Alexander Dow (1735 or 1736 – 31 July 1779) was a Scottish Orientalist, writer, playwright and army officer in the East India Company.

[2] Dow was in the process of being educated for a mercantile career in Eyemouth, when he abruptly left aboard the King of Prussia as a midshipman.

There he became secretary to the Governor, and was commended to the patronage of the officials of the East India Company at Calcutta.

He joined the army there as an ensign in the Bengal infantry on 14 September 1760, and was rapidly promoted lieutenant on 23 August 1763, and then captain on 16 April 1764.

In 1774, he again returned to England, and David Garrick produced his second tragedy in verse at Drury Lane, entitled 'Sethona', set in a mythic ancient Egypt.