Arabian Paganism

A lexicon of the religious beliefs and practices of the Arab tribes before the coming of Islam. This blog explores Arabian polytheism and looks at its relation to the Abrahamic faiths and other Semitic mythologies. Includes a a constantly-updated list of deities and spiritual figures of the Arabian religions, from a neutral perspective. The pagans of Mecca called their religion, Din al-'Abāʼi-ka or "Faith of the Forefathers".

Monday, 21 October 2013

Ritual and practices in pagan Arabia

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A few of the rituals of modern Islam are traceable to pagan roots, here are some practised before and after the emergence of Muhammad: ...
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Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Social context and spiritual belief in pagan Arabia

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In pre-Islamic times, most of the pagan Arabian peoples fell into either two categories: Sedentary Arabs  - sedentary life was not com...
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Wednesday, 9 November 2011

Mythology and religion of pre-Islamic Arabia: Deities, Spirits, Figures and Locations.

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A miscellaneous and unorganized archive of deities; spirits; figures and mythological people and places from Arabian polytheism and from ...
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'Amr-Athtar Yunajjam (P.V.D)
United Kingdom
The namesake of this blog, wathanism (from the Arabic word for idol, wathan), is the popular and unofficial term for Arabian polytheistic reconstructionism among online pagan circles, but as a personal preference I call the religion 'Ibadat al-Alihah or 'Worship of the Gods' or simply arwahiyya, 'animism'. Arabian polytheism has an animistic approach to Semitic theology, with the emphasis on the superiority of fate; the natural world and supernatural forces, which appealed to me spiritually.' The word 'wathanism' which only translates to 'imageism' is sparse terminology and does it no justice. Additionally, I want to make it clear that Arabian polytheism is a branch of the ancient Semitic religions and NOT derived from the Vedic religion or Hinduism and the Allah of the Muslims is NOT a 'moon god'. I also use the loose terms 'Arab' and 'pagan' here to refer to the Semitic inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula who practised a polytheistic religion. N.B. This blog is a constant work-in-progress so please do forgive the grammatical errors and slightly poor writing, I have often been updating this from a tablet! Constructive criticism is welcome.
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