CONTD

If we could locate the iron barrier or gates referred to in vs 96, we should have a closer idea of the tribes whom the barrier was meant to keep out. It is obvious that the great wall of China is out of the question. Begun in the third century B.C. and continued later, it covers the enormous length of 1,500 miles, and goes up the hills and down the valleys, with towers 40 feet high at intervals of 200 yards. Its average height is 20 to 30 feet. It is built of stone and earth. There is no particular point in which can be identified with the iron barrier in the text. No one has suggested that dhul-qarnain was a Chinese Emperor, and none of the great conquerors of western Asia can be credited with the building of the Chinese wall.
The barrier in the text must have been more in the nature of iron gates than iron wall. Two iron gates, geographically far apart, have been suggested in the alternative. Sometimes they have been mixed up by writers not strong in geography. Both of them have local associations with the name of Alexander the Great. Both are near a town Dorbend, and have borne the name of Bab-ul-hadid (Arabic for "Iron Gate". Let us examine the case of each in turn.

The best known in modern times is at the town of Derbend in the middle of the Western coast of the Caspian sea. it is now in Soviet territory. in the district of Daghistan. Before the southern expansion of Russia in 1813 it belonged to Persia. A spur of Mount Caucasus here comes up north, close to the sea. The Wall in question is 50 miles long, with an average height of 29 feet. As Azerbaijan (in Persia) is not far from this place, some writers have mixed up the Derbend Iron Gate with Azarbaijan, and some with the Caucasian town of kharz (Kars), which is to the south of the Caucasus. There are local tradition here, and in the Astrakhan region, at the mouth of the river volga, higher up the Caspian, connecting this Caucasian Iron Gate with the name of Alexander, but there good reason why we should reject this site as the site of the Iron Gate in the Quranic story. (1) This does not correspond exactly to the description in vs96 (the space between two steep mountain sides); the gap is between the mountain and the sea. (2) Alexander the Great(assuming dhul-qarnain is Alexander), is not known to have crossed the Caucasus. (3) There is an Iron Gate which corresponds exactly to the description, in a locality which we know Alexander to have visited. (4) In the early days, when Muslims spread to all parts of the world, local legend were started by ignorant people connecting the places they knew with places referred to in the Qur-an.

we now come to the iron gate which corresponds exactly to the Quranic description, and has the best claim to be connected with Alexander's story. It is near another Derbend in Central Asia, Hissar District, about 150 miles southeast of Bukhara. A very narrow defile,with overhanging rocks, occurs on the main route between Turkestan and India: latitude 38 N ; longitude 67 E. It is now called in Turki Buzghol-khana (Goat house), but was formally known as the Iron Gate (Arabic,Bab-ul-hadid ; Persian, Dar-i-ahani, Chinese T'ie-men-kuan). There is no iron gate there now, but there was one in the seventh century, when the Chinese traveler Hiouen Tsiang saw it on his journey to India. He saw two folding gates cased with iron and hung with bells. Near by is a lake named Iskander Kul, connecting the locality with Alexander the Great. We know from history that Alexander after his conquest of Persia and before his journey to India, visited Sogdiana (Bukhara) and maracanda (samarqand). We also know from Muqaddasi, the Arab traveller and geographer, who wrote A.H. 375 (A.D. 985.6) that the 'Abbasi Khalifa Wathiq (842-846 A.D.) sent out a mission to central Asia to report to this iron Gate. They found the defile 150 yard wide : on two jambs made with bricks of iron welded together with molten lead, were hung two huge gates, which were kept close. Nothing could correspond more exactly with the description in vs 95-96.

If then the Barrier in vs 95-98 refers to the Iron Gate near Bukhara, we are able to proceed to a consideration of Gig and Magog people with some confidence. They were Mongol tribes on the other side of the Barrier, while the industrious men who did not understand dhul-qarnain's language were the Turks, with their agglutinative language, so different from the language then spoken in Western Asia. The Barrier served its purpose for the time being. But the warning that the time must come when it will crumble to dust has also come true, It has crumble to dust. Long since the mongols push through in their westward journey, pushing the Turks before them, and the Turks became a European Power and have still a footing in Europe. We need not bother about the legend of the Gog and Magog people. They were reputed giants, and two tiny hills in flat Cambridgeshire are derisively called the Gog-Magog hills ! similarly the statues of Gig and Magog in the Guildhall in london , which M.M.A. takes so seriously, In the Alexander's legend of medieval Europe, Gog and Magog are said to have come with 400,000 men to the help of porus whom Alexander defeated, and to have fled after that defeat. They fled to the mountains, and Alexander built a wall with brass gates too prevent their eruptions. see Paul Meyer,Alexander le Grand Dans la literature francaise due Moyen Age: Paris, 1886 ; vol.2 pp. 386-389.
TO CONCLUSION PART (PART 3)

following... off to Part 3



But I wonder why people are desperate to locate the gate.

Could it be poor Eeman in the book of Allah or just inquisitive instinct. I hope it's the later.


Just added benefit:
Some of the historians said Gog and Magog are not from the children of Adam i.e not human beings but this is weak as Allah only informed us of the jinn and mankind to be the only high intelligence on earth. As for their lineage then Allah knows best.

But why would anyone be interested in locating the iron gate I'm really puzzled about this

they are white people,some people said white people are jinn.