Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

XXII INTRODUCTION.
Syriac "Christian Legend", and the "Brief Life of
"Alexander", and the metrical homily on Alexan-
der attributed to Jacob of Serugh (died A. D. 521),
see Noeldeke, Beitrage, p. 24ff.
Hebrew I^ Hcbrcw literaturc many stories are extant
legends
°f concerning
Alexander.
o Alexander the Great and his travels,
but it is quite certain that they have nothing
whatever to do with the early forms of the Alexan-
der story as given by Pseudo-Callisthenes, and
that the Jews influenced the development of the
legends therein in no way whatever.'
Arabic ver- In Arabic the earliest mention of Alexander is
found in the Kuran; here we find the Arabic form
of his title "Two-horned", and the account of the
brass and iron rampart which he made to shut in
the nations of Gog and Magog, and the story of
the dried fish which came to life in the fountain
of the water of life, although the principal actors
in this last story are made to be Moses and Joshua,
the son of Nun (see Sura XVIII, and Sale's trans-
persian ver- lation, pp. 222— 226).^ A kuowledgc of the legends
of Alexander is shewn by several Arabic writers
of later dates, and at a tolerably early period the
Persian historians "knew somewhat or all of his
history"; as the best description of the general
whose work it is quite clear how much the Nestorians were
indebted to the Persian nobility; several of the most distin-
guished men whose lives are recorded by him had Persian
blood in their veins.
' See Noeldeke, op. at., pp. 25 — 27.
^ Noeldeke, op. cit., p. 32.