This volume comprises an introduction by S. and 23 chapters, divided into five parts (‘Formation of a Tradition’, ‘Perspectives’, ‘Texts’, ‘Themes’ and ‘Images’). The majority of the contributions originate from the Alexander Romance in the East conference held in July 2010 at the University of Exeter, with some contributions requested after the conference to ‘carry research forward in an integrated way’ (back cover). The decision of the editors to allow authors to utilise their own system of transliteration is of no detriment to the volume, because of the sheer variety of languages referred to by the contributors: Greek, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Hebrew, Coptic, Turkish, Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese (p. xv). S. noted in Alexander the Great: a Life in Legend (2008) p. 3 the considerable difficulty of studying the Romance because of the need to acquire command of a vast range of languages, and perhaps the solution going forward is to persevere with collaborative volumes such as this, allowing specialists from different disciplines to combine their efforts in a productive manner. An evident driving force of the scholarship within the volume is F.C.W. Doufikar-Aerts' Alexander Magnus Arabicus. A Survey of the Arabic Alexander Tradition through Seven Centuries, from Pseudo-Callisthenes to Ṣūrī (2010), published shortly before the conference. This volume proves that Doufikar-Aerts' monograph has lived up to the prediction of S. in his review as ‘a magnificent work of scholarship that not only presents a vast amount of new research but provides the basis for many possible new directions’ (Speculum 86[3] [2011], 746–7).
‘Formation of a Tradition’ contains four chapters covering the origins of the Romance, as well as providing helpful context. S. discusses the aspects of the Romance deriving from Persian origin, and D.L. Selden considers the roots of the Ancient Novel and the place of the Romance within it. Doufikar-Aerts explores the origins of the ‘Afro-Asiatic’ cycle and the effect the spread of Islam had upon the character of this branch of the Romance. G. Anderson closes the first part with an investigation of Alexander's place in heroic narrative, with attention paid to the Ancient Near East and Roman Rhetoric, and the Romance as Volksbuch. ‘Perspectives’ comprises three chapters exploring the reception and adoption of the Romance across later cultures, with C. Jouanno assessing the effect of the Ottoman expansion on two late Byzantine editions of the Romance. H. Boeschoten muses on the origins of technical contraptions in a Medieval Turkish Romance fragment, and W. Ball highlights the adoption of Alexander as a model of imperialism by the British Empire and the legacy of this identification with the Romance at the frontier of British India.
‘Texts’ contains seven chapters, which focus on literary case studies. H. Manteghi explores the role of the Alexander legend in the Shāhnāmeh of Ferdowsī, followed by M. Casari's consideration of Alexander's appearance in geographical narratives as a symbol of cosmographic knowledge. D. Zuwiyya examines the Qiṣṣa al-Iskandar of Umāra, an early Arabic edition of the Romance. E.M. Gad highlights the role of Alexander and Darius in Al-Tabari's History of Prophets and Kings. E. Cottrell discusses the links between the Choicest Maxims and Best Sayings of Al-Mubaššir ibn Fatik and the a recension of the Romance. L.S.B. McCoull examines nine fragments of the Romance in Coptic, suggesting its use as a Christian Egyptian school text. Y. Yamanaka considers how aspects of the Romance made their way into Chinese and Japanese texts, despite the fact that no substantial Chinese edition has been found thus far.
‘Themes’ contains six chapters, each with an emphasis on a particular aspect of the Romance across multiple texts. D. Ogden explores the evidence of Alexander as dragon-slayer and how the motif came to be incorporated in the Romance corpus. S. Müller compares the characterisation of Roxane in the Greek Romance against the historical evidence of her portrayal. S. Asirvatham considers the theme of Alexander as philosopher across the Graeco-Roman, Persian and Arabic Romance traditions, noting a considerable difference across the cultural interpretations. A. Szalc approaches the Water of Life motif from the perspective of Indian mythology, noting that the addition of the motif to the Romance is a late one. The section is rounded off by A. Klęczar and O. Amitay, who consider the Jewish reception of Alexander's kingship in historical sources and Jewish editions of the Romance, and the dialogue inspired by the Gymnosophist meeting in the Romance found in the Jewish Bavli Tamid respectively.
The final part, ‘Images’, contains three chapters. O. Palagia evinces the extensive impact of Alexander on the artistic output of Asia after his death. A. Fulinska considers the role of Eastern elements in Alexander's art, linking them to the ‘romantic’ rather than ‘historic’ Alexander. F. Melville closes out the volume with a short note on the image of the flying king Kay Kavus from a copy of Ferdowsi's Shāhnāmeh in the St Petersburg National Library, linking its themes to the Romance.
I was astounded to read how much of the material referred to in the volume remains unpublished and overlooked. S. draws attention to this in his introduction, as well as highlighting the vast possibilities of further research (pp. xii–xiv). To demonstrate some examples, Casari's chapter on Alexander as explorer notes an unpublished Persian geographical text, Book on the figures of the climates, by an anonymous author from the fourteenth century a.d., of which there are numerous manuscripts (p. 175). Boeschoten's chapter points out the existence of a 900-page manuscript in Ankara, ostensibly part of the Iskendernāme of Ḥamzavī, which has no critical edition (nor does the Iskendernāme of his brother Aḥmedī) (pp. 122–3). Doufikar-Aerts' chapter also discusses new and unknown manuscripts, including an Arabic version of the letter from Aristotle to Alexander from a Cambridge manuscript containing an event previously unknown in the Arabic tradition: the secret visit of Alexander to Darius (p. 65). Doufikar-Aerts also claims to have re-discovered the Arabic work titled the Life of King Alexander, a bridging text from the Syriac to the Ethiopian version of the Romance, in four different manuscripts which will be translated and published in the near future (p. 66). Zuwiyya notes that the Qiṣṣa al-Iskandar of Umāra, an important document for the Arabic Romance tradition, remains unedited apart from brief excerpts (p. 205).
The editors deserve significant praise for including chapters on topics of vast geographical and temporal breadth, encompassing the Romance's literary predecessors to the reception of Alexander during the British Empire. The volume demonstrates the remarkable spread of the Romance throughout a variety of cultures and literary traditions far beyond the historical Alexander's conquests, with aspects of the Romance being adopted as far east as China. Selden's chapter, the longest of the volume, does an excellent job of contextualising the Alexander Romance within contemporary literary traditions. The volume is clearly aimed at specialists, often using complex technical language and expecting the reader to have some prior knowledge of the Romance. Scholars interested in the Romance in general will find the whole volume enlightening, as many chapters deal with newly-discovered, unpublished or uncommon texts. For those with interests in a specific eastern text, or how different eastern cultures interpreted the legend of Alexander, not only are you likely to find at least one chapter of interest, but as each chapter has an individual bibliography, it is ideally suited to locate further reading material. The volume therefore successfully satisfies a wide potential readership, and alongside S. (2008) and Doukifar-Aerts (2010) ought to become essential reading for anyone interested in the Romance, and should justifiably appear on the reading list of undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the subject. There are, however, numerous typos and small errors: for example, ‘Egyptain’ (p. ix), ‘loose the battle’ (p. 221), ‘no a real philosophy’ (p. 312), ‘con queror’ (p. 347), ‘accordign’ (p. 365), not to mention the foundation of Edessa in 303 ‘a.d.’ (p. 248) by Seleucus Nicator, stand out. Ultimately these are a small distraction from an otherwise strong volume, which should push scholarship on the Alexander Romance to new heights.
