Nasr (deity)

Vulture (nasr) reliefs from Himyar

Nasr (Arabic: نسر "Vulture") was apparently a pre-Islamic Arabian deity of the Himyarites.^[1] Reliefs depicting vultures have been found in Himyar, including at Maṣna'at Māriya and Haddat Gulays,^[2] and Nasr appears in theophoric names.^[3][4] Nasr has been identified by some scholars with Maren-Shamash,^[3][5] who is often flanked by vultures in depictions at Hatra.^[6] Hisham ibn Al-Kalbi's Book of Idols describes a temple to Nasr at Balkha, an otherwise unknown location.^[7] Some sources attribute the deity to "the dhū-l-Khila tribe of Himyar".^{[8][9][10][11]} Himyaritic inscriptions were thought to describe "the vulture of the east" and "the vulture of the west", which Augustus Henry Keane interpreted as solstitial worship;^[12] however these are now thought to read "eastward" and "westward" with n-s-r as a preposition.^{[1][lower-alpha 1]} J. Spencer Trimingham believed Nasr was "a symbol of the sun".^[15]

Classical references

Nasr is mentioned in the Qur'an (71:23) as an idol at the time of the Noah:

"وقالوا لا تذرن آلهتكم ولا تذرن ودا ولا سواعا ولا يغوث ويعوق ونسرا
And they say: Forsake not your gods, nor forsake Wadd, nor Suwāʿ, nor Yaghūth and Yaʿūq and Nasr."^{[Quran 71:23]}

An Arabian vulture-god is mentioned by other ancient texts, including the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 11b):

Ḥanan b. Ḥisda says that Abba b. Aybo says, and some say it was Ḥanan b. Rava who said that Abba b. Aybo says, "There are five permanent idolatrous temples: the temple of Bel in Babylon, the temple of Nebo in Borsippa^{[lower-alpha 2]}, the temple of Atargatis in Manbij, the temple of Serapis^{[lower-alpha 3]} in Ashkelon, and the temple of Nishra^{[lower-alpha 4]} in Arabia".^[18]

And the Doctrine of Addai:

Who is this Nebo, an idol made which ye worship, and Bel, which ye honor?^{[lower-alpha 5]} Behold, there are those among you who adore Bath Nical, as the inhabitants of Harran your neighbours, and Atargatis, as the people of Manbij, and Nishra,^{[lower-alpha 6]} as the Arabians; also the sun and the moon, as the rest of the inhabitants of Harran, who are as yourselves.^[20][3]

A further mention is found in Jacob of Serugh's On the Fall of the Idols, wherein the Persians are said to have been led by the devil to construct and worship N-s-r.^[3][1]

Notes

References

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