Alexander in the City of the Excellent: A Persian Tradition of Utopia

Author(s): Cyrus Masroori

Source: Utopian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2013), pp. 52-65
Published by: Penn State University Press
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 Alexander in the City of the Excellent: A Persian
Tradition of Utopia

Cyrus Masroori

abstract
Persian, one of the most potent languages when it comes to imagery and fiction, offers
a utopian tradition in which Alexander of Macedonia is presented as the hero of
the story. Identifying Alexander with a Quranic figure and associating him with an
Islamic sage, this tradition circumvented the negative conception associated with
Alexander as a destroyer of the Persian Empire. This article reviews various accounts
of Alexander’s discovery of a utopia, describes his redemption from being a usurper,
and lodges these accounts within the broader discourse of their time.

In the western tradition utopia is often associated with Sir Thomas More’s
description of an ideal city. This association has resulted in a number of
consequences. For instance, until recently, the pre-More utopian texts have
been to a large extent neglected. Also, overshadowed by modern European
adventure fictions, non-western utopian writings have received relatively little
attention. This article briefly reviews various Persian utopian traditions,1 fol-
lowed by a more detailed examination of one of them, the Alexandrian genre.
It will show that some of the accounts presented by More were anticipated by

Utopian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2013

Copyright © 2013. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

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 cyrus masroori: Alexander in the City of the Excellent

Persian utopian authors. The article also shows that the Alexandrian ­utopia,
like many of its European counterparts, presents an innovative and revolu-
tionary departure from the mainstream norms of political thought of its time.

The Four Traditions of Utopian Discourse in Medieval Iran

One may divide utopian texts into prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive
utopian texts provide blueprints for the creation of ideal cities. Plato’s Republic
and Laws are among the earliest examples of prescriptive utopian texts in the
West. Descriptive utopian texts, meanwhile, are accounts of imaginary cities.2
This has been the dominant genre of western utopian writing since More,
although Plato’s account of Atlantis is a much earlier example. While there
are many examples of prescriptive utopian writings in medieval Persian politi-
cal discourse, instances of descriptive accounts are surprisingly rare.
This rarity is certainly not due to a lack of imagination. Medieval Persian
literature is rich with fictitious voyage accounts. However, most of these
accounts are about traveling to real places. More important, the emphasis
of these stories is on heroic personalities and not ideal cities.3 At times when
these accounts describe imaginary cities, they do not describe ideal institu-
tional arrangements worthy of imitation but, rather, elaborate on the heroic
deeds of the main actor(s). Such a neglect of institutional imagination was in
line with the widely accepted view that the most important prerequisite for a
preferred polity was the moral excellence of the ruler.
In Persian political theory of the time absolute monarchy was almost
universally accepted, not just as the best regime but as the only legitimate
one. The prescriptive texts described at length the responsibilities and moral
obligations of the prince. They also provided advice on how to arrange the
bureaucracy of the court and the formal duties of the courtiers. When there
was a need to provide an example of ideal monarchy, authors often referred to
pre-Islamic Persian kings such as Khosrow Anushiravan (r. 531–579) or Islamic
rulers such as the Omayyad caliph Omar ibn abd al-Aziz (r. 717–720). To con-
clude, whether it was the excellence of the king or that of the voyager, the
focus of Persian political theory remained the individual’s moral character.
Given this background, one can identify four medieval Persian traditions
in utopian discourse: the philosophical tradition connected to al-Farabi, the
ethical tradition of “Mirrors for Princes,” the theosophical tradition of Persian
Sufis, and the Alexandrian tradition. I proceed with a brief examination of the
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 Utopian Studies 24.1

first three traditions before giving a more detailed account of the Alexandrian
tradition.

The Philosophical Tradition

Greek philosophy of the Socratic tradition reached the Middle East prior to
the rise of Islam. It is possible that Plato’s writings had reached Iran before
the Muslim invasion as well.4 In either case, by the tenth century principles
of Plato’s prescriptive utopia were adopted by al-Farabi (ca. 870–950), whose
Arabic book Ara’ Ahl al-Madina al-Fadila (known in English as On the Perfect
State or Virtuous City)5 attempted to reconcile Plato’s principles of an ideal city
with the doctrines of Islam. In this attempt, al-Farabi presented the concept
of the prophet-king as an alternative to Plato’s philosopher-king. Al-Farabi’s
work was very familiar to scholars who knew both Persian and Arabic. As
we shall see shortly, the Alexandrian tradition adopts al-Farabi’s innovation,
presenting the Quranic figure Zulqarnain, widely believed to be the same as
Alexander of Macedon, as the model prophet-king.

The Ethical Tradition

Adopting a more inclusive definition of prescriptive utopian writing, one

can identify the origin of another Persian utopian tradition in Kalila va
Dimna. Written initially in Sanskrit sometime around the third century b.c.,
it was translated into Pahlavi (the language of pre-Islam Iran) by the sixth
century and later to Arabic (ca. 750) and Persian (ca. 1121). The book was
also translated into Greek, Latin, and Hebrew during the Middle Ages. A
series of animal fables, this text provides advice for a good life and the effec-
tive management of an ideal polity. Kalila va Dimna was widely read, and
it influenced the Mirrors for Princes genre, the prevailing type of prescrip-
tive utopian writing in the medieval Persian-speaking world. Among the
well-known examples of the mirrors are Siyasatnameh (Book of politics) by
Abu Ali al-Hassan al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092), Qabusnameh (Book of
Qabus) by Abu al-Hasan Qabus ibn Vushmgir (d. 1012), and Nasihat al-Moluk
(Advice to princes) by Abu Hamed Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali
(1058–1111). Many of these Persian Mirrors for Princes also include references
to Plato. However, with the possible exception of a few such as Ghazali and
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 cyrus masroori: Alexander in the City of the Excellent

Nasir al-Din Tusi, the authors of these texts knew little if anything about
Plato’s utopian texts.

The Theosophical Tradition

In studying the Persian utopian traditions, one must also pay special atten-
tion to a short essay, Fi Haqiqat al-Ishq (About truth of love) by Shihab al-Din
Suhravardi, widely known as Sheikh al-Ishraq (1153–1191). It is important to
keep in mind that Fi Haqiqat al-Ishq is not a political treatise but, rather, a
theosophical text.6 It is the first Persian text where the concept of nakoja-abad,
literally meaning “no place,” is used in reference to a location. Suhravardi
was familiar with Greek philosophy, but there is no evidence that he knew the
Greek language or that the Persian political and philosophical discourses of
the time were exposed to the definitions of the Greek ou and topos.
Fi Haqiqat al-Ishq, a thirty-page essay written in a highly symbolic lan-
guage, begins by stating: “Be aware that God’s first creation was a radiant
jewel, which he called wisdom. . . . He gave this jewel three qualities: the
knowledge of God, the knowledge of itself, and the knowledge of that whose
being is in not-being.”7 According to Suhravardi, the third quality of wisdom
is sorrow (huzn). When Sorrow is asked about its place of birth, it replies,
“I am from the district of No Place [Nakoja-abad], city of the Pure [shahr-e
Pakan].” The concurrence of these four concepts, “that whose being is in not-
being,” “sorrow,” “the district of No Place,” and “city of the Pure,” must not
be ignored. Clearly, Suhravardi anticipates More’s use of utopia in conjunc-
tion with the ideal. But he also recognizes an existential tension in the utopian
imagination that was not noticed by More: Utopia is not primarily a hopeful
celebration of the ideal but, rather, a sorrowful recalling that the very being
of the ideal is in its absence.

The Alexandrian Tradition

The Alexandrian tradition presents the Persian discourse closest to the west-
ern descriptive utopia. I refer to this tradition as Alexandrian because here
Alexander of Macedon is the hero and the “discoverer” of the ideal city.8
An important characteristic of these utopian accounts is their displacement
of the centrality of a morally righteous ruler by that of morally virtuous
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 Utopian Studies 24.1

citizens. The message here is that to achieve the ideal city, it would not be
­sufficient to have a qualified ruler. Instead, there must be a general population
that has reached the necessary level of moral excellence. In fact, such a popu-
lation would not even need a ruler at all. In the following I examine various
texts in the Alexandrian tradition in more detail.

Why Alexander?

The reader may initially be surprised by the choice of the hero in the above
tradition. Alexander’s invasion of Iran involved destruction and bloodshed.
In addition, it certainly had an impact on the collective psyche of those who,
in one way or another, identified with the Persian Empire and celebrated its
glories. However, Alexander’s unprecedented military success was intrigu-
ing, and some associated those accomplishments with Alexander’s moral
excellence. There is little doubt that the historical Alexander did not possess
the moral qualities assigned to him by these medieval Muslim authors, who
reconstructed his image in accordance with the qualities of a prophet-king.
There were a number of reasons for receiving Alexander as a hero in
medieval Iran. First, as mentioned earlier, many authors identified Alexander
as the Quranic figure Zulqarnain.9 In the Quran, Zulqarnain is portrayed as
a just king who stood against oppression and attained the status of a quasi-
prophet. He traveled and conquered vast lands of “the East and the West”
and protected people from oppressors.10 Zulqarnain was a believer in Allah.
Although Alexander lived almost a thousand years before Islam, we must
remember that Muslims consider all adherents to the Abrahamic religions as
believers in Allah.11
Epic Persian poet Abulqasim Ferdowsi Tusi portrayed Alexander as a
Christian.12 In his Iskandarnameh (Book of Alexander; probably written some-
time between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries), Abd al-Kafi al-Barakat
points to this historical inaccuracy,13 but he also frequently reminds the reader
that Alexander was guided and protected by God. Ilias Muhammad Nizami
Ganjavi (1141–1209) explicitly relates Alexander’s success to his adherence to
and advocacy of the “sacred religion.”14 He calls Alexander a prophet who,
defending the “true religion,” persecuted Zoroastrians and destroyed their
temples,15 which the historical Alexander did not do. Amir Khosrow Dehlavi,
a Persian-language poet in India, makes similar claims about Alexander
some eighty years later.16 Nizami and al-Barakat even claim that Alexander
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traveled to Mecca on a pilgrimage to the Ka’ba, which Muslims consider the

holiest place on Earth. According to al-Barakat, during this purported visit
Alexander, who knew about the coming of Muhammad, tried to identify the
Prophet’s ancestors.17
Portraying Alexander as a champion of justice and a liberator of the
oppressed, Nizami describes his Persian opponent Darius III (ca. 380–330 b.c.)
as a tyrant. Such strong denunciation of Darius in favor of Alexander is strik-
ing. As Kamel Ahmadnizhad points out, while the Persian emperor is pre-
sented as arrogant and oppressive, Alexander is described as just, patient, and
wise.18 Throughout the above-mentioned texts, authors return to this dichot-
omy of the just king and the tyrant, where Alexander is identified with the
former and his various enemies, with the latter.
Second, the Persian-speaking world was also aware of Alexander’s asso-
ciation with Aristotle and indeed exaggerated that association dramatically.19
Nizami suggests that Alexander was also in communication with Plato,
Socrates, and a number of other Greek philosophers who had died before
Alexander’s rise to power, as well as others who were born after Alexander’s
death. In addition, some Persian authors considered Alexander himself a phi-
losopher. Nizami goes even further and claims that the worldwide fame that
Greek philosophy enjoyed was due to Alexander’s love of knowledge and his
efforts to promote learning.20 Thus, medieval Persian authors reconstructed
Alexander as a triumphant monarch who benefited from both divine grace
and the advice of the greatest sages and philosophers, particularly Aristotle.21
Third, Alexander’s military success was received with great amaze-
ment among Muslims. Even the Islamic empire did not reach the zenith of
Alexander’s success. Their astonishment was further augmented by the fact
that Alexander achieved his success in a very short period of time. Histories
frequently exaggerated his conquests, extending them to places where the
real Alexander had never visited (such as Tibet and China). It was suggested
that the Macedonian prince personally engaged in battles against the most
powerful of his enemies and defeated them with little effort. Thus, Muslim
authors readily concluded that only a virtuous and divine person could
achieve so much success so rapidly.
Historical confusions and intentional exaggerations aside, these authors’
primary purpose in describing Alexander’s life was not historiography. In
fact, Nizami suggests that a historically inaccurate statement, as long as it
serves a good cause and is accepted by the audience, is superior to an accu-
rate statement that appears false or unbelievable.22 Alexander’s great military
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 Utopian Studies 24.1

success had attracted the interest of the monarchs of the time. By ­converting
Alexander to a man of God and justice, Nizami and others associate the
Macedonian prince’s military success with piety and equity. Thus if a king
desires Alexander’s achievements, he should not simply seek military strength
but, rather, must adopt his standards of ethical conduct. In these presenta-
tions of Alexander as the ideal king, it is not surprising that at the end of his
virtuous life he discovers the ideal city.23
Fourth, Ferdowsi claimed that Alexander’s father was a Persian king.
The claim was repeated and even expounded by some later authors such as
­al-Barakat. This “Persianization” of the Macedonian prince helped Iranians to
accept Alexander as a legitimate figure. Persians were not alone in claiming
Alexander as one of their own. In Romance of Alexander the Great, an account
probably first written as early as the third century b.c. and widely read during
the Middle Ages, the author claimed that Alexander’s father was an Egyptian
king.24 Nizami, however, rejected the Persian origin of Alexander and, instead
of Persianizing, Muslimized him.

The Alexandrian Utopia

The earliest account of a utopia in Persian is the legend of Gang Dezh,25

accounted by Ferdowsi, who was probably familiar with the Romance of
Alexander.26 The city, built by a mythical Persian prince, Siyavash, is described
as being isolated by the sea and the desert. It is also protected by a moun-
tain range circling around it, which allows only a few men to defend the city
against an army of “a hundred thousand.” The city enjoys moderate weather,
always resembling the spring. There is no disease in Gang Dezh, and every-
one is always happy. The influence of Gang Dezh on the Alexandrian utopia
is easy to see.27
However, the earliest account of the Alexandrian utopia is a commentary
on the Quran called Kashf al-Asrar va ‘Uddat al-Abrar (Unveiling of the secrets
and the promise to the pious; ca. 1126) by Abulfazl Rashid al-Din al-Maybudi.
It is interesting that in a commentary on the Quran, the ideal city existed
prior to Islam. As we shall see, the superiority of this utopia over Medina,
the city directly ruled by Muhammad, is evident. In al-Maybudi’s account
the discoverer of the ideal city is Zulqarnain. As pointed out earlier, identify-
ing Alexander with Zulqarnain was common at the time. In this account,
Zulqarnain goes from city to city and invites people to worship the true God,
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 cyrus masroori: Alexander in the City of the Excellent

until he arrives at a city where communism is practiced: Wealth is equally

distributed, and there is no government. People live long lives and are kind
to each other. There are no locks on the houses’ doors, and in front of each
house, a grave has been dug.28
The astonished Zulqarnain asks the citizens about the graves, and he is
told that they are to remind the citizens of death. They further explain that
since everyone in the city is honest and God-fearing, they do not need any
locks on their doors; and since in their nature there is no desire for oppression
and conflict, they do not need sheriffs, judges, or princes. They also explain
that they try to live a life of justice and honesty and seek only God’s support
and guidance, not that of “voices and Astrology.” They describe how they
have followed their fathers’ practice of helping the deprived, forgiving trans-
gressors, returning evil with kindness, and doing their prayers in a timely
manner.
Rawz al-Jennan va Ruh al-Jannan fi Tafsir al-Quran (Garden of Paradise
and the Spirit of God in interpretation of the Quran) by Hussein ibn-e Ali al-
Khaza’i al-Nishaburi (Razi) provides another example of an Alexandrian uto-
pia. This famous commentary on the Quran was written sometime between
1116 and 1160 by a Shi’i theologician. The author’s religious affiliation should
not be overlooked. The Shi’a believe in an ideal society, but only under the
rule of the legitimate imam, who must be a descendant of Ali, Prophet
Muhammad’s son-in-law. The need for this imam, who is the sole spiritual
and temporal ruler of the community, is particularly explicated in terms of
establishing justice. If a just community existed without the imam—as the
account of Alexander’s/Zulqarnain’s travels suggests—then the requirement
of a legitimate imam becomes superfluous. In fact, neither in Kashf al-Asrar
nor in Rawz al-Jennan is there any mention of religious institutions or leader-
ship in the ideal city, although citizens are morally righteous and worship the
true God.
Overall, the utopian stories of the above two commentaries on the
Quran are similar. Al-Nishaburi explicitly suggests that the Quranic figure
Zulqarnain and Alexander of Macedonia are the same.29 In al-Nishaburi’s
account, when the citizens of utopia are asked why they do not have a gov-
ernor, they respond: “Because we do not commit crimes, and therefore
do not need someone to correct us.” They also state that they do not have
princes because they “are not arrogant.”30 Citizens of al-Nishaburi’s utopia
do not become overtly joyous or sad. When asked why they do not laugh,
they respond: “Because we are fearful of sin, and busy asking for God’s
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 Utopian Studies 24.1

forgiveness.” They also explain that they do not become sad because they
expect misfortune.31 Once again, what eventually uphold righteousness are
death and the fear of God’s wrath.
In Muhammad ibn Mahmud Hamedani’s Aja‘yeb al Makhluqat va Ghra‘yeb
al-Mowjudat (Strange creatures and rare beings; written sometime between
1175 and 1194), Zulqarnain and Alexander are used interchangeably. Alexander
finds a city in North Africa (Maghreb) where all houses are “equal,” with
graves dug by their entrances.32 In another text, al-Barakat’s Iskandarnameh,
there is no mention of Zulqarnain, and Alexander is the discoverer of the uto-
pia. In this account more light is shed on the communism of the ideal city: All
property has been equally divided among all citizens, and if a citizen loses his
goods, his neighbors give him part of theirs. Here, the connection between
private property and government is pointed out more explicitly: the city needs
no king or judges because no one has more wealth than others. The citizens
of this city are also God-fearing and practice righteousness. However, unlike
in previous accounts, these citizens have Khezr, a prophet who has taught
them the true religion.33 According to Muslims, Khezr is a prophet associ-
ated with both Moses and Zulqarnain. In some medieval Persian accounts of
Alexander, he met Khezr, and together they sought the Fountain of Life, but
only Khezr was able to drink from the fountain, thus becoming immortal.
By the thirteenth century, Alexandrian utopia entered Persian poetry.
Sometime around 1200, Ilyas Ibn-e Yusuf Nizami Ganjavi wrote a poem
describing Alexander’s life. This biography is in two parts. The first part,
Sharafnameh (Book of honor), is dedicated to Alexander’s conquests, while
the second part, Iqbalnameh (Book of fortune), describes his travels as a phi-
losopher and a prophet. It is at the end of these travels that Alexander discov-
ers the “City of the Virtuous.”34
Astonished by the excellence of the city’s residents, Alexander asks:

If this is virtue, what is that we have?

If these are human beings, who are we?35

He then concludes that if he had seen these people earlier, he would not have
needed to travel around the world in search of virtue. Shortly after visiting
the ideal city and on his way back to Greece, Alexander dies unexpectedly. It
is rather ironic that the ideal prince only at the end of his life arrives at the
ideal city and then is moved to acknowledge the superiority of its excellence
over those ruled by him.
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There is little doubt that Nizami was influenced by the accounts of

Alexandrian utopias written before his. Once again, we are told about a city
without a government, where wealth is equally distributed. There are no
locks on peoples’ houses, nor are there shepherds with the cattle. People live
righteous lives and practice moderation. They help each other in times of
need and practice compassion toward the weak.
Meanwhile there are also some important differences between Nizami’s
“City of the Virtuous” and the Alexandrian utopias written earlier. In Nizami’s
utopia, there is an explicit emphasis on the dominance of God’s will and pre-
destination in human affairs, which is absent in the utopian accounts before
his. Citizens of Nizami’s utopia remind Alexander on several occasions that
they do not resist God’s will but, instead, welcome what He has planned for
them. Such acceptance, they point out, is a key to their fortune.
Another main difference is that Nizami’s city is protected by supernatu-
ral powers. As Alexander and his bodyguards enter the outskirts of the city,
one of his men reaches for a fruit, but he is struck dead before picking it.
Another soldier grabs a sheep, but he meets the same destiny. Observing this,
Alexander orders his men to avoid touching what is not theirs.36 Upon arriv-
ing at the city and talking to its citizens, he learns that they enjoy divine pro-
tection, which safeguards them from transgressions by humans and attacks
by wild animals.37
Given that the Alexandrian utopian city is landlocked, and therefore
much more exposed to external threats than a faraway island, such divine pro-
tection is of great importance to the city’s survival. Supernatural powers and
magic play a significant part in Persian fictions of medieval and early mod-
ern times. There are also examples of them in European utopian writings.
Denis Veiras, for example, gave detailed accounts of supernatural powers and
magic in Sevarambia.38 However, in the case of Sevarambia, such powers are
primarily used to regulate the citizens’ behavior. In Nizami’s utopia the only
mentioned applications of supernatural powers are against transgressing
noncitizens and wild animals. Meanwhile, if a citizen commits a wrongdo-
ing, he or she is simply driven out of the city.39
An important difference between Nizami’s account of utopia and the
Alexandrian utopias before and after his is the character of the citizens. As
mentioned earlier, in other Alexandrian utopias citizens dug graves by their
houses to remind them of death. The implication is that such a reminder is
needed to keep citizens virtuous. In Nizami’s account, however, there is no
mention of graves. Here, human nature is capable of adopting a virtuous
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 Utopian Studies 24.1

life without being constantly terrorized by the inevitable coming of death,

­afterlife, and God’s judgment.
Persian poets continued to write about Alexander’s adventures after
Nizami. As late as the fifteenth century, Abd al-Rahman Jami’s (1414–1492)
account of Alexander’s life included a description of his visit to the ideal
city.40 While there is no doubt that Jami’s Khiradnameh-i Iskandari (Alexander’s
book of wisdom; written sometime between 1468 and 1485) was inspired by
Nizami, his description of the ideal city is closer to that of al-Maybudi, since
there are again graves dug in front of each house. In Jami’s utopia there is also
no political or religious institution. The need for political authority is associ-
ated with oppression, which has no place in the city. Although equality of
wealth among citizens is not explicitly mentioned here, it is pointed out that
no one is rich in the city. As in the other examples of the ideal city presented
here, the citizens explain that they learned their way of life from their parents,
an emphasis on the value of customs and traditions.

Conclusion

The Alexandrian tradition is the main Persian genre of the descriptive uto-
pia. It suggests that economic inequalities are at the heart of social problems.
Among pious individuals who enjoy equality in wealth, there is no need for
either political or religious institutions. Righteous life could become a tradi-
tion, although to check human impulses, it is useful to remind people of death.
It is important to remember that in all of the above examples the ideal
city existed prior to the Prophet Muhammad. In fact, there are fundamen-
tal differences between Muhammad’s Medina and these utopian societies.
One important difference is that the former was a class society while the lat-
ter were communistic. Islam has always explicitly sanctioned private prop-
erty and differences in wealth, and not even Muhammad and the closest of
his associates practiced communism. Further, in contrast to the ideal cities
described above, Muhammad’s Medina had a government. Finally, unlike
the utopian societies presented here, unlawful and immoral behavior took
place in Medina and all other Muslim cities during Muhammad and after him.
Therefore, one may conclude that the Alexandrian utopia was superior to the
cities managed under Islamic rule.
Further, the absence of reference to religious leaders and institutions
(with the exception of Iskandarnameh) could lead to the conclusion that
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 cyrus masroori: Alexander in the City of the Excellent

piety and excellence in personal and social life do not require the presence of
­religious institutions or authorities. If the ideal life could be achieved without
religious institutions and authority, and the ideal society could have existed
prior to Muhammad, what would be the purpose of Islam? It is unlikely that
the texts here have a Straussian hidden agenda of refuting Islam.41 It is also
hard to imagine that all of these authors failed to see the logical conclusion
of their stories, which questions the superiority of Islamic society over all oth-
ers. So, what could be the purpose of these utopian accounts?
The message of these stories may be that piety is achievable outside
the framework of any particular religion. A society of pious citizens liber-
ates itself from greed and egoism and voluntarily practices communism.
Consequently, such a society does not need government. This society, where
there is no poverty or conflict, will be the greatest human accomplishment.
Further, the Alexandrian utopia departs from the prince-oriented moral excel-
lence that almost exclusively dominated Persian political thought of the time
and instead suggests that a good society needs morally educated citizens. The
presentation of such revolutionary propositions should not surprise us since
“utopians want to go further and do more than reformers.”42 While reformers
of the time sought the education of the ruler, these utopians recommended
the education of the masses. While reformers concerned themselves with
increasing the ruler’s power and expanding his dominion, the Alexandrian
utopians advocated pacifism and compassion.

Notes
I would like to thank John Christian Laursen for his valuable comments. I am also thank-
ful for the helpful comments and suggestions by the editors and the anonymous referees
of Utopian Studies.
1. By Persian in this article I refer to the language of the authors and not their ethnicity.
2. Examples of such imaginary cities include Plato’s Atlantis, Thomas More’s Utopia,
and Tommaso Campanella’s City of the Sun. Obviously these utopian texts also have a
prescriptive dimension. However, for a variety of reasons, among them the fear of accu-
sations of heresy, they do not explicitly present proposals for changing the status quo.
3. The most important of these accounts is that of Samak ‘Ayyar/Samak the Gallant,
written around the thirteenth century by Faramarz ibn ‘Abdollah al-Kateb al-Arrajani; see
his Samak ‘Ayyar (Tehran: Sokhan, 1959).
4. Abdulhussein Zarrinkub, Donbaleh Jostvaju dar Tasavof Iran [Sequence to the search
for Sufism in Iran] (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1990), 281–82.
5. Abu Nasr al-Farabi, On the Perfect State (Chicago: Kazi, 1998).
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 Utopian Studies 24.1

6. For a brief account of Suhravardi’s life, see J. A. Boyle, ed., The Cambridge History of
Iran: The Saljuq and Mongol Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 301–2.
7. Shahab al-Din Suhravardi, Fi Haqiqat al-Ishq (Tehran: Muwla, 1995), 1.
8. Various accounts regarding Alexander’s legendary life, including his fictional travels,
can be traced back to a work of literature referred to as the Alexander Romance. This work
probably started taking shape not long after Alexander’s death and was popular through-
out the medieval era, influencing Persian and Arab authors who wrote about Alexander.
For more on the Alexander Romance tradition, see Richard Stoneman, Alexander the Great:
A Life in Legend (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008); Dick Davis, Panthea’s Children:
Hellenistic Novels and Medieval Persian Romance (New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2002);
Richard Stoneman, trans., The Greek Alexander Romance (New York: Penguin, 1991); and
Immanuel Ben Jacob Bonfelis, The Book of the Gests of Alexander of Macedon: A Medieval
Hebrew Version of the Alexander Romance (Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America, 1962).
9. Literally meaning “One with two horns” in Arabic.
10. For a review of various arguments regarding Zulqarnain’s identity, see Sayyid
Hasan Safavi, Iskandar va Adabiyat-e Iran va Shakhsiyat-e Mazhabi-e Iskandar [Alexander
and Persian literature and the religious character of Alexander] (Tehran: Amir Kabir,
1985), 279–310; Kamil Ahmadnizhad, Tahlil-e Asar Nezami Ganjavi [An analysis of Nizami
Ganjavi’s writings] (Tehran: Elmi, 1990), 153–56.
11. Obviously Alexander was not an adherent to any Abrahamic religion. For a related
account, see Branon Wheeler, “Moses or Alexander?” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 57
(1998): 191–215.
12. Ahmadnizhad, Tahlil-e, 82; Safavi, Iskandar, 82–83. For a broader study of this
topic, see Dick Davis, Epic and Sedition: The Case of Ferdowsi’s “Shahnameh” (Fayetteville:
University of Arkansas Press, 1992).
13. Abd al-Kafi al-Barakat, Iskandarnameh [Book of Alexander] (Tehran: Cheshmeh,
2006), 174.
14. Illias Muhammad Nizami Ganjavi, Kulliyat-e Nizami Ganjavi [The works of Nizami
Ganjavi], vol. 2 (Tehran: Nigah, 2004), 940.
15. Ibid., 939.
16. Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, A‘ineh-e Iskandari [Mirror of Alexander] (Moscow: Danesh,
1977), 44–45.
17. Al-Barakat, Iskandarnameh, 122.
18. Ahmadnizhad, Tahlil-e, 83–84. Rather surprisingly, Ferdowsi, whose Shahnameh is
often assessed as a “patriotic” account of the history of Iran, portrays Alexander as a just
king. For example, see Abulqasim Ferdowsi, Shahnameh (Tehran: Behzad, 1997), 487.
19. Thus, Nizami and al-Barakat claim that Aristotle was Alexander’s minister.
20. Nizami, Kulliyat, 1329. In identifying Alexander as a philosopher Nizami is not alone.
In Sandbadnameh, for instance, Alexander is presented as a philosopher of the same
caliber as Plato and Aristotle (Muhammad ibn-e Ali Zuheiri Samarqandi, Sandbadnameh
[Book of Sandbad] [Tehran: Miras Maktub, 2002], 22).
21. It is important to recall that Aristotle was often celebrated among a number of
medieval Muslim philosophers as the greatest philosopher and carried the title of “the
First Teacher.”

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 cyrus masroori: Alexander in the City of the Excellent

22. Nizami, Kulliyat, 941.

23. One may ask why Alexander and not a Muslim figure was selected as the ideal king.
Speculation about this question is beyond the scope of this article.
24. Pseudo-Callisthenes, The Romance of Alexander the Great, trans. Albert Mugrdich
Wolohojian (New York: Columbia University, 1969).
25. By Persian here I refer to Dari Persian, which appeared after the invasion of Iran by
Muslims.
26. For a relevant discussion, see Davis, Panthea’s Children.
27. Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, 158–59.
28. Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (1058–1111) also briefly describes a city where
graves have been dug by each house’s door. Here the citizens are vegetarian and live a
life of poverty. The city has a king, who advises Zulqarnain to rule with justice (Abu
Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, Nasihat al-Moluk [Advice to the princes]
[Tehran: Majlis, 1938], 37–38). Although this account by Ghazali could have inspired the
Alexandrian utopian authors after him, as we shall see shortly, there are some fundamen-
tal differences between Ghazali’s story and those narrated later.
29. Hussein ibn-e Ali al-Khaza’i al-Nishaburi, Rawz al-Jennan va Ruh al-Jannan fi Tafsir
al-Quran, vol. 13 (Mashhad: Astan-e Qods, 1988), 33.
30. Ibid., 38
31. Ibid., 39.
32. Muhammad ibn Mahmud Hamadani, Aja‘yeb al Makhluqat va Ghra‘yeb al-Mowjudat
(‘Ajayeb Nameh) (Tehran: Markaz, 1996), 479–80.
33. Al-Barakat, Iskandarnameh, 194.
34. For a Persian account, see Abdulhussein Zarrinkub, Pirganjeh dar Jostujuy Nakoja
abad [The sage of Ganjeh in search of utopia] (Tehran: Sokhan, 2004).
35. Nizami, Kulliyat, 1428.
36. Ibid., 1425–27.
37. Ibid., 1427.
38. See Denis Veiras, The History of the Sevarambians, ed. John C. Laursen and Cyrus
Masroori (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006).
39. Nizami, Kulliyat, 1428.
40. Abd al-Rahman Jami, Masnavi-e Haft Owrang [The Masnavi of Seven Thrones]
(Tehran: Ahura, 2006), 984–85.
41. For more on this, see Leo Strauss, Persecution and the Art of Writing (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1988).
42. John Christian Laursen, “Riforma e utopia,” in Illuminismo. Un vademecum, ed.
Gianni Paganini and Edoardo Tortarolo (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2008), 239.

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