The Malay Alexander Legend

Alexander the Great was born in 356 BC and died in 323 BC. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Northwest India. The first part is the story of the lost prince, which is part of the collection of half-mythical stories written in Bahasa Indonesia generated by the historical Alexander’s meteoric rise and fall. It comes to us via Persian romances and later mentions the two-horned Alexander who is mentioned in the Holy Koran. These legends probably arrived in Malaysia brought by Muslim Indian merchants via Aceh. They wanted spices and pepper and traded them for silks and embroidered clothes. I am indebted to my former colleagues, Irene Mutto and Sudeshni Iachimpadi, who worked on the massive task of translating into English the Indonesian text collected by the Dutch scholar Van Leeuwen in the 1930s and also to Joe Stantor of Stantography and Wendy Kirby of the Glossop Craft Centre for their technical assistance. This edition has simplified Alexander’s story so children can enjoy it too and colour in the illustrations themselves. For the full text in English and Bahasa Indonesia, I refer you to my earlier book: The Malay Alexander Legend (ISBN: 9781467882798).