reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

474 Adam SilversteinHaman in this context, coupled with the idea that reaching the asbab was a type ofchallenge, hold the crucial clues to the identity of Fir' awn's :tarl;t. In brief, the ideathat Pharaoh asked Haman to build a tower that would reach the heavens waswidely known from a pre-Islamic Near Eastern story. The story is that of Al;liqarthe Sage, a tale that was extremely influential and widespread in the Near East,from the Achaemenid period 32 until the Middle Ages, leaving its mark on Jewish,Christian and Muslim scriptures and cultures along the way. 33 The episode of thistale that is pivotal for our purposes concerns a challenge that the Egyptian Pharaohpresented to the Assyrian ruler. Having received an untrue letter from Al;liqar'streacherous nephew Nadan 34 saying that the famous sage had died, Pharaoh challengedthe Assyrian Esarhaddon to send him a man who could build for him atower between the heavens and the earth, confident that they would no longer beable to find a suitable person. As even the Assyrian ruler believed AlJTqar to bedead, he nominated Nadan to undertake the challenge. Eventually, it emerged thatAl).Tqar actually was alive and well; he was sent to Egypt, where he successfullypassed the Pharaoh's tests, and his villainous nephew was rebuked. 35The story of Al).Tqar is alluded to in the Book of Tobit (second century BCE),where Tobit tells his son: "Remember my son how [H]arnan treated Achiacharus 36who exalted him - how out of light he brought him into darkness, and how herewarded him again; yet Achiacharus was saved but the other had his reward, forhe went down into darkness" (Tobit 14:10). 37 That Al;liqar "exalted" his nephewrecalls the language of the Book of Esther, where Ahasuerus "exalted" Haman(Esther 3: 1 ), and the fact that a few verses later Ahasuerus himself is mentioned(Tobit 14:15) suggests that Tobit's author has Esther's Haman in mind. The.problem is that in most versions of the Al).Iqar story, his nephew is called ''Nadan,"not "Haman." This "mistake" on the part of Tobit's author is an understandable32 An Aramaic version of the AI)Tqar story was found in documents from Elephantine dating from thefifth century BCE (A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C., Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1923, 204--48; and J.M. Lindenberger, The Aramaic Proverbs of A(tiqar, Baltimore, MD:John Hopkins, 1983- which is limited to a study and bilingual edition of AI)Tqar's maxims).33 See: T. Noldeke, Untersuchungen Zum Achiqar-Romans, Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhand1ung,1913; F. Nau, Histoire et sagesse d'Ahikar /'Assyrien, Paris: Letouzey et Am!, 1909; and A.Frayl)a, A(tiqar: (takim min al-sharq al-adna al-qadfm, Beirut: Jiimi'at Bayriit al-AmTrikiyab,1962, 149-61.34 Other common versions of the name include "Nadin" and "Niidiib." The Aramaic text fromElephantine, the English translations of which render the name "Nadin," actually spells this namen.d.n. The vocalization appears random and, crucially for our purposes, the Syriac and Arabicversions have "Niidan" (with "Nathan" in Armenian, and "Anadan" in Slavonic). ·35 The following paragraph is based on my "Haman's transition from the Jiihiliyya to Islam", 301-03.36 "Achiacharus" is the Greek version of AI)Tqar.37 The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha, ed. B.M. Metzger, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965, 75,note 'f (on Tobit 14:10); and J.R. Kohlenberger III (ed.), The Parallel Apocrypha: Greek Text,King James Version, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997,72, where the King James version has"Aman." Compare also Tobit 1:2lff., where AI)Tqar's status at the court is described in terms reminiscentof Haman/Mordecai's status vis-a-vis Ahasuerus.The Qur'anic Pharaoh 475one; the CHiC2aC3 pattern of ''Nadan" easily lends itself to a corruption inthe form of "Haman" and the other similarities between Al).Tqar' s nephew andAhasuerus's vizier, as discussed above, explain the confusion.Thus, in the pre-Islamic Near East, certain versions of the Al).Tqar story substitutedHaman for ~adan. As Al).Tqar's nephew is the one who was initiallysummoned by Pharaoh to build a tower between the heavens and the earth, we canbegin to understand why in the Qur'an Haman is ordered to build Pharaoh's:tarf:t. 38 Moreover, the method by which Al).Tqar managed to build the tower is acompelling detail for our purposes: Al).Iqar commissioned rope-weavers toproduce two ropes of cotton, each two thousand cubits long, that would lift boysborne by eagles high into the air, from where the summit of the tower could bebuilt. The role played in the Al;tTqar story by these overlong ropes strikinglyprefigures that which is played in Fir' awn's :tarl;t by the asbab. Presumably, theversion of the Al;liqar story that was familiar in seventh-century Arabia is theversion known to Tobit's author. That Al).Iqar was known in Mul;lammad's Arabiais indicated by the parallels between some of his maxims and those that are attributedto Luqman in the Qur'an. 39 What Al).Tqar and Luqman have in common, ofcourse, is that they are both paradigmatic "sages" in the Near East, the adjectivel;takfm beirig. applied to both of them.Al;liqar was fabled for h~s wisdom in Late Antique monotheistic circles morethan any other person - with one possible exception: Solomon. Interestingly,Solomon (or Sulayman) is the only other person in the Qur' an to build a :tarl;t, and. he does so in a context that closely parallels the Al;liqar and Fir' awn episodes. Inthe Qur'anic description of their meeting (Q 27:23-44), Sulayman hosts theQueen of Sheba and invites her to embrace Allah's religion. They challenge eachother with various tests, and when she arrives at his court, he tricks her into liftingher dress by building a :tar/:t that creates the illusion that she was about to step onwater. Upon realising that Solomon outsmarted her, she immediately submits toAllah, the :tarl;t playing a direct and pivotal role in her decision to convert.This Qur'iinic episode loudly echoes both the Biblical account of Solomon'smeeting with the Queen of Sheba, 40 as well as midrashic elaborations on the storyrelated in the Targum Sheni to the .Book of Esther. 41 What concerns us here,however, is the relationship between the Qur'anic version of this story andFir' awn's :tarl;t. Even a superficial comparison between the two episodes revealsthat they are inverted parallels of each other: Both Fir'awn and Sulayman attempt38 Admittedly, in the AI)Tqar version of the story, it is not Niidiin but AI)Tqar who eventually builds thetower. It should be remembered, however, that the Qur' iin does not mention whether or not Hiimiinactually did build the ~arb; as with Niidiin, we only know that he was requested by Pharaoh to do so.39 Some of AI)Tqar's sayings have been identified as those ofLuqmiin in Islamic tradition (on AI)Tqarin Islam see: F.C. Conybeare, J.R. Harris and A. Smith Lewis, The Story of Abifsar: From theAramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Old Turkish, Greek and Slavonic Versions,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913, lxxiv-lxxxiii).40 I Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-12.41 B. Grossfeld, The Two Targums of Esther, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991, 114-16.