The Syriac Legend of Alexander's Gate Apocalypticism at the Crossroads of Byzantium and Iran

The Syriac text entitled Neshana d-Aleksandros (also known as Syriac Alexander Legend) is a seminal text for late Christian and Muslim apocalyptic traditions. Containing the earliest recorded versions of literary motifs that would become central to the medieval apocalyptic tradition, it represents an early witness to an influential political ideology that guided both Byzantine and early Islamic imperial policies. While the scholarly consensus commonly dates the Neshana to the time of Heraclius (r. 610-641 CE), in this book author Tommaso Tesei argues that an earlier version of the text was produced during the reign of Justinian I (r. 527-565). This new historical contextualization of the text enables us to better delineate the role of the Neshana in the development of late antique, politicized, forms of apocalypticism, which assign to the Christian Roman Empire the task of establishing a cosmocratic rule in view of Jesus' Second Coming.

In analyzing the contents and the ideology of this seminal text, this volume contributes to our understanding of the origins and developments of important literary motifs of Medieval literature worldwide, such as the characterization of Alexander as a pious prophet-king and the story of the gate that he erected to confine the eschatological nations of Gog and Magog. The Syriac Legend of Alexander's Gate sheds light on lesser-known aspects of political debates in the sixth-century Near East and offers historians a valuable insight into important aspects of Justinian's reign.

Tommaso Tesei is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Duke Kunshan University.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One
1. The Text, the Story, and its Sources
2. Debates About Dating and Context of the Neshana d-Aleksandros
3. The 940 AG Prophecy
4. The Story of Alexander's Gate and the Political Context of the Sixth Century
5. The Conflict with Tubarlaq
6. The Syriac Alexander

Part Two
7. Alexander, the Danielic Visions, and the Gate Against Gog and Magog
8. Apocalyptic Ideology
9. Alexander's Horns
10. The Crown, the Throne, and the Last Roman Emperor

Conclusion
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Bibliography
Index