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Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I (died 465 Common era) but traditionally equated with Artaxerxes I or Artaxerxes II. His epithet, Agagite, indicates that Haman was a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites. Some commentators interpret this descent to be symbolic, due to his similar personality. Retrieved 13 February 2017
In the narrative of the Book of Esther, Haman was a proud and ambitious man who demanded that everyone bow down to him as a sign of respect. However, a Jewish man named Mordecai refused to bow down to him, which enraged Haman. Seeking revenge, Haman convinced the king to issue a decree that all Jews in the Persian empire be Genocide. Haman's plot was foiled by Queen Esther, who was also Jewish and had concealed her identity from the King. Esther revealed Haman's plan to Ahasuerus and pleaded with him to spare her people. The King was outraged at Haman's treachery and ordered that he be executed instead.
The plot was foiled by Queen Esther, the king's recent wife, who was herself a Jew. Esther invited Haman and the king to two banquets. In the second banquet, she informed the king that Haman was plotting to kill her (and the other Jews). This enraged the king, who was further angered when (after leaving the room briefly and returning) he discovered Haman had fallen on Esther's couch, intending to beg mercy from Esther, but which the king interpreted as a sexual advance.
On the king's orders, Haman was hanged from the 50-cubit-high gallows that had originally been built by Haman himself, on the advice of his wife Zeresh, in order to hang Mordecai. The bodies of Haman's 10 sons were also hanged, after they died in battle against the Jews. The Jews also killed about 75,000 of their enemies in self-defense.
The apparent purpose of these unusually high gallows can be understood from the geography of Susa: Haman's house (where the pole was located) was likely in the city of Susa (a flat area), while the royal citadel and palace were located on a mound about 15 meters higher than the city. Such a tall pole would have allowed Haman to observe Mordecai's corpse while dining in the royal palace, had his plans worked as intended.Yehuda Landy, Purim and the Persian Empire, p. 83
TgEsth1 and TgEsth3 call him "Haman the son of Hamedatha, descended from Agag the son of Amaleq." The Targum Sheni gives Haman's lineage as follows: "Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, son of Khada, son of Kuza, son of Alipilot, son of Dios, son of Diosos, son of Peros, son of Ma'dan, son of Bala'qan, son of Antimiros, son of Hadrus, son of Shegar, son of Negar, son of Parmashta, son of Vaizatha, son of Agag, son of Sumqar, son of Amalek, son of a concubine of Eliphaz the son of Esau". There are apparently several generations omitted between Agag, who was executed by Samuel the prophet in the time of King Saul, and Amalek, who lived several hundred years earlier. According to the Midrash Abba Gorion, Haman was also called Memucan, because he was "destined for punishment".
In Midrash, Haman is considered to be an archetype of evil and persecutor of the Jews. Having attempted to exterminate the Jews of Persia, and rendering himself thereby their worst enemy, Haman naturally became the center of many Talmudic legends. Being at one time extremely poor, he sold himself as a slave to Mordecai.Megillah 15a He was a barber at Kefar Karzum for the space of twenty-two years.Megillah 16a Haman had an idolatrous image embroidered on his garments, so that those who bowed to him at command of the king bowed also to the image.Esther Rabbah 7
Haman was also an astrologer, and when he was about to fix the time for the genocide of the Jews he first Cleromancy to ascertain which was the most auspicious day of the week for that purpose. Each day, however, proved to be under some influence favorable to the Jews. He then sought to fix the month, but found that the same was true of each month; thus, Nisan was favorable to the Jews because of the Passover sacrifice; Iyyar, because of the small Passover. But when he arrived at Adar he found that its zodiacal sign was Pisces, and he said, "Now I shall be able to swallow them as fish which swallow one another" (Esther Rabbah 7; Targum Sheni 3).
Haman had 365 counselors, but the advice of none was so good as that of his wife, Zeresh. She induced Haman to build a gallows for Mordecai, assuring him that this was the only way in which he would be able to prevail over his enemy, for hitherto the just had always been rescued from every other kind of death. As God foresaw that Haman himself would be hanged on the gallows, he asked which tree would volunteer to serve as the instrument of death. Each tree, declaring that it was used for some holy purpose, objected to being soiled by the unclean body of Haman. Only the thorn-tree could find no excuse, and therefore offered itself for a gallows (Esther Rabbah 9; Midrash Abba Gorion 7 (ed. Buber, Wilna, 1886); in Targum Sheni this is narrated somewhat differently).
According to the Targum Sheni, he killed the prophet Daniel, who managed to live to Ahasuerus's reign (Targum Sheini on Esther, 4, 11).
Haman appears six times throughout the Qur'an four times with Pharaoh and twice by himself, where God sent Moses to invite Pharaoh, Haman, and their people to monotheism, and to seek protection of the Israelites whom Haman and Pharaoh were tormenting. Referring to Moses as a sorcerer and a liar, the Pharaoh rejected Moses' call to worship the God of Moses and refused to free the Israelite children. The Pharaoh commissioned Haman to build a tall tower using burnt bricks so that the Pharaoh could ascend and see the God of Moses. The Pharaoh, Haman, and their army in chariots pursuing Israel's fleeing children drowned in the Red Sea as the parted water closed on them. The Pharaoh's submission to God at the moment of death and total destruction was rejected, but his corpse was saved as a lesson for posterity and he was mummified.
Since the 1890s, several academics have "agreed in seeing The Esther as a historicized myth or ritual" and generally concluded that Purim has its origin in a Babylonian or Persian myth or festival (though which one is a subject of discussion).Moore, Carey A. (1971). Esther. Doubleday. See section "The Non-Jewish Origins of Purim." Pages 46-49. "Esther's canonical status may have been opposed by those Jews who saw the book as a defense for a Jewish festival which, as its very name suggests (*the pûr that", iii 7; see also ix 26), was non-Jewish in origin. Certainly modern scholars have felt the explanation for Purim's name in ix 26 to be strained and unconvincing. Moreover, the "secular" character of the feast suggests a pagan origin, that is, no prayers or sacrifices are specified, but drinking to the point of excess is permitted in the Talmud, Megilla 7b... pûrim is a hebraized form of a Babylonian word...Efforts to identify Purim with an earlier Jewish or Greek festival have been neither common nor convincing, and ever since the 1890s, when Heinrich Zimmern and Peter Jensen equated Mordecai and Esther with the Babylonian gods Marduk and Ishtar, and Haman and Vashti with the Elamite gods Humman and Mashti, a Babylonian origin for Purim has been popular. Though scholars like Jensen, Zimmem, Hugo Winckler, Bruno Meissner and others have each picked a different Babylonian myth or festival as the prototype for Purim, namely, the Gilgamesh Epic, the Babylonian Creation Story, the Tammuz-Ishtar Myth, and the Zagmuk Feast, respectively, they all agreed in seeing Esther as a historicized myth or ritual. More recently, however, a Persian origin for Purim has been gaining support among scholars." However, more recent scholarship places Purim's origins in the region of Palestine instead.Moore, Carey A. "Esther, Book of," ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 637-638 "Certainly a pagan origin for Purim would also help to explain the "secular" way in which it was to be celebrated, i.e., with uninhibited and even inebriated behavior (cf. above Meg. 7b). Then too, a pagan origin for the festival would also help to explain the absence of various religious elements in the story.... But even more recently scholars are again looking to Palestine for the origin of the festival."
The Agatha Christie novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles references Haman in a scene where Poirot, investigating a murder, says he will "hang him as high as Haman".
In the Lord Peter Wimsey novel The Nine Tailors, Lord Peter, revealing that the victim, Geoffrey Deacon, was inadvertently killed by the ringing of bells, declares that his killers are already hanging "far higher than Haman".
He is featured as the primary antagonist in the 1999 South Park episode "Jewbilee", in which he is portrayed as attempting to re-enter the mortal world in order to rule once more over the Jews.
The character was depicted in the American feature film One Night with the King (2006), played by James Callis.
American children's television animations in which the biblical story of Haman is told include the "Queen Esther" episode of the series (1985-1992), where he is voiced by Werner Klemperer, and the computer-generated series VeggieTales (2000), in which he is portrayed by "Mr. Lunt" during the episode "Esther, the Girl who Became Queen".
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