Allah (the pre-Islamic Meccan deity)
Arabian · deity · pantheon era · deity
AUTHORED STRICTLY AS THE PRE-ISLAMIC MECCAN FIGURE THE SOURCES DESCRIBE, AND NOTHING ELSE. The primary name carries that scope so no reader can mistake the record's subject. The sources say he had little relevance in the Meccan religion and that Hubal was its chief god, and that is what is recorded. THE 1901 LUNAR-DEITY THEORY OF HUGO WINCKLER IS RECORDED ONLY TOGETHER WITH ITS REJECTION: opponents reject it for its speculative character and its lack of archaeological or textual evidence from pre-Islamic Arabia, and this registry does not carry it as a live reading.
Domains
- guardianship of contracts
- the kaba
Relations
- ranked below in the meccan cult: Hubal
Sources
- Reference treatment of Allah in pre-Islamic Mecca: the Ka'ba site housed about three hundred and sixty idols and attracted worshippers from all over Arabia, and the chief god in pre-Islamic Arabia was Hubal, whose icon was a human figure believed to control acts of divination performed by tossing arrows before the statue, the direction of the arrows answering the question put to him. Some scholars postulate that Allah may have been one of the gods of the Meccan religion to whom the shrine was dedicated, although it seems he had little relevance in that religion; Allah was the guardian of contracts, though at first these were still settled at a special ritual locality and so subordinate to the supervision of an idol. THE THEORY THAT ALLAH ORIGINATED AS A LUNAR DEITY began in 1901 with the archaeologist Hugo Winckler, who associated Allah with a pre-Islamic Arabian deity, either Lah or Hubal, whom he identified as lunar in nature; OPPONENTS HAVE REJECTED THIS THEORY for its speculative character and its lack of archaeological or textual evidence from pre-Islamic Arabia.
- Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam (early 9th c. CE)