Allāt

Myths of the Fertile Crescent series
Mesopotamian mythology
Ancient Arabian mythology
Ancient Levantine mythology
Pre-Islamic Arabian gods
Abgal Aglibol Al-Qaum al-Lāt, al-'Ilāhat Astarte Atargatis (Syrian) Atarsamain Beelshamen Bēl, Baʕl, Bēl-Šamīn Bes (Egypto-Arabic) Dhu'l-Halasa Dusares, Dhu Sharā' Ēl, Ilāh (NW Semitic) Ištar, Athtar Malakbel Manāt	Manaf Nabū, Nebo Nasr Nergal Nuha Orotalt Ruda Shams, Samas Sīn, Nanna-Suen Suwa' ʕUzzā Wadd Ya'uq Yaghūth Yarhibol/Malakbel demons
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Al-Lāt (Arabic: اللات‎) was a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca. She is mentioned in the Qur'an (Sura 53:19) that pre-Islamic Arabs considered her as one of the daughters of Allāh along with Manāt and al-‘Uzzá.

Descriptions

The goddess occurs in early Safaitic graffiti (Safaitic han-'Ilāt "the Goddess") and the Nabataeans of Petra and the people of Hatra also worshipped her, equating her with the Greek Athena and Tyche and the Roman Minerva. She is frequently called "the Great Goddess" in Greek in multi-lingual inscriptions.^[1] According to Wellhausen, the Nabataeans believed al-Lāt was the mother of Hubal (and hence the mother-in-law of Manāt).

The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, considered her the equivalent of Aphrodite:

The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta, the Arabians Alilat, and the Persians Mitra.^[2]

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

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.^[3]

ΟΎΡΑΝΊΗΝ ἈΦΡΟΔΊΤΗ ἈΛΙΛΆΤ / ἈΛΊΤΤΑ אוראניה אַפּרידיטה אַפַלַוַדַתַה אַפָּר أورانيا آفرودیته آپريديته اللات‎

Source (ΠΗΓΥΝΉ) : Hesiode Theogony Histories III:38 (Herodotus)

In the Qur'an, she is mentioned along with al-‘Uzzá and Manāt in Sura 53:19-23. The tribe of ‘ād of Iram of the Pillars is also mentioned in Sura 89:5-8, and archaeological evidence from Iram shows copious inscriptions devoted to her for the protection of a tribe by that name.^[4]

Al-lāt is also explicitly attested from early Islamic records discussing the pre-Islamic period. According to the Book of Idols (Kitab al-Asnām) by Hishām ibn al-Kalbi, the pre-Islamic Arabs believed Al-lāt resided in the Ka‘bah and also had an idol inside the sanctuary:

Her custody was in the hands of the Banū Attāb ibn Mālik of the Thaqīf, who had built an edifice over her. The Quraysh, as well as all the Arabs, venerated al-Lāt. They also used to name their children after her, calling them Zayd al-Lāt and Taym al-Lāt. [...] Al-Lāt continued to be venerated until the Thaqīf embraced Islam, when the Apostle of God dispatched al-Mughīrah ibn-Shu‘bah, who destroyed her and burnt her temple to the ground.

— ibn al-Kalbi, N.A. Faris 1952, pp. 14-15

possible etymology

In view of the fact that ʕarabī لا /lā/ 'not' is related to, and evidently derived from, ʕibrī לא /lōʔ/ (always written with etymological "ʔalep") 'not'^[5], the ʕarabī goddess-name اللات /al-Lāt/ ought by analogy to represent the etymological form /al-Laʔ-t/ (with feminine affix /-t/ retained instead of changed to /-ah/, on account, euphonically, of the preceding "ʔalif"). Although the evident ʕibrī equivalent name must be /Lēʔāh/ 'weary'^[6], the term which ʕarabī-speakers would adduce would be /laʔlaʔah/ 'flash, glitter, twinkle'^[7]. A likely connection between the meaning 'twinkle' (used of "stars"^[8]) and the legend of Lēʔāh would be the difficulty of recognizing Lēʔāh (B-rēʔŝīt 29:25), similar to the difficulty in perceiving a star on account of its twinkle.

bibliography

• Strong's Hebrew and Aramaic Dictionary of Bible Words
• Georgii Wilhelmi Freytagii : Lexicon Arabico-Latinum. Librairie du Liban, Beirut, 1975.
• http://answering-islam.org/Books/Al-Kalbi/allat.htm

References

See also

• Thaqif and Islam