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title: Ahiqar
subtitle: The Story of Ahiqar in its Syriac and Arabic tradition
layout: Layout

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Plot of the Ahiqar story {.h4 .mb-4 .secondary--text}

The story of the wise Ahiqar is one of the most frequently edited and reworked tales in the literature of the ancient Near East (also in the Bible within the Book of Tobit). It describes how the childless Ahiqar (counsellor at the court of the Assyrian kings Sennacherib (reigned 705-681 BCE) and Esarhaddon (reigned 681-669 BCE)) adopts and trains his nephew Nadan to be his successor. However, it is Nadan himself who conspires against his uncle to kill him. Ahiqar saved his life with a trick and recovered from the attempted murder when the Assyrian King received a challenge to solve a riddle sent by the Pharaoh of Egypt. Hence, Ahiqar solved the riddle and various other tasks while in Egypt. Finally, he lectures Nadan afterwards with a lesson which finally puts him to death.{.body-1}

The peculiarity of the Syriac and Arabic versions {.h4 .mb-4 .secondary--text}

The story of Ahiqar became widespread even beyond the Middle East. The oldest source is an Aramaic papyrus from the 5th century BCE, in which it seems clear that several earlier materials (stories and proverbs) are interwoven. Moreover, there are many other versions of Ahiqar’s story, not only in Aramaic, but also in Syriac, Arabic, and many other ancient and modern languages.{.body-1}

The extensive Syriac and Arabic versions played a central role in the transmission of the (originally Aramaic) material into other languages and literary traditions. The last attempt so far to compile a reasonably comprehensive account of the Ahiqar’s story tradition was made more than a hundred year ago by F. C. Conybeare et al. in 1913, but the study does not include all known textual witnesses. As for the Aramaic version, several publications have since appeared, which makes them well accessible. Despite the fundamental importance of the Syrian and Arabic versions, reliable text editions are still lacking. The aim of the project is to fill this gap and provide a textual and literary analysis of the Syriac and Arabic versions of the Ahiqar tradition in digital form to establish the material and technical basis for further research on the other versions.{.body-1}

Therefore, the main text witnesses of the Syriac and Arabic versions have been identified, transcribed, and translated. Furthermore, the names of people, places, motifs, and biblical references have been tagged. A short description and further literature to the manuscripts have also been appended. Related to the manuscripts, it should be noted that several Syriac text witnesses bear impacts of local spoken language (esp. regarding vocalization and spirantization). Only those phenomena, that can be described as gross errors, have been corrected (related to orthography and content).{.body-1}

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