What does the history of other nations say about Alexander the Great ?

[Epaminondas]

I thought I might start this thread as well so we can post up examples of what is written about Alexander in the history of other nations. This idea came to me when I was speaking to a very well educated Indian friend of mine. I asked him if he was taught history when he was at school in India and specifically about Alexander. He told me that he is mentioned in their history books and that he was Greek. I done some quick research on the net about indian history and Alexander...here is what I found. Quite interseting.

The Indians.

India's extraordinary history is intimately tied to its geography. A meeting ground between the East and the West, it has always been an invader's paradise, while at the same time its natural isolation and magnetic religions allowed it to adapt to and absorb many of the peoples who penetrated its mountain passes. No matter how many Persians, Greeks, Chinese nomads, Arabs, Portuguese, British and other raiders had their way with the land, local Hindu kingdoms invariably survived their depradations, living out their own sagas of conquest and collapse. All the while, these local dynasties built upon the roots of a culture well established since the time of the first invaders, the Aryans. In short, India has always been simply too big, too complicated, and too culturally subtle to let any one empire dominate it for long.
The second great invasion into India occurred around 500 BC, when the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius, pushing their empire eastward, conquered the ever-prized Indus Valley. Compared to the Aryans, the Persian influence was marginal, perhaps because they were only able to occupy the region for a relatively brief period of about 150 years. The Persians were in turn conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, who swept through the country as far as the Beas River, where he defeated king Porus and an army of 200 elephants in 326 BC. The tireless, charismatic conqueror wanted to extend his empire even further eastward, but his own troops (undoubtedly exhausted) refused to continue. Alexander returned home, leaving behind garrisons to keep the trade routes open.

While the Persians and Greeks subdued the Indus Valley and the northwest, Aryan-based kingdoms continued developing in the East. In the 5th century BC, Siddhartha Gautama founded the religion of Buddhism, a profoundly influential work of human thought still espoused by much of the world. As the overextended Hellenistic sphere declined, a king known as Chandragupta swept back through the country from Magadha (Bihar) and conquered his way well into Afghanistan

This has been taken from a non Greek affiliated webpage

http://www.geographia.com/india/india02.htm

[Epaminondas]

The Iranians

I will not post the complete account and what is written as it is very extensive and detailed. I have provided the link at the bottome for those who wish to read it. It is recommended that you do as it gives a great insight on how modern day Persia looks back at being " Hellenised" I will just post a small sample which I feel is very important..as explains quite a lot about how the Macedonians were viewed.

"The word "Hellenism" is used to cover all the facets of Greek culture, and therefore embraces not only philosophy, drama, and the rational view of life, but also other Greek and Macedonian values. Many Hellenes were deeply concerned with the maintenance of armies, the conduct of economic life, the business of the various departments of Hellenistic monarchies, or the pursuit of high personal status, than with philosophical schools, the theater, or the empirical study of nature and human institutions in areas they occupied. The society of the Hellenistic world was very much diversified and extremely complex, and this was true for the Orientals as well as for the Greeks."

Once again my source is not a Greek sponsored page. Rather interstingly it is an Iran Chamber page written by an Iranian.

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/a..._hellenism.php

[Epaminondas]

The Egyptians

Alexander the Great arrived to Egypt in the late autumn of 332 BC. He founded Alexandria in 331 BC as a gateway to his motherland, Greece. Alexandria became a major center for trading. Its Library became a cultural center that made an important contribution to civilization.

From an official Egyptian governemt website.
http://www.presidency.gov.eg/html/history.html

[akritas]

very intresting Epaminondas