The Syriac Alexander Legend (known in Syriac as Neṣḥānā d-Aleksandrōs; Syriac: ܢܨܚܢܐ, "The Victory of Alexander," named in the Budge edition as "A Christian Legend concerning Alexander" or the "Christian Syriac Alexander Legend" (CSAL)),[1] is a Syriac legendary account of the exploits of Alexander the Great composed in the sixth or seventh century. For the first time in this text, the motifs of Gates of Alexander, an apocalyptic incursion, and the barbarian tribes of Gog and Magog are fused into a single narrative. The Legend would go on to influence Syriac literature about Alexander, like in the Song of Alexander. It would also exert a strong influence on subsequent apocalyptic literature, like the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius composed in the late seventh century. In Quranic studies, the representation of Alexander in the Legend is also seen as closely related to the Quranic figure named Dhu al-Qarnayn (or the "Two-Horned One").[2][3]
Some consider the Legend to be independent of the Alexander Romance,[4] whereas others consider it to be a substantially reshaped form of it.[5] The Legend appears as an appendix in manuscripts of the Syriac Alexander Romance, but this is the work of later redactors and does not reflect an original relationship between the two.[4] The text is preserved in five late manuscripts, the oldest of which was compiled in 1708–1709.[6]