Telling a Different Story: Redeployment of the Narrative Alexander Tradition in a Medieval PersianDāstān

Abstract

AbstractThis article explores theremaniementof three episodes current in the Perso-Arabic Alexander tradition—i.e., Eskandar's confrontation with the Indian king Fur; Eskandar's visit to Queen Qeydāfeh; and Eskandar's encounter with the Gymnosophists—in the anonymous PersianEskandarnāmeh, a medieval epic narrative in prose (dāstān;ca. 12th–14thc.). Through extensive comparative evidence from other genres, primarily narrative poetry (Ferdowsi'sShāhnāmeh, Nezāmi'sSharafnāmehandEqbālnāmeh), mirabilia (ʿajāyeb), and exegetical works (qesas al-anbeyāʾandtafsir), this study engages with how the modalities of thedāstāngenre, with its strong leaning towards traditional oral storytelling, affect the narrative choicesEskandarnāmeh's author makes in treating these themes. In so doing, this article attempts to develop a more informed assessment of the strategies and devices which, activated both on the production and reception planes, generate competing interpretations of well-known plots recast in different narrative modes.