Alexander the Great in the Quran into Arabic. The Greek work "Thesaurus Alexandri" was attributed to Hermes (the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology) and similarly contained supposed letters from Aristotle addressed to Alexander. A more direct Arabic translation of the "Alexander romance," called "Sirat Al-Iskandar", was discovered in Constantinople, at the Hagia Sophia, and is dated to the 13th century. This version includes the letter from Alexander to his mother about his travels in India and at the end of the World. It also includes features which occur exclusively in the Syriac version. The Arabic legend also retains certain pagan elements of the
Alexander del Mar money. Del Mar dedicated much of his free time to original research in the great libraries and coin collections of Europe on the history of monetary systems and finance. Alexander del Mar, of Jewish-Spanish descent, was born in New York City, August 9, 1836 as oldest son of Jacob and Belvidere Alexander del Mar. He lived for a short period of time in the United Kingdom with his uncle Emanuel del Mar and there received an education in humanities from a private tutor, Arthur Helps (later knighted, becoming Sir Arthur Helps). He was instructed in history, literature, law, and political