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Allat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mentioned in the Qur'an (Sura 53:20), Allāt (a contraction of pre-Arabic *al-ilāhat "the Goddess") was a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca. She is one of three goddesses that the pre-Islamic Meccans referred to as "The Daughters of God".
In the Qur'an, she is mentioned along with ˤUzzā and Manāt in Sura 53:19-23.
According to Bob Trubshaw, Allat was a triple goddess of the moon, similar to Demeter. She had three aspects, each corresponding to a different phase of the moon: Q're, the crescent or maiden; Al-Uzza, the full moon or mother; and Manat, the waning moon or wise woman. The phase of Al-Uzza was worshipped at the Kaaba and served by seven priestesses. Worshippers circled the stone seven times, once for each of the ancient seven planets.[1]
Her name occurs in early Safaitic graffiti (Safaitic han-'Ilāt "the Goddess") and she was worshipped by the Nabataeans of Petra and the people of Hatra, who equated her with the Greek Athena & the Roman Minerva. According to Wellhausen, they believed Allāt was the mother of Hubal (and hence the mother-in-law of Manāt).
The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century B.C., considers her the equivalent of Aphrodite:"The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta, the Arabians Alilat, and the Persians Mitra" (Histories I:131). According to Herodotus, the ancient Arabians believed in only two gods: "They believe in no other gods except Dionysus and the Heavenly Aphrodite; and they say that they wear their hair as Dionysus does his, cutting it round the head and shaving the temples. They call Dionysus, Orotalt; and Aphrodite, Alilat." (Histories III:38).
According to the Book of Idols (Kitab al-Asnām) by Hishām b. al-Kalbi, the pre-Islamic Arabs believed Allāt resided in the Kaaba and also had an idol inside the sanctuary:
Her custody was in the hands of the Banū-Attāb ibn-Mālik of the Thaqīf, who had built an edifice over her. The Quraysh, as well as all the Arabs, were wont to venerate Allāt. They also used to name their children after her, calling them Zayd-Allāt and Taym-Allāt. [...] Allāt continued to be venerated until the Thaqīf embraced Islam, when the Apostle of God dispatched al-Mughīrah ibn-Shuˤbah, who destroyed her and burnt her temple to the ground.
— B. al-Kalbi, N.A. Faris 1952, pp. 14-15
- Ibn al-Kalbī (Translation and Commentary by Nabih Amin Faris) (1952). Book of Idols, Being a Translation from the Arabic of the Kitāb al-Asnām. Princeton University Press. Library of Congress #52006741.
- Herodotus (Translated by David Grene) (1987). The History. Chicago University Press. ISBN 0-226-32770-1.
- Bob Trubshaw (February 1993). "The Black Stone - the Omphalos of the Goddess". Mercian Mysteries (No. 14).