Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Christian and Islamic Sources: Sallam's Quest for Alexander's Wall Book

Acknowledgements xiii

List of Illustrations xv

List of Maps xvi

Note on Transliteration and Measures xvii

Preface xix

Part 1

Chapter 1 Gog and Magog in Pre-Islamic, Jewish and Christian Sources

1 Names and Identification of Gog and Magog 3

2 The Bible 4

3 Jewish Literature 6

4 The Sibylline Oracles 8

5 Flavius Josephus 9

6 Early Christian Literature 11

Chapter 2 Alexander and Gog and Magog in Early Oriental Christian Sources

1 The Syriac Alexander Romance 15

2 The Syriac Alexander Legend 17

3 The Syriac Alexander Poem 21

4 A Syriac Sermon On the Last Days 24

5 The Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius 26

6 The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian 32

7 The Coptic and Ethiopic Alexander Romance 33

8 The Coptic Apocalypses 36

9 The Armenian tradition 38

10 The Georgian tradition 44

Chapter 3 Gog and Magog and Iskandar 'the two-horned one' in the Koran

1 Koran XVIII: 83-98 51

2 Koran XXI: 95-96 52

3 Rudi Paret's commentary on Koran XVIII: 82ff 52

4 Barrier/Rampart/Gate (sadd/radm/bab) 53

Chapter 4 Gog and Magog in Islamic Tradition

1 The Sunni collections 55

2 The Shi'i collections 55

3 Koran commentators and Arab lexicographers 56

4 Common Themes 57

Appearance 58

Origin 60

Numbers 62

Food 64

Role in eschatology 65

Names 73

Location 73

Identification 74

Human Aspects 76

Description of the barrier 77

Chapter 5 Gog and Magog in mediaeval Arabic, Persian and Turkish prose

1 Common Themes 80

Appearance 80

Origin 84

Numbers 85

Food 86

Role in eschatology 87

Names 89

Location and identification 90

Human Aspects 93

Description of the barrier 99

Chapter 6 Gog and Magog and the barrier in Arab poetry, Adab literature, popular epics and anecdotes

1 Arab Poetry 104

2 Adab literature 107

3 Epic literature 108

4 Anecdotes 112

5 Persian and Turkish verse 114

6 Some modern works in Arabic 117

Part 2

Chapter 7 Sallam's journey and the barrier of 'the two-horned one'

1 Interpreter and Traveller 121

2 The travel account-Text and Translation 123

Description of the Barrier of Gog and Magog 123

3 Arabic authors 142

Ibn Khurradadhbih 142

The manuscripts of Ibn Khurradadhbih's "Book of Routes and Kingdoms" 143

al-Jayhani/al-Idrisi 146

Ibn Rusta 148

Ibn al-Faqih 151

al-Ya'qubi/Ibn Hawqal 152

al-Muqaddasi 153

al-Tha'alibi 153

Abu Hamid 154

Ibn al-Jawzi 155

Yaqut 158

al-Nuwayri 159

4 Sallam's travel account in Persian sources 160

5 Criticism on Sallam's travel account by some Arab and Western authors 163

Chapter 8 Gog and Magog and the barrier: the origin of Sallam's description

1 Early Arabo-Muslim poets and the Syriac tradition 166

2 Islamic traditionists 167

3 The barrier as described in the Syriac tradition compared with Sallam's description 170

Chapter 9 The Background to the Journey

1 The political environment 173

2 Reasons for the journey 176

3 Sallam's journey and the so-called map of Caliph al-Ma'mun 178

4 Dates of the journey 181

Chapter 10 The outward journey: Samarra-Yumenguan (ca. July-August 842-November-December 843)

1 Samarra-Tiflis 182

2 The Master of Sarir 184

3 The king of the Alans 185

4 The Filan-shah 187

5 The Khazars 187

6 TheBashkirts 191

7 The Fetid Land, and the Turks in Central Asia 191

8 Dzungaria 195

9 The Tarim Basin 197

10 Qocho, and the Christian presence in Eastern Turkestan 202

11 Fortified Places 206

12 Igu 207

13 Igu-Anxi 209

14 Igu/Hami-Dunhuang 212

15 Dunhuang 215

16 Summary of the outward journey 216

17 Distances and duration 217

Chapter 11 Yumenguang: destination reached

1 Yumenguan or the Jade Gate 220

2 Various locations 220

3 Abu Dulaf's Risala and Sallam's account 223

4 Yumenguan: the gate to the West 226

5 Yumenguan: the barrier of 'the two-horned one'? 227

Chapter 12 The homeward journey: Yumenguan-Samarra (ca. December 843/January 844-December 844/January 845)

1 The itinerary 229

2 Xuanzang's itinerary 230

3 Stages 233

Yumenguan-Lop Nor 233

Lop Nor-Korla 235

Korla-Kucha-Kara-köl 236

Lakhman-Ghuriyan-Barskhan-Tabanuyan 236

Kara-köl-Taraz 237

Isfijab-Nishapur 238

Tirmidh-Samarra 240

4 Summary of the homeward journey 241

5 Distances and duration of the journey 242

Conclusion 244

Bibliography 246

Index of Names and Places 257