Uzza

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Mentioned in the Qur'an (Sura 53:20), al-ʕUzzā "the Mightiest One" (derived from the root ʕzy) was a pre-Islamic Arabian fertility goddess who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca. She, al-Manāt and al-Lāt were known as "the daughters of God". ʕUzzā was worshipped by the Nabataeans, who equated her with the Graeco-Roman goddesses Aphrodite, Urania, Venus and Caelestis. According to Ibn Ishaq's controversial account of the Satanic Verses (q.v.), these verses had previously endorsed them as intercessors for Muslims, but were abrogated.

ʕUzzā, like Hubal, was called upon for protection by the pre-Islamic Quraysh. "In 624 at the battle called "Uhud", the war cry of the Qurayshites was, "O people of ʕUzzā, people of Hubal!" (Tawil 1993)

1 Cult of Uzz
2 ʕUzzā the Garden
3 References
4 External links

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Cult of Uzz

It is not simple now to get glimpses of the deities of pre-Islamic Arabia. Origins of deities have to be suggested with caution, but inscriptions related to ʕUzzā among the Nabataeans at Petra have been interpreted to associate ʕUzzā with the planet Venus.

According to the Book of Idols (Kitāb al-Asnām) by Hišām b. al-Kalbī (N.A. Faris 1952, pp. 16-23):

Over her [an Arab] built a house called Buss in which the people used to receive oracular communications. The Arabs as well as the Quraysh were wont to name their children "ʕAbdu l-ʕUzzā". Furthermore, ʕUzzā was the greatest idol among the Quraysh. They used to journey to her, offer gifts unto her, and seek her favours through sacrifice [often of young children (Jawad Ali, Al-Mufassal Fi Tarikh al-Arab Qabl al-Islam (Beirut), 6:238-9)]. We have been told that the Apostle of God [ Muhammad ] once mentioned ʕUzzā, saying, "I have offered a sheep to ʕUzzā while I was a follower of the religion of my people

The Quraysh were wont to circumambulate the Kaʕbat and say,

By al-Lāt and al-ʕUzzā,

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 aforementioned Satanic Verses; the Arabic term is translated as "most exalted females" by Faris in the text, but he annotates this much-argued term in a footnote as "lit. Numidean cranes."

The Kitāb al-Asnām offers additional detail of the "three exalted cranes" Ibn Ishaq says were deleted from the Qur'an:

These were also called "the Daughters of God" and were supposed to intercede before God.

It is unclear whether these goddesses were always regarded as the daughters of God, or had originally been called daughters of some other deity; the Kitāb al-Asnām says that each of the three's worship was introduced at a different period, suggesting that they may not originally even have been sisters.

Each of the three goddesses had a separate shrine near Mecca. The most prominent Arabian shrine of ʕUzzā was at a place called Nakhlah near Qudayd, east of Mecca towards Taif; three trees were sacred to her there (according to a narration through al-'Anazi Abū-ʕAli in the Kitāb al-Asnām.)

She was the Lady ʕUzzayan to whom a South Arabian offered a golden image on behalf of his sick daughter, Amat-ʕUzzayan ("the Maid of ʕUzzayan"). ʕAbdu l-ʕUzzā ["Slave of the Mightiest One"] was a favourite proper name at the rise of Islam. (Hitti 1937).

The name ʕUzzā appears as an emblem of beauty in late pagan Arabic poetry quoted by Ibn al-Kalbī, and oaths were sworn by her. [1]

ʕUzzā's possible presence in South Arabia has been thoroughly effaced by time but her presence has not been obliterated far north at Petra of the Nabataeans, who had deities with Arabian names early in their history, whom they later associated with Hellenistic gods, ʕUzzā becoming associated with Isis and with Aphrodite [2]. Excavations at Petra since 1974 have revealed a temple, apparently dedicated to Isis/ʕUzzā, now named after some carvings found inside, the Temple of the Winged Lions (Hammond). Inscriptions record the name of ʕUzzā at Petra.

A fragment of poetry by Zayd ibn-'Amr ibn-Nufayl, quoted in the Kitāb al-Asnām, suggests that ʕUzzā; had two daughters:

No more do I worship ʕUzzā and her two daughters. [Arabic فلا العزى أدين ولا ابنتـيهـا.]

Muhammad Mohar Ali writes (2002):

The Arabs had developed a number of subsidiary Kaʕbat (tawaghit) at different places in the land, each with its presiding god or goddess. They used to visit those shrines at appointed times, circumambulate them and make sacrifices of animals there, besides performing other polytheistic rites. The most prominent of these shrines were those of al-Lāt at Ta'if, al-ʕUzzā at Nakhlah and al-Manāt near Qudayd. The origins of these idols are uncertain. Ibn al-Kalbī says that al-Lāt was "younger" ('ahdath) than al-Manāt, while al-ʕUzzā was "younger" than both al-Lāt and al-Manāt. But though al-ʕUzzā was thus the youngest of the three; it was nonetheless the most important and the greatest (ʕazam) idol with the Quraysh who, along with the Banū Kinānah, ministered to it.

On the authority of Abdullah ibn Abbas, Al-Tabari derived "al-Uzzā" from Al-Aziz (the Mighty), one of the 99 beautiful names of Allah, in his commentary on Qur'an 7:180 (Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi, The Book of Idols, 25). Al-Lāt is likewise said to have been derived from the very name Allāh.

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ʕUzzā the Garden

According to Easton's Bible Dictionary, Uzza was a garden in which Manasseh and Amon were buried (2 Kings 21:18, 26). It was probably near the king's palace in Jerusalem, or may have formed part of the palace grounds. Manasseh may probably have acquired it from some one of this name.

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References

Ambros Arne A 2004: "A Concise Dictionary of Koranic Arabic". Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag. ISBN 3-89500-400-6
Burton, John, The Collection of the Qur'an, Cambridge University Press, 1977: the collection and composition of the Qu'ran in the life time of Muhammad
Finegan, Jack, The Archeology of World Religions, Princeton University Press, 1952, pages 482-485, 492
Hammond, Philip, "An Isisian Model for The Goddess of the 'Temple of the Winged Lions' at Petra (Jordan)". 1985
Hitti, Philip K. History Of The Arabs, 1937, pp 96-101
The Kitab al-Asnam ("Book of Idols"): translation as posted by an evangelical Christian site.
Kitab al-Asnam in the original Arabic
Peters, F. E., The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. Princeton University Press 1994
al-Tawil, Hashim, "Early Arab Icons: Literary and Archaeological Evidence for the Cult of Religious Images in Pre-Islamic Arabia", PhD dissertation, University of Iowa, 1993 [3]
Ibn al-Kalbī; (author) and Nabih Amin Faris (translator & commentary) (1952): The Book of Idols, Being a Translation from the Arabic of the Kitāb al-Asnām." Princeton University Press. US Library of Congress #52006741
This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.