إدريس

Where it comes from

Uncertain, formally a borrowing, candidates suggested include:

* Koine Greek Ἀνδρέας (Andréas)

** one of the apostles of Jesus

** and also the immortalized cook of Alexander the Great (the latter being called ذُو الْقَرْنَيْن (ḏū l-qarnayn))

* Ancient Greek Ποιμάνδρης (Poimándrēs), one of the figures in the Corpus Hermeticum

* the Koine Greek form Ἔσδρας (Ésdras) of Biblical Hebrew עֶזְרָא (ʿezrā, “Ezra”), which would make it a doublet of عَازِر (ʕāzir, “Ezra”), عُزَيْر (ʕuzayr, “Ezra”), and آزَر (ʔāzar, “Terah, Abraham’s father”)

* Biblical Hebrew דּוֹרֵשׁ (dōrēš, “teacher of the Torah”)

Islamic theologists took the name as from أَدْرَسَ (ʔadrasa, “to teach”) from the root د ر س (d r s), in spite of the pattern إِفْعِيل (ʔifʕīl) having been unproductive even by the time of Islam, leading to the equation with the biblical Enoch, whose name derives from Biblical Hebrew חינוך (“education”). Enoch is generally depicted as a man of science, and is sometimes credited for inventing the art of writing and astronomy.