Persian Poetu. 



275 



..e time of his coronation) amounted to two karans or decades. Sixth- 

 ly, when Alexander was at the point of death his likeness was taken 

 by some of his friends who added two horns, by which were typified 

 his two guardian angels ; these according to Abu' I Masher were 

 subsequently mistaken for real horns. Nizami concludes his expla- 

 nations with a story of Alexander having very long ears, which he con- 

 cealed for a long time from the world, but the secret was discovered 

 by an unlucky barber, who unable to retain it, breathed forth the fact 

 of Alexander's deformity into a cavern. The story closely re- 

 sembles that of Midas, and has evidently a common origin with that 

 of the Phrygian king. 



M. Antoine Galand, in his " Paroles remarquables des Orientaux," 

 is of opinion, that eastern writers have conferred this title on him, from, 

 the circumstance of some Grecian coins of Lysimachus (particularly 

 those of silver, on which Lysimachus is represented with horns) falling 

 into their hands, which they have mistaken for those of Alexander. 

 Their error, he goes on to say, arose from their not being able to deci- 

 pher the Greek inscriptions, and from the coins being larger and more 

 elegant than those of Alexander. 



Of all the reasons just mentioned, I am inclined to think with 

 D'Herbelot, that the first is nearest the truth-, and that the horns have 

 reference to the power and dominion of Alexander, though not in so 

 extended a sense as the French savant and Persian historians would 

 have us to believe. It seems to me highly probable that by the title of 

 " The lord of the two horns," is signified his having been the con- 

 queror of Media and Persia, the sovereigns of which mighty empires 

 are typified in the vision of the prophet Daniel, as the ram with two 

 horns.* M. Galand has not favoured us with any authority for his 

 singular hypothesis. 



Nizdmi, as previously styled, flourished in the reign of Thogrul Ben 



* " An he-^oat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the 

 ground, and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that 

 had two horns which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of 

 his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler 

 against him and smote the ram and brake his two horns." 



" The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. 

 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia : and the great horn that is between his eyes is 

 the first king." (Daniel chap. viii. verses 5, 6, 7, 20 and 21). 



