Hermes As The Prophet Idris: An Analysis Of Egyptian And Greek Mythological Archetypes In Classical And Contemporary Exegesis

This article examines how classical and modern Qur’anic exegetes interpret the identification of the prophet Idris with Hermes and its connections to the Egyptian deity Thoth. Drawing on qualitative library research, it analyzes seven exegetical works by al-Qurṭubī, al-Naisābūrī, al-Shawkānī, Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān, Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā, Ibn ʿĀshūr, and Wahbah al-Zuḥaylī through Mircea Eliade’s concepts of archetypes and illud tempus. The findings reveal a spectrum of interpretive responses, encompassing cautious acceptance, transmission of inherited accounts, critical rejection, and theological differentiation. Al-Qurṭubī and al-Naisābūrī transmit and elaborate on the identification with varying reservations, whereas Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān and Ibn ʿĀshūr articulate more explicit historical and theological critiques. Read through Eliade’s framework, these accounts reactualize an archetype of primordial wisdom while negotiating the boundaries between prophetic authority and Hermetic traditions. Representations of Idris as an antediluvian figure situate this wisdom within Islamic sacred history, while shared attributes facilitate connections across religious traditions. The article argues that such identifications constitute contested processes of religious and intellectual appropriation through which exegetes negotiate inherited knowledge, claims to transcendent wisdom, and the preservation of monotheistic commitments.