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Concept
Manat (goddess)
Summary
(مناة maˈnaːh pausa, maˈnaːt or Old Arabic manawat; also transliterated as ) was a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess worshipped in the Arabian Peninsula before the rise of Islam and the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. She was among Mecca's three chief goddesses, alongside her sisters, Allat and Al-‘Uzzá, and among them, she was the original and the oldest.
There are two possible meanings of the goddess' name. The first is that it was likely derived from the Arabic root "mana", thus her name would mean "to mete out", or alternatively "to determine", the second is that it derives from the Arabic word maniya meaning "fate". Both meanings are fitting for her role as goddess of fate and destinies. Pre-Islamic theophoric names including Manāt are well attested in Arab sources.
Considered a goddess of fate, fortune, time, and destiny, she was older than both Al-Lat and Al-‘Uzzá as theophoric names including hers, such as Abd-Manah or Zayd-Manah, are found earlier than names featuring Al-Lat's or Al-‘Uzzá's. But aside from being the most ancient of the three chief goddesses of Mecca, she was also very possibly among the most ancient of the Semitic pantheon as well.
Her now-lost major shrine was between Mecca and Medina on the coasts of the Red Sea, likely in al-Mushallal where an idol of her was erected. The Banu Aws and Banu Khazraj were considered to be among the most devoted of tribes to the goddess, so much that the place to make sacrifices to her was commonly referred to by its significance to the Khazraj, as known from a poem most likely written by Abd-al-‘Uzza ibn-Wadi‘ah al-Muzani:
An oath, truthful and just, I swore
By Manāh, at the sacred place of the Khazraj
Her early representations included a wooden portrait of her, which was covered with sacrificial blood, but the most notable representation of her was her idol erected in al-Mushallal. When pre-Islamic Arabians would pilgrim to al-Mushallal, they would shave their head and stand in front of Manāt's idol for a while.
Official source
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