Originally Posted by
Ibrahim
well, Allah is a contraction. the original name was al-ilah, which simply means "the God". as Bobbin said, he (well, technically "it") was the creator God, and the ocasional rain maker, equivalent to El or Yahweh. he was said to have a consort, al-ilahat, which as you might guess, means "the Godess"; her name was contracted to allat. pre-islamic poetry interchangeably use "al-ilah" and "allah", with allah becoming more common in the last quarter of the 6th century. this is part of the reason the word for God in the qur'an is Allah. Arab Christians and Jews then and now actually used/use "Allah" as well.
the first mention of either is in fact of al-ilahat (allat), in Herodotos' account of the arabians, where, mangling the arabic, he refers to "alilat". (this is in fact in the bibliography/links of the EB website).
now that that is out of the way, lets listen to Moros; best not start on the religious Q.
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