Bullheaded Black Remembers Alexander

Before there was Islam, there was Alexander. Before there wasChristianity, there was Alexander. This is the story of Alexander theGreat's invasion of the Middle East and of his astonishing effort to unitethe civilized world under a central government designed to promote peace andinternational trade. This is the story of one man's courageous determination toadvance freedom of religion and racial equality in Egypt,Mesopotamia [Iraq today], Asia Minor [Turkey], Persia[Iran], and Bactria [Afghanistan]. Why let Bucehpalus, or Oxhead (the horse Alexander rode during the ten yearsof the conquest) tell this story? Because by using the famous stallion (orBullheaded Black, as I call him) as the narrator, it allows me to cut the storyto the bone, to cover the main facts of Alexander's life, but also to inject alittle common sense, or horse sense, if you will, about the major influences uponAlexander's ideas and motivations: the obvious influence, for example, of hisfather and mother, and the less obvious influence of Aristotle, who washis personal tutor for three or four years when Alexander was a teenager. This is a basic story: basic biography, basic world history, and basicgeography. This is also the story of Alexander's idea for a better world. Hisdream perished with him in Babylon, when he unexpectedly died in 323BC atthe tender age of 33. In fact, a comprehensive dream like his, incorporatingreligious freedom and racial equality, did not flower profusely again until1776 in America, and did not shoot promising tendrils forward again inIraq and Afghanistan until the United States of America'spreemptive strikes in the 21st Century. What would Alexander say to ustoday about disputes over religion and the various gods of the world's greatfaiths? Read this book! You will be surprised!