Monotheism in pre-Islamic Arabia

Last updated

Monotheism, the belief in a supreme Creator being, existed in pre-Islamic Arabia. This practice could be found among pre-Islamic Christian, Jewish, and other populations unaffiliated with either one of the two Abrahamic religions at the time. Monotheism became a widespread religious trend in pre-Islamic Arabia in the fourth century, when it began to quickly supplant the polytheism that had been the common form of religion until then. [1] The transition from polytheism to monotheism in this time is documented from inscriptions in all writing system s on the Arabian Peninsula (including those in Nabataean, Safaitic, and Sabaic), where polytheistic gods and idols cease to be mentioned. Epigraphic evidence is nearly exclusively monotheistic in the fifth century, [2] and from the sixth century and until the eve of Islam, it is solely monotheistic. [3] Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is also monotheistic or henotheistic. [4]

Contents

An important locus of pre-Islamic Arabian monotheism was in the Himyarite Kingdom that ruled over South Arabia, whose ruling class converted to Judaism in the fourth century (roughly when official polytheistic inscriptions stop appearing in the area) who nevertheless present a neutral outwards monotheism in engagement with the public. This monotheism that came to be prevalent among populations unaffiliated with either Abrahamic religion has been called by many terms by historians, including "gentile monotheism," "pagan monotheism," "Himyarite monotheism," "Arabian monotheism," "hanifism," "Rahmanism," and so on. [5] In the sixth century, the Aksumite invasion of Himyar leads to Christian rule in the region.

In Islamic tradition, Arabia is described as being dominated by polytheism and idolatry before the mission of Muhammad such as in the Book of Idols by Hisham ibn al-Kalbi. These representations are important to the Islamic idea of pre-Islamic Arabia as the Jahiliyyah ("Age of Ignorance"). Monotheism was confined to small pockets, like the Christian community of Najran or Jewish tribes such as Banu Qurayza. There was also the occasional hanif. The awāʾil ("firsts") genre of literature frequently attributes the status of the first true monotheist to sixth and early seventh-century figures like Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi, Waraqah ibn Nawfal, and Zayd ibn Amr. [6]

Polytheistic era

Early attestations of Arabian polytheism include Esarhaddon's Annals, mentioning Atarsamain, Nukhay, Ruldaiu, and Atarquruma. Herodotus, writing in his Histories, reported that the Arabs worshipped Orotalt (identified with Dionysus) and Alilat (identified with Aphrodite). [7] Strabo stated the Arabs worshipped Dionysus and Zeus. Origen stated they worshipped Dionysus and Urania. [7] Similarly, late Nabataean, Safaitic, and Sabaic inscriptions attest to the veneration of a broad array of sacred stones and polytheistic deities until the fourth century. [5]

South Arabia

Early Christian contact

The first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity was Constantine the Great. The first recorded attempt to convert a region of Arabia into monotheistic faith is attributed to Constantius II, his successor. According to the Greek historian Philostorgius (d. 439) in his Ecclesiastical History 3.4, Constantius sent an Arian bishop known as Theophilus the Indian (also known as "Theophilus of Yemen") to Tharan Yuhanim, then the king of the South Arabian Himyarite Kingdom to convert the people to Christianity. According to the report, Theophilus succeeded in establishing three churches, one of them in the capital Zafar. However, Tharan did not convert to Christianity. [8]

Conversion to Judaism

Several decades after recorded Christian contacts by rulers of the Empire, the Himyarite ruling class converted to Judaism during the reign of Malkikarib Yuhamin. The motivation might have been to distance themselves from the Byzantine Empire. [9] It is in the mid-fourth century that inscriptions suddenly transition from polytheistic invocations to ones mentioning the high god Rahmanan (whose name means "The Merciful One"). [10] A Sabaic inscription dating to this time, titled Ja 856 (or Fa 60) describes the replacement of a polytheistic temple dedicated to the god Almaqah with a mikrāb (which might be the equivalent of a synagogue or an original form of organization local to Himyarite Judaism [11] ). The evidence suggests a sharp break with polytheism, coinciding with the sudden appearance of Jewish and Aramaic words (‘ālam/world, baraka/bless, haymanōt/guarantee, kanīsat/meeting hall) and personal names (Yṣḥq/Isaac, Yhwd’/Juda), Yws’f/Joseph). [9] The last South Arabian polytheistic inscription was created in the 380s. [12]

Christian rule in the sixth century

Soon after and prompted by the massacre of the Christian community of Najran during the reign of the militant Jewish ruler Dhu Nuwas in the early sixth century, the Kingdom of Aksum in Ethiopia would invade, leading to an ousting of Jewish leadership over the region. [13] Sumyafa Ashwa came into power, but he was soon overthrown by his rival Abraha, initiating a period of Ethiopian Christian rule over southern Arabia in 530. [14] During the Ethiopian Christian period, Christianity appears to have become the official religion. [15] Many churches began to be built. [16] For example, the inscription RIÉ 191, discovered in Axum, describes the construction of a church off the coast of Yemen. The Marib Dam inscription from 548 mentions a priest, a monastery, and an abbot of that monastery. [17] As in the Himyarite period, Christian inscriptions continue to refer to the monotheistic deity using the name Rahmanan, but now these inscriptions are accompanied with crosses and references to Christ as the Messiah and the Holy Spirit. For example, one (damaged) inscription, as for example in Ist 7608 bis. Another extensive inscription, CIH 541, documents Abraha sponsoring the construction of a church at Marib, besides invoking/mentioning the Messiah, Spirit, and celebrations hosted by a priest at another church. Later Islamic historiography also ascribes to Abraha the construction of a church at Sanaa. Abraha's inscriptions bear a relatively low Christology, perhaps meant to assuage the Jewish population, and their formulae resemble descriptions of Jesus in the Quran. [18] (The Jabal Dabub inscription is another South Arabian Christian graffito dating to the sixth century and containing a pre-Islamic variant of the Basmala. [19] ) Whereas Abraha's predecessor more explicitly denoted Jesus as the Son of Rahmanan and as "Victor" (corresponding to Aksumite description under Kaleb of Axum), and made use of Trinitarian formulae, Abraha began to only describe Jesus as God's "Messiah" (but not Son) and, in aligning himself more closely with Syriac Christianity, replaced Aksumite Christian with Syriac loanwords. More broadly, the separation of Abraha's Himyar from the Akumsite kingdom corresponded to its greater alignment with the Christianity espoused in Antioch and Syria. Inscriptions from this region disappear after 560. [15] Abraha's influence would end up extending across the regions he conquered, including regions of eastern Arabia, central Arabia, Medina in the Hejaz, and an unidentified site called Gzm. [20]

Sources

Epigraphy

With a few exceptions, there are no polytheistic pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions from the fourth to sixth centuries: [21] among over one hundred monumental inscriptions that could testify to a polytheistic cult, only two of them do, along with less than ten inscriptions from wood remains. [22] Similarly, of 58 extant Late Sabaic inscriptions that mention the theonym Rahmanan from the period of Jewish rule in south Arabia, none of them can be labelled as pagan or polytheistic. Invocation of alternative deities was rare, though it suggests the cult surrounding Rahmanan was henotheistic as opposed to purely monotheistic. Once Christian rule initiates in South Arabia in the early sixth century, extant inscriptions become purely monotheistic. [23]

Epigraphic evidence further attests to the spread of Judaism beyond South Arabia, into northwestern Arabia, [24] [25] as well as Christianity into all major regions of Arabia [2] including northern Arabia and the southern Levant, southern Arabia, western Arabia, [26] and across the gulf of eastern Arabia. [27] [28] All Paleo-Arabic inscriptions from the fifth and sixth centuries, which have been found in all major regions of the Arabian peninsula and in the southern Levant, are either monotheistic or explicitly Christian. [29] These inscriptions also demonstrate a penetration of monotheism into previously thought holdouts or surviving bastions of paganism or polytheism, such as Dumat al-Jandal and Taif (which ibn al-Kalbi held to be the centre of the cult of Al-Lat in the sixth century). [29] These inscriptions refer to God with the use of terms like Allāh, al-Ilāh (ʾl-ʾlh), and Rabb ("Lord"). The uncontracted form Al-Ilāh/ʾl-ʾlh is thought to have among Christians as an isomorphism or calque for the Greek expression ho theos, which is how the Hebrew ʾĕlōhîm is rendered in the Septuagint. [30] This uncontracted form continued to be used by Christians until the tenth century, even as the form ʾllh appeared in the Quran with two consecutive lāms without a hamza. [31] One Islamic-era example of the uncontracted form is in the Yazid inscription. [32]

Pre-Islamic poetry and the Quran

Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry rarely mentions idols or the gods and practices of polytheistic religion. Principally, they indicate a belief in monotheism or henotheism. [33] [34] The Quran occasionally offers evidence for vestiges of knowledge of polytheistic deities in two passages. Its descriptions of the "associators" (mushrikūn) have been increasingly understood, since originally being posited by Julius Wellhausen, to be references to monotheistic/henotheistic individuals who did not dispute the supremacy of Allah but instead believed in other beings (such as angels) that acted as intermediaries in the devotion to the one high God. [35] [36] [37]

Arabic historiography

Muslim-era historiographical sources, such as the eighth-century Book of Idols by Hisham ibn al-Kalbi as well as the writings of the Yemeni historian al-Hasan al-Hamdani on South Arabian religious beliefs continue to depict pre-Islamic Arabia as dominated by polytheistic practices until the sudden rupture brought about by the coming of Muhammad and his career between 610 and 632. [38]

Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) attempts to describe the broad landscape of pre-Islamic religious belief in his Jamharat ansāb al-ʿArab (Compilation of Arab Genealogy): [39]

all of [Mesopotamian tribes] Iyād and Rabīʿah and Bakr and Taghlib and Namar and [the eastern] ʿAbd al-Qays are Christian, so too is [Syrian] Ghassān, and [the southern] Banū Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb in Najrān, and [the northern] al-Ṭayyiʾ, Tanūkh, many of [the Syrian] Kalb, and all those from [Najdi] Tamīm and [Iraqi] Lakhm residing in Ḥīrah. Ḥimyar were Jewish, as were many from Kindah. Khathʿam had no religion at all (lā tadīn bi-shayʾ aṣlan). Zoroastrianism (al-majūsiyyah) appeared among Tamīm, and it is said that Laqīṭ ibn Zurārah had converted to Zoroastrianism (qad tamajassa). The rest of the Arabs worshipped idols.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia</span>

Indigenous Arabian polytheism, Buddhism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, and Zoroastrianism were among the religions in pre-Islamic Arabia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himyar</span> Former kingdom in ancient Yemen

Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to classical sources, their capital was the ancient city of Zafar, relatively near the modern-day city of Sana'a. Himyarite power eventually shifted to Sana'a as the population increased in the fifth century. After the establishment of their kingdom, it was ruled by kings from dhū-Raydān tribe. The kingdom was named Raydān.

In Islam, the terms ḥanīf and ḥunafā' are primarily used to refer to pre-Islamic Arabians who were Abrahamic monotheists. These people are regarded in a favorable light for shunning Arabian polytheism and solely worshipping the God of Abraham, thus setting themselves apart from what is known as jahiliyyah. However, it is emphasized that they were not associated with Judaism or Christianity—and instead adhered to a unique monotheistic faith that exemplified their perception of the unaltered beliefs and morals of Abraham. The word is found twelve times in the Quran: ten times in the singular form and twice in the plural form. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself was a ḥanīf and a direct descendant of Abraham's eldest son Ishmael. Likewise, all Islamic prophets and messengers before Muhammad—that is, those affiliated with Judaism and/or Christianity, such as Moses and Jesus—are classified as ḥunafā' to underscore their God-given infallibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraha</span> 6th-century Ethiopian Aksumite military general

Abraha was an Aksumite military leader who controlled the Kingdom of Himyar and a large part of present-day Saudi Arabia for over 30 years in the 6th century. Originally a general in the Aksumite army that invaded Yemen around 525 CE, Abraha seized power by deposing the Christian Himyarite king installed by Kaleb. He is famous for the tradition of his attempt to destroy the Kaaba, a revered religious site in Mecca, using an army that included war elephants, an event known as Year of the Elephant.

It is believed that Jews began migrating to the Arabian Peninsula in as early as the 6th century BCE, when the Babylonian conquest of Judah triggered a mass Jewish exodus from Judea in the Land of Israel. Over time and through successive exiles, the local Jewish tribes, who were concentrated in the Hejaz and partly in South Arabia, established themselves as one of the most prominent ethno-religious communities of pre-Islamic Arabia. Likewise, Judaism, which had been introduced as one of the few monotheistic religions in the region, stood as a deviation from the typical polytheistic practices of Arabian paganism. These Jewish tribes continued to have a presence in Arabia during the rise of Muhammad, who founded Islam in the 7th century CE. Muhammad's interaction with the Jewish community is documented to a considerable degree in Islamic literature, including in many ahadith. The Jewish tribes of the Hejaz are seen in Islam as having been the offspring of the Israelites/Hebrews. Two of Muhammad's wives were Jewish: Safiyya bint Huyayy and Rayhanah bint Zayd, both of whom belonged to the Banu Nadir by birth, though Rayhanah's status as a wife is disputed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saif ibn Dhi Yazan</span> Semi-legendary Himyarite king of Yemen

Saif ibn Dhi Yazan al-Himyari or simply known as Saif ibn Dhi Yazan, was a semi-legendary Himyarite king who lived in the 6th century CE. He is well-known for his role in expelling the Aksumites out of Yemen with the help of the Sasanian Empire, and is considered as the liberator of Yemen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zafar, Yemen</span> Himyarite archaeological site in Yemen

Ẓafār, also Romanized Dhafar or Dhofar, is an ancient Himyarite site situated in Yemen, some 130 km south-south-east of today's capital, Sana'a, and c. 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south-east of Yarim. Given mention in several ancient texts, there is little doubt about the pronunciation of the name. Despite the opinion of local patriots in Oman, this site in Yemen is far older than its namesake there. It lies in the Yemeni highlands at some 2800 m. Zafar was the capital of the Himyarites, which at its peak ruled most of the Arabian Peninsula. For 250 years the tribal confederacy and allies' combined territory extended past Riyadh to the north and the Euphrates to the north-east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">False god</span> Derogatory term for foreign deities in Abrahamic religions

The phrase false god is a derogatory term used in Abrahamic religions to indicate cult images or deities of non-Abrahamic Pagan religions, as well as other competing entities or objects to which particular importance is attributed. Conversely, followers of animistic and polytheistic religions may regard the gods of various monotheistic religions as "false gods", because they do not believe that any real deity possesses the properties ascribed by monotheists to their sole deity. Atheists, who do not believe in any deities, do not usually use the term false god even though that would encompass all deities from the atheist viewpoint. Usage of this term is generally limited to theists, who choose to worship some deity or deities, but not others.

The existence of a Christian community in the city of Najran in present-day southwestern Saudi Arabia is attested by several historical sources of the Arabian Peninsula, where it recorded as having been created in the 5th century AD or perhaps a century earlier. According to the Arab Muslim historian Ibn Ishaq, Najran was the first place where Christianity took root in South Arabia. Najran was home to famous Christian figures of Arabic culture like Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi, whose sermons Muhammad is said to have encountered.

The Book of Idols, written by the Arab scholar Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819), is the most popular of the Islamic-era works about the gods and rites of pre-Islamic Arab religions. The book portrays pre-Islamic Arabian religion as predominantly polytheistic and guilty of idol worship (idolatry) before the coming of Muhammad, including at the Kaaba, the pre-eminent shrine of Mecca. This, for Ibn al-Kalbi, was a degraded state of religious practice since the pure monotheism that, in Islamic religion, was instituted by Abraham when the Kaaba was founded.

Christianity was a prominent monotheistic religion in pre-Islamic Arabia. Christianization was a major phenomena in Arabian late antiquity, driven by missionary activities from Syrian Christians in the north and Christianity's entrenchment in South Arabia after its conquest by the Ethiopian Christian Kingdom of Aksum. Already before this, Christian communities could be found all around the peninsula. Christianity had a large presence in the Arabian peninsula by the fifth century, with a prominent case of this being the Christian community of Najran and the Eastern Arab Christian community which developed official lines of communication with Levantine Christians through the Syriac language. Sites of Christian organization were constructed including churches, martyria and monasteries. These played roles as points of contact with Byzantine Christians and allowed local Christian leaders to display their benefaction, communicate with the local population, and meet with officials.

Judaism has been practiced as a religion in the Arabian Peninsula since at least the first century BCE. It is also the first monotheistic religion of Arabia. Arabian Jews were linguistically diverse and would have varied in their practice of the religion. The presence of Jews is best attested in Northwestern and Southern Arabia. Judaism would briefly become politically relevant in the fourth century, when the rulers of the Kingdom of Himyar converted to Judaism.

Sumyafa' Ashwa al-Yazani, also known as Esimiphaios in Syriac and Greek sources, was a vassal king of Himyar, ruling in the 6th century CE under the Aksumite Empire. He was also the viceroy of the Aksumite king Kaleb, who had invaded Himyar and defeated Dhu Nuwas. Sumyafa' Ashwa was a native convert to Christianity.

Raḥmānān was an epithet and theonym predominantly used to refer to a singular, monotheistic God from the fourth to sixth centuries in South Arabia, beginning when the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom converted to Judaism and replacing invocations to polytheistic religions. The term may have also been monolatrous until the arrival of Christianity in the mid-sixth century.

The Jabal Ḏabūbinscription is a South Arabian graffito inscription composed in a minuscule variant of the late Sabaic language and dates to the 6th century, notable for the appearance of a pre-Islamic variant of the Basmala. It was found on a rocky facade at the top of the eastern topside of mount Thaboob in the Dhale region of Yemen and first published in 2018 by M.A. Al-Hajj and A.A. Faqʿas.

Ja 1028 is a Sabaic inscription dating to the late Himyarite Kingdom. It was commissioned by an army commander of Dhu Nuwas named S²rḥʾl Yqbl in which he celebrated massacring the Christian community of Najran and the burning of their church with the army in a move against the Abyssinian Christians of the Kingdom of Aksum based in Ethiopia.

Thaʾrān Yuhanʿim was a king of the Himyarite Kingdom, and was the second king of the new dynasty founded by his father Dhamar Ali Yuhabirr. He had an unusually long reign, on the order of fifty to fifty-five years and his son, Malkikarib Yuhamin, appears to have entered the throne at an advanced age.

'Abd-Kulāl al-Ḥimyarī, or simply 'Abdkulāl or 'Abd-kalal, was a governor of Himyar who lived in the 5th century CE. He was a convert to Nontrinitarianism, but kept his religious beliefs confidential. 'Abd-Kulal also held the power of regent rule temporarily during his time in office.

The Dhu Yazan, also known as Al-Yazanin, were a prominent Arab tribal clan and elite ruling family of Yemen that were affiliated with the Sabaean Kingdom and later on, the Himyarite Kingdom. They were ultimately deprived from their elite status and ruling by the Sasanian Empire, which controlled Yemen from 570 CE until 678 CE. The Arabian genealogists and historians trace their lineage to a man named 'Amir ibn Aslam who was given the title Dhu Yazan and was a contemporary of the Himyarite ruler Abu Karib, although the Dhu Yazan clan has existed way back during the time of Dhamar Ali Yahbur.

<i>The Book of Crowns on the Kings of Himyar</i> Biography of the kings of the Himyarite Kingdom

Kitāb al-Tījāni also known more commonly as The Book of Crowns on the Kings of Himyar, is a historical and biographical work by the Yemeni historian Wahb ibn Munabbih, an 8th AD century Israʼiliyyat author. The book is also known as Kitāb al-Tījān li ma'rifati muluk al-zamān fi akhbar Qahtān(The Book of Crowns, on the kings of yesteryear in the accounts of the Qahtānites).

References

  1. ↑ Hoyland, Robert G. (2003). Arabia and the Arabs: from the Bronze Age to the coming of Islam (Reprinted, (twice) ed.). London: Routledge. p. 139. ISBN   978-0-415-19534-8.
  2. 1 2 Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2023). The emergence of Islam: classical traditions in contemporary perspective (2nd ed.). Fortress Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN   978-1-5064-7388-8.
  3. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023-12-01). "The Seed of Abraham". Advances in Ancient, Biblical, and Near Eastern Research. 3 (3): 253–255. doi:10.35068/AABNER.V3I3.1107.
  4. ↑ Sinai 2019.
  5. 1 2 Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 123–127. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  6. ↑ Dziekan 2012, p. 130–133.
  7. 1 2 Teixidor, Javier (1977). The Pagan God: popular religion in the Greco-Roman Near East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. p. 70. ISBN   978-0-691-07220-3.
  8. ↑ Fisher, Greg (2020). Rome, Persia, and Arabia: shaping the Middle East from Pompey to Muhammad. London New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. p. 90. ISBN   978-0-415-72880-5.
  9. 1 2 Hughes, Aaron (2020). "South Arabian 'Judaism', Ḥimyarite Raḥmanism, and the Origins of Islam". In Segovia, Carlos Andrés (ed.). Remapping emergent Islam: texts, social settings, and ideological trajectories. Social worlds of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 26–29. ISBN   978-94-6298-806-4.
  10. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2021). "Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia". In Ackerman-Lieberman, Phillip Isaac (ed.). The Cambridge history of Judaism. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. pp. 297–298. ISBN   978-0-521-51717-1.
  11. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2021). "Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia". In Ackerman-Lieberman, Phillip Isaac (ed.). The Cambridge history of Judaism. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. pp. 297–303. ISBN   978-0-521-51717-1.
  12. ↑ Grasso, Valentina A.; Davitashvili, Ana; Abuhussein, Nadja (2023-01-01). "Introduction. Epigraphy, the Qurʾān, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia". Millennium. 20 (1): 3. doi:10.1515/mill-2023-0002. ISSN   1867-0318.
  13. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 73–76. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  14. ↑ Bowersock, G. W. (2012). Empires in collision in late antiquity. The Menahem Stern Jerusalem lectures. Waltham, Mass: Brandeis University Press. p. 24. ISBN   978-1-61168-320-2.
  15. 1 2 Robin, Christian Julien (2015-07-01), "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity", Arabs and Empires before Islam, Oxford University Press, pp. 153–154, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.003.0004, ISBN   978-0-19-965452-9 , retrieved 2024-02-20
  16. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2015-07-01), "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity", Arabs and Empires before Islam, Oxford University Press, p. 149, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.003.0004, ISBN   978-0-19-965452-9 , retrieved 2024-02-20
  17. ↑ Robin, Christian Julien (2015). "Ḥimyar, Aksūm, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity: The Epigraphic Evidence". In Fisher, Greg (ed.). Arabs and empires before Islam. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 164–167. ISBN   978-0-19-965452-9.
  18. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 98–102. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  19. ↑ Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2022). "A pre-Islamic basmala: reflections on its first epigraphic attestation and its original significance". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 52: 1–28.
  20. ↑ Grasso, Valentina A. (2023). Pre-islamic Arabia: societies, politics, cults and identities during late antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 119. ISBN   978-1-009-25296-6.
  21. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 143–144. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  22. ↑ Gajda, Iwona (2017). "Remarks on Monotheism in Ancient South Arabia". In Bakhos, Carol; Cook, Michael (eds.). Islam and its past: Jahiliyya, Late Antiquity, and the Qur'an. Oxford studies in the abrahamic religions. Oxford: Oxford university press. pp. 247–256. ISBN   978-0-19-874849-6.
  23. ↑ Kjær, Sigrid K. (2022). "'Rahman' before Muhammad: A pre-history of the First Peace (Sulh) in Islam". Modern Asian Studies. 56 (3): 776–795. doi: 10.1017/S0026749X21000305 . ISSN   0026-749X.
  24. ↑ Hoyland, Robert G. (2011). "The Jews of the Hijaz in the Qurʾān and in their inscriptions". In Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). New perspectives on the Qur'an. The Qur'an in its historical context. New York: Routledge. pp. 91–116. ISBN   978-0-415-61548-8.
  25. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 54–78. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  26. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 79–119. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  27. ↑ Lamport, Mark A., ed. (2018). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the global south: Volume 2. Lanham Boulder New York London: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 665–667. ISBN   978-1-4422-7157-9.
  28. ↑ Briquel-Chatonnet, Françoise; Debié, Muriel (2023). The Syriac world: in search of a forgotten Christianity. Translated by Haines, Jeffrey. New Haven London: Yale University Press. pp. 115–122. ISBN   978-0-300-25353-5.
  29. 1 2 Al-Jallad, Ahmad; Sidky, Hythem (2022). "A Paleo-Arabic inscription on a route north of Ṭāʾif". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 33 (1): 202–215. doi:10.1111/aae.12203. ISSN   0905-7196.
  30. ↑ Sinai 2019, p. 7.
  31. ↑ Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2021-12-02), ""May God be Mindful of Yazīd the King": Further Reflections on the Yazīd Inscription and the Development of Arabic Scripts", Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests, Brill, pp. 195–211, doi:10.1163/9789004500648_009, ISBN   978-90-04-50064-8 , retrieved 2024-02-21
  32. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2020-11-30). "Review of Nicolai SINAI, Rain-Giver, Bone-Breaker, Score-Settler: Allāh in Pre-Quranic Poetry". Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association. 5 (s1): 58–73. doi:10.1515/jiqsa-2020-06s106. ISSN   2474-8420.
  33. ↑ Sinai 2019, p. 57–63.
  34. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 129–133. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  35. ↑ Watt, W. Montgomery (1975-01-01), "Belief in a "High God" in Pre-Islamic Mecca", Proceedings of the XIIth International Congress of the Int. Assoc. for the History of Religions, Held with the Support of Unesco and under the Ausp. of the Int. Council for Philos. and Humanistic Studies at Stockholm, Sweden, August 16–22, 1970, Brill, pp. 228–234, doi:10.1163/9789004378490_025, ISBN   978-90-04-37849-0 , retrieved 2024-02-22
  36. ↑ Hawting, Gerald R. (1999). The idea of idolatry and the emergence of Islam: from polemic to history. Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN   978-0-521-65165-3.
  37. ↑ Crone, Patricia (2013). "The Quranic Mushrikūn and the resurrection (Part II)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 76 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1017/S0041977X12000596. ISSN   0041-977X. JSTOR   41811251.
  38. ↑ Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and his followers in context: the religious map of late antique Arabia. Islamic history and civilization. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 2–3, 38–39, 143. ISBN   978-90-04-68712-7.
  39. ↑ Miller, Nathaniel A. (2024). The emergence of Arabic poetry: from regional identities to Islamic canonization. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 57. ISBN   978-1-5128-2530-5.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.