Cyrus the Great in the Quran

Cyrus the Great in the Quran is a theory that holds that the character of Dhul-Qarnayn, mentioned in the Quran, is in fact Cyrus the Great. Dhul-Qarnayn (Arabic for "the two-horned") is mentioned in the Quran. The story of Dhul-Qarnayn appears in sixteen verses of the Quran, specifically the 16 verses (Al Kahf). There is extensive ongoing debate on who exactly was the historical character of Dhul-Qarnayn. Some classical Muslim scholars believed that Dhul-Qarnayn is Alexander the Great in the Quran. However, in recent years, alternative theories supporting other explanations have become dominant. The most prominent of these is the theory that Dhul-Qarnayn was none other than Cyrus the Great of Achaemenid Persia. This theory has been endorsed by such scholars as Israr Ahmed, Maududi, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, the Indian minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Allameh Tabatabaei, and Naser Makarem Shirazi, among others.

Abul Ala Maududi, a 20th-century Quran commentator, writes in his Tafsir that the identification of Dhul-Qarnain has been a controversial topic among Islamic scholars from the earliest times. Generally, commentators have been of the opinion that Dhul-Qarnayn is actually Alexander the Great. However, some characteristics of Dhul-Qarnain described in the Quran, it has been argued, are not applicable to the historical Alexander. The fact that the Alexander-as-Dhul-Qarnay theory actually refers to the semi-mythical Alexander described in the Alexander Romance makes the connection even more problematic for some Islamic scholars. In recent years some commentators are inclined to believe that Dhul-Qarnain was actually Cyrus The Great, an ancient king of Achaemenid Persia.

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