{{short description|Aramaic story from the fifth century BCE}} {{Italic title}} thumb|Papyrus narrating the story of the wise chancellor Ahiqar. Aramaic script. 5th century BCE. From Elephantine, Egypt. Neues Museum, Berline [[File:Ahikar and celestial town.jpg|thumb|''How Ahikar Outwitted the King of Egypt'' (Henry Justice Ford)]]
The '''''Story of Aḥiqar''''', also known as the '''''Words of Aḥiqar''''', is a story first attested to in Imperial Aramaic from the fifth century BCE on papyri from Elephantine, Egypt, that circulated widely in the Middle and the Near East.<ref name = CMK>Christa Müller-Kessler, "Ahiqar," in ''Brill’s New Pauly,'' Antiquity volumes, ed. by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, English edition by Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes ed. by Manfred Landfester, English Edition by Francis G. Gentry.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Story of Ahikar {{!}} Pseudepigrapha|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Story-of-Ahikar|access-date=2021-01-23|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref><ref name= Linderberger>J. M. Linderberger, ''Ahiqar (Seventh to Sixth Century B.C.). A New Translation and Introduction'', in James H. Charlesworth (1985), ''The Old Testament Pseudoepigrapha'', Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company Inc., Volume 2, {{ISBN|0-385-09630-5}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|0-385-18813-7}} (Vol. 2), p. 480. Quote:"The Aramaic manuscript was discovered by German escavators at Elephantine in 1907. Catalogued by the Königliche Museen zu Berlin as P.13446, most of the manuscript remanins in the museum's Papyrus Collection. Column vi (P.13446 J) was subsequently returned to Egypt along with a number of other papyri from Elephantine and is now at the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, where it bears the catalogue number 43502. [...] The Syriac and the Armenian (which also goes back to a Syr. tradition) are the versions most closely related to the Aramaic."</ref> It has been characterised as "one of the earliest 'international books' of world literature".<ref>Ioannis M. Konstantakos, "A Passage to Egypt: Aesop, the Priests of Heliopolis and the Riddle of the Year (''Vita Aesopi'' 119–120)," ''Trends in Classics'' 3, 2011, pp. 83–112, esp. 84).</ref>
The principal character, '''Aḥiqar''', might have been a chancellor to the Assyrian Kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Only a Late Babylonian cuneiform tablet from Uruk (Warka) mentions an Aramaic name ''Aḫu’aqār''.<ref name="Dijk 1963, p. 217">J. J. A. van Dijk, Die Inschriftenfunde der Kampagne 1959/60, ''Archiv für Orientforschung'' 20, 1963, p. 217.</ref> His name is written in Imperial Aramaic {{lang|arc|אחיקר}} and in Syriac {{lang|syc|ܐܚܝܩܪ}} and is transliterated as Aḥiqar, Arabic {{lang|ar|حَيْقَار}} ('''Ḥayqār'''), Greek '''Achiacharos''', and Slavonic '''Akyrios''', with variants on that theme such as Armenian {{lang|hy|Խիկար}} (''Xikar'') and Ottoman Turkish '''Khikar''', a sage known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom.<ref>''The Story of Aḥiḳar from the Assyrian, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Old Turkish, Greek and Slavonic Versions'', ed. by F. C. Conybeare, J. Rendel Harris, Agnes Smith Lewis, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913) [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026927776 archive.org]</ref>
It is known as '''TAD C1.1''', and catalogued as Berlin Papyrus 13446A-H, K-L (Berlin Papyrus Collection) and Pap. No. 3465 = J. 43502 (Egyptian Museum of Cairo).<ref name= Linderberger/>
== Narrative == In the story, Ahikar is chancellor to the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Perdue|first=Leo G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1Lrt1ZM2CIC&q=.&pg=PA109|title=Scribes, Sages, and Seers: The Sage in the Eastern Mediterranean World|date=2008|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|isbn=978-3-525-53083-2|location=|pages=109|language=en|quote=The story of Ahikar, who is said to have served at the courts of Sennacherib and then Esarhaddon, and the sayings connected with his name were well known in the Ancient Mediterranean World.}}</ref> Having no child of his own, he adopted his nephew Nadab/Nadin, and raised him to be his successor. Nadab/Nadin ungratefully plotted to have his elderly uncle murdered, and persuades Esarhaddon that Ahikar has committed treason. Esarhaddon orders Ahikar be executed in response, and so Ahikar is arrested and imprisoned to await punishment. However, Ahikar reminds the executioner that the executioner had been saved by Ahikar from a similar fate under Sennacherib, and so instead the executioner kills a different prisoner, and pretends to Esarhaddon that it is the body of Ahikar.
The remainder of the early texts do not survive beyond this point, but it is thought probable that the original ending had Nadab/Nadin being executed while Ahikar is rehabilitated. Later texts portray Ahikar coming out of hiding to counsel the Egyptian king on behalf of Esarhaddon, and then returning in triumph to Esarhaddon. In the later texts, after Ahikar's return, he meets Nadab/Nadin and is very angry with him, and Nadab/Nadin then dies.
== Origins and development ==
At Uruk (Warka), a Late Babylonian cuneiform text from the second century BCE was found that mentions the Aramaic name ''A-ḫu-u’-qa-a-ri'' of an ''ummānu'' "sage" Aba-enlil-dari (probably to be read in Babylonian as ''Mannu-kīma-enlil-ḫātin'') under Esarhaddon (seventh century BCE).<ref name="Dijk 1963, p. 217"/> There are also references to one or more people named ''Ahī-yaqar'' in cuneiform texts from the time of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, although the identification of this person (or people) with the sage Ahiqar is uncertain.<ref>{{cite book |title=Wandering Arameans: Arameans Outside Syria: Textual and Archaeological Perspectives |last=Oshima |first=Takayoshi |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-447-10727-3 |pages=144–145 |editor-last=Berlejung |editor-first=Angelika |chapter=How Mesopotamian was Ahiqar the Wise? A Search for Ahiqar in Cuneiform Texts |editor-last2=Maeir |editor-first2=Aren M. |editor-last3=Schüle |editor-first3=Andreas |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/34084863}}</ref> The literary text of the sage Aḥiqar might have been composed in Aramaic in Mesopotamia, probably around the late seventh or early sixth century BCE. The first attestation are several papyrus fragments of the fifth century BCE from the ruins of the Jewish military colony on the island Elephantine, Egypt.<ref>Ingo Kottsieper, ''Die Sprache der Aḥiqarsprüche'' (= Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die altestamentliche Wissenschaft, 194) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1990).</ref><ref>Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni, C1.1 Aḥiqar, in ''Textbook of Aramaci Documents from Ancient Egypt'', vol. 3 (Jerusalem, 1993), pp. 23–57.</ref> The narrative of the initial part of the story is expanded greatly by the presence of a large number of wise sayings and proverbs that Ahiqar is portrayed as speaking to his nephew. It is suspected by most scholars that these sayings and proverbs were originally a separate document, as they do not mention Ahiqar. Some of the sayings are similar to parts of the Biblical ''Book of Proverbs'', others to the deuterocanonical ''Wisdom of Sirach'', and others still to Babylonian and Persian proverbs. The collection of sayings is in essence a selection from those common in the Middle East at the time.<ref>James M. Lindenberger, ''The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983).</ref>
In the Koine Greek ''Book of Tobit'' (second or third century BCE), Tobit has a nephew named Achiacharon ({{lang|grc|Αχιχαρον}}, or Achiacharos {{lang|grc|Αχιαχαρος}}; Tobit 1:21) in royal service at Nineveh. It was pointed out by scholar George Hoffmann in 1880 that Ahikar and the Achiacharos of Tobit are identical. In the summary of W. C. Kaiser, Jr.: {{Blockquote|text='chief cupbearer, keeper of the signet, and in charge of administrations of the accounts under King Sennacherib of Assyria', and later under Esarhaddon (Tob. 1:21–22 NRSV). When Tobit lost his sight, Ahikar [{{lang|grc|Αχιαχαρος}}] took care of him for two years. Ahikar and his nephew Nadab [{{lang|grc|Νασβας}}] were present at the wedding of Tobit's son, Tobias (2:10; 11:18). Shortly before his death, Tobit said to his son: 'See, my son, what Nadab did to Ahikar who had reared him. Was he not, while still alive, brought down into the earth? For God repaid him to his face for this shameful treatment. Ahikar came out into the light, but Nadab went into the eternal darkness, because he tried to kill Ahikar. Because he gave alms, Ahikar escaped the fatal trap that Nadab had set for him, but Nadab fell into it himself, and was destroyed' (14:10 NRSV).<ref>W. C. Kaiser, Kr., 'Ahikar uh-hi’kahr', in ''The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible'', ed. by Merrill C. Tenney, rev. edn by Moisés Silva, 5 vols (Zondervan, 2009), s.v.</ref>}}
The Codex Sinaiticus Greek Text, which the New Revised Standard Version follows, has "Nadab." The Greek Text of the Codices Vaticanus and Alexandrinus calls this person "Aman".
It has been contended that there are traces of the legend even in the New Testament, and there is a striking similarity between it and the ''Life of Aesop'' by Maximus Planudes (ch. xxiii–xxxii). An eastern sage named "Achaicarus" is mentioned by Strabo.<ref>Strabo, ''Geographica'' 16.2.39: "{{lang|grc|...παρὰ δὲ τοῖς Βοσπορηνοῖς Ἀχαΐκαρος...}}"</ref> It would seem, therefore, that the legend was undoubtedly Near Eastern in origin, though the relationship of the various versions can scarcely be recovered.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Achiacharus|volume=1|page=143}}</ref> Elements of the Ahikar story have also been found in Demotic Egyptian.<ref name = CMK/><ref name=SPB>Sebastian P. Brock, [https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Ahiqar "Aḥiqar"], in ''Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition'', edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay (Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018).</ref> British classicist Stephanie West has argued that the story of Croesus in Herodotus as an adviser to Cyrus the Great is another manifestation of the Ahiqar story.<ref>"Croesus' Second Reprieve and Other Tales of the Persian Court," ''Classical Quarterly'' (n.s.) 53 (2003): 416–437.</ref> A full Greek translation of the ''Story of Ahikar'' was made at some point, but it does not survive. It was, however, the basis for translations into Old Slavonic and Romanian.<ref name=SPB/>
There are five surviving Classical Syriac recensions of the ''Story'' and evidence for an older Syriac version as well. The latter was translated into Armenian and Arabic. Some Ahiqar elements were transferred to Luqman in the Arabic adaptations. The Georgian and Old Turkic translations are based on the Armenian, while the Ethiopic is derived from the Arabic, influence of which is also apparent in Suret versions now.<ref name=SPB/>
== Legacy == In modern folkloristics, the story of Achikar gives its name, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 922A, ''Achikar'' (or ''Achiqar'').<ref>Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. ''The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography''. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 322.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Uther |first1=Hans-Jörg |author-link=Hans-Jörg Uther |title=The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson |date=2004 |publisher=Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica |isbn=978-951-41-0963-8 |volume=1 |page=554 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Holy writ as oral lit: the Bible as folklore |last=Dundes |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Dundes |date=1999 |location=Lanham, Md. |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=9 |quote=A papyrus palimpsest recovered from Elephantine in Upper Egypt in the first decade of the twentieth century contained an Aramaic text of the story of Ahiqar dating from the late fifth century b.c. It is, in fact, a traditional tale, namely, Aarne-Thompson tale type 922A, ''Achikar'', in which a falsely accused minister reinstates himself by his cleverness.}}</ref>
== Editions and translations == * Eduard Sachau, ''Aramäische Papyrus und Ostraca aus einer jüdischen Militärkolonie'' (Leipzig: J. C. Hindrichs, 1911), pp. 147–182, pls. 40–50. * ''The Story of Aḥiḳar from the Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Old Turkish, Greek and Slavonic Versions'', ed. by F. C. Conybeare, J. Rendel Harrisl Agnes Smith Lewis, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913) [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026927776 archive.org] * A. Cowley, "The Story of Aḥiḳar," in ''Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923), pp. 204–248. * {{cite book |editor-last=Platt |editor-first=Rutherford H. Jr. |year=1926 |title=The forgotten books of Eden |location=New York, NY |publisher=Alpha House |url=https://archive.org/stream/adamandevecollection/The%20Forgotten%20Books%20of%20Eden#page/n321 |pages=198–219}} ([https://archive.org/details/TheForgottenBooksOfEden audiobook]) * ''[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Say_of_Haykar_the_Sage The Say of Haykar the Sage]'' translated by Richard Francis Burton * James M. Lindenberger, ''The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983). * James M. Lindenberger, ''Ahiqar. A New Translation and Introduction'', in James H. Charlesworth (1985), ''The Old Testament Pseudoepigrapha'', Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company Inc., Volume 2, {{ISBN|0-385-09630-5}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|0-385-18813-7}} (Vol. 2), pp. 494–507.<ref>Quote from the 1985 book: "[the translated Aramaic text is based on the oldest extant version] found in a single papyrus manuscript. It was discovered by the German exvators of ancient Elephantine in 1907. Catalogued by the Berlin State Museums as P. 13446, most of the manuscript remains in the museum's Papyrus Collection. Column vi was subsequent returned to Egypt along with a number of other papyri from Elephantine and it is now in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, where it bears the catalogue number 43502." (pp. 480-479)</ref> * Ingo Kottsieper, ''Die Sprache der Aḥiqarsprüche'' (= Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die altestamentliche Wissenschaft, 194) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1990). {{ISBN|3-11-012331-2}} * Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni, "C1.1 Aḥiqar," in ''Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt'', vol. 3 (Jerusalem, 1993), pp. 23–57. {{ISBN|965-350-014-7}}
== Literature == * Bledsoe, Seth. The Wisdom of the Aramaic Book of Ahiqar, (Leiden: Brill, 2021) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004473126 * Pierre Grelot, "Histoire et sagesse de ’Aḥîqar l’assyrien," in ''Documents araméens d’Égypte'' (Paris: L’édition du Cerf, 1972), pp. 427–452. * Ricardo Contini, Christiano Grottanelli, ''Il saggio Ahiqar'' (Brescia: Peidaeia Editrice, 2006). {{ISBN|88-394-0709-X}} * Karlheinz Kessler, "Das wahre Ende Babylons – Die Tradition der Aramäer, Mandaäer, Juden und Manichäer," in Joachim Marzahn, Günther Schauerte (edd.), ''Babylon – Wahrheit'' (Munich, 2008), p. 483, fig. 341 (photo).{{ISBN|978-3-7774-4295-2}}
== Citations == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == {{refbegin}} * {{cite journal |last=Braida |first=Emanuela |title=The Romance of Aḥiqar the Wise in the Neo-Aramaic MS London Sachau 9321 |journal=Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies |volume=14 |editor=Amir Harrak |pages=50–78 |location=Piscataway, NJ, USA |publisher=Gorgias Press |date=2014 |doi=10.31826/9781463236618-004|isbn=978-1-4632-3661-8 }} * {{cite journal |last=Braida |first=Emanuela |title=The Romance of Aḥiqar the Wise in the Neo-Aramaic MS London Sachau 9321: Part II |journal=Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies |volume=15 |issue=1 |date=2015 |pages=41–50 |doi=10.31826/jcsss-2015-150106}} * {{cite book |last=Kratz |first=Reinhard G. |chapter=Aḥiqar and Bisitun: The Literature of the Judeans at Elephantine |title=Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors |editor=Margaretha Folmer |pages=67–85 |location=University Park, USA |publisher=Penn State University Press |date=2022 |doi=10.1515/9781646022083-010}} * {{cite book |last=Moore |first=James D. |title=Literary Depictions of the Scribal Profession in the Story of Ahiqar and Jeremiah 36 |location=Berlin, Boston |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2021 |doi=10.1515/9783110753042|isbn=978-3-11-075304-2 }} * {{cite journal |last=Southwood |first=Katherine |title=Performing Deference in Ahiqar: The significance of a Politics of Resistance in the Narrative and Proverbs of Ahiqar |journal=Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft |volume=133 |issue=1 |date=2021 |pages=42–55 |doi=10.1515/zaw-2021-0002|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d80a5eee-1977-472a-874f-2d89692590fe }} * {{Cite book |last=Toloni |first=Giancarlo |chapter=Aḥiqar and the Story of Tobit |title=The Story of Tobit |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Brill |date=2022 |pages=115–134 |doi=10.1163/9789004519459_011|isbn=978-90-04-51945-9 }} {{refend}}
== External links == {{Wikiquote}} {{EB1911 poster|Achiacharus}} * [http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/pseudepigrapha/ahikar.htm ''The Story of Ahikar''] * {{librivox book | title=The Story of Ahikar}} * [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=984&letter=A AḤIḳAR at JewishEncyclopedia.com] * [http://www.andrews.edu/sem/inministry/uploads/2014coursesyllabi/the_first_purim-hallo.pdf The First Purim] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428051419/https://www.andrews.edu/sem/inministry/uploads/2014coursesyllabi/the_first_purim-hallo.pdf |date=2023-04-28 }} * [https://www.academia.edu/1826739/_Memories_of_Sennacherib_in_Aramaic_Tradition._Pp._295-323_in_Sennacherib_at_the_Gates_of_Jerusalem_701_B.C.E._Story_History_and_Historiography_ed._Isaac_Kalimi_and_Seth_Richardson._Culture_and_History_of_the_Ancient_Near_East_71._Leiden_Brill_2014 "Memories of Sennacherib in Aramaic Tradition"]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahiqar}} Category:5th-century BC manuscripts Category:Texts in Syriac Category:Texts in Aramaic Category:Ancient Near East wisdom literature Category:Book of Tobit Category:Esarhaddon Category:Sennacherib Category:One Thousand and One Nights Category:Egyptian papyri in Aramaic Ahikar, Story of Category:7th-century BC literature Category:6th-century BC literature