Ahasuerus is a name applied in the Hebrew Bible to three rulers of Ancient Persia and to a Babylonian official first appearing in the Tanach in the Book of Esther and later in the Christian Book of Tobit. It is a transliteration of either Xerxes I or Artaxerxes; both are names of multiple Achaemenid dynasty Persian kings.
Esther Before Ahasuerus (1547–48), Tintoretto, Royal Collection.
The Banquet of Ahasuerus, Aert de Gelder
The wrath of Ahasuerus (anonymous), Rijksmuseum.
Ahasuerus and Haman at Esther's Feast, by Rembrandt
The Book of Esther, also known in Hebrew as "the Scroll", is a book in the third section of the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the Five Scrolls in the Hebrew Bible and later became part of the Christian Old Testament. The book relates the story of a Jewish woman in Persia, born as Hadassah but known as Esther, who becomes queen of Persia and thwarts a genocide of her people.
A 13th/14th-century scroll of the Book of Esther from Fez, Morocco, held at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Traditionally, a scroll of Esther is given only one roller, fixed to its lefthand side, rather than the two used for a Torah scroll.
The introduction of Book of Esther, hand written, part of Cairo Gniza, digital collections of Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa
Scroll of Esther (Megillah)
The opening chapter of a hand-written scroll of the Book of Esther, with reader's Torah pointer
