Hārūt and Mārūt vs. Hauruuatāt and Amərətāt: Some Considerations about Their Origin and Myth

by Dr. Shervin Farridnejad

August 8, 2017; 2:00 to 3:30 PM

Seminarraum 1.406 - HU Universitätsgebäude am Hegelplatz; Dorotheenstraße 24 (DOR 24)

Lecture as aprt of the Panel "Quran and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective" with the theme: "The Angels Harut and Marut in Islamic Tradition" in the context of the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (Berlin, 7 to 11 August 2017).

Although the classical Muslim philologists were already aware that the two Babylonian fallen angels Harut and Marut were not of Arabic origins, it remains the historical merit of the German orientalist and scholar of biblical studies PAUL DE LAGARDE (1827-1891), who discovered that the origins of the Qur᾽ānic angles go back to Iranian respectively Zoroastrian roots, representing the two of the Avestan Aməṣ̌a Spəntas, Hauruuatāt and Amərətāt, the guardians of waters and plants. This paper aims at (re)evaluating some considerations regarding their Zoroastrian origin, myth and the features both pairs shared and differed in the context of the Near Eastern traditions, which help us to better understand Islamic and Zoroastrian angelology from a comparative perspective.