Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

arabian religious traditions 683
more advanced civilizations, the starting-points and relative antiquity of
religious forms, the roles of animism and totemism, and differences
between sedentary and nomadic peoples have been and remain highly controversial,
and in many cases important arguments involve value judgements
about nomads and, similarly, supposed distinctions between ‘high’
and ‘low’ forms of religious expression. There is also the problem that the
Arabic sources, where the vast bulk of our source material is to be found,
can hardly be said to offer an objective view of pre-Islamic religion. The
folly of idol-worship and the credulity of its adherents are routinely
stressed in stereotyped ways. One tale describes how a tribe fashioned an
idol out of h · ays (dried curd mixed with dates and clarified butter) and worshipped
it for a time, but eventually devoured it during a famine, leading to
a poet’s wry comment:
The tribe of H
·
anīfa ate their lord
When dearth and hunger swept the land,
Fearing naught for consequences
From their lord’s avenging hand. 32
Inspired by Qur�ānic criticisms, 33 Arabic sources also present ‘bedouins’ as
indifferent to matters of faith. 34
Arabian polytheism took several forms, 35 one of which was stoneworship.
Greek and Syriac sources presented this as adoration of lifeless
rocks, but such objects were not deities in themselves, but their dwellingplaces
or the focus of the rituals of the cult. Offerings were made at the
site, and ritual observances included circumambulation of the stone. The
best-known example is of course the Ka�ba in Mecca, but we are told that
other places had such cultic foci. 36 These foci were often surrounded by a
sacred territory, usually called a
·
h aram in the north and a
·
h awta in the south.
These were precincts associated with the sanctity of worship and sacrifice,
and violence and killing, including hunting, were forbidden there. Holy
men were in charge of these precincts, and their descendants enjoyed a
special religious esteem. 37 Also prominent was religious observance revolving
around idols – again, with the idol probably representing the deity being
worshipped. The names of many idols are known from ancient poetry and
from later prose works drawing on this verse, and important new details
pertaining to Yathrib (Medina) may be indicative of a more general pattern.
Here clans each had an idol in a room belonging to all of the clan. The idol
was venerated there and sacrifices were made to it. People also had wooden
32 Ibn Qutayba, Ma�ārif 621.
33 Sūrat al-Tawba (9), v. 90 (�Arberry, 189–90): procrastinators, liars, malingerers; vv. 97–8, 101 (�
Arberry, 190–1): hypocrites, stubborn in unbelief, opportunists; Sūrat al-Fath · (48), v. 11 (�Arberry,
532): dissemblers, malicious, corrupt; Sūrat al-H · ujurāt (49), v. 14 (�Arberry, 538): superficial in belief.
34 Cf. Bashear (1997) 7–14. 35 Arafat (1968).
36 This is made especially clear in Lughda al-Is· fahānī, Bilād al-�arab 32. 37 Sergeant (1962).
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