Bahamut

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File:Al Qazwini Cosmology.jpg
The fish (Bahamut) carries on its back the giant bull (Kuyuta), and on the green hyacinth slab stands an earth-bearing angel.<ref name="ency-islam-kaf"/>Template:Right

Bahamut, or Bahamoot (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; Template:Langx), according to Zakariya al-Qazwini, is a monster that lies deep below, underpinning the support structure that holds up the earth.

In this conception of the world, the earth is shouldered by an angel, who stands on a slab of gemstone, which is supported by the cosmic beast (ox) sometimes called Kuyutha'(/Kuyuthan)/Kiyuban/Kibuthan (plausibly a corruption or misrendering of Hebrew לִוְיָתָן "Leviathan"). Bahamut carries this bull on its back, and is suspended in water for its own stability.

Balhūt is a variant name found in some cosmographies. In the earliest sources, the name is Lutīyā, with Balhūt given as a byname and Bahamūt as a nickname.

Orthography

Bahamūt is the spelling given in al-Qazwini (d. 1283)'s cosmography.Template:Efn<ref name="c-d-note198">Template:Harvp, p. 216 and note 198.</ref> Bahamoot is Edward Lane's transcribed spelling.Template:Sfnp Balhūt is the alternate spelling given in Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229)'s geographic workTemplate:EfnTemplate:Sfnp and copies of Ibn al-Wardi (d. 1457)'s work.Template:Refn<ref name="c-d-note198-ibn-al-wardi"/>

The name is thought to derive from the biblical Behemoth (Template:Langx; cf. Job 40:15-24),<ref name="ency-islam-kaf"/> and it was thus rendered in German as Behemot by Ethé.Template:EfnTemplate:Sfnp However, the original biblical Behemoth never appeared as a fish.<ref>Template:Harvp, pp. 237–238 and note 271, citing Heinen, Islamic Cosmology, p. 235 for the statement "in none of these ancient texts is Behemoth a fish"</ref> A reshaping of its nature must have occurred in Arab storytelling, some time in the pre-Islamic period.Template:Sfnp One proposed scenario is that a pair of beasts from the Bible were confused with each other:<ref name="guest&ettinghausen"/> the behemoth mis-assigned to the fish, and the aquatic leviathan to the bull.

Lane's summary

Bahamut, according to Lane's abstract of a particular Islamic work on cosmography, is a giant fish acting as one of the layers that supports the earth.Template:Sfnp It is so immense "[all] the seas of the world, placed in one of the fish's nostrils, would be like a mustard seed laid in the desert".Template:Sfnp Above the fish stands a bull called Kuyootà, on the bull, a "ruby"Template:Refn rock, on the rock an angel to shoulder the earth. Below the Bahamut (Leviathan) is the colossus serpentine Falak.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Lane's primary Islamic source for his summary is unclear, as Lane merely refers to it Template:Linktextly as "the work of one of the writers above quoted".Template:EfnTemplate:Sfnp

Arabic sources

Template:See also There are a number of Islamic cosmographical treatises, of more or less similar content.

There can occur certain discrepancies in Western translations, even when there are no textual differences in the Arabic. The creature, named Bahamut or Balhut in these sources, can be described as a fish or whale according to translation, since the original Arabic word hūt (حوت) can mean either.<ref name="c-d-note198"/> Also, the gem comprising the slab beneath the angel's feet, in Arabic yāqūt (Template:Linktext) is of ambiguous meaning,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and can be rendered as "ruby", or variously otherwise.Template:RefnTemplate:Verify source

Cosmography

Qazwini group

Al-Damiri (d. 1405) on authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih was one of Lane's sources, possibly the source of his main summary.Template:Efn His description of "Bahmût" (French translation) matches Lane's summary down to certain key details.Template:Efn However, there seems to be discrepancies in using "a heap of sand" (instead of "mustard") in the size analogy.<ref name=perron>Template:Citation: Note 14 to p. 457 by Perron Template:In lang</ref>

Al-Qazwini (d. 1283)'sTemplate:Efn cosmography The Wonders of Creation on the contrary agrees with Lane on these points.Template:RefnTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp However, it disagrees somewhat with Lane's description regarding what lies below the fish: water, air, then a region of darkness, and with respect to the bull's appendages.Template:EfnTemplate:Refn It should be cautioned that Qazwini's cosmography is known to exist in a variety of different manuscripts.<ref>Template:Harvp, "{{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}", Encyclopedia of Islām, p. 841.</ref>

Both cosmographies provide the story as words spoken by Wahb ibn Munabbih,Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Harvp, p. 216 and note 199.</ref> so the descriptions should be similar at the core. In fact, Al-Damiri's version is considered to be mere redactions of Qazwini printed onto its margins.<ref>Template:Harvp, "al-Ḳazwīnī", Encyclopedia of Islām, p. 844.</ref>

Yakut group

Ibn al-Wardi (d. 1457) (Kharīdat al-ʿAjā'ib, "The Pearl of Wonders") is another source used by Lane, to give variant readings. Its chapter that includes the cosmography has been deemed a copy of Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229)'s Mu'jam al-Buldan, with similar wording, with some rearrangements, and very slight amounts of discrepant information.<ref>Template:Harvp, p. 19, note 4.</ref>

"Balhūt" is the name of the great fish given in both Ibn al-Wardi<ref name="c-d-note198-ibn-al-wardi">Template:Harvp, p. 216, note 198. (Kharīdat, Cairo edition of AH1358/AD1939, published by Maṭbaʿat Muṣtafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, pp. 16, 15)</ref><ref>"Belhut" in the Latin translation of Kharīdat Template:Harvp</ref> and Yaqut.Template:SfnpTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn

YakutTemplate:Sfnp and al-Wardi both say there is a layer of sandhill between the bull and the fish.<ref name=chaylan-daffner-wardi>Template:Harvp: Ibn al-Wardī, Kharīdat al-ʿajāʾib, p. 16.</ref>Template:Sfnp They also describe what lies under the fish somewhat differently.<ref>Template:Harvp, p. 107, note 3.</ref>Template:Sfnp

These texts connect the cosmic fish and bull with phenomena of nature, namely the waxing and ebbing of tides, maintenance of the sea-level, and earthquakes. The account which only connects concerns the bull states that its breathing causes the waxing and ebbing of the tides.Template:Refn And since the fish and the bull drink the water running off the earth into the sea, they counteract the tap-off causing sea-level to rise. But the beasts will eventually become engorged, when they will become agitated,<ref>Template:Harvp</ref> or, it marks the advent of Judgment Day (Ibn al-Wardi, Yaqut).Template:Sfnp

Lives of prophets

There are two Qiṣaṣ al-anbīyāʾ ("Lives of the Prophets"), one by al-Tha'labi, known otherwise for his Tafsir al-Thalabi, the other by Muḥammad al-Kisāʾī which are considered the oldest authorities containing similar cosmographical descriptions concerning the big fish and bull.<ref name=jawaideh-note-qisas>Template:Harvp, note 1.</ref> In al-Tha'labi's text is an Template:Linktext on the whale having several names, as follows: "God created a large fish (nūn) which is a huge whale whose name (ism) is Lutīyā, by-name (kunyah) Balhūt, and nickname (laqab) Bahamūt".Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Earthquakes

Yakut also gives the account that Iblis almost incited the whale Balhūt into causing a quake, but God distracted it by sending gnats to its eyes. Or alternatively, God had sent a sword-like fish that bedazzled and captivated the giant fish.Template:Sfnp This account is also found in al-Tha'labi's Qiṣaṣ al-anbīyāʾ, but in that version God forces the whale (Lutīyā) into submission by sending a creature that invaded through its nose and reached its brain; it also claims to be an anecdote on authority of Kaʿb al-Aḥbār (d. 650s A.D.),Template:Sfnp a convert considered the earliest informant of Jewish-Muslim tradition to Arab writers.<ref>Template:Harvp</ref><ref name="ency-islam-kab-al-ahbar"/>Template:Refn

Although this is an instance of an Arabic tale that ascribes the origins of earthquakes to the cosmic whale/fish supporting the earth, more familiar beliefs in medieval Arab associate the earthquake with the bull, or with Mount Qaf.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Jorge Luis Borges has drawn parallels between Bahamut and the mythical Japanese fish "Jinshin-Uwo",<ref>Template:Harvp, citing Wheeler, Post (1952) The Sacred Scriptures Of The Japanese, p. 495.</ref> although the correct term would be Template:Nihongo; cf. Namazu-e or 'catfish pictures'.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Japanese folklorist Template:Illm has explained that the traditional belief in the earthquake-causing bull is heavily concentrated in Arab regions (Saharan Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, Malay),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> whereas the motif of "World-Fish's movement causes earthquake" is found mostly in parts of Indochina, China, and throughout Japan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Borges

According to Jorge Luis Borges's work, the Book of Imaginary Beings (1957), Bahamut is "altered and magnified" from Behemoth and described as so immense that a human cannot bear its sight.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn <ref name="borges2">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Borges placed Bahamut as the identity of the unnamed giant fish which Isa (Jesus) witnessed in the story of the 496th night of One Thousand and One Nights (Burton's edition).Template:Efn<ref name="borges2"/> This giant fish supports a bull, the bull a rock, and the rock an angel,<ref name="1001_Nights"/> exactly as in the traditional Perso-Arabic medieval model of the world.<ref name="borges2" />Template:RefnTemplate:Efn<ref name="1001_Nights">Template:Citation.</ref> Borges appropriated the description of the Bahamut from Edward Lane's Arabian Society in the Middle Ages.<ref>Template:Harvp and Hurley's note to it, p. 221, saying that the passage "The earth was, it is said..." is from Lane, Arabian Society.</ref>Template:Refn

Template:In popular culture

  • In the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game, Bahamut is the dragon god of justice, and is the first instance of the name being used for a dragon.
  • In the Rage of Bahamut collectible card game and its anime adaptation, Bahamut is an ancient dragon with the capability to destroy the world. In the anime, preventing or aiding Bahamut's release is the goal of most of the story's factions. This Bahamut later appears in Granblue Fantasy and Dragalia Lost.
  • In the Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle light novel series, manga and anime adaptations, Bahamut is a divine drag-ride wielded by the main character Lux Arcadia with the ability to warp reality by compression and strengthening local laws of reality using its divine raiment Reload on Fire.
  • In the Final Fantasy video game series, Bahamut is one of the most prominent summons – monsters that can be brought into battle to fight for their summoner. It appears in almost all installments of the series, with the exception of Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy XII, where its name is used for the game's final dungeon, Sky Fortress Bahamut.
  • The album Bahamut by New York–based musical group Hazmat Modine features a song called "Bahamut" as its third track.
  • Several characters from the anime series "Beyblade Burst" have used a Bahamut Bey, a defense type. It is most often depicted as a black and purple dragon with accents of teal and red.
  • Bahamut is one of the nine guardians in La-Mulana.
  • In author Brandon Mull's YA fantasy novel Fablehaven, the demon Bahamut is imprisoned on the preserve, and freed by the witch Muriel Taggert during the events of book one.
  • In Assassin's Creed Mirage, “Al-Bahamut” is the cryptonym adopted by Qabiha, a member of the Persian branch of the Order of the Ancients based in the Abbasid Caliphate.

See also

Explanatory notes

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References

citations

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