Thread: Rahmanan - An Ancient South Arabian Moon God

The saga of ascribing lunar characteristics to Allah has become a very common habit of the Christian missionaries and apologists. One of the first proponents of this "hypothesis" was Robert Morey who claimed that "Allah" of the Qur'an was in fact a pagan Arab "Moon god" of pre-Islamic times. This claim was refuted utilising the archaeological evidence and it was shown that Morey's claims were nothing but a grand fraud. After this the claim was made that Allah and Hubal – the principal idol located in Makkah – were one and the same entity. Furthermore, they added that Hubal was a Moon god. This contention was also refuted and suffered the same fate. One would hope that those would engage in a more studious approach by learning the history of the Ancient Near East in general and Arabia in particular, before starting yet another round of their Moon god myths. However, perhaps under the false impression that the more you repeat something the more likely people are to believe you (i.e., argumentum ad nauseum), those have wasted no time in embarking on yet another lunar fable. Their latest round of claims now say that al-Rahman, one of Allah's names, was known in South Arabia before of the advent of Islam and that it "signified" a Moon god. Those say:


The fact is that even 'Allah's' most frequently used title, ar-Rahman (the Merciful) was known in South Arabia well before the advent of Islam, and signified a moon-god, whom Muhammed even occasionally confused with or used as a substitute for 'Allah'. The Koran mentions ar-Rahman occasionally, for example in sura 43:19, which most translators have renamed as God or Allah, since they, as Muhammed, found no difference between these two South Arabian moon-gods.


Clearly, those have lifted the above statement from another like-minded website. That al-Rahman was a South Arabian Moon god was again mentioned by those in the context of Allah being the one and only God. According to the Christian missionaries' claim:


According to the Koran, 'Allah' is one and no other god can be associated with him. This concept was most likely adopted from the South Arabian moon-god ar-Rahman (the Merciful), whose name was later adopted by Muslims as one of 'Allah's' titles.


Not surprisingly, this material is lifted from the same website. With regard to the claim that al-Rahman was a South Arabian Moon god, those have not provided any evidence. This is not surprising since the website from which they lifted the material did not do so either! This is sufficient to cast doubt over their entire allegation that al-Rahman was a South Arabian Moon god. Nevertheless, what does the scholarly literature say about the origin of "the Rahman" or "the Merciful" in the South Arabia? Was he a lunar deity? Who worshipped him? The purpose of this article is to examine the claims of the Christian missionaries in the light of modern scholarship and provide a brief overview of the religion in South Arabia before the advent of Islam.
2. Rahmānān In South Arabia
The ancient South Arabian religion of each of the South Arabian kingdoms involved worship of a national god, who was the patron of the principal temple in the capital. In Sheba, it was Ilmaqah (also called Ilumquh or Ilmuqah or Almaqah or Almouqah), in the temple of the federation of the Sabaean tribes in Marib. In Hadramaut (or Hadhramaut), Syn (or Sayin) was the national god and his temple was located in the capital Shabwa. In Qataban, the national god was called 'Amm ("paternal uncle"), who was the patron of the principal temple in the capital Timna'. 'Amm was seen as a protector of Qatabanite dynasty, and it was under his authority that the ruler carried out various projects of the state. In Ma'in, the national god was Wadd ("love") and it originated most probably from Northern Arabia. He was sometimes invoked as Wadd-Abb ("Wadd is father").[1] However, the last three centuries of South Arabian history is called the "Late Sabaean Period" and is associated with the rise of monotheism. From the mid-4th century CE, the monotheistic religions such as Judaism and Christianity start to replace the traditional South Arabian religion.[2] The first monotheistic inscriptions appear around the year 378 or 383 CE. The traditional South Arabian religion did not cease to exist overnight but it is astonishing that pagan deities are not mentioned after this date.[3] Perhaps even before the rise of monotheism, the traditional South Arabian religions had already become weak and less attractive. Since the epigraphic material mostly stems from the upper class and does not reflect the situation of the lower class, this has led scholars to conclude that the rapid conversion to monotheism started with the upper classes such as the royal family and aristocracy, followed by the lower classes.
The efforts of the Byzantine church to Christianize southern Arabia in 4th century CE appears to have been in vain. Only Najran became the well-known centre of Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula. The monotheistic period was mainly a period of Judaism. This is attested by Jewish words and phrases contained in Sabaean texts. In the Jewish Sabaean texts, "God" is called "Rahmānān", , "the Merciful", the "Master of heaven and earth", "Lord of the Jews", etc.
The best known event from the last period of South Arabian history is undoubtedly the persecution of Christians during the reign of the Jewish ruler Dhu Nuwas (c. 523 CE). Dhu Nuwas burned down Christian churches in Zafār and Hadramaut and then attacked Najran. The Christian population of Najran, with their leader Harith were massacred. This led to a reaction from the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, whose army led by Abraha, invaded southern Arabia, killed Dhu Nuwas and established Ethiopian rule over the south-western part of Yemen. It was only during the period of Ethiopian rule that Christianity played a dominant role in this region (c. 525 to 575 CE).[4] There are a few Christian inscriptions of Abraha mentioning Rahmānān. Now what do the Sabaean inscriptions from Jewish and Christian times say about Rahmānān? Let us look at some of these inscriptions. Most of the inscriptions depicted below are part of the original ones. We are only showing the relevant material from the inscriptions that mention Rahmānān. Interested readers may refer to the references cited for each of the inscriptions and their exact transcriptions for further details.