Al-ʻUzzá or al-ʻUzzā (, , ) was one of the three chief

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

es of Arabian religion in pre-Islamic times and she was worshipped by the pre-Islamic Arabs along with

Al-Lat Al-Lat (, ), also spelled Allat, Allatu, and Alilat, is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, including Mecca, where she was worshipped alongside Al-Uzza and ...

and Manāt. A stone cube at Nakhla (near

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

) was held sacred as part of her cult. She is mentioned in Qur'an 53:19 as being one of the goddesses whom people worshiped. Atargatis Petra RGZM 3368

Al-ʻUzzā, like

Hubal In Arabian mythology, Hubal () was a god worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia, notably by the Quraysh at the Kaaba in Mecca. The god's icon was a human figure believed to control acts of divination, which was performed by tossing arrows before the ...

, was called upon for protection by the pre-Islamic

Quraysh The Quraysh () are an Tribes of Arabia, Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By ...

. "In 624 at the ' battle called Uhud', the war cry of the Qurayshites was, "O people of Uzzā, people of Hubal!". Al-‘Uzzá also later appears in

Ibn Ishaq Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (; – , known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic proph ...

's account of the alleged Satanic Verses. The temple dedicated to al-ʻUzzā and the statue was destroyed by Khalid ibn al Walid in Nakhla in 630 AD."He sent Khalid bin Al-Waleed in Ramadan 8 A.H", Witness-Pioneer.com

Cult of al-‘Uzzá

According to the '' Book of Idols'' (''Kitāb al-Aṣnām'') by Hishām ibn al-Kalbī :The

used to circumambulate the Ka‘bah and say, ::By

al-Lāt Al-Lat (, ), also spelled Allat, Allatu, and Alilat, is a Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, pre-Islamic Arabian List of pre-Islamic Arabian deities, goddess, at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsu ...

and al-ʻUzzā, ::And al-Manāt, the third idol besides. ::Verily they are ''al-gharānīq'' ::Whose intercession is to be sought. This last phrase is said to be the source of the so-called Satanic Verses; the Arabic term ''al-gharānīq'' is translated as "most exalted females" by Faris in the '' Book of Idols'', but he annotates this much-argued ''

hapax legomenon In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an Fixed expression, expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written re ...

'' in a footnote as "lit. Numidian cranes." Each of the three goddesses had a separate shrine near

. The most prominent Arabian shrine of al-ʻUzzā was at a place called Nakhlah near Qudayd, east of Mecca toward aṭ-Ṭā’if; three trees were sacred to her there (according to a narration through al-'Anazi Abū-‘Alī in the ''Kitāb al-Aṣnām''.) ''‘Abdu l-‘Uzzá'' Slave of the Mightiest One"was a favourite proper name before the advent of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. The name al-‘Uzzá appears as an emblem of beauty in late pagan

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...

quoted by Ibn al-Kalbī, and oaths were sworn by her. Susan Krone suggests that the identities of al-‘Uzzá and

were fused in central Arabia uniquely. On the authority of ‘Abdu l-Lāh ibn ‘Abbās, at- Tabari derived ''al-ʻUzzā'' from ''al-‘Azīz'' "the Mighty", one of the 99 "beautiful names of Allah" in his commentary on Qur'an 7:180.

Destruction of temple

Shortly after the

Conquest of Mecca The conquest of Mecca ( , alternatively, "liberation of Mecca") was a military campaign undertaken by Muhammad and Companions of the Prophet, his companions during the Muslim–Quraysh War. They led the early Muslims in an advance on the Quray ...

, Muhammad began efforts to eliminate the last cult images reminiscent of pre-Islamic practices. He sent

Khalid ibn Al-Walid Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (; died 642) was a 7th-century Arabs, Arab military commander. He initially led campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh. He later became a Muslim and spent the remainder of his career ...

during

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

630 AD (8 AH) to a place called Nakhlah, where the goddess al-ʻUzzā was worshipped by the tribes of Quraish and Kinanah. The shrine's custodians were from Bani Shaiba. Al-ʻUzzā was considered the most important goddess in the region.

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

Muslim historian Ibn al-Kalbī ( CE) tells how

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

ordered Khālid ibn al-Walīd to kill the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess al-ʿUzzā, who was supposed to inhabit one of three trees: : Khalid destroyed the first one, returned to Muhammad to report. Muhammad replied, asking whether something eventful happened, which Khalid denied. The same thing happened after cutting down the second tree. When Khalid was about to destroy the last tree, a woman with wild hair appeared, who is called "al Uzza" by al-Sulami the custodian of al-Uzza, and ordered to kill Khalid. Khalid struck the woman down with his sword, and chopped her head off at which she fell down in a pile of ashes. Khalid went on to kill Sulami and cut the last tree. When he returned to Muhammad, Muhammad is supposed to have said that the woman was al-Uzza, and she shall never be worshiped again.

Influence in other religions

Uzza the garden

According to '' Easton's Bible Dictionary'', Uzza was a

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

in which

Manasseh Manasseh () is both a given name and a surname. Its variants include Manasses and Manasse. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Ezekiel Saleh Manasseh (died 1944), Singaporean rice and opium merchant and hotelier * Jacob Manasseh ( ...

and

Amon Amon may refer to: Mythology * Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra * Aamon, a Goetic demon People Mononym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah * Amon of Toul ( 375– 423 AD), second recorded Bishop of ...

were buried (2 Kings 21:18, 26). It was probably near the king's palace in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, or may have formed part of the palace grounds. Manasseh may have acquired it from someone of this name. Another view is that these kings were culpable of idolatry and drew the attention of

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

.Provan, Iain W. (1988). Hezekiah and the Books of Kings: A Contribution to the Debate about the Composition of the Deuteronomistic History. (Volume 172 of Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft) Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 136n13. . Retrieved 6 June 2016
Google Books
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

"Those Are The High Flying Claims":
A Muslim site on Satanic Verses story

including al-ʻUzzā

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Uzza Arabian goddesses Oracular goddesses War goddesses