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Ruda (deity)
Ruḍāʾ is a deity that was of paramount importance in the Arab pantheon of gods worshipped by the North Arabian tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia.Lipinski, 2000, pp. 618-619. He is first mentioned in the annals of Esarhaddon in the early 7th century BCE. He served as a protective deity. According to modern scholarly interpretations, Ruda was a moon deity. Etymology The etymology of his name gives the meaning "well disposed" an indication of his function as a protective deity. Attestations Pre-Islamic era The oldest reference to Ruda is found in the annals of Esarhaddon who ruled over the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BC. The name is transliterated into Latin script from the original Akkadian as ''Ru-ul-da-a-a-ú'' and he is mentioned among the gods of the Arabs. Known as Arsu among the Palmyrenes, in a later Palmyrene Aramaic inscription, Arsu/Ruda is paired with the Syrian god Resheph, a protective deity for his worshippers from the 3rd millennium BC. An anc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new Higher consciousness, levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life". Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheism, Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as "God"), whereas Polytheism, polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheism, Henotheistic religions accept one God, supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle. Nontheistic religions deny any supreme eter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi
Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (), 737 – 819 CE / 204 AH, also known as Ibn al-Kalbi (), was an Arab historian. His full name was Abu al-Mundhir Hisham ibn Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib ibn Bishr al-Kalbi. Born in Kufa, he spent much of his life in Baghdad. Like his father, he collected information about the genealogies and history of the ancient Arabs. He was considered unreliable by Hadith scholars. Ibn al-Kalbi's most famous work is the ''Book of Idols'' (''Kitab al-Asnam''), which aims to document the veneration of idols and pagan sanctuaries in different regions and among different tribes in pre-Islamic Arabia. In this work, Hisham posited a genealogical link between Ishmael and the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and put forth the idea that all Arabs were descended from Ishmael. He relied heavily on the ancient oral traditions of the Arabs, but also quoted writers who had access to Biblical and Palmyrene sources. According to the , he wrote 140 works. His account of the genealogies of the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadd
Wadd () (Ancient South Arabian script: 𐩥𐩵) or Ved, if translated to English, was the national god of the Kingdom of Ma'in, inhabited by the Minaean peoples, in modern-day South Arabia. Wadd is mentioned once in the Quran as part of a list of five false gods worshipped by the people of Noah. In the Islamic era, it was believed that Wadd was worshipped by a tribe known as the Banu Kalb, with a central idol being stored at the city of Dumat al-Jandal, which is in northwestern Arabia. Accordingly, this idol is said to have been destroyed by the early general Khalid ibn al-Walid. Cult Wadd was the national god of Ma'in, or the Minaeans; the magic formula ''Wd'b'' or "Wadd is y?father" was written on amulets and buildings. These writings were often accompanied with a symbol; a crescent moon with the small disc of Venus. An altar dedicated to him was erected by Minaeans living on the Greek island of Delos. The altar contains two inscriptions, one of which is in Minaean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Greek language, Hellenized form of the Religions of the ancient Near East, Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic languages, East Semitic goddess Ishtar. Astarte was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity, and her name is particularly associated with her worship in the ancient Levant among the Canaanite religion, Canaanites and Phoenician religion, Phoenicians, though she was originally associated with Amorite cities like Ugarit and Emar, as well as Mari, Syria, Mari and Ebla. She was also celebrated in ancient Egyptian religion, Egypt, especially during the reign of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Ramessides, following the importation of foreign cults there. Phoenicians introduced her cult in their colonies on the Iberian Peninsula. Name The Proto-Semitic language, Proto-Semitic form of this goddess's name was . While earlier scholars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hadramawt
Hadhramaut ( ; ) is a geographic region in the South Arabia, southern part of the Arabian Peninsula which includes the Yemeni Governorates of Yemen, governorates of Hadhramaut, Shabwah Governorate, Shabwah and Al Mahrah Governorate, Mahrah, Dhofar Governorate, Dhofar in southwestern Oman, and Sharurah in the Najran Province of Saudi Arabia, and sometimes the Aden Governorate, Aden, Abyan Governorate, Abyan and Lahij Governorate, Lahij governorates of Yemen at a more stretched historical definition. The region's people are known as the ''Hadharem''. They formerly spoke Hadramautic language, Hadramautic, an old South Arabian language, but they now predominantly speak the Hadhrami Arabic, Hadhrami dialect of Arabic. Though the origins of the name are unknown, the name Hadhramaut is traditionally explained as a Compound (linguistics), compound word meaning "death has come" or "court of death," derived either from the Arabic ("he came") plus ("death"), a folk nickname for Amer bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qataban
Qataban () was an ancient Yemenite kingdom in South Arabia that existed from the early 1st millennium BCE to the late 1st or 2nd centuries CE. It was one of the six ancient South Arabian kingdoms of ancient Yemen, along with Sabaʾ, Maʿīn, Ḥaḍramawt, Ḥimyar and Awsān. Geography Qatabān was centred around the Wādī Bayhān, and its capital was the city of Timnaʿ. The neighbours of Qatabān were Sabaʾ to the northwest and west, Awsān to the south, and Ḥaḍramawt to the east. At its maximum extent, Qatabān's territory extended from the Bāb al-Mandab in the southwest to the Ṣayhad desert to the north, and the western limits of Ḥaḍramawt to the east. History Prehistory The earliest human occupation in the region of Qatabān dates to around the 20th century BCE and consisted of a Neolithic population. The earliest settlements in the area of Qatabān are from 11th to 10th centuries BCE. Later, several waves of Semitic-speaking immigrants from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ma'in
Ma'in (; ) was an ancient South Arabian kingdom in modern-day Yemen. It was located along the strip of desert called Ramlat al-Sab'atayn, Ṣayhad by medieval Arab geographers, which is now known as Ramlat al-Sab'atayn. Wadd was the national god of Ma'in. The spoken language was Minaic. The kingdom appears in the historical record in the 8th century BCE, and transition from a city-state to kingdom in the last quarter of the 7th century BCE. The date of the end of Ma'in is heavily disputed, but the most popular hypothesis places its demise in the 1st century CE. The Minaean people were one of four ancient Yemeni groups mentioned by Eratosthenes. The others were the Sabaeans, Hadhrami people, Ḥaḑramites and Qataban, Qatabānians. Each of these had regional kingdoms in ancient Yemen, with the Minaeans in the north-west (in Al Jawf Governorate, Wādī al-Jawf), the Sabaeans to the south-east of them, the Qatabānians to the south-east of the Sabaeans, and the Ḥaḑramites fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Awsan
The Kingdom of Awsan, commonly known simply as Awsan (; ), was a kingdom in Ancient South Arabia, centered around a wadi called the Wadi Markha. The wadi remains archaeologically unexplored. The name of the capital of Awsan is unknown, but it is assumed to be the ''tell'' that is today known as Hagar Yahirr (locally named Ḥajar Asfal), the largest settlement in the wadi. Hagar Yahirr was 15 hectares and surrounded by an irrigated area of nearly 7,000 hectares, indicating that it was a formidable power in its time. The main god of Awsan was called Balu (''blw''). The Kingdom of Awsan experienced two main periods of activity. The first began in the 8th century BC, and in this time, Awsan was militarily allied with the Kingdom of Saba and, together, launched campaigns against common enemies. In the late 7th century BC, this alliance changed into a rivalry and Saba, under Karib'il Watar, obliterated Awsan, then ruled by a king named Murattaʿ. The later kingdom of Awsan experienc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venus (mythology)
Venus (; ) is a Roman goddess whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles. The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. As such, she is usually depicted nude. Etymology The Latin theonym and the common noun ('love, charm') stem from a Proto-Italic form reconstructed as ''*wenos-'' ('desire'), itself from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ' ('desire'; cf. Messapic , Old Indic 'desire'). Derivatives include ''venust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atarsamain
Atarsamain (also spelled Attar-shamayin, Attarshamayin,Retso, Jan. The Arabs in Antiquity: Their history from the Assyrians to the Umayyads. Routledge, 2013, p. 168 Attarsame (ʿAttarsamē);Ahmad al-Jallad, "On the origins of the god Ruḍ aw and some remarks on the pre-Islamic North Arabian pantheon," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (2021) "morning star of heaven") () was an astral deity of uncertain gender, worshipped in the pre-Islamic northern and central Arabian Peninsula. Worshipped widely by Arab tribes, Atarsamain is known from around 800 BC and is identified in letters of the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal.Hoyland, 2001, p. 68. Atarsamain may be identical with Allāt, whose cult was centred on Palmyra and also with Attar. According to Dierk Lange, Atarsamain was the main deity in a trinity of gods worshipped by what he calls the Yumu'il Confederation, which he describes as a northern Arab tribal confederation of Ishmaelite ancestry headed by the "c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuha (deity)
Nuha is a deity that was worshipped among the Northern Arabian tribes in pre-Islamic Arabia. Associated with the sun, she formed part of a trinity of gods, along with Ruda and Atarsamain. In Southern Arabia, Shams was her equivalent. Meaning Nuha, from the triconsonantal Semitic root N-H-Y, may mean "the ultimate".Retsö, 2003, p. 602. An early Akkadian inscription from the annals of the kings of Assyria mention Nuha with the epithet "the elevated sun". While this reference can be read literally to mean that Nuha was associated with the sun, it can also be read metaphorically as a reference to special kind of wisdom. Worship Dierk Lange writes that Nuha formed part of a trinity of gods worshipped by what he calls the Yumu'il confederation, which he describes as a northern Arab tribal confederation of Ishmaelite ancestry headed by the "clan of Kedar" (Qedarites).Lange, 2004, pp. 268-269. According to Lange, Nuha was the sun deity, Ruda the moon deity, and Atarsamain th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
