Al Jallad (Ahmad), The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia. A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions, Leiden, Brill, ("Ancient Languages and Civilizations, Volume; 1"), 2022, ISBN 978-90-04-50427-1

Author

Ahmad Al-Jallad, Ph.D. (2012), Harvard University, is Universitair Hoofddocent in Islamic Origins at the University of Groningen. He has published on inscriptions, writing cultures, and religions of Ancient Arabia and their reception in Islamic-period literary sources, as well as on the comparative grammar of the Semitic languages.

Content

Preface
List of Illustrations
Sigla

1 Introduction
 1  Religion and the Inscriptions of the Pre-Islamic Nomads: From Thamudic B to Safaitic
 2  Scope and Methodology

2 Rites
 1  Animal Sacrifice
 2  Erection of the nṣb Stone
 3  The Ritual Shelter
 4  The Pilgrimage
 5  Ritual Purity
 6  Offerings
 7  Vows and Oaths
 8  Sacred Water

3 Divinities and Their Roles in the Lives of Humans
 1  Location of the Deities
 2  The Gadds
 3  The Gods and Their Worshippers
 4  Sin, Obedience, and Repentance?
 5  Malignant Magic

4 Fate

5 Afterlife
 1  Burial Installations
 2  Invoking the Names of the Dead

6 Visual Representation of Deities and the Divine World

7 Amplification and Why Write

8 Worldview—A Reconstruction

Appendix 1: Glossary of Divinities
Appendix 2: Previously Unpublished Inscriptions
Bibliography
Index