Alexander the Great from Britain to Southeast Asia: Peripheral Empires in the Global Renaissance (Classical Presences)

No figure has had a more global impact than Alexander the Great, whose legends have encircled the globe and been translated into a dizzying multitude of languages, from Indo-European and Semitic to Turkic and Austronesian. "Alexander the Great from Britain to Southeast Asia" examines parallel traditions of the Alexander Romance in Britain and Southeast Asia, demonstrating how rival Alexanders - one Christian, the other Islamic - became central figures in their respective literatures. In the early modern age of exploration, both Britain and Southeast Asia turned to literary imitations of Alexander to imagine their own empires and international relations, defining themselves as peripheries against the Ottoman Empire's imperial center: this shared classical inheritance became part of an intensifying cross-cultural engagement in the encounter between the two, allowing a revealing examination of their cultural convergences and imperial rivalries and a remapping of the global literary networks of the early modern world. Rather than absolute alterity or strangeness, the narrative of these parallel traditions is one of contact - familiarity and proximity, unexpected affinity and intimate strangers. Acknowledgments Nota Bene Contents List of Maps and Figures Introduction: Intimate Strangers—Peripheries in Global Literary Networks Traffic in Books Alexander’s Literary Empire Trading Networks Connected Literary Histories Chapter Overview PART I: Conjunctions 1: Heirs to Rome Periphery–Center Alignments Ottoman Imitatio Alexandri Imitatio Alexandri in Global Politics 2: Islamic Alexanders in Southeast Asia Familiar Strangers in the Peripheries Marvelous Technology Pirate and Emperor Alexandrian Translatio imperii in the Malay Annals Alexander in Melaka’s Fall Conclusion 3: Scottish Alexanders and Stuart Empire Inheriting Empire in the Scottish Buik of King Alexander Crusade and Trade Jacobean England’s Alexanders Conclusion 4: Greco-Arabic Mirrors for Barbarian Princes Alexander and Eastern Wisdom Alexander in the Transnational Malay Mirror Between Local and Cosmopolitan Mirrors in the Contact Zone 5: Hamlet and Arabic Literary: Networks Hamlet Through the Looking Glass Alexander’s Skull Transversal Circulations PART II: Invocations 6: From Source to Allusion: Alexander in Intercultural Encounters 7: English Alexanders and Empire from the Periphery Marlowe’s Alexandrian Tamburlaine Alexander’s Balls: Genealogy of Empire in Shakespeare’s Henry V Conclusion 8: Millennial Alexander in the Making of Aceh Corresponding Monarchs Hikayat Aceh and Timurid-Alexandrian Kingship Mimetic Rivalries Embassies and Fame Conclusion 9: Milton, Alexander’s Pirate, and Merchant Empires in the East Emperor and Pirate Milton and the Dutch East Indies Piratical Satan Satan in the East 10: Demotic Alexander in Indian Ocean Trading Worlds Demotic Alexander Stranger Sovereignty Kinship Diplomacy Eschatological Iskandar Oxhide Purchase Conclusion Epilogue Timeline of Texts and Events Bibliography Manuscripts Printed Works Index No figure has had a more global impact than Alexander the Great, whose legends have encircled the globe and been translated into a dizzying multitude of languages, from Indo-European and Semitic to Turkic and Austronesian. This book examines parallel traditions of the __Alexander Romance__ in Britain and Southeast Asia, demonstrating how rival Alexanders—one Christian, the other Islamic—became central figures in their respective literatures. In the early modern age of exploration, both Britain and Southeast Asia turned to literary imitations of Alexander to imagine their own empires and international relations, defining themselves as peripheries against the Ottoman Empire’s imperial center: this shared classical inheritance became part of an intensifying cross-cultural engagement in the encounter between the two, allowing a revealing examination of their cultural convergences and imperial rivalries and a remapping of the global literary networks of the early modern world. Rather than absolute alterity or strangeness, the narrative of these parallel traditions is one of contact—familiarity and proximity, unexpected affinity and intimate strangers. No figure has had a more global impact than Alexander the Great, whose legends have encircled the globe and been translated into a dizzying multitude of languages, from Indo-European and Semitic to Turkic and Austronesian. This text examines parallel traditions of the Alexander Romance in Britain and Southeast Asia, demonstrating how rival Alexanders - one Christian, the other Islamic - became central figures in their respective literatures No figure has had a more global impact than Alexander the Great: his reception in the literary cultures of early modern Britain and Southeast Asia shaped early global literary networks. This study uses the parallel traditions of the Alexander Romance to trace cultural convergences and imperial rivalries.