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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 November 2022
Amir Khosrou Dehlavi (1251-1325), who inherited the military rank of amir from his father, a Turkish archer and knight, was the most talented Persian poet of India. He was versed in various arts and sciences, such as historiography, linguistics, rhetoric, and music. His Âyene-ye Eskandari, “The Alexandrine Mirror” (dated Delhi 799 H./1299 A.D.), is a little known but prominent Persian variation of the Alexander Romance that Khosrou wrote in response to the renowned “Alexander” poem (Eskandar-nâme, circa 1197-1203) by Nezâmi of Ganja.
Khosrou was an exact contemporary of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who among other things dealt with the figure and the person of the emperor according to European canons (De Monarchia, 1311). There is a certain resemblance between the two authors with respect to artistic versatility, encyclopedic knowledge, liveliness of dramatic pathos and cosmic representation, research and conception of a universal empire. Amir Khosrou's “The Alexandrine Mirror” represents the Roman king civilizer of the world in Alexander's clothes. This universal king is portrayed as a wise strategist, equanimous ruler, industrious scientist, explorer and conqueror of the world, intrepid navigator of the unknown ocean, all by the grace of God and the favor of Fortune.
Alexander “was born in Rome and died in Syria” (bar âmad ze Rum o foru shod be Shâm, line 3975). As the king of Rome (Rum, means its empire and country), having annexed Africa (Zang) and the Persian kingdom of Darius, he conquers China and Russia (Rus) and explores the Western Sea (daryâ-ye Maghreb), both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Alexander represents the new Darius, the navigator (Dârâ-ye daryâ-navard, line 3666), and ‘the universal emperor’, jahândâr, the lord of the world (jahân, meaning also ‘space’ and ‘empire’). This Persian term corresponds to kosmokrátôr in the anonymous Greek Alexander Romance, which is said to be a work by pseudo-Callisthenes (about 200 A. D.).
Khosrou seems to be animated by the memory of a Roman legal order in contrast to his own contemporary climate of cruelty. Turkish archers, the main body of the Chinese imperial army, as well as the pirates of Cyprus, some Franks (Farang), are all polemically included by Khosrou among people connected with violence and robbery.
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