Tommaso Tesei: Dhu-l-Qarnayn, Late Antiquity, and Rethinking Qur'anic Authorship

In this video I interview scholar and friend Dr. Tommaso Tesei. Dr. Tesei is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Duke Kunshan University. Prior to this he was a Patricia Crone Member in Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was also previously a Polonsky Research Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute in Jerusalem. Dr. Tesei received his PhD at the La Sapienza University of Rome and works on matters relation to Late Antiquity, the Rise of Islam, and the Qur'an's interaction with Syriac Literature. In this interview we discuss the Alexander Legend in the Qur'an. The Alexander Legend is a Late Antique Christian legend which also finds its way into the Qur'an under the name of Dhu-l-Qarnayn. We also discuss the possibility of multiple authorship for the Qur'an, as well as the extent of Christian activity in the Hijaz. I hope you enjoy this video and please remember to like this video and subscribe to this channel for more content like this!