Why Alexander Was Great

I know that there will be readers of this article who will disagree with the spirit of the subject, and my opinion of the greatness of a man, and in that spirit I welcome disagreement. That's what debate and discussion is all about, a healthy give and take of ideas and thoughts which help us all to compare and learn. This is my take on a man who lived long ago in the past that many see as only a ruthless conqueror. Historians commonly referred to him as 'The Great' but many see his legacy as ruthless, one sided and bigoted. I thought that too. However, after much study and careful evaluation of the times and habits in which he lived, I would explain why I think the title was deserved. This is about an ancient Macedonian king named Alexander and why history has conferred upon his memory the title of 'The Great'.

Most of us living in today's age know and understand that the idea of a military conqueror, whom we sometimes label as genius, is not an occupation or career that lauds itself as lofty any more. The modern world and the global cyber village has brought people together in an unprecedented way. Now that we are in touch with each other we thereby become more intimate and educated, and in many ways more similar to each other than we have ever been in the past. We look back at ancient history and question the actions of those who lived before us. For centuries, men who set out to fight, conquer and rule other lands were considered heroes to emulate. Few if us would attempt to do that today, nor would we unanimously support anyone who seeks to imitate a warrior king from the 12th century AD or 500 BC. The events of the past have, for the most part, become the stuff of legends and stories, and occasionally make a poor to fair subject for a Hollywood film that doesn't do all that well at the box office. In short, not many of us really care about the swashbucklers of history, simply because they are obsolete and so far away from our own modern reality. What they held as important and virtuous may no longer seem so to us living in the current era. They rest in peace, their stories enshrined in books in libraries all over the world, and many people don't think much of them at all.

However the study of history remains an important topic for scholars, politicians and leaders. They must study the past to understand the present so they can plan for tomorrow. In essence, we all should know something of the past so we too can see where we as a race or individually as a nation are going to. A historian therefore cannot simply read about a life that made a mark on history and then throw that person's memory in the gutter of forgetfulness because that person did not have access to a computer or a jet plane. The reason we study such a person is that he or she made an impact that affected us in some way or another, and in many cases still do. Our 'todays' are affected by our yesterdays, and tomorrow will come about because of how we think and act today, and so on and so forth for all time. That is all part of the historian's task of analyzing the record of Man's progress through the ages.

All of the great kings and queens, princes and warriors, scholars and scientists, alchemists and prophets, saints and sinners, philosophers and inventors that we study in our classrooms and libraries lived long before we do. Their times were different. Therefore the desires and expectations of the people of their era vastly differ from our own. So to study a notable person of the past and make a fair assessment, one must take into account their situation and social climate. As we know, civilization is not old. We have been living in cities for only about 6,000 years, while we have been around much longer. The road to becoming civilized has taken a while to perfect that sense of civilization, and we are not totally there yet. The challenges to our desire in making the world a better place for all are still numerous. It is an ongoing project and struggle that may never end. Perhaps it is good that it doesn't, or we may retire into a permanent tyranny, accepted by all as 'good enough' and final, a utopian dream gone awry. No, we must dream and ponder, think and wonder, encourage and exhort to truth and betterment. It is the way of the human being, an innate desire to go forth and up rather than descend into a downward spiral of chaos.

When Alexander was young he learned all about war from his Macedonian father and the mysteries of the cosmos and spirituality from his mother, Olympias. She was of the Molossian tribe,  perhaps originally an Illyrian people who became Hellenized due to proximity to the Greeks and political necessity. These were a race of stalwart mountaineers who lived to the west of Macedonia in the land called Illyria, in what modern day Albania. Alexander's mother instilled in him the fact of his ancestry; that his bloodline included Achilles, the hero who fought at Troy, and went back all the way to Dardanus and the half mortals who lived and fought for control of the world with giants at the beginning of time. Achilles, hero of Troy, if you recall was dipped into the river Styx, his mother holding him by the heel. The baptism into the holy water ensured that no sword could harm him. This river, the modern Vijose found in southern Albania today, ran through the very heart of Molossia. True to the Balkan folk mentality that all endeavors of men are faulty and prone to fail, Achilles is killed by a poisoned arrow shot in his heel. Such stories are recited by Homeric bards and by his mother to the young Alexander, thus shaping his soul and placing a yearning for adventure in his heart for the future.

Before we go on, I would bring to the reader's attention to a little known fact. In the Quran, in Surah Kahf, there are a collection of stories or parables. The name Kahf, which means cave refers to the story of the Seven Sleepers, an old tale from early Christianity. In this surah is also found the story of one Zul Qarnain, the 'two horned king', and the Quran says that God gave him his power and wisdom. Scholars argue who is represented by this Zul Qarnain, as some believe him to be Cyrus the Great of Persia. But A. Yusuf Ali , in his translation of the Quran, says that Zul Qarnain is none other than Alexander. Ancient Balkan chieftains did wear two goat horns on their helmets. But more about that later.

He goes on campaigns with his father, Phillip the King. First the Macedonians go against the Thracians to the east. Phillip is the victor, and Alexander watches as the Macedonian soldiers are ordered by Phillip to massacre the Thracians to a man. Phillip then receives word of trouble in Illyria. He gives Alexander a command to quell the uprising and punish the offenders. This is his first campaign. The Illyrians are sturdy and hardy fighters, and Phillip makes no qualms about ridiculing the people of his wife's blood line. In a battle against the ferocious Dardani, Phillip once lost an eye to an Illyrian spear. He swore vengeance by declaring that he would massacre all the rebels he found who would dare to rise against him. The king was especially vengeful with the Illyrians because they were the people of his wife's bloodline. She was an unruly but independent woman who never cooperated in accepting any abuse lightly from her husband, who often came home drunk from too much wine consumption. This war would be somewhat personal. The Molossian she-wolf, as Phillip called her, always resented the manner in which she became his wife. Her given name in her language was Myrtale and Phillip literally won her in a horse race, changing her name to Olympias. You see, mother and father fought each other for Alexander's love and devotion, and the boy was confused since childhood about the strange relationship between Phillip and his wife. The fiery mother fought and refused to submit to the whims and desires of a hard drinking and abusive husband. Alexander saw, long before taking part in any battle, a war on the home front in the confines of his very home.

So Alexander goes west and does battle with the Illyrians. After a hard fought struggle, the Macedonians are victorious. The Illyrians are taken prisoner and they know their abysmal fate, accepted and expected in the Balkan and Greek world. The victor of the struggle has earned the right to confiscate their lands and destroy their crops. Women and children are taken as slaves after being forced to watch as the imprisoned men folk are systematically slaughtered. This was the style of warfare at the time, without any thoughts for a prisoner's rights or displays of mercy to the vanquished. The ancient world was a brutal one indeed.

Yet Alexander shocks his soldiers and his contemporaries. He punishes only the chiefs who led the others to revolt. He does not order the women into slavery, but salutes them as the mothers of brave fighters and heros. Nor does he call for the destruction of crops and homes. He invites the Illyrians to join him, to join a larger Macedonian confederation where all can benefit from each other. Amazed at this display of noble character, the Illyrian tribes all agree and make a truce, then vow to defend Alexander and fight for Phillip and Macedonia. In one stroke Alexander doubled the size of his realm, made an alliance with a once dangerous enemy, brought about peace and increased the size of the army with with the addition of some rather highly regarded ferocious fighters.

Everyone hailed Alexander as a great conqueror and leader. Everyone, that is, except Phillip. In one household argument Olympias does not fail to inform Phillip that the son accomplished what the father could not do in years. Jealousy starts to take root as a mother turns a son against his father. Phillip sees this as her vengeance against his abuse, and Molossian vengeance was legendary. From now on, Alexander would be her sword against Phillip's cruelty.

At a feast, Phillip brags about how his newly united Macedonian confederation, a new power in the Hellenic world, brought together by the personality and clever diplomacy of Alexander, will soon be ready to conquer all of Greece and then march into Asia. However in the course of the evening he insults Olympias time and again, ridiculing her in front of the guests. An angry Alexander publicly orders him to stop. Resentful of the lad who is slowly replacing the king in popularity, Phillip rises from his couch in a drunken madness to beat Alexander, all the while cursing him as the "son of a goat herding Molossian whore", but stumbles upon the floor in a stupor, spilling his wine. "Look" cries Alexander, "see the man who would cross from Europe into Asia. He cannot even cross the floor of his own home." Case closed. Phillip eventually goes into obscurity and unpopularity, drinks himself to death, and Alexander is accepted as the new king of Macedonia, though there are those still loyal to Phillip who would have the young king killed. He is instructed by Olympias, who advises him at every turn. "The world is yours Alexander, take it" advises his mother. "Fortune favors the bold. Be as the wolf stalking it's prey, not like the sheep who awaits a humiliating death by the fangs of the ravenous beast". He follows her advice and continues on the path of political intrigue. He has no choice in the matter. Even if he were to refuse the life of a king, he would still be murdered by rivals. This is a kill or be killed situation and it's too late for considering the life of a hermit or a philosopher. Alexander's rivals are all done away with, one by one, and the hand of the Molossian tigress assists too willingly in this bloodletting. The wolf has returned from a successful hunt, now the sole power and ruler of Macedonia.

Alexander sets forth and first conquers the city states of Greece. As a student of the great Aristotle, he looks upon the world in a Hellenic mindset. Other nations may be cultured and refined, Aristotle taught, but it is the Greeks and the related Europeans who are the people who hold to the noble and stoic ethics and principles that set them apart from the rest of the world. Unlike the nations of the east who place their gods before all else, the Greeks valued the worth of individual. The life of the mind must be made strong with the encouragement of the physical body, so that all challenges can be met and dealt with. Simple food and temperance, coupled with exercise and a strong work ethic produce the superior man who's destiny is to lead the world. The accoutrements of eastern society made men soft and weak. Thus Aristotle, to his discredit, makes the claim that the darker skinned races are the natural servants of the lighter skinned ones. The brilliant philosopher who later would inspire thought for a myriad number of civilizations also inspires, willingly or unwillingly, the plague of racism.

Alexander studied under Aristotle and inquisitively questioned the old man's theories, so much that the philosopher told him to trust his own mind and heart to come to his own conclusions. In setting out to bring glory to Macedonia, he went with the Aristotelian idea that somehow his people were greater than the others. The independence and individuality that was the trademark of the Greeks and the independent minded mountain peoples of the Balkans was something that should be available for all people. So, in Alexander's mind, he set out not to conquer, but to rebuild the world at large. With the bloodline of Achilles and Hercules in his veins, Zeus would guide him at every turn and grant him the power to rule over all men.

His will and power of command is the stuff of legends. He calmed and trained the wild stallion Bucephalus, who he rides into battle again and again. When confronted with the complicated tied knot of rope known as the 'Gordion Knot' he and his companions are asked to unravel it. He who succeeds in unraveling the knot will conquer the world. While his comrades struggle for hours, Alexander studies the knot and then takes out his sword from the scabbard and hacks the knot in one blow. His military prowess is also legendary, but unlike legends and tales his exploits are confirmed by history. At the battle of Gaugamela he defeated a force many times numerically superior, led personally by the Persian king Darius himself, displaying tactics that are still studied in military academies throughout the world. He pursued the defeated king, only to find him murdered by his own bodyguards. Disgusted at the intrigue and murder he himself had to face in his own kingdom, he executed the bodyguards responsible for the death of his enemy. Like in his earlier Illyrian campaign, he did not massacre the surviving troops of the Persian army. He was impressed with the bravery of the battalion known as the Immortals, most of whom were Medes, the ancestors of today's Kurds. He invites them to join his army and be part of his endeavor. They readily joined him, acknowledging that he was very different from any other king they had ever served. To the Persian subjects, Alexander was a wise, just and a brilliant leader, so unlike the tyrants they were used to. They thought of him as a just ruler, inspired as he was by their own legendary king of their own glory days, Cyrus the Great. 

This does not mean that Alexander was a kindly, saintly man. Quite the contrary. His army laid siege to Tyre, a rich Phoenecian city in today's Lebanon. The city resisted bravely, repulsing attack after attack. Tyre was built on an island, so Alexander constructed a causeway from the mainland that can still be seen today. The walls were finally breached and the city was put to the torch, it's inhabitants killed or taken as slaves. He then marches to Egypt and builds a city in his own honor: Alexandria. He announces to the Egyptian priests that he is one with both Zeus and Ra, and prays in their temples. His own soldiers and the Egyptians are astonished at this display of pantheistic oneness. On the one hand Alexander is seen as self indulgent for sure, but on another he is setting a stone in an ancient universal house of spiritual oneness between all beings. Later on in his career he drank heavily, like his father before him, and in his drunken bouts displayed a temper that sometimes turned violent. To his soldiers, knowing that their king could have them put to death, a right of all ancient kings, Alexander was seen as fair and just. He could even listen to criticism from his subordinates, and would actually thank them for their honesty. Few kings in ancient times would stoop so low. 

Turning east, he marches into Babylon, then central Persia, then on to Ariana (Afghanistan) Bactria and central Asia. He fights, he conquers, he invites his former enemies to join his cause, then moves on, seeking and wondering what lies just over the next mountain or desert. His curiosity is never satisfied as he is amazed at the variety of languages, religions and cultures he discovers, the different people and races that inhabit the Earth, their customs, their foods, the melodies and songs they sing, the animals they domesticate or hunt in the wild. Slowly, he is making up his mind about the nature of Man in relation to the cosmos and to one another. Alexander is transforming. One day he does something unprecedented, an act that displays the heart and mind of a thinking human on a quest for personal development and betterment. He marries Roxelana, daughter of the Persian royal house. This act was unthinkable, that a king of Macedon would marry a woman of Asia. After all, he was raised on the tales and legends of his royal birth and high ancestry that went back to the very beings who were half gods themselves. Then, astonishing his subordinates, he orders 300 of his officers to marry foreign born women, so as to mix the races. His reason? Alexander comes to the conclusion that all peoples, regardless of their ethnicity or origin experience the same fears and joys, display the same bravery or cowardice, undergo the same sufferings, trials and tribulations, foster the good ethics and principles or create evil, mischief and intrigue that affect everyone the same. All peoples can possess virtue, and all peoples can abandon these virtues at any time due to their situation or the events that shape their lives. The idea of tribalism is, to the expansive mind of Alexander, primitive and divisive. Humanity is one family and must be one. There is no superiority of any race over another, all human beings are the same. In one bold stroke, Alexander proves Aristotle the great philosopher wrong.

Great men dream great ideas, but not all men share these dreams. Nor is the world necessarily eager to live Alexander's version of utopia either. He marches on to the Himalayas to see the roof of the world, then down into India, where he crosses the Indus river. There, in India, he finds another fascinating culture that is totally alien to his own. And there, on the banks of the Indus, he is about to meet an army that will prove his theory that all men indeed can be brave and virtuous, possessing the ability to display eager willingness to die for their king, their country and their gods. In a battle with King Porus, Alexander fights his most difficult battle. Thousands of warriors of Hindustan rush out to meet the army of the Macedonian conqueror and throw themselves at the invader with determined vigor. Alexander's self indulgent proclamation of his near prophethood, claiming to be the son of Zeus the protector, is bested by the sheer willingness of the soldiers of India who sacrifice themselves and die near gleefully for their warrior goddesses, the many sword-armed Durga and the terrible Kali. Armored elephants with archers placed in towers on their backs rain arrows and spears down upon the ranks of the Macedonian phalanxes while sharp blades attached to their trunks sweep to and fro cutting down whole lines of men like wheat cut at the harvest. The warriors of Hindustan are cut down as well as they charge wildly into the solid squares of the Macedonian phalanxes, but for every hundred dispatched another thousand seem to take their places. The battle is a long and bloody one, and Alexander himself is nearly killed, his beloved horse Bucephalus shot with arrows from under him. Many of his close companions, generals and well regarded heroes who followed him all these many years through the mountains, deserts and valleys of Asia, some of whom he knew since childhood, are lost in this culmination of battles. This is no great decisive victory here on the banks of the Indus, but rather the struggle ends in a draw. After hearing the pleas of his men, who have been away from their families and homelands far too long, Alexander agrees that the time has come, and decides to return home to Macedonia.

He falls sick after they reach Babylon, exhausted by his continued efforts and marches. He lived with his men and ate with them, fought alongside them and comforted them, and they in turn loved him, the Macedonian, Illyrian and Greek soldiers as well as the various foreign born soldiers of Persia and Kurdistan who joined him in his bid to rebuild the world. He abstained from drink while young, but like his father took up the cup later, and perhaps drank to ease the personal pain he felt growing up in an abusive household and a chaotic political scene. We will never know for sure, but he died in Babylon naming no successor. Naturally, there were squabbles and feuds about control and an heir and Alexander's empire soon fell into shambles. This is why some are considered great, because only they have the ability to bring about certain greatness. Perhaps it's destiny or fate, which seems to outdo and outlast all the best laid plans of men. Even virtue and the nobility of character that Aristotle valued and held in high esteem are subject to the force of destiny and the hand of fate. "We are but a spark that leaps from a burning ember", Alexander said. "We ignite and light up the night but for only a short while. Then we are silenced, forever."

Alexander's vision did come to pass, though. In essence, he did rebuild the known world. His influence opened up what would become known as the Silk Road, a series of trading cities that were linked together by caravan routes and ran from China to the Mediterranean. Ideas and goods went back and forth over the roads and pathways that followed his quest across Asia. Cultures and cities became linked, and Europe was, for the first time, seeing the greatness of Asia's influence over it's own, introverted and self aggrandizing culture. Greek thought and virtue was compared to Asian metaphysical spirituality, as Buddhist texts were written in Greek and Persian Zoroastrian religion influenced Semitic monotheistic thought in the Near East. Styles in music and art were synthesized, and one can see the Hellenic influence in northern Indian sculpture. In time, the Aramaic language of the fertile crescent would become the language of commerce that could be understood from modern day Lebanon to Turfan in western China. With the advent of Christianity, itself highly influenced by the confluence of Greek and Buddhist thought and culture, Aramaic would be the language of near eastern intellectual pursuit and religion alongside Greek, in which language the first Bible was written. Eastern Christianity would see a tradition of sages teaching and working in centers of high education in the centuries before the rise of Islam. From the adobe-like retreats found along the upper Nile in Egypt and the rock hewn churches of Abyssinia, to the mountain and desert dwelling cave-monks of Syria and Lebanon, those codifiers of the spiritual experience between man and God, across the high plateau of Armenia into central Asia and northern China, eastern Christianity would experience a golden age of it's own, connected with ideas and dogmas via the Silk Road, while Charlemagne struggled to convert the pagan peoples of Europe without the benefit of such an enlightened and erudite clergy. Crafts such as silk production would make it's way from China to the west, along with fruits such as peaches and vegetables such as spinach, that most famous of all grains, rice, which would feed multitudes as well as the wheat food known as noodles. The yearning for spices became a profitable business that would prompt the later Europeans to an age of discovery, and send Columbus, Magellan and a multitude of other hardy and risk taking explorers to seek new routes to Asia and China via the sea. Before the rise of Europe, this Silk Road route would be the path for which empires and civilizations would rise and fall. Marco Polo would travel this route to China. The Arab empires of the Umayyads and Abbaasids, the Fatimids of Egypt, The Idrissids of the Maghreb, the Seljuks, Kwarizmites and the Il Khans of Anatolia and Central Asia, nearly all the dynasties of eastern Islam would be built and would thrive upon that which Alexander started. Slaves were a commodity too which would have an affect on history due to this route. The Mamluk dynasty of Egypt was made up of Turkish slaves captured in war, brought to the Middle East via the Silk Road. In part as a reaction to the the slave taking of the Mongol and Tatar peoples by the Arabs and Persians, along this route would travel the hordes of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, who would level the great cities and centers of culture in an attempt to revert the works of man back to the simpleness of the steppe. But the civilization they came to destroy would in turn and in time civilize them, and they too would learn, like Alexander, the refinement of culture and education. It would be the route which ideas and goods would flow into Europe and eventually inspire a Renaissance. Aristotle would unknowingly be part of the route too. It was Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, one of the great scholars of Islamic civilization in the middle ages, who's works were read by Latin speaking monks in Spain and Italy who thus learned all about Aristotelian philosophy. Aristotle would become influential in Judaic, Christian and Islamic thought, so much so that some scholars question whether the commentary and documented studies created by the scholars of these faiths are more Aristotle than Moses, Jesus or Mohammad.

Alexander figures highly in Arab Christian folklore and, if he is indeed the figure Zul Qarnain in the Quran, then he figures into the Islamic tradition as well, this character likely taken from eastern Christian sources. The Arabs, when setting out to conquer Persia in the 7th century invoked the memory of Alexander, the conqueror of Persia, as they saw themselves following in his footsteps. They saw the Persian king as a tyrant who oppressed his people, and they were committed to liberating the masses from this evil. The Moghul conquerors of India thought of themselves in a similar light, continuing the march of Alexander into the heathen lands of the polytheistic Hindus. Mankind has proven that even plunder can be legitimized by virtue and the so called nobility of a cause. Certainly people suffer, and many more are eventually oppressed. But the idea and imagination that sparks such endeavor inspires even those who are oppressed by it, and they react and respond by repeating and emboldening the idea that lies in the spirit. It takes on new life and transforms in to something else, but is inspired by the person who made it manifest. We humans are, by exception, a strange lot.

In the Quran, in Surah Kahf, the story of Zul Qarnain unfolds as the 'two horned king' coming upon a people who lived near where the Sun sets in a pool of murky water:

Quran, surah 18:86...
Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: near it he found a people: We said: "O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority), either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness."

The 'murky water' is in the west of where Zul Qarnain lives, as described in the 'setting Sun'. According to A. Yusuf Ali in his translation of the Quran into English with copious footnotes, it is Lake Ohrid, on the border between Macedonia and Albania. The water of the Drin river is fed by springs, and the lake and river seemingly are of different hues of color as they do not blend though the river flows out of the lake. The people who live there on the shores of this lake and in the mountains beyond are described as a troublesome lot, and Zul Qarnain goes on to fight and subdue them. 

Surah 18:87...
He said: "Whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then shall he be sent back to his Lord; and He will punish him with a punishment unheard-of (before).

He then forgives their mischief and shows mercy and wisdom, a teaching lesson in spirituality explained by his actions as a leader.

Surah 18:88...
"But whoever believes, and works righteousness, he shall have a goodly reward, and easy will be his task as we order it by our command."

This story has been verified in history by Alexander's earliest campaign, against the troublesome Illyrian tribes whom he subdued then incorporated into his military forces.

Zul Qarnain comes upon another people, the surah says, a simple and peaceful people who's language is unintelligible. He builds a wall between two mountains to keep the out invaders, the people of Gog and Magog. It is said that in time, the barrier will fall into ruin and the people of Gog and Magog will break through. Then the world will be in turmoil. Throughout this surah in the Quran this Zul Qarnain is given power and authority by God. Was Zul Qarnain none other than Alexander, who told the people of Egypt that he was one with both Zeus and Ra?

Alexander's legacy is still with us. This man was a product of his times and his surroundings, as are we all. He had his faults, but also the wisdom to grow and forgive both his enemies and himself for the sins of the past. We condemn him for his massacres and his brutality, but we must also salute him for his stance and convictions, which at times were his alone and needed some self produced moral inspiration and certitude to stand by these convictions. He crowned himself as a son of Zeus, but in Zeus' name attempted to bring about order to a chaotic world. He studied, sat and listened to Zoroastrian and Hindu priests, Buddhist monks, Turkic shamans, Jewish sages and Egyptian soothsayers, as his interest in the occult and the metaphysical sparked by his mysterious snake handling mother always remained with him. Rather than proclaim one religion as superior to all others, instead he sought the wisdom of the educated and the elect, studying the the religious texts of the world and spending time in devotion by himself so as to learn about the nature of the cosmos and the reasons for man's existence. He loved and respected Aristotle, but had the audacity and the bravery to prove his racist views wrong. Does that make Alexander, like Cyrus, one of the world's early humanists? That is something for debate. But one thing is for sure. Alexander certainly achieved far more then he ever dreamed of, and was one of those few in history who saw the accomplishment and fulfillment of his dreams.  Later civilizations and those of us living in the present are all the beneficiaries; intellectually, culturally and spiritually. Therefore, he was not just Alexander. He remains Alexander, the Great.