"The Book of Alexander" in the Turkish-speaking world of West Asia

Abstract

The Oriental world's interest in Alexander the Great and the proclamation of him as a heroic figure has its prerequisites.

The description of the life of Alexander the Great was started by his successors. Subsequently, the artistic and historical image of alexander was touched by many Western and Eastern writers.

A novel was written about Alexander the Great in the first century, which was filled in the third century and spread in this form, first, in the West and then in the peoples of the East. It is noteworthy that the biography of Alexander the Great modified from time to time according to the interests of the upper class in the local country

 The 18th Sura of the Quran is familiar with a prince called Zulkarnain (two-horned), who built a protective wall to hold the people of Yajuji and Majuji. In addition to the fact that Zulkarnain is depicted as a positive person, the commentators of the Qur'an, based on various narratives, equated it with Alexander the Great.

It turns out that the epic ("Iskander-Name") about Alexander the Great is a common cultural heritage.

After the formation of the Ottoman domain in west Asia, a prospect emerged of the formation of Turkish literature, which in terms of Epic was based on the tradition of the classical Persian epic, and the lyric was nurtured by the Arabic-Persian experience. A prominent example of the flow of the Turkish romantic epic is Tajedin Ahmedi's (1334-1413) "Isender-Name" İskender-nâme.

  Ahmedi in his poem explicitly states that the pattern for his poem is the Persian masterpiece of the same name by Nizami Ganjavi. The narrative of Alexander's adventure itself is practically no different from Nizam, although some details leave the impression of a diversification of literary sources.

It can be said that Ahmedi did not take “the life of Alexander the Great" blindly from Nizami Ganjavi but reworked it artistically. The absolute novelty is the narration of the history of Asia Minor by Ahmedi which he inserted in his poem. The history of the Ottoman dynasty is discussed in detail in this section. In the poem he inserted definitions about philosophy, medicine, astronomy, geography, sailing.

Ahmedi's main goal was to show the positive, valid manners of managing the country and public attitudes in this poem, but unlike Nizami Ganjavi Ahmedi avoids putting forth "harmful", severe questions and challenges.