Sabeism

SABEISM. - Name applied in old treatises to the religion of the pre-Islamic Arabs, especially of the southern region, where already in the first millennium B.C. the kingdoms of the Minaeans, Sabaeans, Qatabān, Ḥaḍramūt appear; among these, that of the Sabaeans ended up assuming a preponderant position in the 3rd century A.D.

The pantheon of these Arabs was constituted, not exclusively but preponderantly, by astral divinities: 'Aṭtar, the planet Venus (Ittar of the Babylonians, Astarte of the Canaanites), Šams, the sun (Šamas of the Babylonians); the moon, Wadd among the Minaeans, Ilumquh among the Sabaeans, Sin in Ḥaḍramūt, identical with the Babylonian moon god. In northern Arabia the great female divinity is Allāt, to be identified with the sun: al-'Uzzā the most powerful, to be identified with the planet Venus under its two aspects, morning (Phosphoros, Azizos) and evening (Hesperos, Montinos); whereas — against Nielsen — the cult of the moon is absent among the northern Arabs. It would be exaggerated to reduce the entire pantheon of southern Arabia to the god Venus, the god Moon and the goddess Sun. Certainly they held a preponderant position there.

Nor is there lacking mention of various ba'al, that is, of the local protectors of a locality or of a tribe. Very important is the mention of Allah extended to all Arabs, in accordance with the root al common to the entire Semitic pantheon (Ilum of the Akkadians, El of the Canaanites, 'Elāah and 'Elāhīm of the Hebrews). The theophoric names, abundant in southern Arabia, reveal the concept that the Sabaeans and Yemenites formed of the divinity, as can be seen from the appellations father, lord, king, powerful, just, tenacious, shining.

Nicola Turchi