Bahamut: He's always been huge, but not necessarily a dragon.

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Bahamut

Of all the summons that players have been able to do in the Final Fantasy series, few have the grandeur of summoning the gigantic dragon, Bahamut. Just the mention of his name brings an understanding that players who have him are packing some serious heat. This creature is truly a behemoth in the world of Final Fantasy, which is particularly interesting because many scholars accredit “Bahamut” as the root word from which “behemoth” is based.

This is because the real Bahamut is a creature whose history can be traced back to Islam, where Bahamut is a gigantic fish. In fact, he is so big that the human eye could not possibly begin to comprehend his sheer size. Not only is his body huge, though, it is extremely bright, as he wanders the cosmos. While he has the body of a fish, he is often depicted with the head of an elephant or a hippopotamus.

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There are a couple of different accounts as to what, exactly, Bahamut supports upon its back. One says that there is a giant bull named Kujata, and atop this bull is a huge ruby, upon which stands an angel who holds the six hells above, and above these is the earth, and at the top is the seven heavens. The other account states that first there is a layer of sand on Bahamut’s back, and on this sand stands the bull. On Kujata’s forehead lays a mountain, which holds the waters in which the earth rests.

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While up to this point the Bahamut of Final Fantasy and the Bahamut of Islam have only had tremendous size in common, perhaps in time more significance will be added to the Final Fantasy dragon so that he possesses more meaning like his theological counterpart, and not just be a nifty way to beat up bad guys.

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