A Kaleidoscope of Hellenic History

A Kaleidoscope of Hellenic History series contains four works, which are related to Alexander the Great's campaign in Central Asia and the profound effect it had on the fate of entire peoples and generations in world history. The oral testimonies and traditions of the mosaic of the peoples of Central Asia - Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan – which I had the opportunity to get to know in the 21 years I lived there. They all wanted Alexander the Great for themselves. Archaeological excavations and historical research have brought to light many facts about the Sogdians and Bactrians, who spoke a language of Greek-Sogdian origin and had links with Byzantium until the 6th century. In the entire poetic tradition of these peoples, which is almost unknown in Greece, the figure of Alexander is praised. After the death of Alexander the Great, during the Hellenistic period (4th-1st century BC), qualitatively new state formations appeared and flourished, the Hellenistic states, whose structure was evident from the time of the first successors of Alexander. The classical city and the oriental community gave way to the establishment of new cities and new state formations - the Hellenistic states, which would leave deep traces in the history of the ancient and modern world of the East and the West. The states of the Seleucids, the Ptolemies and then the formation of various states from India to Egypt, presented great achievements in all fields of human creation, in urban planning, architecture, philosophical currents and religious pursuits, in the sciences and letters. Samarkand, the capital of Tamerlane, is famous for its archaeological monuments. It is here that the huge ruins of the mosque, which popular tradition has given the name of Bibi-Khanum, rise. The critic of Russian literature and thinker on the cusp of the transition from Romanticism to Realism, Vissarion Belinsky, who highlighted the four great and glorious names of Russian literature, Pushkin, Griboedov, Gogol and Lermontov, was also concerned with issues of world literature, history and philosophy. He was not unmoved by the great personalities of humanity. He believed that such emissaries from heaven rarely appear on earth. Alexander became king of peoples and kings, ruler of the world. With the prestige of the genius with which by enslaving, he liberated and thus he sowed Hellenism in his path... The Greek Alexander continued to live in the traditions of the peoples of Central Asia as Iskander to the present day.