Appearances: FFI, FFIII, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFXI, FFXIII, FFXIV
Ammano concept art of Bahamut
Saved the best until last. Bahamut is one of the main stays of the Final Fantasy summons. He has been around since the very first game but only became summonable in FFIII. There he is one of the first optional bosses in the series. Defeating the Dragon King yields the most powerful summon spell in the game. In later games Bahamut's position as top dog is sometimes eclipsed by more powerful hidden summons such as the Knights of the Round from FFVII or the Magus Sisters from FFX. None can deny the power and awesomeness of the dragon's Mega Flare attack.
Now for the mythological part. The name Bahamut originates in Arab mythology. He appears to be a slightly more obscure entity. There are a few accounts of the creature in a couple of sources, the most well known source being the One Thousand and One Nights. The Bahamut is mentioned in the tale told on the 496th night and is part of the overall tale of The Queen of Serpents. On this night Scheherazade recounts how the universe is structured. First there are seven heavens below which sits our earthen plane. Beneath us lie the six hells all borne by a great angel seated upon a rock. This rock in turn lies on the back of the vast bull, Kujata. On the final level lies Bahamut, the great fish who swims though oceans of the Universe. In the story Isus (Jesus) asks God to show his this marvel. Allah obliges but Isus is unable to comprehend the scale of the creature. All he sees is Kujata whom he reckons to be the length of three days travel. God replies that this is the length of Bahamut's head.
The Queen of Serpents tale can be read here.
So what does a giant fish have to do with the dragon we know? Well not much. The Bahamut of Final Fantasy has more to do with the Bahamut of Dungeons and Dragons. As has been mentioned before, many of the early Final Fantasy creatures are borrowed or inspired by the tabletop RPG. Within the DnD lore Bahamut bears the title 'King of Dragons', among other names. Even the description is very close to how Bahamut is depicted in the Final Fantasy games with the dragon having 'sliver scales' and 'blue eyes'.
Bahamut from the DnD Monster Manual, 1977
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