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Alexander in the City of the Excellent: A Persian Tradition of Utopia
- Utopian Studies
- Penn State University Press
- Volume 24, Number 1, 2013
- pp. 52-65
- Article
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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.