Isāf ( ar, إساف) and Nā'ila ( ar, نائلة) were two deities worshipped as a god and a goddess in

pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia ( ar, شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula before the emergence of Islam in 610 CE. Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Informatio ...

. They were primarily worshipped by the Quraysh.

Attestations

Some Muslim scholars, including

al-Azraqi Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah Al-Azraqi () was a 9th-century Islamic commentator and historian, and author of the ''Kitab Akhbar Makka'' (Book of Reports about Mecca). Al-Azraqi was from a family who lived in Mecca for hundreds of years. He gave inform ...

, claimed that 'Amr ibn Luhayy, the patriarch of the Arab tribe

Banu Khuza'a The Banū Khuzāʿah ( ar, بنو خزاعة singular ''Khuzāʿī'') is the name of an Azdite, Qaḥṭānite tribe, which is one of the main ancestral tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. They ruled Mecca for a long period, prior to the Islamic ...

, who introduced idolatry in

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

, was responsible for the worship of Isāf and Nā'ila. He had called on people to worship them and justified the fact that their ancestors had already done so. The Qurayshi Qusaiy ibn Kilāb had then taken the two stones to the well of Zamzam near the Kaaba. Isāf and Nā'ila were said to be particularly important to the Quraysh tribe, associated with Qurayshi sacrifices involving a ''talbiya'' specifically directed to Isāf. Various legends existed about the idols, including one that they were petrified after they committed adultery in the Kaaba.

Ibn al-Kalbi Hishām ibn al-Kalbī ( ar, هشام بن الكلبي), 737 AD – 819 AD/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 ...

handed down the legend in his

Book of Idols __NOTOC__The ''Book of Idols'' ('), written by the Arab scholar Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819), describes gods and rites of pre-Islamic Arab religions. The text is critical of pre-Islamic Arabian religion and decries the state of religious corrup ...

as follows:

They set out to perform the pilgrimage. Upon their arrival in Mecca they entered the Ka'bah. Taking advantage of the absence of anyone else and of the privacy of the Sacred House, Isaf committed adultery with her in the sanctuary. Thereupon they were transformed into stone, becoming two ''miskhs''.

According to the traditions of the Meccan local historian al-Azraqī, the incident happened at the time when the Arab tribe of the

Jurhum Jurhum ( ar, جرهم, Jurhum; also Banu Jurhum or The second Jurhum) historically referred to as Gorrhamite by the Greeks, was an old Arab tribe in the Arabian peninsula. Traditionally, they were a Qahtanite tribe whose historical abode was Yemen ...

ruled over Mecca. The two stones were then removed from the Kaaba and placed on the

Al-Safa and Al-Marwah Safa and Marwa ( ar, ٱلصَّفَا وَٱلْمَرْوَة, Aṣ-Ṣafā wal-Marwah) are two small hills, connected to the larger Abu Qubais and Qaiqan mountains, respectively, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, now made part of the Masjid al-Haram. Mus ...

hills, so that the people would be warned. Over the course of time, they were then venerated as idols. After the Muslim capture of the city in January 630, the two stone idols were destroyed.

, ''Akhbar Makka'', pg. 50

Interpretations

Aziz al-Azmeh believes that Isāf and Nā'ila were probably the original deities of the Quraysh, brought by them from their erstwhile territories to

and worshipped continually along the regnant deities of Mecca, including al-'Uzza.

References

{{Reflist Arabian gods Arabian goddesses Mythological duos Quraysh