Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam: Difference between revisions

Allāh is written lh in this pre-Islamic basmalah inscription found in Yemen, which is a spelling also found in north Arabia where bilingual Safaitic-Greek inscriptions confirm it was vocalised as allāh.<ref name="alJalladBasmalah6-7" /><ref name="alJallad2022" /> In 2022, an expedition by al-Jallad together with Hythem Sidky discovered that in 6th to early 7th century pre-Islamic inscriptions, the spelling on inscriptions between Medina and Tabuk is ʾlh (which was also the Nabatean spelling), or lh, or when used in construct (iḍāfah), lhy. However, the double lām spelling ʾllh occurs on inscriptions in the region between Mecca and Taif, which is significant in terms of the spelling found in the Quran. In terms of orthography, the double lām spelling of allāh as found in the Quran is an unusual orthographic practice, since in semitic scripts a doubled consonant is not written twice.<ref>See 18 to 27 minutes in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fkfYOdubc8 Ahmad Al-Jallad [II]: The History of Pre-Islamic Arabia based on Epigraphic Evidence] - youtube.com 20 March 2023</ref><ref name="alJallad2022" />