ABSTRACT
Alexander the Great is an ideal object of study in research concerned with the globalization of knowledge in the post-ancient Mediterranean world for several reasons. Determined, ruthless, and adventurous, Alexander was also a gifted political strategist. Alexander himself used this myth as a legitimizing strategy. In 331 BCE, Alexander went out of his way to visit the oracle of Zeus-Ammon in the Egyptian oasis of Siwah. The reception of Alexander in the Islamic world started earlier, lasted longer and unfolded a greater and more diverse dynamics than that of any other classical character. The career of the literary Alexander cannot be captured in a single line of transmission, but criss-crosses over different languages, religions and cultures, gaining in detail and substance, and morphing into different personalities. A particular interest lies in the mechanisms used by different milieus to integrate Alexander into their own traditions.
