Manāt

Goddess of fate, time, and death; third of the three "daughters of Allah" in the Quranic-polemical framing (Q 53:19-22). Per Ibn al-Kalbi, the oldest of the three goddesses — venerated by the Aws and Khazraj tribes of Yathrib (Medina) before the Hijaz-pantheon-extensions of Allāt and al-'Uzza. Principal cult-center at Qudayd on the Red Sea coast between Mecca and Medina, with the cult-stone (a black rock) housed there. The Manāt cult-stone was destroyed by Sa'd ibn Zayd al-Ashhali on Muhammad's orders in 630 CE. The fate-and-death domain follows from the Proto-Semitic etymology *mny "to count, to allot, to apportion fate" — Manāt is "the Apportioner-of-Fate," the goddess who allots the share of life-and-death to each mortal. The Nabataean-cognate Manawat is equated with Greek Tyche (fortune) and Nemesis (allotted-fate-as-retribution) in the Hellenistic-period inscriptions, preserving the cross-cultural fate-and-fortune-goddess complex. The fate-allotment domain structurally parallels the broader Mediterranean female-fate-figure complex (Greek Moirai, Roman Parcae, Norse Norns, Slavic Mokosh-as-spinner), encoding a pan-cultural Bronze-Age-and-Iron-Age female-allotter-of-fate mythologem.

Powers

• Apportion fate and death

Epithets

• مناة arabic · Manātgoddess of fate/death, called the oldest of the three by Ibn al-KalbiIbn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam (primary); Qur'an 53:20 (primary)

Relations

• sibling: Al-'UzzaReciprocal of arabian_al_uzza.sibling — Completes the 'daughters of Allah' sister-triad of Qur'an 53:19-23; al-'Uzza was the youngest and latest adopted of the three.Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam (trans. Faris, The Book of Idols, 1952) (primary)
• sibling: AllātReciprocal of arabian_allat.sibling — Sister-triad framing of the three great goddesses; Ibn al-Kalbi calls Manat the oldest of the three.Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam (trans. Faris, The Book of Idols, 1952) (primary)
• equated with: ManatReciprocal of nabataean_manat.equated-with — Nabataean Manotu of the Hegra tomb-curses and Arabian Manat of the Quranic triad are the same fate-and-death goddess. Preserves fate-lordship; the Hijazi cult-stone at Qudayd has no Nabataean parallel.J. F. Healey, The Religion of the Nabataeans (2001); R. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs (2001) (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam (primary); Q 53:19-22 (primary); Nabataean Manawat inscriptions; Hatran corpus (archaeological)