Although we don't like to admit it to ourselves history does impact our lives today, whether or not we even know it. Under the conservative rule of the Ayatollahs, you might have thought that remnants of the Greeks no longer exist in the area, however there is no doubt Alexander left a variety of impressions on the people of the modern Middle East. Their different outlooks are all dependent on their perspective.
It's not uncommon for Shiite folk-plays for Alexander to appear. He walks on a floar in Ashura sipping whiskey along with other tyrants, such as the last shah, other wicked caliphs, and the Great Satan (to the Iranians)... Uncle Sam. His tale is taught in Muslim primary schools, and Zoroastrians still remember him as "Alexander the Accursed" (Oh, did you know that the Zoroastrians have kept the same sacred fire worshipped by the Persian kings from Alexander's time alive today? That's so cool that they could get it to last this long...). He makes a show in Firdowsi as a great Iranian ruler, the true successor to the great shahs and heroes of the past. And mothers will scold their children at bedtime with the threat that if they are not good, Alexander will get them. Some modern-day Persians even have a saying about greedy people, "He's just like Iskander [Persian name for Alexander], he wants the whole world!"
Obviously he's left a couple different ideas in their heads. It all depends on which side you were on; whether he was creating a vast new empire that would open cultural diffustion across the Hellenistic world, or destroying your homeland for a selfish desire to immortalize his own image.
In history class you don't really learn the "Dark-Side" of Alexander, but if you do a few background checks on him, you'll learn some other stuff about him. If you read the previous post, you saw that it was rumored he killed his own friend! He killed thousands of people after he'd already avenged his country from when Darius the Great (I) invaded Greece and the area surrounding it, because he had a satanic obsession with reaching the ends of the earth, and making himself sole sovereign of that world! He wasn't always playing the role of "great uniter of the lands".
Below is an image I scanned onto my computer and uploaded onto the journal of a Susian frieze depicting the immortals. I thought I looked nifty, even though Assyrian isn't necessaryily my favorite style.
The ruins of Persepolis, Persian capital founded by Darius the Great, burned by Alexander, and captial to the largest empire the world had ever seen during that time period -
Alexander the Great's royal cartouches as Pharaoh of Egypt -
4 comments:
Oh, did you know that it was also rumored he was gay? That doesn't necessarily make him better or worse, or was meant to influence your vote. People who follow up that theory usually say that even though it's been proven that he had intimate relationships with women, that may have been for show as king. I don't know; I haven't studied that portion of his life too deeply.
Just something else! =)
hahahah thats funny. yeahh i didnt really read this post, just looked at the pictures & read your comment. once i read 'history does impact our lives' i was like psh no and went on haha. sorry, im so stubborn =]
That's OK. To be honest, I have to say that I expected that. =P In all good fun...
That emphasized part though was a little misleading - the whole thing was about impacting Middle-Easterners. Sorry about that... =)
I just found a source of Alexander being gay in The Footsteps of Alexander the Great. I was worring after I had said that before because I couldn't remember my source for that! I thought I'd been breaking my own rules sort-of-speak, but then I found it this book (I hadn't read it until now though) so I stopped freaking out. =)
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