al-Lat

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al-Lat
Goddess of war, peace, combat, and prosperity
Arabia
Personal information
SiblingsAl-Uzza, Manat
Consort
  • Lion of Al-lat (Palmyrene tradition)[2]
  • Dushara (Nabataean tradition)
Children
Allatu
Part of the
myth series on
Religions of the
ancient Near East
Pre-Islamic Arabian deities
Arabian deities of other Semitic origins

al-Lat (

Arabic: اللات, romanized: al-Lāt, pronounced [alːaːt]), also spelled Allat, Allatu, and Alilat, is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, including Mecca, where she was worshipped alongside Al-Uzza and Manat as one of the daughters of Allah. The word Allat or Elat has been used to refer to various goddesses in the ancient Near East, including the goddess Asherah-Athirat
.

The worship of al-Lat is attested in South Arabian inscriptions as Lat and Latan, but she had more prominence in north Arabia and the Hejaz, and her cult reached as far as Syria.[3] The writers of the Safaitic script frequently invoked al-Lat in their inscriptions. She was also worshipped by the Nabataeans and was associated with al-'Uzza. The presence of her cult was attested in both Palmyra and Hatra. Under Greco-Roman influence, her iconography began to show the attributes of Athena, the Greek goddess of war, as well as her Roman equivalent Minerva.

According to Islamic sources, the tribe of

Ta'if especially held reverence to her. In Islamic tradition, her worship ended when her temple in Ta'if was demolished on the orders of Muhammad.[4]

Etymology and name

There are two possible etymologies of the name al-Lat.[5] Medieval Arab lexicographers derived the name from the verb latta (to mix or knead barley-meal). It has also been associated with the "idol of jealousy" erected in the temple of Jerusalem according to the Book of Ezekiel, which was offered an oblation of barley-meal by the husband who suspected his wife of infidelity. It can be inferred from al-Kalbi's Book of Idols that a similar ritual was practiced in the vicinity of the image of al-Lat.[5] The second proposed etymology takes al-Lat to be the feminine form of Allah.[5] She may have been known originally as ʾal-ʾilat, based on Herodotus' attestation of the goddess as Alilat.[6]

Al-Lat was used as a title for the goddess

Allatu.[9]

The goddess Allat's name is recorded as:[10][11]

  • 𐡄𐡍𐡀𐡋𐡕‎ (han-ʾIlat) in Imperial Aramaic;
  • 𐢀𐢑𐢞‎ (Allāt) in Nabataean Arabic;
  • 𐡠𐡫𐡶‎ (Allāt) in Palmyrene Aramaic;
  • ʾLT (ʾIlāt), H-LT (ha-Lāt), and LT (Lāt) in Safaitic;
  • 𐪁𐪉‎ (Lāt) in Dadanitic;
  • 𐪁𐪉‎ (Lāt) in Thamudic;
  • Ἀλιλάτ (Alilát) in Ancient Greek;
  • 𐩡𐩩 (Lāt) and 𐩡𐩩𐩬 (Lātān) in
    Sabaean
    ;
  • أللاَّت ʾal-Lāt in Classical Arabic.

Attestations

Pre-Islamic era

Al-Lat was mentioned as Alilat by the Greek historian

Persians Mithra.[13]

According to Herodotus, the ancient Arabians believed in only two gods:

Statue of al-Lat-Athena found in the temple of Al-Lat, Palmyra. Palmyra Archaeological Museum
2nd-century AD statue of al-Lat-Minerva from As-Suwayda, Syria. National Museum of Damascus

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.[14]

Al-Lat was widely worshipped in north Arabia, but in South Arabia she was not popular and was not the object of an organized cult, with two amulets (inscribed "Lat" on one, "Latan" on the other) being the only indication that this goddess received worship in the area.[15] However, she seems to have been popular among the Arab tribes bordering Yemen.[15] She was also attested in eastern Arabia; the name Taymallat (a theophoric name invoking the goddess)[16] was attested as the name of a man from Gerrha, a city located in the region.[17]

From Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions, it is probable that she was worshipped as Lat (lt).[3] In Safaitic inscriptions, al-Lat was invoked for solitude and mercy, as well as to provide well-being, ease and prosperity.[18] Travelers would invoke her for good weather and protection.[18] She was also invoked for vengeance, booty from raids, and infliction of blindness and lameness to anyone who defaces their inscriptions.[18]

The Qedarites, a northern Arabian tribal confederation, seemed to have also worshipped al-Lat, as evidenced by a silver bowl dedicated by a Qedarite king, with the goddess' name inscribed on it.[19]

The

al-'Uzza the "brides of Dushara".[21]

Remains of the temple of al-Lat, Palmyra, Syria

A temple was built for al-Lat in

Manat was "Allat of 'Amnad".[1]

Al-Lat was closely related to

al-'Uzza were uniquely fused in central Arabia.[23]

Statue of an enthroned Arabian goddess or idol, probably Al-Lat, from Hatra, Iraq. 2nd to 3rd century CE. Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

Al-Lat was also venerated in Palmyra, where she was known as the "Lady of the temple".[24] According to an inscription, she was brought into the Arab quarter of the city by a member of the Bene Ma'zin tribe,[25] who were probably an Arab tribe.[26][a] She had a temple in the city, which Teixidor believed to be the cultic center of Palmyrene Arab tribes.[24] The practice of casting divination arrows, a common divination method in Arabia, was attested in her temple; an honorific inscription mentioning "a basin of silver for [casting] lots (lḥlq)".[28]

By the second-century AD, al-Lat in Palmyra began to be portrayed in the style of Athena, and was referred to as "Athena-Allāt", but this assimilation does not extend beyond her iconography.[29] The Palmyrene emperor Vaballathus, whose name is the Latinized form of the theophoric name Wahballāt ("Gift of al-Lat"), began to use Athenodorus as the Greek form of his name.[30]

Islamic tradition

In Islamic sources discussing

Ta'if, where she was called ar-Rabba ("The Lady"),[32][33] and she reportedly had a shrine there which was decorated with ornaments and treasure of gold and onyx.[34] There, the goddess was venerated in the form of a cubic granite rock.[31][9] The area around the shrine was considered sacred; no trees could be felled, no animal could be hunted and no human blood could be shed.[35]

According to al-Kalbi's Book of Idols, her shrine was under the guardianship of the Banū Attāb ibn Mālik of the Banu Thaqif.[16] She was also venerated by other Arab tribes, including the Quraysh, and their children would be named after the goddess, such as Zayd al-Lat and Taym al-Lat.[16]

Al-Lat is also mentioned in pre-Islamic Arab poetry, such as in al-Mutalammis' satire of Amr ibn Hind:[36]

Thou hast banished me for fear of lampoon and satire.
No! By Allat and all the sacred baetyls (ansab)
thou shalt not escape.

Relief of the Arabian goddesses Al-Lat, Manat, and al-Uzza from Hatra, 2nd century AD. Iraq Museum

A poem by the pre-Islamic monotheist

al-'Uzza and Hubal:[37]

Am I to worship one lord or a thousand?
If there are as many as you claim,
I renounce al-Lat and al-Uzza, both of them,
as any strong-minded person would.
I will not worship al-Uzza and her two daughters…
I will not worship Hubal, though he was our lord
in the days when I had little sense.

Al-Lat was also called as a daughter of

Manat.[38][39][40][41] According to the Book of Idols, the Quraysh were to chant the following verses as they circumambulated the Kaaba:[42]

By al-Lat and al-'Uzza,
And Manat, the third idol besides.
Verily they are the gharaniq
Whose intercession is to be sought.

The word gharaniq was translated as "most exalted females" by Faris in his English translation of the Book of Idols, but he annotates this term in a footnote as "lit. Numidean cranes".[42]

According to Islamic tradition, the shrine dedicated to al-Lat in Ta'if was demolished on the orders of

Battle of Tabuk[34] (which occurred in October 630 AD).[43] The destruction of the cult image was a demand by Muhammad before he would allow any reconciliation to take place with the tribes of Ta'if, who were under his siege.[44] According to the Book of Idols, this occurred after the Banu Thaqif converted to Islam, and that her temple was "burnt to the ground".[36]

Quran and Satanic Verses incident

Main article: Satanic Verses

In the

Quran 53:19–22,[45] which became the subject of the alleged Satanic Verses incident,[46] an occasion on which the Islamic prophet Muhammad had mistaken the words of "satanic suggestion" for divine revelation.[47] Many different versions of the story existed (all traceable to one single narrator Muhammad ibn Ka'b, who was two generations removed from biographer Ibn Ishaq).[46] In its essential form, the story reports that during Muhammad
's recitation of Surat An-Najm, when he reached the following verses:

Have you thought of al-Lāt and

Quran 53:19–20

Satan tempted him to utter the following line:[46]

These are the exalted gharāniq, whose intercession is hoped for. (In Arabic تلك الغرانيق العلى وإن شفاعتهن لترتجى.)

Following this, the angel Gabriel chastised Muhammad for uttering that line, and the verses were abrogated with a new revelation:[48]

Are yours the males and His the females? That were indeed an unfair division!

— 
Quran 53:21–22

The majority of Muslim scholars have rejected the historicity of the incident on the basis of the theological doctrine of

Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (as reconstructed by Alfred Guillaume).[46]

The "Grinder" legend

Various legends about her origins were known in medieval Islamic tradition, including one which linked al-Lat's stone with a man who grinds cereal (al-latt, "the grinder").

Khuza'a drove the Jurhum out of Mecca, while other legends report it was Amr ibn Luhayy who deified the grinder.[50]

Michael Cook noticed the oddity of this story, as it would make al-Lat masculine.[52] Gerald Hawting believes the various legends that link al-Lat with that of al-latt, "the grinder", was an attempt to relate al-Lat with Mecca.[50] He also compared the legends to Isaf and Na'ila, who according to legend were a man and a woman who fornicated inside the Kaaba and were petrified.[51]

Mythological role

F. V. Winnet saw al-Lat as a lunar deity due to association of a crescent with her in 'Ayn esh-Shallāleh and a

Manāt).[53]

It has been hypothesized that Allah was the consort of al-Lat, given that it is typical of deities in that area of the world to have consorts.[54]

Iconography

In Ta'if, al-Lat's primary cult image was a cubic stone,[31] sometimes described as white in color.[55] Waqidi's mention of the 'head' (ra's) of ar-Rabba may imply that the image was perceived in human or animal form, although Julius Wellhausen resisted this implication.[55]

The Lion of Al-Lat, representing the goddess and her consort.

Early

Lion of Al-Lat that once adorned her temple depicts a lion and a gazelle, the lion representing her consort,[2] and the gazelle representing al-Lat's tender and loving traits, as bloodshed was not permitted under penalty of al-Lat's retaliation.[57]

Al-Lat was associated with the Greek goddess

betyl in place of the Gorgoneion.[58]

Al-Lat can also be identified with the Babylonian goddess

Ishtar, with both of the deities taking part in prosperity, warfare, and later being linked to Aphrodite and Athena. The two's similarities also appeared in their symbols, as both were associated with lions, morning star[59][60] and crescents.[61]
Like Al-Lat, Ishtar's origin was of Semitic roots.

Modern relevance

The

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2015 but has been since restored.[62] It now stands in the National Museum of Damascus, but it may be returned to Palmyra in the future.[62]

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Ma'zin is an Arabic word meaning "goat herders".[27] While Teixidor described the tribe as Arab,[26] Michał Gawlikowski, head of the Polish archaeological expedition in Palmyra between 1980 and 2011, stated that the tribe is best understood as an alliance of pastoralists from different origins who settled in the city.[27]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Healey 2001, p. 111.
  2. ^ a b Butcher 2003, p. 309.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Healey 2001, p. 114.
  4. ^ "Tafsir Ibn Kathir - 53:19 - english". quran.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  5. ^ a b c Fahd, T., "al-Lat", in Bosworth et al. 1986, pp. 692
  6. ^ Healey 2001, p. 112.
  7. ^ Monaghan 2014, p. 31.
  8. ^ Sykes & Turner 2014, p. 7, 8, 63.
  9. ^ a b Jordan 2014, p. 13.
  10. ^ Rabinowitz 1956.
  11. ^ Robin 2005.
  12. ^ a b Corrente, Paola, "Dushara and Allāt alias Dionysos and Aphrodite in Herodotus 3.8", in Bernabé et al. 2013, pp. 265, 266
  13. ^ Histories I:131
  14. ^ Histories III:8
  15. ^ a b Robin, Christian Julien, "South Arabia, Religions in Pre-Islamic", in McAuliffe 2005, pp. 88
  16. ^ a b c al-Kalbi 2015, p. 14–15.
  17. ^ Hoyland 2002, p. 25.
  18. ^ a b c Hoyland 2002, p. 207.
  19. ^ Hoyland 2002, p. 63.
  20. ^ a b c Healey 2001, p. 136.
  21. ^ Corrente, Paola, "Dushara and Allāt alias Dionysos and Aphrodite in Herodotus 3.8", in Bernabé et al. 2013, pp. 263
  22. ^ Zayadine & Farés-Drappeau 1998, p. 256.
  23. ^ Frank 2006, p. 96.
  24. ^ a b Teixidor 1979, p. 54.
  25. ^ Teixidor 1979, p. 53.
  26. ^ a b Teixidor 1979, p. 36.
  27. ^ a b Gawlikowski, Michal, "Palmyra: From a Tribal Federation to a City", in Freyberger, Henning & Hesberg 2003, pp. 9
  28. ^ Hoyland 2002, p. 156.
  29. ^ a b c Teixidor 1979, p. 62.
  30. ^ Butcher 2003, p. 284.
  31. ^ a b c al-Kalbi 2015, p. 14.
  32. ^ Brockelmann 1960, p. 9.
  33. ^ Hawting 1999, p. 107.
  34. ^ a b Tabari 1990, p. 46.
  35. ^ Eckenstein 2018, p. 24.
  36. ^ a b al-Kalbi 2015, p. 15.
  37. ^ Ishaq 1955, p. 100.
  38. ^ Berkey 2003, p. 42.
  39. ^ Robinson 2013, p. 75.
  40. ^ Peters 1994, p. 110.
  41. ^ Peterson 2007, p. 21.
  42. ^ a b al-Kalbi 2015, p. 17.
  43. ^ Muir 1878, p. 207.
  44. ^ Muir 1878, p. 205.
  45. ^ Quran 53:19-22 Archived 2020-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  46. ^ a b c d Ishaq 1955, p. 165.
  47. ^
    JSTOR 1595926
    .
  48. ^ Ishaq 1955, p. 166.
  49. ^ Rubin 1997, p. 161.
  50. ^ a b c d Hawting 1999, p. 143.
  51. ^ a b c Hawting 1999, p. 102.
  52. ^ Hawting 1999, p. 142.
  53. ^ Wellhausen, 1926, p. 717, quoted in translation by Hans Krause Archived 2005-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
  54. ^ Monaghan 2014, p. 30.
  55. ^ a b Hawting 1999, p. 138.
  56. ^ Teixidor 1979, p. 61.
  57. ^ Baaren 1982, p. 70.
  58. ^ a b c Taylor 2001, p. 130.
  59. ISBN 978-1-135-96390-3. Archived
    from the original on 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  60. ISBN 978-0-313-34990-4. Archived
    from the original on 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  61. ^ Kanishk Tharoor; Maryam Maruf (2016-03-04). "Museum of Lost Objects: The Lion of al-Lat". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2020-02-14. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  62. ^ a b Makieh, Perry & Merriman 2017.

General and cited sources

External links

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