who sought their favour. We may well compare the adoration offered to Al Lat, 'Uzza' and Manah, the "daughters¹ of GOD" as they were termed, or to Wudd,² Ya'uq Hubal, and other such semi-divine beings, with the saint-worship of the Roman and Greek Churches and the worship of the Pirs or holy men by the great mass of Indian Muhammadans at the present day. The word Mushrikuna used in the Qur'an³ to describe the adorers of such deities as these expresses this fact very well, meaning as it does not exactly "Polytheists," but rather "associators of partners with GOD."

§ 4.—It is well known that idolatry prevailed very largely, in Mecca especially, before the

Arabian  Idolatry: its Origin.

reforms instituted by Muhammad. There are said to have been no less than 360 idols⁴ in the Ka'aba itself, which had become a kind of Pantheon for that part of Arabia. But Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham agree in stating that idolatry⁵ had been introduced among the Arabs only a comparatively short period before, and inform us on the authority of Muhammad himself that the person⁶ who

introduced the first idol into Mecca was a certain 'Amr bin Lahi. The story is that this man "went¹ from Mecca to Syria on some business of his, and when he reached a station in the district of Balqa ... he saw them worshipping idols.² Then he said to them, 'What are these images that I see you worshipping?' They said to him, 'These are idols which we worship; and we ask them for rain and they rain, or if we ask their aid they assist us.' Then he said to them, 'Will you not give me one of these idols? and then I shall go with it to the land of the Arabs and they will thereupon worship it.' They therefore gave him an idol which was called Habal (or Hubal). He brought it to Mecca and set it up there, and commanded people to worship and glorify it." Another introducer of false religion into Mecca is said to have been