Translations:Manāt/11/en

From Arabian Paganism
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According to Ibn Al-Kalbi's Kitab Al-Asnam (Book of Idols), Manāt's cultic site was "on the seashore in the district of al-Mushallal at Qudayd between Medina and Mecca" and most other sources agree on this but conflict on which tribes or clans were associated with the sanctuary. There is a tendency to link the site and Manāt's cult with the Ansar (the Aws and Khazraj tribes), but Azd (especially Ghatafit), the Khuza'a, Quraysh, and even just "all Arabs" are mentioned. Some say Manāt was worshipped using an altar/libation table, others a statue, and some say Manāt was worshipped using a bayt (literally, house) which could be a stele/standing stone or an open-air sanctuary or temple. These variants and inconsistencies are common in the reports about pre-Islamic religion in Islamic sources which makes it difficult to establish the basic facts about Manāt from this material, let alone deduce anything about Her character.