Pre-Islamic Arabian Dust Worship
One of my interests is researching idolatrous practices mentioned in Tanach and later Jewish sources. For the last three years or so, I've been conducting an on-and-off search for the possible identity of a deity hinted at in this section of the Talmud, tractate Bava Metzia 86b:
"The Gemara continues its analysis of the verse: “Let now a little water be fetched and wash your feet” (Genesis 18:4). Rabbi Yannai, son of Rabbi Yishmael, said that the guests said to Abraham: Are you suspicious that we are Arabs who bow to the dust of their feet?"
It is reasonable to conclude that the sages were aware of an Arabian pagan cult that practiced some form of dust worship. Last year I discovered that one of my professors shares this interest in researching idolatry and even wrote his doctorate on idol worship mentioned in Talmudic literature, although he was focused on particular pagan religions (Greece, Rome, and a couple of others) and didn't analyze this quote. But I did ask him on this matter. At the time he couldn't think of any sources to give me, but he said that he recalls that there were a few possibilities and stated that one possibility was the Arabian deity Orotalt, whose cult included pouring sand over his statue. I spent many hours trying to find hints to such a practice among any sort of pre-Islamic deity worship but to no avail. I then moved on to researching pre-Islamic religions in general. I also studied the jāhiliyyah (the Islamic term for the pre-Islamic era), with a focus on the pagan religions of that time. Nothing came up, though I learned a lot and gained ideas for future research.
Last week, I think I finally managed to find an explanation for this mysterious passage: Jinns.
Jinns, unlike Disney's awesome blue Genie, were originally entities worshipped as tutelary guardian deities in pre-Islamic Arabia. Archeologically, they are well-known from many inscriptions found in Palmyra (Tadmor) in Syria, which was an early Arab caravan city. Jinns were believed to be masters of the space belowground. They were found in deep places such as caves, wells and holes, as well as in secluded areas such as mountains and deserts. They were thought to be both local guardians as well as protectors of travelers.
It was only in the later Islamic period that Jinns came to be viewed as evil demonic spirits.
I suggest that Jinn are a reasonable explanation for the Talmudic passage for a few reasons:
a. They were Arabian deities.
b. They could be found in the earth, so that explains worshipping dust of the feet, i.e., the earth they walked upon.
c. They could be found in deserts, places traveled by nomads such as the early Arabs.
d. They protected travelers such as the three men (who were actually angels).
Have you found any evidence that the belief in jinns was connected to paying any credence to dust, such as worshiping it or being superstitious of it? Unless there is some evidence not mentioned in your post it seems like a big leap to go from believing there are spirits in the ground to believing they are connected to trace amounts of dirt on someone's feet. For comparison, did the Greeks and Romans worry about Neptune when they stepped in a puddle or spilled a glass of water?
ReplyDeleteHi. It's possible that I could have put in more effort into explaining my position in the post. If you read Hebrew and are interested, I can post a Google Drive link to an essay I published last week in my yeshiva's monthly journal which explains the idea and its bases in more detail. Perhaps someday I'll be able to publish the idea at an academic level.
DeleteI'll stop you at "the Greeks and the Romans": There is a tendency among us descendants of the West and Western Thought to equate all forms of idolatry to one another. This tendency seems to stem from the popularization of Hellenistic idolatry, which indeed equated all pagan religions with one another. This was one of the major tools used by Alexander the Great and his successors to unify his empire and the later empires that evolved from that.
However, it is evident that in many respects, these were not comparable to the people who actually worshipped these various forms of idolatry. I'll give a couple of examples:
Delete1. Though it seems that both Greco-Roman pagans and Levant pagans were aware that the statues were not the deities themselves (this is even alluded to by Eliyahu Ha'Navi in Melachim 1:18:27), nonetheless, we find that particularly the Nabataeans of the Classical period were averse to iconography, i.e., depicting images of living creatures/entities in their worship sites. They preferred aniconic or very simplistic icons (search for 'Nabataeans' and 'Baetyls' for more information). Greeks and Romans, however, went all out with grand statues and statuettes, stunningly detailed.
2. In Philo's Socratic Dialogues, we find references to a belief held by some early Greek philosophers that the Greek gods weren't really "gods" in the metaphysical sense of the word. Rather, there was a higher entity, "God", who created lower, but still immensely powerful entities (demiurges), who were known by the Greeks and other cultures as "gods". These entities created the world and essentially run it. But they aren't the top dog, the big cheese. Many pantheons worldwide have a notion of a "king of the gods", but in most pantheons, this deity isn't necessarily stronger than the rest, and is equally subject to harm, positive and negative character traits and more. This "God of gods" is metaphysically disconnected from the world. There is no concept of him being overthrown by his evil brother or greedy sister-in-law or something like that. Of course, this view isn't true of all Greco-Roman pagans, just the Platonic/Neo-Platonic ones. This position was one of the greatest influencers of the later Gnostics.
DeleteWhat I am trying to say is that the (partially rhetorical) question/argument of whether the Greeks or the Romans thought that naiads would be angry with them when they stepped on a puddle without offering appeasement first is simply irrelevant to the question of whether some pre-Islamic Arabs thought that digging structural foundations, bringing up water from a well, plowing a field or walking in a desert may anger the earth gods (jinns) (Poseidon/Neptune is an incorrect example because they were sea deities, not water deities).
Now, regarding my position: I do not believe it was the Talmud's intention to state that the key object of the worship was a spirit of dust, i.e., an entity contained within the dust. Had that been the case, it would have sufficed to say that the Arabs worship dust. Why "dust of the feet"? I argue that the deities referenced were ones whose domains could be tread upon. These were the jinns, who dwelled belowground or in deserts and mountains. Places of earth. Furthermore, since we know that these were also deities that protected travelers, it would make sense that after traversing the Negev desert, they would want to thank their protectors for bringing them to Avraham's rest area.
DeleteRegarding evidence: Yes, there are testimonies from early Islamic authors regarding pre-Islamic beliefs of jinns, and some of these beliefs still exist today among some Arabs, particularly some of the most ancient Bedouins tribes. They were very superstitious about them, and included all of the above examples (digging foundation trenches, etc) and more. There is also some archeological info about the pre-Islamic jinns, from which we learn of their guardian identity. For a bit of basic information, see Henninger's essay on the topic: https://archive.org/details/MagicDivinationInIslam/page/n25/mode/1up. I also argue that there's a connection between the Islamic Tayammum (sand ablution) and the jinns, but I won't go into that here, as this comment is already long enough.
Thank you for the detailed reply. I agree that not all polytheism and idolatry are the same. I was not saying you were wrong. What I was saying is that going from the belief in djinns to worshiping dust is a leap that requires proof, because in other contexts of avoda zara we do not find such a leap. PS In Roman belief Neptune was absolutely a god of fresh water as well as the sea, though he became more of a sea god later on. Poseidon, while usually called a sea god, was also the god of droughts and floods and certain subterranean waters. Though both the greeks and romans had many other gods, sub-gods, and other entities in charge of various waters. But that really isn't germane. My point was, again, that it is far from obvious that just because a god lives in the earth he cares about or is found in dust on people's feet.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read the Hebrew article if you want to link it. But from your replies, I am still not seeing the connection between (A) believing in djinns and (B) something about dust on the feet or washing the feet. Believing that digging a trench or walking across the desert could upset the djinns is intuitive, but I don't see the leap from that to the dust on the feet. To give yet another analogy, I would not want you to trespass in my house without permission; but if you visit my house (or even trespass in my house) I will not worry that you are tracking dust from my house out on your shoes. So what's the specific connection to dust on the feet (or dust at all removed from the desert). Maybe that's in your article.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I would add that it's possible the Rabbis in the Talmud observed and misunderstood some Arab ritual or belief. That could also be part of the explanation. But either way I know almost nothing about pre-Islamic Arab beliefs, so again I am not saying you are wrong. But I am saying that I do not see how you get from the djinn beliefs you describe to a Talmudic belief (correct or mistaken) that Arabs worshipped the dust on people's feet.
ReplyDeleteChag kasher v'sameach!
ReplyDeleteMoadim Lesimchah. My mistake. You're correct that the Greeks worshipped Poseidon as a freshwater god, though I don't know if that would have included puddles, but I'm not going to quibble about it.
DeleteLet me clarify/emphasize: Pre-Islamic jinns beliefs were not limited to merely believing they existed. The Arabs actually **worshipped** them. Of this we have clear archeological evidence. We have many inscriptions from Palmyra (a Pre-Islamic Arab kingdom which you may know as Tadmor) and the practice is also attested by early Islamic authors. I would venture to suggest that the Islamic practice of tayammum (sand ablution) also hints towards this worship, but that is of course more debatable (and in fact, has not been suggested previously. I'm tossing the suggestion out there).
Since the domain of these jinns was the earth, including: belowground realms, fields, wells, caverns, tunnels, deserts and mountains, and since they were also guardian deities of both local areas and travelers, I think it is reasonable to suggest that the reference is to these entities. Also, it's important to note that the Talmud's words are specific. This is not merely "dust on people's feet". It's "אבק רגליהם", "dust on *their* feet". Dust of the feet refers to that which is accumulated by travelers. These angels were disguised as travelers, and jinns were the guardian deities of Arab travelers.
As for whether the sages could have made a mistake, that is always possible, but I have found that as I learn more and do more research, the more accurate the sages' information on the surrounding cultures turns out to be. Just so you know, other forms of Arabic idolatry are mentioned in Chazalic sources and these are also pretty accurate, despite, perhaps, being more niche than Hellenistic forms of worship.
Finally, a link to the Hebrew paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vF257IvB4WodQ9eV2LLNyH1I4odMJyWS/view?usp=share_link
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