who established the Persian Empire, is our third candidate for being Thul Qarnayn. Unfortunately for some people who think he is the right candidate, he can’t be Thul Qarnayn. As a matter of a fact, the idea of showing him as Thul Qarnayn were the Jews, because he helped them to go back to their state of Israel and to establish it again after being taken as slaves by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. As a result, they sang his praises in their books by showing him a great king and bla bla bla bla , we all know who are the Jews! They are a people of interest “If you give us, we give you back” We can also say that most of the history of Cyrus was written by the Jews.
Now we come to the revelation of real identity of Thul Qarnayn which was already known by the old Muslim historians and we were too blind to see it due to our lack of knowledge.
Thul Qarnayn is a Yemenite king from Himyar called Thamar Ali Yahbor and he was called Thul Qarnayn.
Too many people were wondering about the meaning of the word Thul Qarnayn, some said that he lived for two centuries, other went by saying that he have two horns, however the meaning of name was too simple:
Each Himyarite king had Thu (something) as a surname, for example Thu Nawas, Thu Yazen, Thu Kalil, Thu Sahr... And of course Thu Qarnayn! Coincidence?
We all know that Thul Qarnayn created a dam for Gog & Magog and the Yemenites were experts in making dams!
I give you more: Arabs during that time used poetry to write their own history and that is why we find too many poems made by poets speaking about the greatness of Thul Qarnayn
These verses made by the Himyarites before the coming of Islam describes Thul Qarnayn exactly as the Qur’anic text:
قد كان ذو القرنين جدي مسلما ملكا تدين له الملوك وتحتشد
بلغ المشارق والمغرب يبتغي اسباب امر من حكيم مرشد
فراي مغيب الشمس عند غروبها في عين ذي خلب وثأط حرمد
Too many other jahili (preislamic) Arab poets described the Yamenite king Thul Qarnayn in their poetry among them the biggest Arabic poet Imri’ul Qais
الم يحزنك ان الدهر غول ختور العهد يلتهم الرجالا
ازال عن المصانع ذا رياش وقد ملك السهول والجبالا
همام طحطح الآفاق وجيا وقاد الى مشارقها الرعالا
وسد بحيث ترقى الشمس سدا ليأجوج ومأجوج الجبالا
Other poets talked about Thul Qarnany in their poetry among them the king of the Mundirites of Hira Al Nu’man Ibn Al Munder
فما ملك العراق على المعلي بمقدار ولا الملك الشآم
اسد نشاص ذي القرنين حتى تولى عارض الملك الهمام
Be aware that i only gave you few examples of poems...
And there other poems made by Thul Qarnayn himself where he is speaking about the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
شهدت على أحمد أنه رسول من الله باري النسمْ
فلو مد عمري إلى عمره لكنت وزيرا له وابن عمْ
وجاهدت بالسيف أعداءه وفرجت عن صدره كل غمْ
As for the prophet Muhammed (pbuh) himself, he also talked about this very king without mentioning he is Thul Qarnanyn, he said that he was a believer and that he was the first one made a cover for the Ka’aba.
أخرج أحمد والطبراني وابن أبي حاتم وابن مردويه، عن سهل بن سعد الساعدي رضي الله عنه قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "لا تسبوا تبعا فإنه كان قد أسلم" وقال: هو أول من كسا الكعبة".
وأخرج الحاكم وصححه عن عائشة رضي الله عنها قالت: كان تبع رجلا صالحا، ألا ترى أن الله ذم قومه ولم يذمه.اهـ
Finally, i call you to read the book of ملوك حمير وأقيال اليمن written by a Muslim historian named Nashwan ibn said Al himyari Al yameni (died in 573 Hijri) where he is speaking about Thul Qarnayn and all of the history of Yemen.
And you can download it from here:
http://shamela.ws/index.php/book/763
And Allahu Aâlam.
Research made by Ahmed Gassama!