Contents

Who is the king with two horns mentioned in the Quran?

In the Quran, Surah Kahf, chapter 18, verse 83 it says, 

They ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about the two horned. Say, “I will tell to you something of his narrative.”

 But most of the people don't know who is the king mentioned here. There are so many fairy tales some people made about him to get attention. But there was a great king who is mentioned in the Quran and Bible. 

First of all, we have to know who is this king mentioned here. To know that, we have to take a look on the Bible. In the Bible, Book of Daniel, chapter 8, verse 1-20 it is mentioned

 The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. 

This verse tells the explanation of Daniel's dream. 

So, according to the Bible the king with 2 horns is the king of Media and Persia. 

In the Bible, there are many verse which mentions Cyrus as a great king. 80 years after Jerusalem was invaded by Nebuchadnezzar, the Jews were turned into slaves, and the temple of Solomon was destroyed, Cyrus came and freed the Jews and helped them to rebuild the temple of Solomon.

The kingdom of Cyrus was spread from present Pakistan to Istanbul, Turkey. 

Map of Achaemenid Empire
Image: Wikipedia
There are many verses which praises Cyrus in the Bible. You can check Book of Isaiah, chapter 45

 

Where Gog and Magog are or were?

In the Quran, Surah Kahf, Chapter 18, Verse 84, 85 and 86 it says,

So he travelled a course, until he reached the setting ˹point˺ of the sun, which appeared to him to be setting in a spring of murky water, where he found some people.

He reached in the setting point, which means in the west where he found murky water. Which means the Black sea. Because it is less salty, it is murky than all other seas in the world.

In verse 89 and 90 it says

Then he travelled a course. until he reached the rising ˹point˺ of the sun. He found it rising on a people for whom We had provided no shelter from it.

This means that he then travelled to the east. Then in verse 92 and 93 it says

 Then he travelled a ˹third˺ course, until he reached ˹a pass˺ between two mountains. He found in front of them a people for whom was hard to understand his language. They pleaded, “O the two horned! Indeed Gog and Magog are corrupting throughout the land. Should we pay you tribute, provided that you build a wall between us and them?” He responded, “What my Lord has provided for me is far better. But assist me with resources, and I will build a barrier between you and them. Bring me blocks of iron!” Then, when he had filled up ˹the gap˺ between the two mountains, he ordered, “Blow!” When the iron became red hot, he said, “Bring me molten copper to pour over it.”

Which means he travelled to a place between two mountains and there is iron ore and the place he travelled is beside a murky sea and there is another sea in its east and between them is a mountain range in which there is only one mountain defile. In verse 96, Allah used the word "ٱلصَّدَفَيْنِ" which means the two mountain cliffs. Because of closing the mountain defile, Gog and Magog were unable to pass that mountain defile that time because they didn't had the technology to break that barrier but this does not mean that they will never be able to. After building the barrier Cyrus said, “This is a mercy from my Lord. But when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will level it to the ground. And my Lord’s promise is ever true.”


In the east of Black sea there is Caspian sea and between them is the Caucasus mountain range.

Caucasus Mountain Range
Image: Wikipedia

According to Josephus, in a mountain defile of  the Caucasus mountain range, Alexander the Great built an iron gate. According to some historians it is the Darial Gorge

Image by Wikipedia


Darial Gorge is between the border of Georgia and Russia. And the word Darial comes from the persian word "Dar-e-Elan" which means the gate of Elan. There are many forts built to secure the Darial Gorge.

Who are the Gog Magog?

They are not monsters or anything other. They are humans like us. There are many fairy tales made by people on them. According to Ibne Kathir, there are no proofs that some of Gog and Magog are tall as a tree of dates and some of them are too much small and some of them cover themselves by their ears. These are all fictional and not true. These were made by some people to get attention. The Quran is not a book of fairy tales of monsters and kings. There are some hadiths in Musnad Ahmad which says that the Gog and Magog begin breaking the iron gate and when it is almost finished and they see the light of the sun they say that they will break the remaining later but when they come in the next day they see that the wall is as like it was before they broke it. So according to this, Cyrus made an iron wall which they can break within a day and the wall is in a cave which is conflicting with the Quran. Because of these fake hadiths many people don't understand the thing.

The 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus identified the Gog and Magog people as Scythians. They ruled the Pontic steppe which was spread from black sea to Caspian sea. The Scythians were the only superpower in the pontic stepppe in 800 BC. They had white skin, brown hair, and blue eyes. 

In the late 6th-century AD a major commercial empire was established by the Scythian, Hunnic–Bulgar, Iranian, Alans, and Turkish tribes covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, and Kazakhstan.

Then in the 8th century, the Khazars converted to Judaism and announced their state religion Judaism. The reason they converted to Judaism is they realized that Henotheism is more successful than their belief. There are three religions which promote Henotheism. They are Islam and Christianity. They didn't convert to Islam or Christianity because if they convert to Christianity, they would have to obey the Byzantine Empire and if they have converted to Islam they would have to obey the Abbasid Caliphate.

Because of the attacks of the Kievan Rus Empire and fall of Khazaria in the 10th century, they migrated to Europe.

Image by: khazaria.com

They are now called the Ashkenazi Jews who are Jews but European. And they are converted Jews who are not among the children of Israel. These Jews people organized the first zionist conference in 1897 and established zionism. Then they bought all the Jews from all over the world, occupied Palestine and established their state Israel.

References

  1. Stampfer, Shaul. “Project MUSE - Did the Khazars Convert to Judaism?” Project MUSE - Did the Khazars Convert to Judaism?, muse.jhu.edu, 12 June 2014, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/547127?fbclid=IwAR1NrzW-omg7-yfllOr6Jk5Wap9tn07Pp4cJD5J_xDhncxgY03ktbfV8P0Q#:~:text=Yehudah%20Halevi’s%20The%20Kuzari%20describes,his%20court%20converted%20to%20Judaism.
  2. Elhaik, Eran. “Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses.” OUP Academic, academic.oup.com, 1 Jan. 2013, https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article/5/1/61/728117?fbclid=IwAR3OtV5TJAt9iTiNNyFMstn1Wx_9NTZlEgWSPqscHyEVMXacKmWDwx2vw4U&login=false.
  3. “Cyrus the Great - Wikipedia.” Cyrus the Great - Wikipedia, en.m.wikipedia.org, 26 Jan. 2012, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great?fbclid=IwAR36rrITyooKnevYZ1IpUG-ZK-5p3urSGI9mYbq5KL1OzJifoevGXSVFrrA.
  4. “Gog and Magog - Wikipedia.” Gog and Magog - Wikipedia, en.m.wikipedia.org, 24 Aug. 2016, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog_and_Magog?fbclid=IwAR1Ecp_kj-vxWHDUJOWoTh47M5b7kLIOBORH5lge1Xz2ZOmUSFvHGTT6CIc.
  5. “Bible, Isaiah 45.” Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2045&version=NIV. Accessed 17 June 2022.
  6. “Bible, Daniel 8.” Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%208&version=NIV.
  7. “Quran, Surah Al-Kahf - 84-93.” Quran.Com, quran.com, https://quran.com/18/84-93