Haman (Islam)

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In the Qur'an, Haman was a notable companion of Firaun (Arabic for "pharaoh"), whom he asked to build him a tower so he could go up to the heavens and try to see the god of Moses, in whom he disbelieved. His efforts only led to ruin. He is mentioned in several suras, often together with Firaun and Qarun, but the main mentions are:

“ Pharaoh said, "Council, I do not know of any other god for you apart from Me. Haman, kindle a fire for me over the clay and build me a lofty tower so that perhaps I may be able to climb up to Musa's god! I consider him a blatant liar." [Qur'an 28:38] ”
“ And Pharaoh said: O Haman! Build for me a tower that haply I may reach the roads, The roads of the heavens, and may look upon the god of Moses, though verily I think him a liar. Thus was the evil that he did made fairseeming unto Pharaoh, and he was debarred from the (right) way. The plot of Pharaoh ended but in ruin. [Qur'an 40:36]-37 ”

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[edit] Historicity of the Narrative

While many Muslims accept Haman's historicity, it is under criticism by others. Some ancient Egyptian inscriptions are also used to support Haman's historicity.

Haman in the Book of Esther is a high ranking pagan under the Persian king. He builds a giant gallows, seventy-five feet high, to persecute the Jews in Persia. Both "Hamans" were described as archetypally evil men and as advisors to a powerful king who persecuted the Jews and the name "Haman" is rather unusual.

A people in Mesopotamia also build the Tower of Babel using burnt bricks to reach the heavens in the Genesis against God's wishes, probably one of the ziggurats which were built for priests to climb up and to talk to the gods.

This comparison is rejected by Muslim scholars.

[edit] Haman In Bible

Haman in the Book of Esther is a high ranking pagan under the Persian king. He builds a giant gallows, seventy-five feet high, to persecute the Jews in Persia. Both "Hamans" were described as archetypally evil men and as advisors to a powerful king who persecuted the Jews and the name "Haman" is rather unusual. The gallows in Esther could correlate with the tower in the Qur'an.

A people in Mesopotamia also build the Tower of Babel using burnt bricks to reach the heavens in the Genesis against God's wishes, probably one of the ziggurats which were built for priests climb up and to talk to the gods.

This comparison is rejected by Muslim scholars because they believe the Qur'an was given by Allah. They note that the identicalness of two names does not necessarily mean they are the same person and refer to the many differences between the narratives.

[edit] His name

The Bible, one of the oldest references to the Moses and Pharaoh story, neither confirms nor denies Haman as existing in Egypt.

An argument made in support of Haman's historicity is Maurice Bucaille's claim that the name "Haman" occurs in some ancient Egyptian inscriptions, notably one at the Hofmuseum in Vienna (now the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) (Aegyptische Inschriften, I34, p. 130), and is listed in Ranke's dictionary of Egyptian personal names as Vorsteher der Steinbrucharbeiter, "head of the stone quarry workers."

The full entry in Ranke (vol. II, p. 240) is:

“ 26. ḥmn-ḥ (possibly short for ḥmn-ḥtp(.w)?) Image:Hmnh.png

m N R Wien, Wreszinski, S. 130

 ”

It is one of several compound names formed with the name of the ancient Egyptian hawk-god Hemen (ḥmn), any of which could in principle be regarded as a candidate for the Qur'anic "Haman." However, a difficulty with this interpretation is that ḥ corresponds to Arabic ح ḥ, whereas Haman begins with Arabic ه h; this difficulty's force is weakened by the fact that in the later Coptic form of the Egyptian language the two sounds merged. Ranke does also give a similar name with h, but containing two n's (p. 229):

“ 16. hmnn (epitheton of a certain tnn) Image:hmnn.png

m D 18 Sethe, Urk. 4, 1007, 3

 ”

Another hypothesis suggests that "Haman" was derived from a title of the High Priest of Amon (Syed 1980) and that the name refers to the architect Amenhotep.

[edit] The Tower

Several Orientalists, again including Arthur Jeffery, suggest that the motif used here of a tower being built as a challenge to God comes from the story of the Tower of Babel, noting that it was similarly claimed in the Torah to be built of baked bricks. Qur'an scholars counter that the story shows no similarity in other details - notably the absence of any mention of languages. However, critics argue that biblical narratives contain many elements absent in the Qur'anic.

The idea of the Firaun climbing a tower or staircase in order to climb and converse with the gods is in consonance with the mythology of ancient Egypt. [1]

The Egyptians built tall structures such as obelisks and pyramids. However, the structure in the Qur'an identifies with neither of these. Obelisks were phallic symbols and no person could climb them as Firaun seeks to do.

While it is generally agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. The pyramids can be easily climbed, but there is no evidence they were used in this way. Furthermore, in antiquity they were sided with angled limestone blocks that would have made the climb extremely difficult One theory that has gained a degree of acceptance is that they magically launched the deceased pharaoh's soul through the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear, into the abode of the gods. See Egyptian pyramids.

Egyptologists generally believe pyramids to require decades to build; it is unlikely Firaun would wait decades to resolve his conflict with Moses. However, the Qur'anic verse can be interpreted as Firaun boasting and desiring to show his power to Moses. The text is not clear as to whether the tower was actually built or not, but the later commentator Ibn Kathir says that "Fir`awn built this tower, which was the highest structure ever seen on earth, because he wanted to show his people that Musa was lying when he claimed that there was a God other than Fir`awn."

The Tower of Babel is thought to be a reference to ziggurats which were definitely built with the purpose of reaching the heavens and communing with a deity. Also, the biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel has no time constraint.

[edit] Bibliography

  • W. Wreszinski, Aegyptische Inschriften aus dem K.K. Hofmuseum in Wien, Leipzig, 1906
  • Hermann Ranke, Die Ägyptischen Personennamen, Verzeichnis der Namen, Verlag Von J. J. Augustin in Glückstadt, Band I, 1935, Band II, 1952
  • Sher Mohammad Syed, "Historicity Of Haman As Mentioned In The Qur'an", The Islamic Quarterly, 1980, Volume XXIV, No. 1 and 2, First & Second Quarter, Islamic Cultural Centre, London.
  1. ^ C. Jacq (Trans. J. M. Davis), Egyptian Magic, 1985, Aris & Phillips Ltd. & Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers: Chicago, p. 11.

[edit] External links