Haman () is a person mentioned in the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

where he appears as court official of the Firaun of Exodus, and associated with him in his court at the time of the Islamic prophet (Musa),

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

in Christianity and Judaism. The name Haman, however, also appears in the biblical

Book of Esther The Book of Esther (; ; ), also known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the wikt:מגילה, Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the Five Megillot, Five Scrolls () in the Hebr ...

where Haman is a counselor of Ahasuerus, king of Persia and an enemy of the Jews. The relationship between the Biblical and Quranic Haman has been a topic of debate. There is no evidence of such stories in Egyptian history. Some Islamic scholars compared plot elements of the book of Esther when they elaborated on the Quranic narrative of the Exodus.

Qur'anic Narrative

The name Haman appears six times throughout the

, Quran 29:39,40:24, 28:8, 28:38. four times with Pharaoh and twice by himself, where God sends Moses to invite Pharaoh, Haman and their people to

monotheism Monotheism is the belief that one God is the only, or at least the dominant deity.F. L. Cross, Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A ...

, and to seek protection of the Israelites Haman and Pharaoh were tormenting. Referring to Moses as a sorcerer and a liar the Pharaoh rejected Moses' call to worship the God of Moses and refused to set the children of Israel free. The Pharaoh commissioned Haman to build a tall tower using fire-cast bricks so that the Pharaoh could climb far up and see the God of Moses. The Pharaoh, Haman, and their army in chariots pursuing the fleeing children of Israel drowned in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

as the parted water closed up on them. The Pharaoh's submission to God at the moment of death and total destruction was rejected but his dead body was saved as a lesson for posterity.

High Priest of Amun

Some have proposed that the name ''Haman'', like ''Pharaoh'' in the

and

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

is not a proper name, but a title. The description of Haman in the Qur'an serving in both a priestly religious role and that of one who's in charge of building projects answerable to the Pharaoh himself draws parallels with the High Priest of Amun. McAuliffe's Encyclopaedia of the QurʾānA. H. Johns, "Hāmān", in J. D. McAuliffe (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Of The Qur'an, 2002, Volume II, op. cit., p. 399. reports multiple possible identifications of the name:

Muhammad Asad Muhammad Asad (born Leopold Weiss; 2 July 1900 – 20 February 1992) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Muslim polymath, born in modern day Ukraine. He worked as a journalist, traveler, writer, List of political theorists, political theori ...

identifies the name with a supposed Egyptian title ''Hā-Amen'', as a high priest. Georges Vajda thought the name might have been confused with that of a minister of the Biblical Persian king Ahasuerus. Anthony Johns, the author of the encyclopaedia entry, hypothesises that the name of the Biblical Haman may have been adopted to designate any anti-Jewish court official.

References

{{Authority control People of the Quran Ancient Egyptian viziers