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History of the Islamic Peoples
“The religion of the Arabs, as well as their political life, was on a thoroughly primitive level…In particular the Semites regarded trees, caves, springs, and large stones as being inhabited by spirits; like the Black Stone of Islam in a corner of the Ka’bah at Mecca, in Petra and other places in Arabia stones were venerated also…
Every tribe worshipped its own god, but also recognized the power of other tribal gods in their own sphere…Three goddesses in particular had elevated themselves above the circle of the inferior demons.
The goddess of fate, al-Manat, corresponding to the Tyche Soteira of the Greeks, though known in Mecca, was worshipped chiefly among the neighboring Bedouin tribes of the Hudhayl. Allat—”the Goddess,” who is Taif was called ar-Rabbah, “the Lady,” and whom Herodotus equates with Urania—corresponded to the great mother of the gods, Astarte of the northern Semites; al-‘Uzza, “the Mightiest,” worshipped in the planet Venus, was merely a variant form…
In addition to all these gods and goddesses the Arabs, like many other primitive peoples, believed in a God who was creator of the world, Allah, whom the Arabs did not, as has often been thought, owe to the Jews and Christians…
The more the significance of the cult declined, the greater became the value of a general religious temper associated with Allah. Among the Meccans he was already coming to take the place of the old moon-god Hubal as the lord of the Ka’bah…
Allah was actually the guardian of contracts, though at first these were still settled at a special ritual locality and so subordinate to the supervision of an idol. In particular he was regarded as the guardian of the alien guest, though consideration for him still lagged behind duty to one’s kinsmen.” (History of the Islamic Peoples, Carl Brockelmann, p 8-10)
History of the Islamic Peoples
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