- - , Algemeen, , Moshe Zauderer, Introduction to Megillat Esther, The Commentaries [2005]; Haman: Descendent of
the Jewish people's archenemy nation, Amalek, Haman rekindled the ancient Amalekite
hatred of the Jewish people by cajoling King Achashverosh to issue a decree of genocide
against the Jewish people. He had worked a simple barber in the village of Kfar Kartzum
for twenty-two years, then rose to prominence under the reign of King
Achashverosh, as one
of the king's seven principal advisors (bearing the official title
"Memuchan"). Haman later rose to the position of Achashverosh's Prime
Minister. He advised the king to confirm Cyrus' moratorium on the rebuilding of the
Second Temple in Jerusalem. Haman was hanged by order of the king on the 16th
of Nissan, 3404 (357 BCE). Ten of his sons were hanged nearly a year later, on the 15th
of Adar. Several of Haman's descendents eventually converted to Judaism.
Encyclopedie , Encyclopaedia Iranica, , Shaul Shaked, "HAMAN"; Haman is said to be the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. The meaning of his name is not clear, and several explanations have been offered for it. One possibility is that the name is derived from that of his father, perhaps as a hypocorism (Scheftelowitz, I, pp. 43 f.; Bogolyubov, p. 212). A derivation from the Elamite proper name humpan has also been proposed (Zadok, pp. 20 f.). The patronym could be interpreted as a variant of Hauma-data "created (or given) by (the god) Haoma." The epithet Agagite can be taken to be connected with the name of the king of the Amalekites, a semi-mythical people whose traces vanish from history after the ancient period of the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert and the early kingdom. This had become a symbolic name for the enemies of the Jewish people. Assuming that Haman, his patronym, and his epithet fit in with the period under consideration, however, it makes better sense to explain the epithet not by reference to the Amalekites but from Elamite a-ga-ga, ag-ga-ga (as done by Zadok, p. 21). Haman is a figure in the Koran and in Muslim tradition. He appears in the Koran as an advisor to Fer`awn (Pharaoh of Egypt), and he is said to have built a tower which was to enable Pharaoh to reach the God of Moses (Koran 28:38; 40:38 f.).