Translations:Allāh/2/en

The name allāh is found in pre-Islamic pagan inscriptions, there is no doubt about it. Arab Christians from the 1st to 4th centuries used the word al-ilāh (the god) to refer to their monotheistic deity, not allāh. Christians do begin using al-ilāh and allāh interchangeably later on in the 6th century as seen in the poetry of al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī and ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith. The Nabataeans often referred to their main deity Ḏušarē simply as ʾlhʾ (the god) and so allāh being a contraction of al-ilāh used as an epithet that replaced a respective deity’s proper name is the most likely answer. Thus, we can ask a different question. What did the word allāh mean to the pre-Islamic Arabs? Allāh meant the god. The main god, whether that be of the Christians or Pagans. That seems to be the most likely answer; that allāh is a contracted form of the word al-ilāh.