Good day everyone I’m Elena and thanks to be here on Alessandro III di Macedonia! A few days ago was published a very interesting academic book:

The Syriac Legend of Alexander’s Gate. Apocalypticism at the Crossroads of Byzantium and Iran

by Tommaso Tesei

Oxford University Press

The Syriac text entitled Neshana d-Aleksandros (also known as Syriac Alexander Legend) is a seminal text for late Christian and Muslim apocalyptic traditions. Containing the earliest recorded versions of literary motifs that would become central to the medieval apocalyptic tradition, it represents an early witness to an influential political ideology that guided both Byzantine and early Islamic imperial policies. While the scholarly consensus commonly dates the Neshana to the time of Heraclius (r. 610-641 CE), in this book author Tommaso Tesei argues that an earlier version of the text was produced during the reign of Justinian I (r. 527-565). This new historical contextualization of the text enables us to better delineate the role of the Neshana in the development of late antique, politicized, forms of apocalypticism, which assign to the Christian Roman Empire the task of establishing a cosmocratic rule in view of Jesus’ Second Coming.

In analyzing the contents and the ideology of this seminal text, this volume contributes to our understanding of the origins and developments of important literary motifs of Medieval literature worldwide, such as the characterization of Alexander as a pious prophet-king and the story of the gate that he erected to confine the eschatological nations of Gog and Magog. The Syriac Legend of Alexander’s Gate sheds light on lesser-known aspects of political debates in the sixth-century Near East and offers historians a valuable insight into important aspects of Justinian’s reign.

Tommaso Tesei is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Duke Kunshan University.

A new English translation of the Syriac text
Offers a detailed analysis of the historical circumstances and ideology behind the shaping and emergence of the famous story of Alexander’s apocalyptic gate
Provides new insights to analyze a variety of questions for the study of historical, social and religious phenomena in the late antique world

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One

1. The Text, the Story, and its Sources
2. Debates About Dating and Context of the Neshana d-Aleksandros
3. The 940 AG Prophecy
4. The Story of Alexander’s Gate and the Political Context of the Sixth Century
5. The Conflict with Tubarlaq
6. The Syriac Alexander

Part Two

7. Alexander, the Danielic Visions, and the Gate Against Gog and Magog
8. Apocalyptic Ideology
9. Alexander’s Horns
10. The Crown, the Throne, and the Last Roman Emperor

Conclusion
Appendix 1 English Translation of the Neṣḥānā d-Aleksandrōs (According to Budges’s Critical Edition)
Appendix 2 List of Toponyms and Proposed Identifications
Bibliography
Index

This is another academic text that deals with a very particular topic but for me it is a must read even if I will wait for the paperback version because it costs too much for now. But I marked it down and it immediately ends up on my wish list!

Good evening everybody,

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