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Cyrus Masroori
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CyrusMasroori
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 Alexanders 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 Mores
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 followed 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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Persian utopian authors. The article also shows that the Alexandrian utopia,
like many of its European counterparts, presents an innovative and revolutionary departure from the mainstream norms of political thought of its time.
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Nasir al-Din Tusi, the authors of these texts knew little if anything about
Platos utopian texts.
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Why Alexander?
The reader may initially be surprised by the choice of the hero in the above
tradition. Alexanders 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, Alexanders unprecedented military success was intriguing, and some associated those accomplishments with Alexanders 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 quasiprophet. 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 sometime 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 (11411209) explicitly relates Alexanders 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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Conclusion
The Alexandrian tradition is the main Persian genre of the descriptive utopia. 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 tradition, 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 fundamental differences between Muhammads Medina and these utopian societies.
One important difference is that the former was a class society while the latter were communistic. Islam has always explicitly sanctioned private property 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, Muhammads 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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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 others. 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 liberates 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 excellence 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 rulers 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 thankful 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 Platos Atlantis, Thomas Mores Utopia,
and Tommaso Campanellas City of the Sun. Obviously these utopian texts also have a
prescriptive dimension. However, for a variety of reasons, among them the fear of accusations 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), 28182.
5. Abu Nasr al-Farabi, On the Perfect State (Chicago: Kazi, 1998).
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