User:RiskAficionado/quotes

EoI

"Muhammad" article

..About Muhammad's milieu, Arabia, the following information was after all available: a lack of political structures; warlike, predatory activities considered characteristic for the way of life; a manifold idolatry as religious expression (i.e. the essential marks of Arabian tribalism); and also the settlement of Christian and Jewish groups in Arabia. [...]

..At the fath it was purged of idols and became a centre of Islamic worship, while the Black Stone was retained as an object to be reverenced. [...]

Thus the Prophet was able to enter his native city practically without a struggle and almost all its inhabitants adopted Islam. He acted with great generosity and endeavoured to win | [VII:373a] all hearts by rich gifts ( ta"lÊf al- Îulåb), a new use of the alms; cf. IX, 60, and . He demanded only the destruction of all idols in and around Mecca. Sura CX and XLVIII, 1 f. seem to capture some of the exaltation with which this victory filled Muhammad. [...]

"Makka" article

Like most nomadic Arabs, the majority of Meccans were pagans, acknowledging many gods, but probably having little faith in these and being mainly meterialistic in outlook. {eoi- Makka)

"Ka'ba" article

...No tradition suggests that the Black Stone was connected with any particular god. In the Ka#ba was the statue of the god Hubal, who might be called the god of Mecca and of the Ka#ba. Caetani gives great prominence to the connection between the Ka#ba and Hubal. Besides him, however, al- Lat, al-'Uzza, and | [IV:322a] al- Manat were worshipped and are mentioned in the Qur'an; Hubal is never mentioned there. What position Allah held beside these in pagan times is not exactly known.

Many other idols are mentioned in the Ka'ba and the vicinity, among them the 360 statues. [...]

... It cannot be denied that the cult of the Ka'ba in the pagan era reveals traces of an astral symbolism. Golden suns and moons are repeatedly mentioned among the votive gifts (al- AzraÎÊ, 155 ff.). According to al- Mas#ådÊ ( Muråù3, iv, 47, ed. and tr. Pellat, § 1373), certain people have regarded the Ka'ba as a temple devoted to the sun, the moon and the five planets. The 360 idols placed round the Ka'ba also point in this direction. However, such a view cannot be safely propounded as foremost. In the pagan era the cult of the Ka'ba was certainly syncretistic, conforming to the usual features of Arab paganism. It is impossible to discern to what extent North Semitic cults were represented in Mecca.

cambridge history

p.24 ... It was Qusayy who laid the foundation for the prosperity of Mecca as the great 'commercial republic' of Arabia in the sixth century. What is not clear or certain is his contribution to religious life which was unmistakably that of idolatry and polytheism, and the significant feature of which was a pantheon, composed of a triad of goddesses, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, the daughters of Allah, either the Judaeo-Christian God or another Semitic deity.

unrelated but interesting. more on the meaning of "daughters" (p27): The Arabic phrase 'daughters of God' (banat Allah), which is sometimes used, expressed only an abstract relationship and means something like 'divine or semi-divine beings'; there is no suggestion of families of gods and goddesses as in Greek mythology.

Muir (uses the word idol and idolatry in plentiful supply, just a few examples here..)

vii The foundation of Arab faith was a deep rooted idolatry, which for centuries has stood proof, with no palpable symptom of decay, against every attempt at evangelisation from Egypt and Syria.

xv The practice of idolatry thickly overspread the whole peninsula. We have authentic records of ancient shrines scattered in various parts of Arabia from Yemen to Duma, and even as far as Hira, some of them subordinate to the Kaaba and having rites resembling those of Mecca. (also goes on to talk about stone-worship in Arabia)

p67 Their (citizens of Mecca) hostility was aroused, and believers were subjected to persecution and indignity. The main ground for this opposition was a deep-seated attachment to the ancestral idolatry of the Kaaba.

p73 If under this torture they reviled Mahomet and acknowledged the idols of Mecca, they would be refreshed by draughts of water, and then taken to their homes. [... continues on about story of bilal]

p89 But how shall he treat the idols, and the worship rendered to them? In their present mind, the Coreish would never abandon these. If, however (as they now professed their readiness), they would acknowledge the one true God as the supreme Lord, and look to the idols only as a symbolical of the angels, what harm would result from their bare continuance?