ARABIAN RELIGION

beliefs of Arabia comprising the polytheistic beliefs and practices that existed before the rise of Islam in the 7th century AD. Arabia is here understood in the broad sense of the term to include the confines of the Syrian desert. The religion of Palmyra, which belongs to the Aramaic sphere, is excluded from this account. The monotheistic religions that had already spread in Arabia before the arrival of Islam are also mentioned briefly. For historical background, see Arabia, history of: History and cultural development: Pre-Islamic Arabia, to the 7th century AD. Additional reading A short survey of the history of ancient Arabia is given by A.K. Irvine, The Arabs and Ethiopians, in D.J. Wiseman (ed.), Peoples of Old Testament Times (1973), pp. 287311. South Arabia is covered by Walter W. Mller, Outline of the History of Ancient Southern Arabia, in Werner Daum (ed.), Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix (1987), pp. 4954. J. Wellhausen (comp.), Reste altarabischen Heidentums, 2nd ed. (1897), contains most of the Muslim data on the pagan folklore and religion. The epigraphic material is extensively used in the following studies, which are still valuable: G. Ryckmans, Les Religions arabes prislamiques, in Histoire gnrale des religions, vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 201228 (1960); and Maria Hfner, Die vorislamischen Religionen Arabiens, in Hartmut Gese, Maria Hfner, and Kurt Rudolph, Die Religionen Altsyriens, Altarabiens und der Mander, pp. 233402 (1970). A short but excellent survey of the ancient Arabian religion is given by A. Caquot, Les Religions des Smites occidentaux, in Henri-Charles Puech (ed.), Histoire des Religions, vol. 1 (1970), pp. 307358, with North and South Arabia especially the focus of pp. 340355. Several important works are by J. Starcky: Ptra et la Nabatne, in Louis Pirot et al., Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplment, vol. 7 (1966), cols. 8861017, with cols. 9851017 focusing especially on religion, and a very short but more recent contribution, La religion des Nabatens, in Inoubliable Petra: Le Royaume nabaten aux confins du dsert (1980), pp. 6670, an exhibition catalog. Two concise but up-to-date studies on ancient South Arabian religions may be found in Joseph Chelhod et al., L'Arabie du Sud: Histoire et civilisation, vol. 1, Le peuple ymnite et ses racines (1984), both by A.F.L. Beeston: The Religions of Pre-Islamic Yemen, pp. 259269, and Judaism and Christianity in Pre-Islamic Yemen, pp. 271278. Another such study is J. Ryckmans, The Old South Arabian Religion, in the work on Yemen ed. by Daum cited above, pp. 107110. Jacques Ryckmans