SABEISMO. — Name applied in older treatises to the religion of the pre-Islamic Arabs, especially those of the southern region, where, already in the first millennium B.C., the kingdoms of the Minaeans, Sabaeans, Qatābān, and Ḥaḍramūt appear; among these, that of the Sabaeans eventually assumed a predominant position in the third century A.D.
The pantheon of those Arabs consisted, not exclusively but predominantly, of 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, is to be identified with the planet Venus in its two aspects, morning (Phosphoros, Azizos) and evening (Hesperos, Montinos); whereas—contrary to Nielsen—among the Arabs of the north there is no cult of the moon. It would be an exaggeration to reduce the entire pantheon of southern Arabia to the god Venus, the moon-god, and the sun-goddess. Certainly, they held a predominant position there.
Nor is there any lack of mention of various ba'al, that is, local protectors of a locality or a tribe. The mention of Allah, extended to all Arabs, is highly important, 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). Theophoric names, abundant in southern Arabia, reveal the concept that the Sabaeans and Yemenites formed of the divinity, as is evident from the epithets father, lord, king, powerful, just, steadfast, radiant.