Arabian religion - Athtar, Al-Ilt, Al-Uzz and Mant | Britannica [2][3], The contemporary sources of information regarding the pre-Islamic Arabian religion and pantheon include a small number of inscriptions and carvings,[3] pre-Islamic poetry, external sources such as Jewish and Greek accounts, as well as the Muslim tradition, such as the Qur'an and Islamic writings. At Mina, animals were sacrificed. [54], Representation of deities in animal-form was common in South Arabia, such as the god Sayin from Hadhramaut, who was represented as either an eagle fighting a serpent or a bull. In the North Arabian oasis of Taym, stelae written in Aramaic and dated to the 5th century bce name the local deities. Outraged by the massacre and pressed by the Christian world to intervene, the negus (king) of Ethiopia gathered a fleet and landed with troops in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is often referred to as "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" for Mecca and Medina - the two holy pilgrimages of the religion of Islam. father, written on amulets and buildings, is often accompanied by a crescent Moon with the small disk of Venus. [90] A stone later reused for the church of Enda-Cerqos at Melazo mentions these gods. [182] Toward the end of the sixth century, the Jewish communities in the Hejaz were in a state of economic and political decline, but they continued to flourish culturally in and beyond the region. Jews had migrated into Arabia from Roman times onwards. For a general overview of civilization in Arabia before Islam, see, Religious beliefs of Arabs outside Arabia, sfn error: no target: CITEREFLebling2010 (, Bwering, Gerhard, "God and his Attributes", in, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMcAuliffe2005 (, Robin, Christian Julien, "Arabia and Ethiopia", in, Corrente, Paola, "Dushara and Allt alias Dionysos and Aphrodite in Herodotus 3.8", in, Robin, Christian Julien, "Before Himyar: Epigraphic evidence", in, sfn error: no target: CITEREFKorotaev1996 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFPeters2017 (, Donner, Fred M., "The historical context", in, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMcAuliffe2006 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFTabari1990 (, AA.VV. These are records from private archives (personal letters, contracts, and so on), finely engraved in a cursive writing on small wooden sticks. In the Nabataean kingdom the counterpart of Dionysus was the great god nicknamed Dh Shar (Dusares), the One of Shar from the name of the mountain overlooking Petra. [31] According to Islamic sources, Meccans and their neighbors believed that the goddesses Al-lt, Al-Uzz, and Mant were the daughters of Allah. [23] Uzzayan's cult in particular was widespread in South Arabia, and in Qataban she was invoked as a guardian of the final royal palace. They did not perform the pilgrimage outside the zone of Mecca's haram, thus excluding Mount Arafat. Among the many other forms of divination known from pre-Islamic Arabia, only oneiromancy, or divination by means of dreams (possibly after incubation in the temple), is well attested in Sabaean texts. "Every time you open a book, you find another story," said . Peters argued to be the most substantial treatment of the religious practices of pre-Islamic Arabia,[7] as well as the writings of the Yemeni historian al-Hasan al-Hamdani on South Arabian religious beliefs. [4], Each kingdom's central temple was the focus of worship for the main god and would be the destination for an annual pilgrimage, with regional temples dedicated to a local manifestation of the main god. View sales history, tax history, home value estimates, and overhead views. [30] There is disagreement on whether Allah played a major role in the Meccan religious cult. Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia included indigenous Arabian polytheism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, and Zoroastrianism. [182] Some Arab women in Yathrib/Medina are said to have vowed to make their child a Jew if the child survived, since they considered the Jews to be people "of knowledge and the book" (ilmin wa-kitbin). [53] These god-stones were usually a free-standing slab, but Nabataean god-stones are usually carved directly on the rock face. [111] Abraha found a pretext for an attack on Mecca, presented by different sources alternatively as pollution of the church by a tribe allied to the Meccans or as an attack on Abraha's grandson in Najran by a Meccan party. The oldest drawings, barely visible under a dark patina, date back to several millennia bce and provide evidence, for instance, of an ancient cult for the bull and the ostrich. [18] According to common Arabian belief, soothsayers, pre-Islamic philosophers, and poets were inspired by the jinn. [55] This was also the case in South Arabia, as attested in a South Arabian inscription from al-Jawf. These might be expanded further as I find more information on the more obscure ones. Istisq, a collective rogation for rain with magical rites, in times of acute drought, is mentioned by the Islamic tradition and in two Sabaean texts. p. 21 - 36 . Among the Nabataeans, al-Uzz was assimilated to Venus, and Aphrodite and was the consort of Kutb or al-Aktab (the Scribe; Mercury); among the Thamudaeans, however, she was assimilated to Attarsamay (or Attarsam). Next to pre-Islamic poetry, an originally oral corpus belatedly put into writing during the Islamic period, it includes the Qurn, the sacred book of the Muslims transmitted by the Prophet Muhammad, which takes a stand against idolatry. [78], In the subsequent Greco-Roman period, there is evidence that the worship of non-indigenous deities was brought to the region by merchants and visitors. [139] They transformed it into a desert tent-shrine set up with a copper sculpture of a snake. Mant was depicted as Nemesis in the Nabataean iconography. [150], The worship of Pakidas, a Nabataean god, is attested at Gerasa alongside Hera in an inscription dated to the first century A.D. while an Arabian god is also attested by three inscriptions dated to the second century. He also killed Byzantine merchants elsewhere in his kingdom. Religion in Saudi Arabia - Wikipedia The female guardian of these idols, usually the reigning queen, served as a priestess (apkallatu, in Assyrian texts) who communed with the other world. Sanctuaries, cultic objects, and religious practices and institutions. The kingdom of Aksum (article) | Ethiopia | Khan Academy [110] Alan Jones infers from Bedouin poetry that the gods, even Allah, were less important to the Bedouins than Fate. [131] Following the conquest, shrines and temples dedicated to deities were destroyed, such as the shrines to al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat in Taif, Nakhla and al-Qudayd respectively. [42] In the Babylonian Talmud, which was passed down orally for centuries before being transcribed c. 500 AD, in tractate Taanis (folio 5b), it is said that most Qedarites worshiped pagan gods. [124] The practice of polytheistic cults was increasingly limited to the steppe and the desert, and in Yathrib (later known as Medina), which included two tribes with polytheistic majorities, the absence of a public pagan temple in the town or its immediate neighborhood indicates that polytheism was confined to the private sphere. The influence of the adjacent Roman and Aksumite civilizations resulted in Christian communities in the northwest, northeast, and south of Arabia. In the middle of the 6th century bce the Neo-Babylonian king Nabu-naid (Nabonidus) conquered the oasis of Taym in the Hejaz (al-ijz). South Arabia The astral basis of the South Arabian pantheon emerges from such divine names as Shams ("Sun") and Rub ("Moon-Quarter"). [110], The key role played by Jews in the trade and markets of the Hejaz meant that market day for the week was the day preceding the Jewish Sabbath. With the exception of Nestorianism in the northeast and the Persian Gulf, the dominant form of Christianity was Miaphysitism. [139], The Lihyanites worshipped the god Dhu-Ghabat and rarely turned to others for their needs. List of pre-Islamic Arabian deities Sabaean inscription listing the gods 'Athtar, Almaqah, Dhat-Himyam, Dhat-Badan and Wadd. [187], Arabicized Christian names were fairly common among pre-Islamic Arabians, which has been attributed to the influence that Syrianized Christian Arabs had on Bedouins of the peninsula for several centuries before the rise of Islam.[196]. Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam - WikiIslam 12.3: Reading: Pre-Islamic Arabia - Chemistry LibreTexts [130], The conquest of Mecca around 629630 AD led to the destruction of the idols around the Kaaba, including Hubal. [9] The relationship between a god and a stone as his representation can be seen from the third-century Syriac work called the Homily of Pseudo-Meliton where he describes the pagan faiths of Syriac-speakers in northern Mesopotamia, who were mostly Arabs. [3], One early attestation of Arabian polytheism was in Esarhaddon's Annals, mentioning Atarsamain, Nukhay, Ruldaiu, and Atarquruma. [92], The Kinda tribe's chief god was Kahl, whom their capital Qaryat Dhat Kahl (modern Qaryat al-Faw) was named for. [25][26] The word Allah (from the Arabic al-ilah meaning "the god")[27] may have been used as a title rather than a name. Zoroastrianism was also practiced in the Persian-ruled area of modern-day Oman. "[17], Christian Julien Robin notes that all the known South Arabian divinities had a positive or protective role and that evil powers were only alluded to but were never personified. [14] Settled urban Arabs, on the other hand, are thought to have believed in a more complex pantheon of deities. [126] During those months, it was possible to participate in pilgrimages and fairs without danger. Both the Ghassanids and the Christians in the south adopted Monophysitism. [33] Some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities. [187] As the Persian Gulf region of Arabia increasingly fell under the influence of the Sassanians from the early third century, many of the inhabitants were exposed to Christianity following the eastward dispersal of the religion by Mesopotamian Christians. [92] The last trace of polytheism in South Arabia, an inscription commemorating a construction project with a polytheistic invocation, and another, mentioning the temple of Talab, all date from just after 380 (the former dating to the rule of the king Dharaamar Ayman, and the latter dating to the year 401402). [187] The north west was under the influence of Christian missionary activity from the Roman Empire where the Ghassanids, a client kingdom of the Romans, were converted to Christianity. [33] However, there is also evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities. These early monotheistic texts probably emanated from Jewish immigrants from the oases of the Hejaz, although Christianity had already been introduced in South Arabia by Byzantine and Syrian missionaries. Ashar's name is found to have been used in a theophoric manner among the Arab-majority areas of the region of the Northwest Semitic languages, like Hatra, where names like "Refuge of Ashar", "Servant of Ashar" and "Ashar has given" are recorded on an inscription. [121], The second half of the sixth century was a period of political disorder in Arabia and communication routes were no longer secure. Supreme Court: Web designer may deny services for same-sex weddings Collective burial chambers were carved in the rock underground or from cliffs in various parts of Arabia. There were, successively, Man, the kingdom of the Minaeans; Saba, the most important, with its capital, Marib; Qatabn and Awsn (both located in the area of former Aden Territory [Yemen]); and finally aramawt (the eastern part of the former Aden Protectorate), extending inland from and along the coast of the Gulf of Aden toward Oman; its capital was Shabwa. Both accounts concur: Ruldayu and Orotalt are phonetic transcriptions of the same name, Ru, a sun god often named in the Thamdic inscriptions and in afaitic (in afaitic, Ru eventually becomes a goddess). Among the Nabataeans, sacral brotherhoods (mrz; thiasoi) held ritual meals in the temples or in burial rooms of the dead. [54] If a statue were made of wood, gold, or silver, after a human form, it would be an idol, but if the statue were made of stone, it would be an image. [52] The most common name for these stone blocks was derived from the Semitic nsb ("to be stood upright"), but other names were used, such as Nabataean masgida ("place of prostration") and Arabic duwar ("object of circumambulation", this term often occurs in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry). In South Arabia pilgrims were entertained in the temples on the proceeds of the tithe. [182] Philip Hitti infers from proper names and agricultural vocabulary that the Jewish tribes of Yathrib consisted mostly of Judaized clans of Arabian and Aramaean origin. Introduction The purpose of this "Islamic Awareness" paper is to refute the claim that the epithet for Allah, ar-Rahman [or "the Merciful"], has any connection to Arab Paganism - especially any connection to a lunar deity. Arabian religion, polytheistic beliefs and practices that existed in Arabia before the rise of Islam in the 7th century ce. Although it is uncertain when exactly the Sabaeans first settled the region, their kingdom is known from ancient times from cuneiform inscriptions of Mesopotamia as well as their own South Semitic inscriptions. During the following centuries, Saba struggled with Qatabn for hegemony. Hawbas is also mentioned on an altar and sphinx in Dibdib. in their latest work (2018). [135], Religious worship amongst the Qedarites, an ancient tribal confederation that was probably subsumed into Nabataea around the 2nd century AD, was centered around a polytheistic system in which women rose to prominence. [182] In the Islamic tradition, based on a phrase in the Quran, Arab Jews are said to have referred to Uzair as the son of Allah, although the historical accuracy of this assertion has been disputed. [184], There is evidence that Jewish converts in the Hejaz were regarded as Jews by other Jews, as well as by non-Jews, and sought advice from Babylonian rabbis on matters of attire and kosher food. This rite was aimed at obtaining rain, and that is also the aim of a formal tribal ibex hunt still performed today in aramawt. [28][40][41][42][43] G. R. Hawting states that modern scholars have frequently associated the names of Arabian goddesses Al-lt, Al-Uzz and Mant with cults devoted to celestial bodies, particularly Venus, drawing upon evidence external to the Muslim tradition as well as in relation to Syria, Mesopotamia and the Sinai Peninsula. [82], Anbay was an oracular god of Qataban and also the spokesman of Amm. In Qatabn, Anbay and awkam are invoked together as (the gods) of command and decision(? Several Byzantine authors report conflicts between Jews and Christians in Yemen in the 6th century ce. The coastal area of aramawt was the nearly exclusive biotope of the wild tree from which was extracted the best kind of frankincense, which was the most precious aromatic in the Middle East used for the cult of the gods and of the dead. [80], The encroachment of northern Arab tribes into South Arabia also introduced northern Arab deities into the region. [120] The idols of Isf and N'ila were located near the Black Stone with a talbiyah performed to Isf during sacrifices. They also developed certain dietary and cultural restrictions. The procession from Arafat to Muzdalifah, and from Mina to Mecca, in a pre-reserved route towards idols or an idol, was termed ijaza and ifada, with the latter taking place before sunset. Dedn and the neighbouring site of al-ijr (egr) were occupied from the north in about 25 bce by the Nabataean kingdom. Among the oases or towns of which the local gods are known appears in the first place the oasis of Dmat al-Jandal, halfway between the Sinai and Babylon; the Assyrian king Esarhaddon names its gods (see below). [152] Petra has many "sacred high places" which include altars that have usually been interpreted as places of human sacrifice, although, since the 1960s, an alternative theory that they are "exposure platforms" for placing the corpses of the deceased as part of a funerary ritual has been put forward. The religion of Palmyra, which belongs to the Aramaic sphere, is excluded from this account. About 572 South Arabia came under Persian occupation. [101], Various other deities were venerated in the area by specific tribes, such as the god Suwa' by the Banu Hudhayl tribe and the god Nuhm by the Muzaynah tribe. Al-Ilt formed a trio with the goddesses al-Uzz (the Powerful) and Mant (or Manawat, Destiny). [198] However, other scholars, notably Mircea Eliade, William Montgomery Watt, G. R. Hawting and Sidney H. Griffith, cast doubt on the historicity or reliability of such references in the Quran. June 23, 2022 12 min read The religious and philosophical landscape in Arabia before the advent of Islam remains, for the most part, uncharted territory. [182] This day, which was called aruba in Arabic, also provided occasion for legal proceedings and entertainment, which in turn may have influenced the choice of Friday as the day of Muslim congregational prayer. [38], South Arabian inscriptions from the fourth century AD refer to a god called Rahman ("The Merciful One") who had a monotheistic cult and was referred to as the "Lord of heaven and Earth". A bunch of sticks possibly used for that purpose was found in 1987 in a Sabaean temple. [186] Beth Qatraye, which translates "region of the Qataris" in Syriac, was the Christian name used for the region encompassing north-eastern Arabia. There was also another group which didn't recognize the sanctity of Mecca's haram or holy months, unlike the other four. It is quite probable that Jews of the Babylonian Exile were among those forced settlers and initiated at that time the Jewish presence in Arabia. [101] Qusai ibn Kilab is traditionally reported to have introduced the association of fire worship with him on Muzdalifah. The study of these practices is instructive in view of their similarities with those of the biblical world and also with those of the world of Islam, for, while firmly repudiating the idolatry of the pre-Islamic period, which it calls the Age of Ignorance (Jhiliyyah), Islam has nevertheless taken over, in a refined form, some of its practices. The Islamic tradition credits him with a fruitless military expedition with elephants (alluded to in the title, The Elephant, of chapter 105 of the Qurn), directed in 570 against Mecca and its polytheistic shrine. Al-Uzza may have been an epithet of Allt in the Nabataean religion according to John F. More-specific data on the ancient folklore and religion appear, for instance, in The Book of the Idols (Kitb al-anm), by the Iraqi genealogist Ibn al-Kalb (8th9th century ce), and in The Crown (al-Ikll), by the Yemeni encyclopaedist and geographer al-Hamdn (9th10th century ce), which describes the pre-Islamic antiquities of Yemen. [17] Arabs were said to utter the following couplet if they should encounter one: "Oh ass-footed one, just bray away, we won't leave the desert plain nor ever go astray. North Arabian queens and ancient Qatabnian rulers bore priestly titles. The Muslim tradition wrongly ascribes to the Thamd the Nabataean tombs carved in the rock in al-ijr. [14] While the Meccans and the other settled inhabitants of the Hejaz worshiped their gods at permanent shrines in towns and oases, the Bedouin practiced their religion on the move. The name of the Venus god Athtar corresponds to that of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar (Venus). Research shows that Aksum was a major naval and trading power from the 1st to the 7th centuries C.E. [4] Herodotus, writing in his Histories, reported that the Arabs worshipped Orotalt (identified with Dionysus) and Alilat (identified with Aphrodite). Normally, the dedicator of a sacrifice performed the slaughtering of the animal. Under foreign influences, they also incorporated foreign deities and elements into their beliefs. Dating Persistent Short-Term Human Activity in a Complex Depositional [128], According to Ibn Sa'd, the opposition in Mecca started when the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, delivered verses that "spoke shamefully of the idols they (the Meccans) worshiped other than Himself (God) and mentioned the perdition of their fathers who died in disbelief". Other rooms and a cistern might be added. [35] Muhammad's father's name was Abd-Allh, meaning "the servant of Allah". Christianity is the most widely professed religion in South Sudan, with significant minorities of the adherents of traditional faiths and Islam.
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