Research seminar: Where Are The Idols? Idol worship in Early Islam

The medieval Muslim sources are emphatic that seventh-century Meccans worshipped idols before the advent of Islam. The early Arabic source material is adamant that idols were worshipped in Mecca shortly before the rise of Islam, and that idolatry was widespread. Ibn al-Kalbī (d. 821), possibly the earliest extant work on idolatry in Arabic, offers lists and accounts of idols and sanctuaries in pre-Islamic Arabia before Islam. He provides details of geographical locations, names of tribes associated with the idol they worshipped, and the spiritual powers of individual idols.

There is something amiss, however. The Quran, undoubtedly the earliest and most authoritative Arabic account of seventh-century Mecca, is almost completely silent on the existence of idols in Mecca generally and the Abrahamic sanctuary in particular as Patricia Crone famously once stated. Moreover, if we take the Quran as a faithful historical reflection of seventh-century Mecca then the accounts of the early Muslim sources seem to fall flat, for the Quran barely hints of any pagan idolatry culture in and around Mecca in the seventh century, nor does it address pagan rituals, devotional acts, or any thing of the sort.

The aim of this seminar, then, is to (i) investigate the historiographical question of idolatry in early Islam and (ii) determine whether idols were indeed worshipped in seventh-century Mecca by incorporating Muslim and non-Muslim sources from late antiquity into the broader discussion.

Dr Ahab Bdaiwi’s research focuses on Islamic intellectual and religious history. He did his PhD at the University of Exeter. After working at the University of St Andrews, in 2016 became Assistant Professor of Islamic Thought and History at Leiden University. He is the founder of the Leiden University Shiʿi Studies Initiative and the Leiden University Centre for Islamic Thought and History. He is co-founder of the Leiden University Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies.