At
Uruk (Warka), a Late Babylonian
cuneiform text from the second century BCE was found that mentions the Aramaic name
A-ḫu-u’-qa-a-ri of an
ummānu "sage" Aba-enlil-dari (probably to be read in Babylonian as
Mannu-kīma-enlil-ḫātin) under
Esarhaddon (seventh century BCE). The literary text of the sage Aḥiqar might have been composed in Aramaic in Mesopotamia, probably around the late seventh or early sixth century BCE. The first attestation are several papyrus fragments of the fifth century BCE from the ruins of the Jewish military colony on the island
Elephantine,
Egypt. The narrative of the initial part of the story is expanded greatly by the presence of a large number of wise sayings and proverbs that Ahiqar is portrayed as speaking to his nephew. It is suspected by most scholars that these sayings and proverbs were originally a separate document, as they do not mention Ahiqar. Some of the sayings are similar to parts of the Biblical
Book of Proverbs, others to the
deuterocanonical Wisdom of Sirach, and others still to Babylonian and Persian proverbs. The collection of sayings is in essence a selection from those common in the Middle East at the time. In the
Koine Greek Book of Tobit (second or third century BCE), Tobit has a nephew named Achiacharon (, or Achiacharos ; Tobit 1:21) in royal service at
Nineveh. It was pointed out by scholar
George Hoffmann in 1880 that Ahikar and the Achiacharos of Tobit are identical. In the summary of W. C. Kaiser, Jr.: The
Codex Sinaiticus Greek Text, which the
New Revised Standard Version follows, has "Nadab." The Greek Text of the Codices
Vaticanus and
Alexandrinus calls this person "Aman". It has been contended that there are traces of the legend even in the
New Testament, and there is a striking similarity between it and the
Life of Aesop by
Maximus Planudes (ch. xxiii–xxxii). An eastern sage named "Achaicarus" is mentioned by
Strabo. It would seem, therefore, that the legend was undoubtedly Near Eastern in origin, though the relationship of the various versions can scarcely be recovered. Elements of the Ahikar story have also been found in
Demotic Egyptian. British classicist
Stephanie West has argued that the story of
Croesus in
Herodotus as an adviser to
Cyrus the Great is another manifestation of the Ahiqar story. A full Greek translation of the
Story of Ahikar was made at some point, but it does not survive. It was, however, the basis for translations into
Old Slavonic and
Romanian. There are five surviving
Classical Syriac recensions of the
Story and evidence for an older Syriac version as well. The latter was translated into
Armenian and
Arabic. Some Ahiqar elements were transferred to
Luqman in the Arabic adaptations. The
Georgian and
Old Turkic translations are based on the Armenian, while the Ethiopic is derived from the Arabic, influence of which is also apparent in
Suret versions now. == Legacy ==