Nasr (idol)
Nasr ( ar, نسر "Vulture") was apparently a pre-Islamic Arabian deity of the Himyarites. Reliefs depicting vultures have been found in Himyar, including at Maṣna'at Māriya and Haddat Gulays, and Nasr appears in theophoric names. Nasr has been identified by some scholars with Maren- Shamash, who is often flanked by vultures in depictions at Hatra. Hisham ibn Al-Kalbi's ''Book of Idols'' describes a temple to Nasr at Balkha, an otherwise unknown location. Some sources attribute the deity to "the dhū-l-Khila tribe of Himyar". Himyaritic inscriptions were thought to describe "the vulture of the east" and "the vulture of the west", which Augustus Henry Keane interpreted as solstitial worship; however these are now thought to read "eastward" and "westward" with ''n-s-r'' as a preposition. J. Spencer Trimingham believed Nasr was "a symbol of the sun". Classical references Nasr is mentioned in the Qur'an (71:23) as an idol at the time of the Noah:An Arabian vulture-god is menti ...
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