² See Anderson, A. R., Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog, and the Inclosed Nations, Cambridge, Mass., 1932, 3–8.Google Scholar

³ X, 2.

⁴ XXXVIII, 1–3.

⁵ XX, 7–8.

⁶ Antiquities of the Jews, VI, 1, 1.Google Scholar

⁷ Wars of the Jews, VII, 7, 4.Google Scholar On the basis of these two passages Pfister propounded the view ”that the legend of Alexander's Gate built to exclude Gog and Magog was of Jewish origin and made in Alexandria in the first century of our era, and that from this Jewish legend ultimately are derived all our versions of Alexander's Gate, even the Syrian Christian (prose) Legend ….” See Anderson, , Alexander's Gate, p. 20, n. 1.Google Scholar Anderson himself disagrees with this view, holding that while “the elements of the legend … are to be found in Josephus … there is no indication that these elements have been put together in the time of Josephus, or, if put together, that they had gained general acceptance …”. Czeglédy, K., “The Syriac legend concerning Alexander the Great”, AOH, VII, 231–49 (237, n. 20), accepts Anderson's argument, though with some qualifications.Google Scholar

⁸ This has usually been taken to be Darband, most recently by Grousset, René, Histoire de l'Armenie des origines à 1071, Paris, 1947, 109.Google Scholar Indeed, until the publication of Anderson's article “Alexander at the Caspian Gates”, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, LIX, 1929, 130–63Google Scholar, it was generally accepted that while the Alexander of history was associated only with the Caspian Gates proper, i.e. a defile in the mountains to the south-east of Tehran, the Alexander of the Romance was associated only with the pass of Darband. In this study however, Anderson demonstrates that the legendary Alexander does not appear at Darband until the time of Heraclius and that in the original form of the legend the building of the Gate took place in the pass of Darial in the Central Caucasus between Tiflis and Vladikavkaz.

⁹ For a translation of the Syriac text see Budge, E. A. Wallis (ed. and tr.), The history of Alexander the Great, being the Syriac version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Cambridge, 1889, 144–58.Google Scholar

¹⁰ On the incursions of the Sabir into Armenia and Asia Minor see Christensen, Arthur, L'Iran sous les Sassanides, Copenhagen, 1936, 348.Google Scholar

¹¹ Nöldeke, Theodor, “Beiträge zur Geschichte des Alexanderromans”, Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Classe XXXVIII, 1890, Abhandlung, V, 31.Google Scholar

¹² pp. 247–8.

¹³ Dowsett, C. J. F. (tr.), The history of the Caucasian Albanians, by Dasxurani, Movsēs, London, 1961, 104–6.Google Scholar

¹⁴ On Petrus Comestor see Daly, Saralyn R., “Peter Comestor: Master of Histories”, Speculum, XXXII, 1957, 62–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵ Giles, J. A. (tr.), Matthew Paris's English history, from the year 1235 to 1273, London, 1852, 1, 357–8.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Laurent, J. C. M., Peregrinatores Medii Aevi quattuor, Leipzig, 1873, 119.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Based on Comestor, (quoted by Anderson, , Alexander's Gate, 64Google Scholar): “‘…et obsedit [sc. Shalmaneser] Samariam tribus annis, et cepit eam anno novo Osee et sexto Ezechiae, et transtulit Israel in Assyrios,’ scilicet septem tribus quae remanserant, ‘et posuit eos juxta fluvium Gozan ultra montes Medorum et Persarum’”. What liberties have been taken with the text of II Kings, XVII. 5–6 may be seen from a comparison with the version in Gray, John, I and II Kings: a commentary, second ed., London, 1970, 642Google Scholar: “…and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah and the Habor region, the river of Gozan, and in the mountains of Media”. For a commentary on the passage see Gray, , 643–4.Google Scholar The “river of Gozan”, transferred by Comestor beyond the Elburz mountains, is in fact the Khabur, a left-bank affluent of the Euphrates. The substitution of Tiglath-pileser for his successor Shalmaneser seems to be due to Ricoldo himself.

¹⁸ Josephus says nothing of the kind, and the peoples enclosed by Alexander according to Pseudo-Methodius do not include the Lost Tribes. See Sackur, Ernst, Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen, Halle, 1898, 74–5Google Scholar; Anderson, , Alexander's Gate, 47–8.Google Scholar

¹⁹ That the Mongol system of writing is derived from the Aramaic script is perfectly correct, and Ricoldo appears to be the first European to have recorded the fact.

²⁰ Doerfer, Gerhard, “Der Name der Mongolen bei Rašīd ad-Dīn”, CAJ, XIV, 1970, 68–77 (74–5Google Scholar) sees in the forms moghōl and mōghāl in the Persian historians a Persian “Verballhornung” of the native mongghol/mongghal.

²¹ In fact, Pseudo-Methodius, as Anderson, , Alexander's Gate, 67–8, points out, makes no mention of the Lost Tribes.Google Scholar

²² See Boyle, J. A., “The Alexander Legend in Central Asia”, Folklore, LXXXV, 217–28 (224–5)Google Scholar; idem, “Narayrgen or the People of the Sun” in Altaica collecta, Wiesbaden, 1976, 131–6 (132–5).Google Scholar

²³ Sbornik letopisei, I/i, tr. Khetagurov, A. A., Moscow-Leningrad, 1952, 153–4.Google Scholar See also Boyle, , “The Alexander Legend in Central Asia”, 222–3.Google Scholar

²⁴ Budge, E. A. Wallis (tr.), The Alexander Book in Ethiopia, London, 1933, 142.Google Scholar

²⁵ XVIII. 95.

²⁶ Recueil des historiens des Croisades. Documents Arméniens, II, Paris, 1906, 115–253 (152–3).Google Scholar

²⁷ On Baljuna see Boyle, , “The Longer Introduction to the Zīj-i-Īlkhānī of Naṣīr-ad-Dīn Tūsī”, JSS, VIII, 1963, 244–54 (250, n. 1).Google Scholar

²⁸ Nine was a sacred or mystic number amongst the Altaic peoples, cf. the “nine feet” in the following sentence. See Roux, Jean-Paul, “Les chiffres symboliques 7 et 9 chez les Turcs non musulmans”, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, CLXVIII, 1965, 29–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁹ Laurent, , op. cit., 119.Google Scholar

³⁰ Consolatio philosophiae, II. 8: “Aetate denique Marci Tullii, sicut ipse quodam loco significat, nondum Caucasum montem Romanae rei publicae fama transcenderat…”.Google Scholar

³¹ See Anderson, , Alexander's Gate, 83–5Google Scholar; Sinor, Denis, “La Mort de Batu et les trompettes mues par le vent chez Herberstein”, JA, 1941–1942, 201–8 (206–8).Google Scholar

³² Budge, , The history of Alexander the Great, 148.Google Scholar

³³ XVIII, 88–9.

³⁴ See Boyle, , “Turkish and Mongol shamanism in the Middle Ages”, Folklore, LXXXIII, 1972, 177–93 (187–8).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁵ See Dawson, Christopher (ed.), The Mongol Mission, London, 1955, 24–5.Google Scholar

³⁶ Skelton, R. A., Marston, Thomas E., and Painter, George D., The Vinland map and the Tartar relation, New Haven, 1965, 64 and 66.Google Scholar

³⁷ See Kmoskó, Michael, “Das Rätsel des Pseudomethodius”, Byzantion, VI, 1931, 273–96 (275)Google Scholar

³⁸ See Sackur, , op. cit., 45–51.Google Scholar

³⁹ i.e.

⁴⁰ Sackur, , 63–4.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Sackur, , 72–5.Google Scholar

⁴² See Boyle, , “Alexander and the Turks”, in Heissig, W. and others (ed.), Tractata Altaica Denis Sinor Sexegenario optime de rebus Altaicis merito dedicata, Wiesbaden, 1976, 107–17 (107–8)Google Scholar; idem, “The Alexander Romance in the East and West”, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, LX, 1977, 13–27 (16–19).Google Scholar

⁴³ See Boyle, , “Alexander and the Turks”, 109–11.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Skelton, , Marston, , AND Painter, , 68.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Wolohoiian, Albert M. (tr.) The Romance ọf Alexander the Great by Pseudo-Callisthenes, New York, 1969, 119–20.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ The practice is referred to briefly by John de Piano Carpini. See Dawson, , 36.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ See Juvainī, , The history of the World-Conqueror, tr. Boyle, J. A., Manchester, 1958, II, 406 and n. 40.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ “Eine mongolische Fassung der Alexandersage”, ZDMG, CVII, 1957, 105–29.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ “An Early Mongolian Version of the Alexander Romance”, HJAS, XXII, 1958, 1–99.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Cleaves, , 2.Google Scholar

⁵¹ pp. 7–9.

⁵² As Cleaves, remarks, p. 94, n. 405, this unrecorded word appears to designate some sort of receptacle.Google Scholar

⁵³ p. 27.

⁵⁴ Cleaves, , 4Google Scholar; Poppe, , 105.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ pp. 115, nn. 1 and 125.

⁵⁶ Boyle, , “Narayrgen”, 135.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ See Boyle, , “The thirteenth-century Mongols' conception of the after-life: the evidence of their funerary practices” in Davidson, H. R. E. (ed.), The journey to the other world, Cambridge and Ipswich, 1975, 27–41, (28, 31, and 38, n. 7).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ p. 124, n. 123. See also Cleaves, , 26 and 95–6, n. 428.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Iqbāl-nāma ed. Dastgirdī, Vaḥīd, Tehran, 1317/1938, 259.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Muṣībat-nāma ed. Viṣāl, Nurānī, Tehran, 1338/1959, 94–5.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Levy, Reuben (transl.), A Mirror for Princes, the Qābūs-nāma by Kai Kā'ūs ibn Iskandar, London, 1951, 136–7.Google Scholar

⁶² Pfister, Fridrich (ed.), Der Alexanderroman des Archipresbyters Leo, Heidelberg, 1913, 111.Google Scholar

⁶³ Budge, , The history of Alexander the Great, 101.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ On the δ* recension of the Alexander Romance see Pfister, , 19–24Google Scholar; Ausfeld, Adolf, Der griechische Alexanderroman, Leipzig, 1907, 8 and 17–23Google Scholar; Ross, D. J. A., Alexander historiatus, London, 1963, 45–65.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ van Thiel, Helmut (ed. and tr.), Leben und Taten Alexanders von Makedonien, Darmstadt, 1974, 155.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Van Thiel, , 155Google Scholar; Pfister, , 111–12Google Scholar; Budge, , The history of Alexander the Great, 101–2.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ In the Syriac version the chain was girt around the temple; it was suspended inside it according to the β recension. On the other hand Leo describes it as hanging down from a bank underneath the mountain, which is nearer to the Mongolian version.

⁶⁸ London, 1967.

⁶⁹ It occurs only in the β recension (van Thiel, , 111 and 113).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Budge, , The Alexander Book, 169–72.Google Scholar

⁷¹ p. 78, n. 160.

⁷² p. 7.

⁷³ See Friedländer, Israel, Die Chadirlegende und der Alexanderroman, Leipzig, 1913.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ p. 30.