Atrahasis and al-Khiḍr (1)

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In all three main versions of the Tale of Bulūqiyā, found among the stories of the Arabian Nights, the hero is granted an audience with al-Khiḍr at a late stage in his wanderings. The name and character of al-Khiḍr contain elements that can be traced back to the Babylonian sage Atrahasis, who lived through three major catastrophes early in man’s history; namely, famine, plague, and flood. As sole survivor he was granted immortality by the gods, who settled him at the “mouth of rivers” across lethal waters; there Gilgameš met him at a late stage in his wanderings beyond the limits of the ordinary world. al-Khiḍr is an important figure in Sufi tradition, who also plays a part in Persian and Arabic versions of the Alexander Romance, where he acts as a guide leading the hero through the Land of Darkness to the Waters of Life. In Sufi traditions he is the immortal medium between God and the early, great mystics, as well as the sage who acted as Moses’ guide in the Qur’ān (18:59-81). The experience of meeting him was like a divinely inspired vision or dream to the great Sufi sages, and was claimed as giving authority to them. The ultimate abode of al-Khiḍr, who had the ability to appear in any place at any time, is variously described as on a green carpet on an island in the middle of the sea, or on Mount Qāf, the cosmic mountain, from which he ruled the emerald sea. Equated with Elijah, he was sometimes referred to by Sufis as “the Jew,” and by means of the name Idrīs he is also partly assimilated with Enoch. His Babylonian origins show that his own authority comes from his distant past as sole surviving link with the earliest civilization.

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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