In the Qur'an, Haman was a notable companion of the Pharaoh in Moses' time, 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, of course, only led to ruin. He is mentioned in several suras in passing as an evil figure destroyed by God, often together with Pharaoh (Fir'awn) and Qarun, but the main mentions are:

And Pharaoh said: O chiefs! I know not that ye have a god other than me, so kindle for me (a fire), O Haman, to bake the mud; and set up for me a lofty tower in order that I may survey the god of Moses; and lo! I deem him of the liars. (sura 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. (40 :36-37)

The later commentator Ibn Kathir says that "Fir`awn (Pharaoh) 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."

Contents

1 Historicity of Haman 1.1 His name 1.2 The tower 2 Bibliography 3 External links

Historicity of Haman

The question of Haman's historicity depends first of all on the question of Moses' own; see Moses#Moses in history, Exodus#Historical studies. If this is accepted, then it may still be noted that the Torah, the earliest surviving source to describe Moses and the Exodus, does not mention any attempt by Pharaoh to build a tower, nor does it mention any of his advisors. However, neither does it say anything specifically contradicting such a claim.

His name

Several Orientalists, including Arthur Jeffery , have suggested that the source of the name "Haman" used here is the Book of Esther, which describes a person by the name of Haman as an evil minister of the king of Persia much later in history. In support of this, they note that both "Hamans" were described as archetypally evil men and as advisors to a powerful king who persecuted the Jews, and that the name "Haman" is rather unusual. Some even point to the 75-foot gallows Haman was said to have built to hang the Jews as a possible prototype for the tower in question. This suggestion is rejected by Muslim scholars, who note that mere similarity or even identity of two names is no reason to assume they are the same person, particularly when the circumstances described are so different.

One argument sometimes 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 http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/ ) (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". This is half-true; a similar name is listed in Ranke, but without the description (although the description may actually come from Aegyptische Inschriften.) The full entry in Ranke (vol. II, p. 240) is:

26. ḥmn-ḥ (possibly short for ḥmn-ḥtp(.w)?)

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, however, may be 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 ns (p. 229):

16. hmnn (epitheton of a certain tnn)

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.)

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, similarly, was claimed in the Torah to be built of baked bricks. Muslims counter that the story shows no similarity in other details - notably the absence of any mention of languages - and note that the Pharaohs did, for combined religious and political reasons, build structures reaching towards the sky such as obelisks and pyramids, to which category this tower might have belonged.

Some critics regard the Qur'an's mention of building the tower of baked mud as anachronistic. In fact, "burnt brick was known in Egypt at all periods" according to A. J. Spencer's Brick Architecture In Ancient Egypt (Aris & Phillips Ltd., UK, 1979, p. 140); however, the Egyptians only rarely built in it (one site http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/bricks2.htm cites Manual of Egyptian Archaeology, G. Maspero, H. Grevel, p. 4.)

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.

External links

• Ibn Kathir http://www.tafsir.com/Tafsir
• Historical Errors Of The Qur'an: Pharaoh & Haman http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/haman.html , from Islamic Awareness (pro-Qur'an)
• Qur'an Contradiction: Pharaoh, Haman, and the tower of Babel http://answering-islam.org.uk/Quran/Contra/qbhc09.html from Answering Islam (anti-Qur'an)
• The hmn-h name is discussed at the AEgyptian-L mailing list on Week 123 http://www.rostau.clara.co.uk/AEgyptian-L/archives/week123.txt and Week 124 http://www.rostau.clara.co.uk/AEgyptian-L/archives/week124.txt , referencing notes made by Ellis Karim http://roswell.fortunecity.com/prediction/358/
• Pharaoh and Haman http://www.amaneena.com/m/0014.htm (Arabic)