Ritual hunting and wild sacrifices: the pagan origins of the pre-Islamic Abraham cult in Arabia

• Brannon Wheeler ^[1]
  1. [1] United States Naval Academy

     United States Naval Academy

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Jerusalem studies in Arabic and Islam, ISSN 0334-4118, Nº. 52, 2022, págs. 97-164
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper examines how Muslim exegetes and jurists appropriate to their definition of the prescribed ḥajj sacrifice what they report as preIslamic pagan hunting activities. Specific rituals, exemplified by the practice of the prophet Muḥammad, for acquiring, transporting, killing, and apportioning the sacrificial victim continue customs linked with pre-Islamic fertility rites. Certain hunting rituals, including the offering of wild animals to goddesses to ensure the fertility of springtime lambing and calving, are attested in epigraphic and archaeological evidence from pre-Islamic Arabia. An investigation of rock art sites, ancient hunting grounds including kites and other natural traps, and the practices of modern pastoralists are consistent with what Arabic Islamic sources describe as hunting rituals performed in and around Mecca and other desert and mountain sanctuaries. The ḥajj rituals performed by Muslims outside of Mecca, from ʿArafāt to al-Muzdalifa and Minā, closely parallel the ritualized hunt-like competitions reported to have been a part of the pre-Islamic ḥajj at the Dhū al-Majāz fair. Muslim jurists themselves confirm the continuity of these sacrificial practices, stipulating a series of small differences between the pagan and Islamic versions of the rituals.