Ghila

A ghul (from Arabic ghala, meaning 'to seize'), an evil spirit responsible for adopting the form of a beautiful woman, a hyena, or a snake in order to lure the unwary into the desert and to drag them off to the netherworld. They live near old graves and tombs in the wilderness, and can also adopt the form of a corpse in order to frighten someone. Ghila are similar to the Babylonian gallu demons. Their main task is to capture the souls of the living, but they can also cause illness in the eyes. This is the myth of how they were created: long ago, the demons wanted to eavesdrop on the gods in heaven. They climbed up the heavenly mountain to reach the third heaven, but Allah saw them and threw meteors at them, burning them and causing them to fall to earth. Those that fell into the waters became crocodiles, while those that fell onto the earth became ghila.

Nakruh

Nakruh is god of hatred and brother of Wadd. He is also Wadd's enemy. Nakruh is considered to be a bringer of hate and ill-fortune, and he rules over the planet Nakruh (the planet Saturn), and so he may have connections with Canaanite Horon and Babylonian Ninurta. Nakruh is considered to be a solemn god, though he also had a healing shrine and sanctuary near the city of Ma'in. He was called Zuhal in Makkah.

He possibly also has some connections to the Sun and Mars, since these are often connected to Saturn in Near Eastern astrology.

 

The idols of Al-Khutbay

The stone pillar is used to represent Al-Khutbay, the scribe god to whom dedications are left along the trade routes.  They can be left on a small shrine or by an altar you make while on a journey.

The winged serpents of Arabia

The winged serpents of Arabia:

In the palace archives, the Assyrian King Ashur-ahhe-iddina records making his journey into Arabia. While in Arabia, he saw serpents that flapped their wings.

Many years later, the Greek writer Herodotus writes also of the Arabian winged serpents which are said to guard the frankincense groves, claiming to have seen skeletons of them. He says: "For the trees which bear the frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, small in size, and of varied colours, whereof vast numbers hang about every tree. They are of the same kind as the serpents that invade Egypt; and there is nothing but the smoke of the styrax which will drive them from the trees."

The winged serpents, as Herodotus says, attempt to invade Egypt. However, the Black Ibis, eager to defend its homeland, will fight against them and drive them off. It is for this reason that the winged serpents are found nowhere else but Arabia.

The serpents are deadly and are said to attack the Arabs who approach the groves. When the female mates with the male, she will seize his neck by her teeth and kill him. However, when the babies are born, they will rip out through her stomach, killing her. It is because of this that the winged serpents do not quickly overwhelm humans and their population is always kept so low.

 

 

A misconception

Just to clarify something, a misunderstanding and confusion. It seems that many Hindus I speak to are under the impression that the ancient Arabs practiced a Vedic religion or that the Ka'aba was a Shiva mandir, that Arabic words are derived from Sanskrit etc.

First of all, there are similarities between Hinduism and Wathan, both being indigenous polytheistic and animistic spiritualities. However, they are two different cultures. Arabs belong to Semitic culture, meaning they (and their gods and languages) have much more in common with the Canaanites, Babylonians and Assyrians.

Part of this misunderstanding seems to be that some people are under the impression that Arabian civilization was part of the Indo-Aryan group of cultures. It wasn't, it came from an unrelated origin. I think this misconception may come from the fact that many people confuse Arabs with Persians very frequently, and Persians come from an Indo-Aryan group. The fact that many Persians today are Muslims, which began in Arabia, may add to this confusion.

So there are links between certain Persian names and words, and certain Indian ones. However, there aren't with either Arabic or Aramaic. Neither of these two languages is derived from Sanskrit like the languages of the Medes, Persians, and Mitanni. There are also parallels between many Vedic and Avestan, or Hindu and Zoroastrian figures. I will show a few examples below, with Avestan on the left, and Vedic on the right:

Ahura Mazda- Asura Medha (a title or epithet of Varuna)
Mithra- Mitra
Haravati (a title or epithet of Anahita)- Saraswati
Yima (another name for King Jamshid, ancestor of the Aryans)- Yama, the first man
Verethragna- Vritrahan (an epithet or title of Indra)
Haoma- Soma
Ahurani (Ahura Mazda's celestial wives)- Varunani (Varuna's celestial wives)
Indra- Indra
Naonhaitya- Natasya
Saurva- Rudra
Atar- Atharva

However, with the Arabian gods, their names parallel those of other Semitic deities. Such as Allah which parallels words such as Ilu, Ilah, Elaha, El, Ilum etc. Allat parallels Elat. There are other examples as well.

So the two cultures, which sharing some similarities, do belong to two separate groups: Semitic and Indo-European. The Arabs were also not Vedic or Indo-Aryan. This is not a major issue or anything I have a problem with, but it is still a misconception, in my opinion partially driven by the confusion between Arabs and Persians among many different people (it's often seen in films, such as the film 'The 300 Spartans' where the subtitle during Xerxes' scenes reads: "Arabian music playing" etc.)

The Festival of the Autumn Equinox

This is one of two new year festivals, this one celebrating the civic new year, when the affairs of the state, kingdom, tribe, and family begin anew.

To celebrate the year as it has gone by and to hope for a good new year, and to celebrate the beginning of new state affairs, offerings are given to Manat and Al-Khutbay.

Facebook group for anyone who's interested

So I have a group for Arabian polytheism on Facebook, called 'Wathan'.  It can be found here:  http://www.facebook.com/groups/343678442344708/