Translations:Ḏušarē/3/en

History

In the critical political period after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when the Nabataeans were afraid that Rome could take over the Nabataean kingdom, Rabbel II, ruler of the Nabateans, declared a small group of particular deities as his own to allow all Nabataeans to find their deities among them. Instead of having tons of local deities there was now a kind of pantheon with a relatively small number of deities. At the head of this pantheon is Dushara. God of the mountains, storm God, vegetation God, a God with solar features, the supreme God of Petra, Lord of the stonemasons, protector of clans and of the Nabatean dynasty. Across the kingdom, several dedications set up by third parties pledged their devotion to "Dushara the God of our lord (king X)." Nabataeans often used a formula of naming Dushara first, followed by "and all the gods" in inscriptions. On a silver coin of Obodas III it reads on the reverse "brkt dšr", benedictions/blessings by Dushara. He is a protector and some inscriptions ask to be put “in the eye of“ (qadam) Dushara, that is under His protection. The veneration of Dushara as supreme God continued into the Roman period when the Kingdom of Nabataea was turned into the Roman province of Arabia Petraea.