________________
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
THE ORACLE OF HUBAL.
BY THE REV. J. D. BATE, M.R.A.S. TT is still a moot point whether the vow of the Khuzâ'aites in the Hijaz the One only
'Abdu'l-Muttalib, grandfather of God was worshipped at the Ka'ba, and that Muhammad, to devote one of his ten sons, meant Hubal was imported by their chief 'Amr bin that the son should be devoted to Allâh or to Luhai. The point, however, is not one on Hubal, and whether the devotement meant which they all agree. Thus, Waqidî states that he should be slain in sacrifice or merely that Hubal was the chief representative idol of that he should be dedicated to the office of the Kinâna tribes; and that it was anciently priest. As no monograph, that we know of, has called the idol of Khuzaima, the supposed ever been published giving a detailed account father of the Kinana and some tribes related to of this curious idol of the pre-Islâmite Arabians, them. These more ancient worshippers of we have thought that some notes, gleaned from Hubal were nomadic tribes, and lived to the a variety of sources, might serve as a contribu- west of the Sacred Territory, and on the high tion to the subject.
road that leads to the north. Al Fâsi also But there is the usual discordancy between dissents from the common view, and calls authorities. Some points, however, seem clearly
Hubal emphatically an idol of the Quraishites. agreed upon in reference to the matter. In the He says that the idols imported by 'Amr bin first place, all writers agree that the idol was Luhai were three-viz., Al Khala sa an importation; and the fact is used to explain (which was worshipped to the south of Makka) how image-worship came to supersede, in the Nahik (also called Mahâdzir), and Muta'm. Hijaz that Religion of Abraham,' which, ac
The general opinion, however, credits 'Amr cording to the Islâmic creed, was the ances- bin Luhai with having introduced the idol tral religion of that territory. The man who among the worshippers at the Ka'ba. The is credited with having thus first introduced unsoundness of this opinion we have shown idolatry there is 'Amr bin Luha i, called by elsewhere, where we prove that the idolatrous Sale 'Amru,' and by Burckhardt Ammar." He institutions of Makka were ancient in his time. is said by Burckhardt to have been of the tribe of This man 'Amr, or 'Amrü, flourished at the Qussai, and by Osborn to have belonged to the commencement of the third century of the Banî Khuz'a.' Shabrastânî and most Arabian Christian era, and was king in the Hijaz, on authors assert that prior to the ascendancy of which account the term 'Màlik' is also applied
Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p. 14; Burckhardt, 3 Sprenger, Life of Mohammad, p. 7 (edn. Allahabad, Travels in Arabia vol. I, 298-9; De Percival, Essai sur 1851). l'Histoire des Arabes, tome I, p. 293 (edn, Paris, 1847). Bate, Origin and History of the Ka'ba (a work that
* Burckhardt, Arabia, vol. 1, p298; Osborn, Islam will appear shortly). under the Arabs, p. 75(edn. Lond. 1876).
