The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions

165 Pages·2022·6.527 MB·Ancient Languages and Civilizations

by  Ahmad Al-Jallad

TheReligionandRitualsoftheNomadsofPre-IslamicArabia
Ancient Languages
and Civilizations
Editor-in-Chief
ChenZhi(ResearchCentreforHistoryandCulture,
BeijingNormalUniversity&uic,China)
AssociateEditors
CarlottaViti(ResearchCentreforHistoryandCulture,Beijing
NormalUniversity&uic,China)
WangXiang(ShawnWang)(bnu-hkbuUnitedInternationalCollege,China)
EditorialBoard
LuzConti(UniversidadAutónomadeMadrid,Spain)–PaolaCotticelli
(UniversityofVerona,Italy)–TrevorEvans(MacquarieUniversity,Australia)–
LauraLoporcaro(UniversityofOxford,UnitedKingdom)–MarcoMancini
(University“LaSapienza”,Rome,Italy)–DanielPetit(ÉcolePratiquedes
HautesÉtudes,Paris,France)–YuriPines(HebrewUniversityofJerusalem,
Israel)–S.A.S.Sarma(EcoleFrançaised’ExtrêmeOrient,Pondichery,India)–
AdamCraigSchwartz(HongKongBaptistUniversity,HongKong,China)–
ZhangWei(FudanUniversity,China)–ZhouYiqun
(StanfordUniversity,USA)
AdvisoryBoard
GiulianoBoccali(StateUniversityofMilan,Italy)–ChenZhan(Research
CentreforHistoryandCulture,BeijingNormalUniversity&uic,China)–
EkkehardKönig(FreeUniversityofBerlin,Germany)–MariaKozianka
(FriedrichSchillerUniversityofJena,Germany)–FrédéricLambert(University
ofBordeauxMontaigne,France)–GlennW.Most(UniversityofChicago,
USA)–AnnaOrlandini(UniversityofToulouse-LeMirail,France)–Thomas
Schneider(UniversityofBritishColumbia,Canada)–EdwardL.Shaughnessy
(UniversityofChicago,USA)–HansvanEss(UniversityofMunich,Germany)
volume 1
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/alac
The Religion and
Rituals of the Nomads of
Pre-Islamic Arabia
AReconstructionBasedontheSafaiticInscriptions
By
AhmadAl-Jallad
leiden | boston
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ThisoapublicationisfundedandsupportedbytheResearchCentreforHistoryandCulture(Beijing
NormalUniversity&uic),Zhuhai,China.
Coverillustration:ASafaiticinscriptionandrockdrawingfromNortheasternJordan.Photo:A.Al-Jallad.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Al-Jallad,Ahmad,author.
Title:Thereligionandritualsofthenomadsofpre-IslamicArabia:a
reconstructionbasedontheSafaiticinscriptions/byAhmadAl-Jallad.
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,2022.|Series:Ancientlanguagesand
civilizations,2667-3770;vol.1|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:lccn2021062731(print)|lccn2021062732(ebook)|
isbn9789004504264(hardback)|isbn9789004504271(ebook)
Subjects:lcsh:ArabianPeninsula–Religion.|Paganism–Arabian
Peninsula–History.|Inscriptions,Safaitic.
Classification:lccbl1685.a552022(print)|lccbl1685(ebook)|
ddc299/.27–dc23/eng20220228
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∵

Contents
Preface ix
ListofIllustrations xi
Sigla xiii
1 Introduction 1
1 ReligionandtheInscriptionsofthePre-IslamicNomads:
FromThamudicBtoSafaitic 5
2 ScopeandMethodology 6
2.1 PreviousWorksandPresentGoals 14
2 Rites 17
1 AnimalSacrifice 17
1.1 Sacrificebefore/duringDangerousActivities 20
1.2 SeasonalSacrifices 21
1.3 LocationofSacrifice:Theṣamd 22
1.4 Thanksgiving? 26
2 ErectionofthenṣbStone 26
2.1 Thenṣb,nfs,andMortuaryInstallations 30
3 TheRitualShelter 37
3.1 Statues 40
4 ThePilgrimage 41
4.1 TimePeriodofthePilgrimage 42
4.2 PilgrimageSites 43
5 RitualPurity 44
6 Offerings 46
6.1 UnspecifiedOfferings 47
6.2 BurntOfferingsandLibations 48
6.3 Images 49
7 VowsandOaths 53
8 SacredWater 54
3 DivinitiesandTheirRolesintheLivesofHumans 56
1 LocationoftheDeities 59
2 TheGadds 60
3 TheGodsandTheirWorshippers 60
3.1 Travel 62
3.2 FarfromHomeandReunion 62
viii contents
3.3 AssistanceandJustice 63
3.4 CuringIllnessandProlongingLife 65
4 Sin,Obedience,andRepentance? 66
4.1 ForsakenbytheGods 70
5 MalignantMagic 71
4 Fate 73
5 Afterlife 78
1 BurialInstallations 79
2 InvokingtheNamesoftheDead 81
6 VisualRepresentationofDeitiesandtheDivineWorld 84
7 AmplificationandWhyWrite 87
8 Worldview—AReconstruction 91
Appendix1:GlossaryofDivinities 93
Appendix2:PreviouslyUnpublishedInscriptions 100
Bibliography 132
GeneralIndex 144
IndexofInscriptions 146
Preface
Themostpopularreferenceforpre-IslamicArabianreligionisHišāmibnAl-
Kalbī’skitābul-ʾaṣnām(TheBookofIdols).Thetextpresentsaseriesoffolktales
recountingthehistoryofhumanbelief,beginningwithabsolutemonotheism,
moving on to the development of polytheism, and ending in theTwilight of
theGodsusheredinbytheappearanceof Mohammed.Thecultof Al-ʿUzzē,
forexample,endednotthroughmassconversiontoIslambutincombatwith
Mohammed’scommander,Khālidbinal-Walīd.Itisworthquotingthetalein
full.
We were told by al-ʿAnazī abū-ʿAlī that ʿAlī ibn-al-Ṣabbāḥ had told him
thathehimself wasinformedbyabū-al-Mundhir,whoreportedthathis
fatherhadrelatedtohimontheauthorityof abū-Ṣāliḥthatibn-ʿAbbās
said:Al-ʿUzzāwasashe-devilwhichusedtofrequentthreetreesintheval-
leyofNakhlah.WhentheProphetcapturedMecca,hedispatchedKhālid
ibn-al-Walīdsaying,“GotothevalleyofNakhlah;thereyouwillfindthree
trees.Cutdownthefirstone.”Khālidwentandcutitdown.Onhisreturn
toreport,theProphetaskedhimsaying,“Haveyouseenanythingthere?”
Khālidrepliedandsaid,“No.”TheProphetorderedhimtoreturnandcut
downthesecondtree.Hewentandcutitdown.Onhisreturntoreport
theProphetaskedhimasecondtime,“Haveyouseenanythingthere?”
Khālid answered, “No.”Thereupon the Prophet ordered him to go back
andcutdownthethirdtree.WhenKhālidarrivedonthescenehefound
anAbyssinianwomanwithdishevelledhairandherhandsplacedonher
shoulder[s],gnashingandgratingherteeth.BehindherstoodDubayyah
al-Sulamīwhowasthenthecustodianof al-ʿUzzā.WhenDubayyahsaw
Khālidapproaching,hesaid:
“Othoual-ʿUzzā!Removethyveilandtuckupthysleeves;
SummonupthystrengthanddealKhālidanunmistakableblow.
Forunlessthoukillesthimthisveryday,
Thoushaltbedoomedtoignominyandshame.”
ThereuponKhālidreplied:
“Oal-ʿUzzā!Maythoubeblasphemed,notexalted!
VerilyIseethatGodhathabasedthee.”
Turning to the woman, he dealt her a blow which severed her head in
twain, and lo, she crumbled into ashes. He then cut downthe treeand
killed Dubayyah the custodian, after which he returned to the Prophet
andreportedtohimhisexploit.ThereupontheProphetsaid,“Thatwas