الناقدة لوفين تصرح بان النسخة السريانية لThe Alexander Romance تعود في تاليفها الى ما بين القرنين السابع و التاسع (بعد الاسلام) و مما يجدر بالانتباه ان النسخة السريانية هي الوحيدة التي احتوت على قصص الاسكندر مع ياجوج و ماجوج و بنائه السد بينما لا نجد هذه الاضافات في النسخ الاقدم كالنسخة اليونانية و الارمينية و اللاتينية
نقرا من THE SYRIAC VERSION OF THE ALEXANDER ROMANCE للناقدة Louvain la Neuve الصفحة 121-122
The Syriac version of the Alexander Romance is preserved in five manuscripts, all in Nestorian script and of recent date (the oldest, held by the British Museum, was compiled in 1708-09), and was edited in 1889 by Ernest A. Wallis Budge (The History of Alexander The Great, being the Syriac Version, edited from five manuscripts, of the Pseudo- Callisthenes, Cambridge, 1889, reprint. Amsterdam, 1976 = BUDGE, History). The editor has adopted the criterion of the codex optimus: this edition is mainly based on the text of the oldest codex, known as A, while the variants in the other four codices (known respectively as B, C, D and E) are noted in the apparatus.
The Syriac text belongs to branch a of the Pseudo-Callisthenes tradi- tion, in other words the ancient recension, mainly represented by the Greek codex A (Paris. 1711), together with the Armenian version (5th century AD), the Latin text by Julius Valerius (4th century AD) and the Historia de proeliis by Leo the Archipresbyter (10th century AD). How- ever, the Syriac text does not seem to be a pure and simple translation of any of the texts of the Pseudo-Callisthenes that have come down to us, both because of the different order in which certain subjects are dealt with, and, above all, because of the inclusion of a certain number of epi- sodes that are not recorded in any of the Greek versions known to us, for example, Alexander's journey to China (text and trans.: BUDGE, History, p. 195-201, p. 109-113). Furthermore, the Syriac version contains a con- siderable number of slight variations on the original Greek, which in- clude some modifications that can definitely be attributed to the transla- tor, who is assumed to have been a Nestorian Christian. These discrep- ancies with the Greek Pseudo-Callisthenes, combined with a certain number of errors in the Syriac translation of Greek proper names, led Budge to suspect that the Syriac text was the translation, completed between the 7th and 9th century AD, of an Arabic version of the original Greek (BUDGE, History, p. lxi-lxii).

تقر الناقدة لوفين ايضا بان قصة the Syriac legend of Alexander و قصيدة Nishana المنحولة على لسان مار يعقوب السروجي تعودان الى 629-630 بعد استعادة هرقل لبيت المقدس من الفرس و تعتبر القصة جزءا من الدعاية المسيحية لتخليد ذكرى انتصار هرقل
نقرا من THE SYRIAC VERSION OF THE ALEXANDER ROMANCE للناقدة Louvain la Neuve الصفحة 138
In Syriac literature in particular, in addition to the Pseudo-Callisthenes, there are various other works (which, however, are not translations from Greek or any other language) connected with Alexander the Great. These include the Syriac Legend of Alexander (Neزجana d- ’Aleksan- dros), written in northern Mesopotamia by a Syrian author, around 629- 630 AD, soon after Heraclius's victory over the Persians31, in which Al- exander is given the traits of a prefiguration of the Byzantine emperor. A poem of around 800 lines, traditionally wrongly attributed to Jacob di Saruj (an author who died in 521 AD), of a slightly later period32, is based on this Legend. There exists yet another shorter and secondary version of the Syriac Legend of Alexander in the western-Syriac Chroni- cle of the Pseudo-Dionysius33. Finally, there is also a brief biography of Alexander in Syriac34.
To conclude, we return to the Syriac Alexander Romance: having as- certained that this is a direct translation of a Greek text, the presence of Persian elements in the text still has to be explained.
Neither the author, nor the precise date of the Syriac version of the Alexander Romance are known





هذا وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد و على اله و صحبه وسلم