Western and Oriental Aspects of the “Rrekontamiento del rrey Ali sandre”

Western and Oriental Aspects of the “Rrekontamiento del rrey Ali sandre”Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/WEELU72F/tei

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Zachary DavidZuwiyyaWestern and Oriental Aspects of the “Rrekontamiento del rrey Ali sandre”http://syriaca.org/cbss/WEELU72Fhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/WEELU72Fhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/WEELU72F1996The Rrekontamiento del rrey Alisandre is an Aljamiado-Morisca version of the legend of Alexander the Great published in 1929 by A. R. Nykl and then largely forgotten. Throughout the work the narrator refers to the hero as Dzulcarnain, 'the two-horned one,' a name by which the Macedonian conqueror is known in the Arabic Alexander romances. Part 1 of my dissertation uses as a point of departure Ian Michael's study of the Libro de Alexandre as a mirror of princes. By examining the princely qualities of royal birth and youth, parentage, valour, learning, fame and honor, and, finally, royal liberality displayed by the hero, and by comparing Dzulcarnain to other personages in Aljamiado literature, the study shows that the Rrekontamiento may also be seen as a mirror of princes. However, one should be careful to distinguish the Islamic prince from his Christian counterpart, especially regarding his learning, fame and honor. Part 2 concerns the sources for the Rrekontamiento. Whereas many of the episodes of the Alexander romance ultimately derive from the Pseudo-Callisthenes, some of Alexander's adventures in the Rrekonamiento entered the romance through later recensions, such as when the Syriac version was translated into Arabic in the eighth century. Moreover, even the material that derives from the PC underwent a dramatic transformation as it passed from pagans to Christians to Muslims. My study systematically analyzes each episode to determine how it entered the Arabic Alexander romance, whether orally or in written form, from scholarly interpolation or folktale, creation or translation. It provides a summary of the transmission of literature in the medieval Arab world and insight on the "rrekontamiento" as a genre. Finally, it seeks to identify Arabic and Hebrew authors who are cited in the Rrekontamiento as sources but who have remained a mystery. By identifying these authors, we can determine if the Rrekontamiento del rrey Alisandre is a Morisco creation or a translation of a work compiled as early as the mid-eighth century in the Arabian Peninsula. Such knowledge is fundamental to understanding how and when the legends of Aljamiado literature traveled from the East to al-Andalus. Zuwiyya, Zachary David. “Western and Oriental Aspects of the ‘Rrekontamiento Del Rrey Ali Sandre.’” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1996. Zachary David Zuwiyya, Western and Oriental Aspects of the ‘Rrekontamiento Del Rrey Ali Sandre’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1996).Alexander the GreatPseudo-CallisthenesSyriac influence [Arabs]