Dhū l-Qarnayn in the Tafsīr by ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm al-Qummī

Sūrat al-Kahf, the eighteenth chapter of the Quran, transmits a story about a character, nicknamed Dhū l-Qarnayn. Sunni exegetical works of the Holy Book of Islam have attracted much more attention than their Shiʽi counterparts. In this contribution, I will deal with the oldest of the Twelver commentaries which is the one written by ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm al-Qummī who devoted several pages to Dhū l-Qarnayn’s tale. My analysis has a two-fold aim: To verify how this Quranic character is utilized within the Imami context and to extrapolate the various motifs connected with him in al-Qummī’s text.