SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 399 
class of god names which indicate tribal affiliation, the protector of 
such and such a tribe, or paternal uncle of such and such a tribe. 
Needless to say, this multiplication of god names does not imply 
an extensive polytheism. All the names, all the gods, have been 
reduced to three: the Sun, the Moon, and the Venus Star. These are 
respectively represented in sculpture as a disk, a crescent, and an eight- 
pointed star. Each of these three had many functions and attributes, 
each with a name, and the reduction of these to three is only exceeded 
by the Islamic heaping of all attribute names on a single divinity. 
Although there were but three gods, each might be worshiped sepa- 
rately in different aspects and under different names; thus the tribes 
were still able to possess personal divinities. The state god of the 
Minaeans was Wadd, that of the Katabanians ‘Amm, that of the Ha- 
dhramis Sin, and of the Sabaeans J? Mukah. All were the moon. 
There were no carved images of these three—the Semitic tabu 
against graven images, while by no means generally applicable, was 
in force in regard to the divinities themselves. What images we 
find are of people. These gods, however, had perches or resting 
places, in the form of crude stones, such as the Ka’aba itself. The 
sun was a woman, and the moon her husband. Once a month, at the 
time of conjunction, they had sexual intercourse; the stars are their 
children, and of these Venus is the most important. These stars 
eventually became angels; people and animals are also the children of 
the gods. Thus, a direct kinship connection exists between this di- 
vine trinity and mankind, with the head of the state acting as the 
symbol and concentration point of godhead in man. 
Among the northern Semites the sun was the most important, as 
the promoter of fertility in vegetation; in southern Arabia, where the 
sun is too hot for comfort, and scorches and withers, the night is the 
time of coolness, and, in the moonlight, the time for travel and work. 
Nomads travel much at night, and the moon with its phases gives 
them their yardstick for measuring time. Thus, whereas the sun was 
the important god to the northern Semites, the moon was supreme 
among the southern groups, including not only the southern Arabian 
peoples, but also the pre-Islamic Arabs proper, who lived farther north 
in the peninsula. 
The god J7 or JJah was originally a phase of the Moon God, but early 
in Arabian history the name became a general term for god, and it was 
this name that the Hebrews used prominently in their personal names, 
such as Emanu-el, Isra-el, etc., rather than the Ba’al of the northern 
Semites proper, which was the sun. Similarly, under Mohammed’s 
tutelage, the relatively anonymous J/7ah became Al-Jlah, The God, or 
Allah, the Supreme Being. 
