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Abatur (, also Abathur or Awāthur, ) is an uthra and the second of three subservient emanationism created by the Mandaean God Hayyi Rabbi (, “The Great Living God”) in the Mandaeism religion. His name translates as the "father of the Uthras", the Mandaean name for angels or guardians.Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. 2002. The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 8. His usual epithet is the Ancient ( ˁattīqā) and he is also called "the deeply hidden and guarded". Also known as the Third Life, Abatur is described as being the son of the first emanation Yushamin (). He is also described as being the angel of Polaris.Bunson, Matthew. Angels A to Z. New York:Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996.
He exists in two different personae. These include Abatur Rama (, ), and his "lower" counterpart, Abatur of the Scales (, ), who weighs the souls of the dead to determine their fate. In Mandaean texts such as the Qulasta, Abatur is sometimes referred to as Bhaq Ziwa.
The name "Abiṭur", possibly a variant of Abatur, has been found inside a Jewish incantation bowl. In Sefer HaRazim, a 4th-century Jewish magical text, Ibiṭur is the name of an angel serving the angelic prince Asimur in the Seven heavens.
Abatur is unhappy with the assignment, complaining that he is being asked to leave his home and his wives to do this task. Instead, Abatur impatiently asks questions regarding specific of omission and sins of commission, asking how such impure souls can be saved. Hibil then answers these questions in a rather lengthy response.
A later section of the book reveals that Abatur is the source of Ptahil (), who fills the role of the demiurge in Mandaean cosmology. The book indicates how Abatur gives Ptahil-uthra precise instructions on how to create the material world (Tibil, ) in the void described above, and gives him the materials and help (in the form of demons from the World of Darkness) he needs to do so. Ptahil, like Abatur before him, complains about his assignment but does as he is told. The world he creates is very dark, unlike the World of Light from which Abatur and the others come.
After the material world is created, the Adam Kadmon asks Abatur what he will do when he goes to Tibil. Abatur answers that Adam will be helped by Manda d-Hayyi, who instructs humans with sacred knowledge and protects them. This enrages Ptahil, who dislikes Abatur giving a degree of control of his creatures to someone else, and he complains bitterly about it in much the same way that Abatur had complained about his assignment to Hibil Ziwa.
He subsequently serves as a judge of the dead, in much the same capacity as Rashnu and Anubis. Those souls who qualify can enter the World of Light from which Abatur himself came. Hibil will only allow him to return to the World of Light upon the end of the poorly made material world that Ptahil created.
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