Dushara

Dushara
Myths of the Fertile Crescent
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Mesopotamian mythology
Ancient Arabian mythology
Ancient Levantine mythology
Pre-Islamic Arabian gods
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Dushara

Dushara (Arabic: ذو شرى‎, "Lord of the Mountain"), also transliterated as 'Dusares', was an aniconic deity in the ancient Middle East worshipped by the Nabataeans at Petra and Madain Saleh (of which city he was the patron). He was mothered by Manat the goddess of fate.[1] In Greek times, he was associated with Zeus because he was the chief of the Nabataean pantheon as well as with Dionysus. His sanctuary at Petra contained a great temple in which a large cubical stone was the centrepiece.

This deity was mentioned by the 9th century CE historian Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi, who wrote in The Book of Idols (Kitab al-Asnām) that: "The Banū al-Hārith ibn-Yashkur ibn-Mubashshir of the ʻAzd had an idol called Dū Sharā."

Contents

See also

  • Book of Idols

References

  1. ^ Langdon, S. (1930). "The Semitic Goddess of Fate, Fortuna-Tyche". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland) (1): 21–29. ISSN 0035-869X. JSTOR 25194060. 

Bibliography

  • Ibn al-Kalbī, The Book of Idols, Being a Translation from the Arabic of the Kitāb al-Asnām. Tr. and comm. Nabih Amin Faris (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1952).
  • Healey, John F., The Religion of the Nabataeans: A Conspectus (Leiden, Brill, 2001) (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 136).
  • el-Khouri, Lamia; Johnson, David, "A New Nabataean Inscription from Wadi Mataha, Petra," Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 137,2 (2005), 169-174.

External links