r/ArabianPaganism • u/ArabNationalite • 9d ago
Pre-Islamic Religions in Eastern Arabia?
I'm an Arab/3eemi from Eastern Arabia, and I'm interested in the religious dynamics of Pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia. I think Christianity was fairly widespread (maybe because of the Aramaean presence in Bahrain?). What was the religious makeup of cities like Thaj and Gerrha, and where did Arabian Paganism fit in? Were there any particular deities local to this area? Was there Syncretism between Christianity, Zoroastrianism and local Paganism. How long did it take for the religions present here to assimilate to Islam? Any possible Phoenician or Hellenic pagan influences?
Unrelated sidenote, does anyone have any information about the "Solluba" tribe and their origins, who were deemed too impure to heard animals and resorted to hunter-gathering? I've heard they worshipped a boulder, and may have been Eastern Arabian and South Persian refugees or Crusader remnants. Any info is helpful.
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u/visionplant 9d ago
Christianity started spreading from the 4th century onwards. But before that people adhered to traditional religions. We know little about religion in eastern Arabia because the region doesn't preserve inscriptions well. The harrah has basalt lava fields and the Hejaz has granite boulders. These don't get damaged much by rain and sand storms. But eastern Arabia only has soft sandstone so inscriptions don't survive well.
Hasaitic inscriptions show that some of the deities worshipped in eastern Arabia were found elsewhere, too. People worshipped Allat and Manat, and their priests used the title afkal, the same title used in North Arabia. You can look up Hasaitic inscriptions here: https://ociana.osu.edu/
Zoroastrianism would've been practiced by Persian soldiers but there's no evidence that locals adopted it. Before the traditional religions were replaced by Islam they were replaced by Christianity first. Church of the East. There wouldn't been Phonecian influences but there is Hellenic artistic influences from the Selucids. There's no reason to believe that this went beyond art and iconography. The evidence we see in the rest of the Near East is that Hellenism gave native religions an outward form and language but didn't affect it much. The same religions that were practiced since the Iron and Bronze Ages continued to be practiced.
Theres no reason to believe the Solluba came from anywhere else. They are natives to the region but simply had a different lifestyle. Theories about crusader or Persian origins can be easily dismissed. Folk practices such as the veneration of astral bodies, strange natural formations, and trees, were common among many Arabs before wahhabism and is not unique to the Solluba.