View source for Hubal

{{Short description|Pre-Islamic Arabian god}}
{{otheruses}}
{{Infobox deity
| image = File:Hubal, pre-Islamic Arabian god.png
| type = Arabian
| name = Hubal <br> {{native name|ar|هبل}}
| deity_of = god of divination, the rain, and war
| cult_center = [[Mecca]]
| abode = 
| planet = 
| symbol = Gold-handed figure, arrows
| consort = [[Manāt]]<ref>Hommel, First Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. 1. p. 380</ref>
| children = 
| army = 
| mount = 
| region = [[Arabia]]
| festivals = 
| caption = Statue from [[Tel Hazor]]. This is sometimes associated with Hubal.
}}
{{Fertile Crescent myth (Arabian)}} In [[Arabian mythology]], '''Hubal''' ({{langx|ar|هُبَل}}) was a [[deity|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 [[Belomancy|tossing arrows]] before the statue. The direction in which the arrows pointed answered questions asked to Hubal. The specific powers and identity attributed to Hubal are equally unclear.

Access to the temple of the icon was controlled by the [[Quraysh tribe]]. Hubal's devotees fought against followers of the [[Islam]]ic [[Prophets in Islam|prophet]] [[Muhammad]] during the [[Battle of Badr]] in 624 CE, and [[Battle of Uhud]] in 625 CE. After Muhammad entered Mecca in 630, he destroyed the statue of Hubal from the Kaaba along with the icons of all the other [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|polytheistic gods]].

== Etymology ==
The name ''Hubal'' may be ultimately derivative of the name [[Baal]] from the [[Canaanite religion|Canaanite pantheon]]. In particular, the name could derive from the [[Aramaic]] ''hu bel'', meaning "he is Baal". The relationship between Hubal and Baal is supported by some additional evidence, including that both were depicted with a missing or broken right hand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=El-Badawi |first=Emran |title=Female Divinity in the Qur'an In Conversation with the Bible and the Ancient Near East |date=2024 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=21–22}}</ref>

[[Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi]]'s ''[[Book of Idols]]'' describes the image as shaped like a human, with the right hand broken off and replaced with a golden hand.<ref name = "pet">Francis E. Peters, ''Muhammad and the origins of Islam'', SUNY Press, 1994, p. 109.</ref> According to Ibn Al-Kalbi, the image was made of red [[agate]], whereas [[Al-Azraqi]], an early Islamic commentator, described it as of "[[cornelian]] pearl".  Al-Azraqi also relates that it "had a vault for the sacrifice" and that the offering consisted of a hundred camels. Both authors speak of seven arrows, placed before the image, which were cast for [[divination]], in cases of death, virginity, and marriage.<ref name = "pet"/>

According to Ibn Al-Kalbi, the image was first set up by [[Khuzayma ibn Mudrika]], but another tradition, recorded by [[Ibn Ishaq]], holds that [[Amr ibn Luhay|Amr ibn Luhayy]], a leader of the [[Banu Khuza'a|Khuza'a]] tribe, put an image of Hubal into the [[Kaaba]], where it was worshipped as one of the chief deities of the tribe.<ref>Hafiz Ghulam Sarwar, ''Muhammad The Holy Prophet'' (1969).</ref> The date for Amr is disputed, with dates as late as the end of the fourth century AD suggested, but what is quite sure is that the Quraysh later became the protectors of the ancient holy place, supplanting the Khuza'a.

A tale recorded by Ibn Al-Kalbi has [[Muhammad]]'s grandfather [[Abdul Mutallib]] vowing to sacrifice one of his ten children. He consulted the arrows of Hubal to find out which child he should choose. The arrows pointed to his son [[Abd-Allah ibn Abd-al-Muttalib|Abd-Allah]], the future father of Muhammad. However, he was saved when 100 camels were sacrificed in his place. According to [[History of the Prophets and Kings (book)|Tabari]], Abdul Mutallib later also brought the infant Muhammad himself before the image.<ref>[[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari]], ''[[History of the Prophets and Kings (book)|The History of the Prophets and Kings]]'', 1:157.</ref>

After defeat by Muhammad's forces at the [[Battle of Badr]], [[Abu Sufyan ibn Harb]], leader of the Quraysh army, is said to have called on Hubal for support to gain victory in their next battle, saying "Show your superiority, Hubal".<ref>A. Guillaume, ''The Life Of Muhammad: A Translation Of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah'', 2004 (18th Impression), op. cit., p. 386.</ref> When Muhammad conquered [[Mecca]] in 630, he broke the statue of Hubal, along with the other 360 images at the Kaaba, and dedicated the structure to Allah.<ref>Armstrong, p. 23</ref>

==Origins of Hubal==
There may be some foundation of truth in the story that Amr travelled in Syria and had brought back from there the cults of the goddesses [[Al-Uzza|ʻUzzāʼ]] and [[Manāt]], and had combined it with that of Hubal, the idol of the Khuza'a.<ref>Maxime Rodinson, 1961.</ref> According to Al-Azraqi, the image was brought to Mecca "from the land of Hit in Mesopotamia" ([[Hīt]] in modern Iraq). [[Philip K. Hitti]], who relates the name ''Hubal'' to an Aramaic word for spirit, suggests that the worship of Hubal was imported to Mecca from the north of Arabia, possibly from [[Moab]] or [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>Hitti, ''[[History of the Arabs (book)|History of the Arabs]]'' 1937, p. 96-101.</ref> Hubal may have been the combination of Hu, meaning "spirit" or "god", and the Moabite god [[Baal]] meaning "master" or "lord" or as a rendition of Syriac ''habbǝlā''/Hebrew ''heḇel'' "vanity".<ref>R.M. Kerr, '[https://www.academia.edu/38000472/Koranisches_G%C3%B6ttermanagement_III_Hubal_alles_eitel_und_ein_Haschen_nach_Wind_ 'Koranisches Göttermanagement III: Hubal – „alles eitel und ein Haschen nach Wind“?''], ''imprimatur'', 2018, pp. 293-297.</ref> Outside South Arabia, Hubal's name appears just once, in a [[Nabataea]]n inscription;<ref>''Corpus Inscriptiones Semit.'', vol. II: 198; Jaussen and Savignac, ''Mission Archéologique en Arabie'', I (1907) p. 169f.</ref> there Hubal is mentioned along with the gods [[Dushara]] (ذو الشراة) and [[Manāt|Manawatu]]—the latter, as Manat, was also popular in Mecca. On the basis of such slender evidence, it has been suggested that Hubal "may actually have been a Nabataean".<ref>Maxime Rodinson, ''Mohammed'',  1961, translated by Anne Carter, 1971, pp. 38-49.</ref> There are also inscriptions in which the word Hubal appears to be part of personal names, translatable as "Son of Hubal" or "made by Hubal".<ref name = "heal">John F. Healey, ''The religion of the Nabataeans: a conspectus'', BRILL, 2001, pp.127-132.</ref>

==Mythological role==
The paucity of evidence concerning Hubal makes it difficult to characterise his role or identity in pagan Arabian mythologies. The 19th century scholar [[Julius Wellhausen]] suggested that Hubal was regarded as the son of [[Allat|al-Lāt]] and the brother of [[Wadd]].<ref>Wellhausen, 1926, p. 717, quoted in translation by [http://hanskrause.de/HKHPE/hkhpe_32_01.htm Hans Krause] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050216223426/http://hanskrause.de/HKHPE/hkhpe_32_01.htm |date=2005-02-16 }}</ref> Hugo Winckler in the early twentieth century speculated that Hubal was a [[lunar deity]], a view that was repeated by other scholars.<ref>Hugo Winckler, Arabisch, Semitisch, Orientalisch: Kulturgeschichtlich-Mythologische Untersuchung, 1901, W. Peiser: Berlin, p. 83.</ref> This was derived from Ditlef Nielsen's theory that South Arabian mythology was based on a trinity of Moon-father, Sun-mother and the [[Venus|evening star]] (the planet Venus) envisaged as their son. More recent scholars have rejected this view, partly because it is speculation but also because they believe a Nabataean origin would have made the context of South Arabian beliefs irrelevant.<ref>T. Fahd, ''Le Panthéon De L'Arabie Centrale A La Veille De L'Hégire'', 1968, op. cit., pp. 102-103; T. Fahd, "Une Pratique Cléromantique A La Kaʿba Preislamique", ''Semitica'', 1958, op. cit., pp. 75-76.</ref>

[[Mircea Eliade]] and [[Charles Joseph Adams|Charles J. Adams]] assert that he was "a god of rain and a warrior god. Towards the end of the pre-Islamic era he emerged as an intertribal warrior god worshipped by the Quraysh and the allied tribes of the Kinana and Tihama."<ref>Eliade, Adams, ''The Encyclopedia of religion'', Volume 1, Macmillan, 1987, p.365.</ref> The view that he was a warrior rain god is repeated by David Adams Leeming.<ref>David Adams Leeming, ''Jealous gods and chosen people: the mythology of the Middle East'', Oxford University Press, 2004, p.121.</ref>

John F. Healey in ''The Religion of the Nabataeans'' (2001) accepts the Nabataean origins of the god, but says there is little evidence of Hubal's mythological role, but that it is possible that he was closely linked to [[Dushara]] in some way. The one surviving inscription concerns a religious injunction to placate Hubal and others for violating a tomb.<ref name = "heal"/>

==Modern usage==
===Among Muslims===
Muslims have invoked the figure of Hubal in the ideological struggles of the post-Cold War era. In Islam, Hubal has been used as a symbol of modern forms of "idol worship". According to Adnan A. Musallam, this can be traced to one of the founders of radical Islamism, [[Sayyid Qutb]], who used the label to attack secular rulers such as [[Nasser]], seen as creating "idols" based on un-Islamic Western and Marxist ideologies. In 2001, [[Osama bin Laden]] called America the modern Hubal. He referred to allies of America as "hypocrites" who "all stood behind the head of global unbelief, the Hubal of the modern age, America and its supporters".<ref>Bruce Lawrence (ed), ''Messages to the world: the statements of Osama Bin Laden'', Verso, 2005, p.105.</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=November 7, 2005|author=Michael Burleigh|publisher=[[Evening Standard]] (London)|title=A murderous message}}</ref> [[Al Qaeda]]'s then number two, [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], repeated the phrase (''hubal al-'asr'') in describing America during his November 2008 message following [[Barack Obama]]'s election to the presidency.<ref>{{cite news|date=November 19, 2008|publisher=[[Fox News]]|title=Transcript: English translation of Zawahiri message}}</ref> The analogy may have been passed on to Bin Laden by one of his teachers, [[Abdullah Yusuf Azzam|Abdullah Azzam]].<ref>Adnan A. Musallam, ''From Secularism to Jihad: Sayyid Qutb and the Foundations of Radical Islamism'', Praeger. 2005. Pp. xiii, 261. Reviewed by Bruce B. Lawrence in ''American Historical Review'', Vol 3, no 3, June 2006.</ref>

===Among Christian evangelicals===
Christian evangelicals have invoked Hubal by claiming that the worship of Allah as proclaimed by Muhammad was not a restoration of Abrahamic monotheism, but an adaptation of the worship of Hubal. [[Robert Morey (pastor)|Robert Morey]]'s 1994 book ''Moon-god in the Archeology of the Middle East'' revives Hugo Winckler's identification of Hubal as a moon god, and claims that worship of Allah evolved from that of Hubal, thus making [[Allah as a lunar deity|Allah a "moon god"]] too.<ref>''The moon-god Allah in the archeology of the Middle East''. Newport, Pennsylvania: Research and Education Foundation, 1994</ref> This view is repeated in the [[Chick tract]]s "Allah Had No Son" and "The Little Bride", and has been widely circulated in evangelical and anti-Islamic literature in the United States. In 1996, [[Janet Parshall]] asserted that Muslims worship a moon god in syndicated radio broadcasts.<ref>Jack G. Shaheen, ''Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture'', Centre For Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University Occasional Papers, p. 8.</ref>  In 2003 [[Pat Robertson]] stated, "The struggle is whether Hubal, the Moon God of Mecca, known as Allah, is supreme, or whether the Judeo-Christian Jehovah God of the Bible is supreme."<ref>Donald E. Schmidt, ''The folly of war: American foreign policy, 1898–2005'', Algora, 2005, p.347.</ref>

[[Farzana Hassan]] sees these claims as an extension of longstanding Christian evangelical beliefs that Islam is "pagan" and that Muhammad was an impostor and deceiver.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/docs/Jack_J_Shaheen_Arab_and_Muslim_Stereotyping_in_American_Popular_Culture_1997.pdf |title=Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture |access-date=2012-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324053202/http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/docs/Jack_J_Shaheen_Arab_and_Muslim_Stereotyping_in_American_Popular_Culture_1997.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-24 }}</ref><ref name = "lori">Lori Peek, ''Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans After 9/11'', Temple University Press, 2010. p.46.</ref>

== See also==
{{Portal|Islam}}
* [[List of pre-Islamic Arabian deities]]
* [[Allah as a lunar deity]]
* [[Al-Lat]]
* [[Al-‘Uzzá|Al-'Uzzá]]
* [[Manāt]]
* [[Sin (mythology)]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== External links==
* {{cite web| author=Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi | url=https://bismikaallahuma.org/history/pre-islamic-hubal-worship/ | title=Hubal in the Worship of Pre-Islamic Arab Consciousness | date=December 29, 2006 | access-date=2024-02-21}} 

{{Pre-Islamic Arabia}}

[[Category:Arabian gods]]
[[Category:Nabataea]]
[[Category:War gods]]
[[Category:Rain deities]]
[[Category:Oracular gods]]