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Emran El-Badawi Profile picture
@emrane
Sep 17, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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Did you know the Christian chieftain Zuhayr b. Janab al-Kalbi (d. 564) began a wave of iconoclasm/destruction of Arabian pagan shrines in 6th C? How did it pave the way for Muhammad’s purging of Kaaba idolatry?

Behold:

Destruction of al-‘Uzza (Part 2/3)

Check it out!
If you have not already, read Part 1/3 and get caught up!

Word of a pagan shrine reached Zuhayr, indefatigable poet-chieftain of Quda‘ah, throwing the zealous champion into a rage. His Kalbid men & Qaynid kin massacred pagan Ghatafanids, destroying the shrine of al-‘Uzza & slaying a prisoner spilling his blood to desecrate it.
Zuhayr’s desecration oddly or deliberately emulates a blood sacrifice to the goddess al-‘Uzza, perhaps in order to liken his terrible wrath to the bloodthirsty pagan Lakhmid king, al-Mundhir III. This was the first destruction of al-‘Uzza’s shrine, the final coming in Part 3/3.
The story coincides w/ collapse of pagan influence in al-Hirah mid 6th C. Zuhayr is said to have formed an alliance with his Christian coreligionists from Ethiopia. General /king Abraha (d. ca. 553) entrusted him as vassal governor over former Lakhmid vassals: Bakr and Taghlub.
Stories of Zalim vs. Zuhayr—famous in Ibn al-Kalbi, Book of Idols—while fanciful take place in a context where pagan power of Lakhmids has broken, & where influence of Christianity returned with the Quda‘ah patrolling & exterminate the vestiges of pagan worship.
The hypothesis fits a claim by Ibn al-Kalbi that in decades before Islam, the cult of al-‘Uzza suffered decline in the Hijaz. This sudden plunge in fortunes coincides with a cluster of reports he cites about the destruction of various idols and cubic shrines around the same time.
The destruction of al-'Uzza tells the story of the male kings & generals eradicating the influence of the Divine Female in Arabia.

Stay tuned for the final—and tragic!—thread: Destruction of al-‘Uzza (Part 3)…& my upcoming book on female power in late antique Arabia. Shukran!

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More from @emrane

Emran El-Badawi Profile picture
Aug 18, 2023
New Book:

How the Qur'ān Works: Reading Sacred Narrative

By Leyla Ozgur Alhassen

global.oup.com/academic/produ…
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: Why Repetition?
2. Chapter Two: Repetition in Structure: Parallels, Reversals and Triangles
3. Chapter Three: Repetition in the Qur'anic Story of Musa
4. Chapter Four: Repetition and the Portrayal...
of Time in the Story of Musa and Harun in the Qur'an
5. Chapter Five: Echoing Phrases, Words and Actions in Qur'anic Stories: Exchange Encounters, Fasting, Feasting and Faith
6. Chapter Six: Repetition in Surat al-Shu'ara: Prophethood, Power and Inspiration
Read 4 tweets
Emran El-Badawi Profile picture
Dec 24, 2022
#MerryChristmas

Did you know scholars increasingly believe Arabia was predominantly monotheistic by 6th C, even Christian?

The background of Christian Arabia set the scene for how queens and prophets exercised power, and changed our world.
We have virtually no evidence of an Arabic-speaking church prior to the spread of Islam. What we have are early Arabic inscriptions demonstrating that by the 5-6th C, Christianity had reached truly remote fringes of Arabian society.
These include Hima (Yemen), and Zabad (Syria). However, the brief honorific or funerary nature of these writings do not divulge to what church those communities belonged.
Read 7 tweets
Emran El-Badawi Profile picture
May 9, 2021
#HappyMothersDay.

Did you know that stories of Fatimah al-Zahra’ (daughter of prophet Muhammad) portray her as regnal heir and mother goddess?

Check it out!
Fatimah was most sought-after bride by rapacious Qurashi noblemen rushing to succeed Muhammad as ‘king of Arabia’. He refused to give his daughter’s hand in marriage to the shrewd Abu Bakr or furious ‘Umar, but consented to the request of his young cousin and confidant ‘Ali.
Rejected suitors were clearly offended & came into conflict with Fatimah after Muhammad’s passing when they disputed her birthright, & when ‘Umar is said to have mortally wounded her, & when Abu Bakr offered apologies during the intervening days before her untimely death
Read 10 tweets
Emran El-Badawi Profile picture
Feb 14, 2021
#HappyValentines

How did the Romans and Arabs of late antiquity settle their conflict? With a Love Story!

The 1st Arab-Roman marriage in recorded history saved the empire & birthed Christian Arabia. It's also a lesson in Diversity going back almost two millenia

Check it out!
After beating the Roman-Byzantines on the battlefield. The defender of Arabia—Queen Mavia (d. 425; Mawiyah bt. ‘Afzar, malikat al-‘arab)—enacted a peace agreement with Emperor Valens (d. 378). She was now bound to Constantinople by peace treaty (Cf. Lat. foedus).
The Queen dispatched her Tanukhid military auxiliaries to fight the Goths in Thrace. But she first gave her daughter, Chasidat, in marriage to a Roman officer named Victor.
Read 8 tweets
Emran El-Badawi Profile picture
Nov 13, 2020
Want to get MARRIED? Wondering why modern MARRIAGE is so complicated? Behold!

There were over 20 MARRIAGE TYPES and conjugal unions in late antique Arabia.

Check it out!

(forgive preliminary mistakes)
Bukhari reports a Hadith listing four types of pre-Islamic marriages,
To summarize:

(1) Polygamous Marriage (nikah al-nas, al-sadaq or al-bu‘ulah)
(2) Breeding Marriage (nikah al-istibda‘; al-istifhal; al-musharakah)
(3) Polyandrous Group Marriage (nikah al-raht; al-sifah)
(4) Polyandrous Temporary Marriage (nikah al-baghaya; al-rayat or mut‘ah)
Read 11 tweets
Emran El-Badawi Profile picture
Nov 2, 2020
Tomorrow is the world’s most anticipated democratic election.

But did you the only person to explicitly condemn absolute DICTATORSHIP and hold PARLIAMENT in the Qur’an was a WOMAN ?

Check it out!

#USElections2020 #ElectionDay #Democracy
Q 27:23-44 re-tells the biblical story of King Solomon conquering the Queen of Sheba (Saba’, South Arabia), & made famous in the medieval Ethiopian national epic, “the Glory of Kings” (Kebra nagast). In the passage following the hoopoe’s mission, king Solomon sends a stern letter
..demanding the queen’s unconditional surrender (vv. 28-31). Upon receiving the harshly worded epistle the queen, like all true leaders, soberly consults with her advisors without whom she makes no decision (v. 32).
Read 12 tweets

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