This is excellent! I read the tale of prophet Ibrahim’s clash with king Namrud/Nimrud in qasas-ul-anbiyya during my school days, along with his conflict with his idol worshipping father, & found it to be one of this massive text’s most fascinating passsages. > https://twitter.com/menalibahs/status/1289267576262889472

> Later I found out that it is no where in Torah, & but it’s a part of Late Antique pseudo Biblical texts & Midrash literature. This is an excellent synopsis on the origins of the tale in pseudo-philo & Midrash, & possibly from even earlier Zoroastrian literature. >

> It shows how a tale expands from a little kernel to include all sorts of legends circulating in a vast region & over a millenia & how the motives of narrators clash b/w aggrandizing your heroes & disparage the one from other religion/team. >

> Also there was no Chaldean king named Nimrud, the later narrators possibly associated the city’s name with a king.

> I guess it’s a good thing that the name that has become the symbol of despotism in the larger Islamicate word never belonged to a real person. But fascinating how oral tales that start from a word or a line turn into an emphatic part of a massive culture over many centuries.