Al-ʿUzzā

A goddess worshipped in pre-Islamic North and South Arabia. With Allāt and Manāt, she is one of the three so-called “daughters of Allāh” in the Qurʾān (53:19–20).

The name Al-ʿUzzā is an Arabic feminine epithet meaning “the most mighty” (Macdonald and Nehmé 2000). Despite her popularity among the Nabataeans (Healey 2001: 114–119, Nehmé 2005: 188–194, figs 131–134) and the importance given to her by early Islamic writers on pre-Islamic religion (Macdonald and Nehmé 2000: 968), there are surprisingly few references to her in ancient sources from Arabia. There is one possible occurrence in a broken context in Dadanitic (JSLih 036), but none in Taymanitic, or the Safaitic and Hismaic graffiti. However, she is found in a few theophoric personal names. Thus, ʿzy, a possible hypocoristic of such a name, is found as a personal name eleven times in Safaitic (see http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/), though in several cases this may refer to the same man, but there are no prayers to the deity. Similarly, there is only one very doubtful reference in Hismaic (JSTham 677).

In ancient South Arabia, the name occurs in the form ʿzyn (i.e. with the suffixed -n definite article) in Sabaic and Qatabanic. In Sabaic, she appears on three amulets (A-50-506, A-50-858, CIH 559), and in several dedications (BynM 202, CIAS 35.21/o 6, CIH 558, Ja 2815, RES 4149, RES 4784) in one of which, on an incense-altar (MṢM 154), three people describe her as s²ms¹-hmw (literally “their solar deity”) meaning “their fortune”, a phrase used of many deities. In Qatabanic, ʿzyn and the deity ns²bt are called the two “protectors” (mnḍḥw) of the royal palace of Ḥarib in the last Qatabanian capital dhu-Ghaylum (CIAS 47.82/o 2/17–18; CIAS 95.11/o 2/ 18–20, and probably H 2c/5–6), and her protection is sought by a woman in a text on a small female bust (CIAS F 24/s 4/95.11). Finally, she is called “his lord” (mrʾ-s¹) by the dedicant of a bronze plaque (Ja 865), an apparent confusion of gender which according to DASI’s commentary “is not unusual in Qatabanic”.

A Sabaic inscription (Ja 2138) from the site of Qaryat al-Faʾw on the north-western edge of the Empty Quarter, uses the Arabic form of the deity’s name, ʾl-ʿzy (Ryckmans 1980: 197–198).

In Nabataean, the deity’s name is spelt in three different ways: according to one Arabic dialect ʾl-ʿzy (e.g. UJadhNab 313, etc.), according to another ʾl-ʿzʾ (Nehmé 2005: 189, no. 12) and in an Aramaic form ʿzyʾ (CIS II 611, 1236). In Petra and Wādī Ramm (southern Jordan), Al-ʿUzzā (ʾl-ʿzʾ) is represented by a betyl with rectangular or star-shaped eyes, a nose but no mouth, alongside betyls with no features representing the goddess Al-Kutbā (Fig. 1) or the god mr bytʾ “The lord of the Temple” (Healey 2001: 116–117, pl. XV). A betyl of Al-ʿUzzā has also been found at Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ [ancient Ḥegrā] together with a plain betyl of “The lord of the Temple” (Fig. 2), with an inscription dedicating a mountain as an (open-air) sanctuary to them both (Nehmé 2005: 188–194, figs 131–134).

ʾl-ʿzy is also invoked four times in graffiti on the Darb al-Bakra, the ancient route between Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ [ancient Ḥegrā] and Petra, at a stopping-place called Umm Jadhāyidh. These graffiti are in the “Developing Arabic” (formerly the “Nabataeo-Arabic”) script, and use a phrase, šmʿt ʾlʿzy l- (“may ʾl-ʿUzzā listen to” so-and-so) not found elsewhere in Nabataean (Nehmé 2018: 90, and UJadhNab 313, 345, 364, 368–369). There are also two personal names from the Darb al-Bakra which may be hypocoristics of theophoric names: ʿz{y} (ArNab 18) and ʾl-ʿz (UJadhNab 535).

Michael C.A. Macdonald

References and suggested reading

Sources

• UJadhNab 313, 345, 364, 368–369, 535: see Nehmé 2018: 165, 169, 171-2, 185.
• ArNab 18: see Nehmé 2018: 116.
• CIS II 611, 1213: Nabataean inscriptions published in Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum. Pars II Inscriptiones Aramaicas continens. Paris, 1889–1954.

Studies

• Healey, J.F. 2001. The Religion of the Nabataeans. A Conspectus (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 130). Leiden: Brill.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. & Nehmé, L. 2000. Al-ʿUzzā. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, vol. 10: 967–968. Leiden: Brill.
• Nehmé, L. 2005. Inscriptions nabatéennes vues et revues à Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ. Arabia 3: 345–356.
• Nehmé, L. 2018. The Darb al-Bakrah. A Caravan route in North-West Arabia discovered by Ali I. al-Ghabban. Catalogue of the inscriptions. With contributions by F. Briquel-Chatonnet, A. Desreumaux, A.I. al-Ghabban, M. Macdonald, L. Nehmé, and F. Villeneuve (Series of Archaeological Refereed Studies, 50). Riyadh: Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage.
• Ryckmans, J. 1980. ʿUzzā et Lāt dans les inscriptions sud-arabes : à propos de deux amulettes méconnues. JSS 25: 193–204.

_{Alternate spellings: al-‘Uzza, al-‘Uzzâ, al-Uzza}