Differences between Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, and Dhul-Qarnayn
The suggestion that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great is supported by some of the Quranic commentaries (Tafsir) and Islamic scholars Allameh Tehrani,Syed Ahmed Khan (known interpreter of the Quran), Abul Kalam Azad (Minister of Culture, India, in Majma' al-Bayan), and Dr. Baha-ed-Din Khorramshahi. Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani Parizi the historian, denies the fact that Dhul-Qarnayn was Alexander the Great.[10] They believe that Dhul-Qarnayn was Cyrus the Great, the King and founder of Achaemenid empire. Their evidence includes artifacts, stone carving palaces and graves. Some of their reasons are:
1. In the carved stone that can still be seen up to now show Cyrus with his crown with two horns.
2.According to the Quran, Cyrus was the first king (several hundred years before Alexander the Great) who conquered most of Europe and Asia.
3.Cyrus (as Dhul-Qarnayn) was a monotheist and worshipped one God, but Alexander the Great had many gods.
4.In the Quran, Dhul-Qarnayn noted that the journey begins to the west and then to the east before the road to the other (the North), which coincided with the start the expedition of Cyrus the Persian conquest in the West to Lydia in Asia Minor and then turned to the east until the Makran and Sistan prior to capturing the Northeast Europe near the Balkan.
5.Expedition of Cyrus proceeded with the conquest of Lycia, Cilicia and Phoenicia, and they used the techniques of wall construction which was not used by the Greeks at that time.
6.In accordance to story in Quran, more chances of it being Cyrus, as he ended his expeditions in 542 BC, before returning to Persia, while Alexander was still in war mission when he died.