Story of Ahikar

Only a Late Babylonian cuneiform tablet from Uruk (Warka) mentions an Aramaic name Aḫu’aqār.

[5] His name is written in Imperial Aramaic אחיקר and in Syriac ܐܚܝܩܪ and is transliterated as Aḥiqar, Arabic حَيْقَار (Ḥayqār), Greek Achiacharos, and Slavonic Akyrios, with variants on that theme such as Armenian Խիկար (Xikar) and Ottoman Turkish Khikar, a sage known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom.

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.

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).

[8] 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.

[9][10] 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.

In the summary of W. C. Kaiser, Jr.: 'chief cupbearer, keeper of the signet, and in charge of administrations of the accounts under King Sennacherib of Assyria', and later under Esarhaddon (Tob.

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.

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.