Dushara

Dushara is known first from epigraphic Nabataean sources who invariably spell the name dwšrʾ, the Nabataean script denoting only consonants. He appears in Classical Greek sources as Δουσάρης (Dousárēs) and in Latin as Dusares. The original meaning is disputed, but early Muslim historian Hisham ibn al-Kalbi in his "Book of Idols" explains the name as Dhū l-Šarā ({{langx|ar|ذو الشرى}}), "etymologically probably 'the one of the Shara (mountains north of Petra)'", referring to a mountain range southeast of the Dead Sea now known as al-Sharat.{{cite journal |last1=Suchard |first1=Benjamin D. |title=What can Nabataean Aramaic tell us about Pre-Islamic Arabic? |journal=Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy |date=13 June 2023 |volume=34 |pages=158–172 |doi=10.1111/aae.12234 |quote=Dusares, etymologically probably ‘the one of the Shara (mountains north of Petra)’|doi-access=free |hdl=1887/3716330 |hdl-access=free }} This interpretation is accepted by some scholars, and compared to other Canaaite deities who are associated with mountains or geographic areas (such as Baal Lebanon, Baal Hermon, and YHWH Teman and YHWH Shomron from Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions).{{Cite book |last1=Aḥituv |first1=Shmuel |title=To Yhwh of Teman and His Ashera |last2=Eshel |first2=Esther |publisher=Israel Exploration Society and Yad Ben-Zvi Press, Jerusalem |year=2015 |pages=134}} If this interpretation is correct, Dushara would be more of a title than a proper name, but both the exact form of the name and its interpretation are disputed.{{Cite book|title=The religion of the Nabataeans : a conspectus|last=F.|first=Healey, John|date = 10 May 2001|isbn=9789004301481|location=Leiden|pages=85–97|oclc=944920100}}{{Cite book|title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. II: C–G|last=Lewis|first=B.|publisher=Brill|year=1991|isbn=9004070265|edition= New|location=Leiden|pages=246–247|oclc=399624}}

{{Fertile Crescent myth (Arabian)}}

In Classical Greek times, he was associated with Zeus because he was the chief of the Nabataean pantheon as well as with Dionysus.

A shrine to Dushara has been discovered in the harbour of ancient Puteoli in Italy. The city was an important nexus for trade to the Near East and it is known to have had a Nabataean presence during the mid first century BCE.AA.VV. Museo archeologico dei Campi Flegrei - Catalogo generale (vol. 2) - Pozzuoli, Electa Napoli 2008, pag. 60-63 The cult continued in some capacity well into the Roman period and possibly as late as the Islamic period.Peterson, Stephanie Bowers, "The Cult of Dushara and the Roman Annexation of Nabataea" (2006). Open Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5352.

This deity was mentioned by the ninth century CE Muslim historian Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi, who wrote in the Book of Idols (Kitab al-Asnām) that: "The Banū al-Hārith ibn-Yashkur ibn-Mubashshir of the ʻAzd had an idol called Dū Sharā".

Safaitic inscriptions mention animal sacrifices to Dushara, asking for a variety of services.

• Chaabou
• Shara (god)

{{reflist}}

• Ibn al-Kalbī, The Book of Idols, Being a Translation from the Arabic of the Kitāb al-Asnām. Tr. and comm. Nabih Amin Faris (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1952).
• Healey, John F., The Religion of the Nabataeans: A Conspectus (Leiden, Brill, 2001) (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 136).
• el-Khouri, Lamia; Johnson, David, "A New Nabataean Inscription from Wadi Mataha, Petra", Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 137,2 (2005), 169–174.

{{Commons category|Dushara}}

• [http://nabataea.net/gods.html Nabataean religion]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061222203158/http://www.alwaraq.com/index2.htm?i=137&page=1 Kitab al-Asnam] in the original Arabic (description on p. 5)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090816192721/http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/petra.asp "Solving the Enigma of Petra and the Nabataeans"] Biblical Archaeology Review

{{Pre-Islamic Arabia}}

Category:Nabataea

Category:Arabian gods

Category:Al-Lat