The Afro-Asiatic Conception of Purity

Sunlight through the windows of the Basilica of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Alice C. Linsley

How are we to explain the prevalence of blood sacrifice performed by a priest caste and a concern for ritual purity among peoples as geographically separated as the ancient Egyptians, the Sarki of Nepal, and some Native Americans? How do we explain similar conceptions of the sun as a purifying agent, and linguistic points of contact among widely dispersed peoples?

We might point to the common point of origin of all humans in Africa and to the development of languages from the Afro-Asiatic root stock. A comparison of the lexicons of Afro-Arabian and Semitic languages with Sanskrit and Dravidian suggests that a vast Afro-Asiatic Dominion stretched from the Wet Sahara to Asia between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. One explanation is a common trade language.

An example of how languages are influenced by trade is the early traffic in rice from the NIle Valley to Madagascar and beyond. The language of Madagascar is Sulawe. It is related to ancient Egyptian, Dravidian, and East African words for rice.

The term "Sulawesi" appears to be related to the words write or rice records. Merchants who were moving from island to island recorded their transactions. Sulawe resembles the Egyptian word for writing ssw; and the Mande sewe; and the Dravidian ha-verasu. These terms referr to written records of rice sales or commercial records.

Rice grain formed the basis of weight measurement from East Africa to Sulawesi. On Madagascar, the weight of one grain of rice is called vary, and corresponds to the Swahili wari and to the Dravidian verasu. The Tamil word for rice is arisi, and the Old Persian word is virinzi which closely resembles vrini, the Sanskrit word for rice.

Linguistic connections are evident also in the term for the slash and burn agriculture used in Sulawesi and East Africa.The word trematrema is used in Northeast Betsimisaraa (Madagascar) to refer to a one to three year old slashed-and-burnt field. It is related to the Swahili word tema, ‘to cut’, and the redoubled form tematema, ‘to slash, to chop'.

Another explanation for common conceptions and roots is the blood-related Afro-Asiatic kingdom builders. They established their territories near major water systems which they used to transport cargo and to collect tariffs on cargo moved through their territories. Their influence can be traced using comparative linguistics and kinship analysis.

In this post we will look at the evidence of common conceptions of purity among the dispersed Afro-Asiatics.

Afro-Asiatic languages include Akkadian, Amharic, ancient Egyptian, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, Babylonian, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Ethiopic, Hahm, Hausa, Hebrew, Omotic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic. These languages appear to share a large  number of common roots. Because this is so, linguists are able to compare the languages and draw conclusions about the older “proto” Afro-Asiatic language and dialects spoken before 10,000 years ago.

The terms for ritual purity in Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, Hittite, Sumerian, and Ugaritic are related to the idea of radiance. (See The Semantics of Purity in the Ancient Near East, p. 5.) The ancient Nilotes also associated purity with the radiance of the sun, the emblem of the Re (which means Father) and his son Horus.

The temple purification rituals of the ancient Near East resemble the Pharaoh's daily ceremonial toilet in preparation for morning prayer. The ruler's lustration came from exposure to the Sun, the emblem of the Most High God and his son.

Likewise, the ancient Egyptian priest was to be purified before entering the temple. 

Herodotus observed that "The Egyptians were the first who made it a point of religion not to lie with women in temples, nor to enter into temples after going away from women without first bathing." (II:64)

The priests of ancient Egypt maintained shrines and temples along the Nile and regarded ritual purity as essential to their ministry. Herodotus observed II:37:

"They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to this they have customs as follows: they drink from cups of bronze and rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priests shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to the gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals of papyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals; these wash themselves in cold water twice in the day and twice again in the night; and other religious services they perform (one may almost say) of infinite number."

Likewise, Plutarch noted that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

Egyptian priests shaved their bodies and heads before their terms of service in the temples. Korah, Moses' half-brother, was a Horite Hebrew priest. Korah means "shaved head" and according to Numbers 16:17-18, he carried the censor to offer incense to the High God.This suggests that kor and tor may be cognates. There is a suggestion of a very early connection between blood, purity, and holiness.

The Hebrew thr = to be pure, corresponds to the Ancient Egyptian tr = pure, and to the Hausa/Hahm toro = clean, and to the Tamil tiru = holy. All appear to be related to the Proto-Dravidian tor = blood. Among these peoples blood was perceived to have power both to pollute and to purify; to condemn and to justify.


Related reading: Purity Seal From Herod's Temple; 2,400 BC Tomb of a Purification Priest; The Origins of Animal Sacrifice; The Red Heifer; The Priesthood is About the Blood; Blood and Water; The Sun and the Moon in Genesis; Avraham Faust, "Purity and Impurity in Iron Age Israel, Biblical Archaeology Review" (2019)

Nilotic-Kushitic Celestial Archetypes

Alice C. Linsley


According to the linguistic historian Christopher Ehret, traditional Afro-Asiatic religion was originally henotheistic. Henotheism is belief in a supreme creator God or High God (Tengri, Tien, El, Yahweh) with lesser assisting created powers  with some divine power. According to Talmudic texts these powers of angelic beings have a hierarchical ranking, like a pyramid.

In ancient Egypt these powers were represented by animals and insect totems and/or plants. Only one power was represented as a man - Horus (Enki in Akkadian). He was called the "son of God" and he was served by a caste of royal priests called "Horite" Habiru/Hebrew.

Ehret refers to the ritual priests among the Kushites as the '*wap'er'. They were accorded significant political authority alongside the ruler. The *wap'er presided over the rituals directed toward the High God and acted as the intercessor and prophet of the God. These are the ruler-priests, called har-wa and sarki in ancient Egypt.

A seventh century Assyrian text says that Sargon's birthplace was a city on the banks of the Euphrates called Azu-piranu. It was a Horite shrine as evidenced by the word piranu. The Hapiru devotees of Horus called a temple O-piru, meaning "House of the Sun." Azu is the East African name for God - Asa. So Azu-piranu means “House of God” and is equivalent to the Hebrew word Beth-el. Horite ruler-priests were called Hapiru in Akkadian and Habiru in the Kushitic languages. The Egyptians called these temple attendants ˁpr.w, the w being the plural suffix. This has been rendered '*wap'er' by Christopher Ehret.

Dr. Dan Kashagam, General Secretary of the African Unification Front, explains that, "Africans had various terms that referred to the different offices of government. A king in ancient Kush titled 'Ko' or 'Nesu Biti', a female Head of State was Gore, a female Head of Government was Kandake, a diplomat was Akiki, a governor was Peshto etc. These institutions were fully developed and already in use by 3,800 BCE... along with very sophisticated state and parliamentary protocols that defined responsibilities of the leaders and the citizens towards each other.

The most famous name for a parliament in Africa is the word 'Pharaoh'. The word actually translates 'great house', a common African expression for a senate or national parliament. Variants of the phrase might be Lesser House - to indicate a provincial parliament. The term pharaoh does not refer merely to a physical building, or a dynastic line, although it may have had dual meaning in later centuries. The actual term for king in ancient Egyptian is nesu biti."

It is to Ko for "king" and sa for "great" that we must turn now. In the following list of cognates, we note how the K and Sa frequently appear in the Afro-Asiatic languages.

malku - king (Ugaritic)
melek - king (Hebrew)
bo kor - king (Kushitic) Ko or qo was an honorific suffix for rulers, as in the rulers Sheba-ko and Tahar-ko.
kan or khan - male leader, derived from the word Kain, the first ruler in the Bible.
kandake - female leader, spelled Candace in English Bibles.
ko/ka - king (Kushite/Egyptian)
ko-Re (qore) - Re's appointed ruler/son
sar - king (Sumerian/Accadian) Sargon is related to the Chadic word for king - gon lere.
sara - son of Ra or Ra is great (Egyptian)
sarru - king (Babylonian/Assyrian)
sarki - ruler-priest (Chadic and Sudra/Sudanese of India and Nepal)

Dr. Kashagam mentions the term Nesu biti, another reference to king. However, it refers specifically to the ruler of a united kingdom comprising the Upper Nile and the Lower Nile. Nesu biti contains the signs for papyrus sedge and bee. Sedge was the symbol of the Upper Nile and the bee was the symbol of the Lower Nile. The titles Nesu biti and Sa Ra ("Son of Ra" or "Ra is great") appear together in cartouches that have been found in the tombs of Egyptian and Kushite rulers.  These rulers were believed to be the "sons of God" on earth (Gen. 6:1,2).  The Ko was the deified ruler who ruled over two lands, which is why he wore a double crown. The Kushite rulers united the peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile to one another and united the peoples to the deity Ra (Ani in Akkadian).

Christians will note that the celestial archetype applies to Jesus Christ, and is manifested in a pronounced way at his baptism at an ancient Kushite river shrine called Nim-Ra on the Jordan. Nim-Ra means the "waters of Ra" and this location is between Mannaseh/Ephraim (west) and Mannaseh/Gad (east). There the river became the sacred center when Jesus was manifested as the Son of God.

Rivers among Abraham's Kushite ancestors represent numerous archetypes, including the serpent and the place of connection, and the sacred center. The ancient Egyptians and Kushites were great sky watchers. They observed that the Pole Star (Vega or Wa'gi in Arabic) and the Sun were sometimes visible at the same time on opposite sides of the Nile. This was an auspicious connection. The Nile would have been considered the place of meeting, a sacred center.

Likewise, the clan of Manasseh held land on opposite sides of the Jordan. On the west side Manasseh and Ephraim were considered of the "house of Joseph." On the east side, Manasseh (M-nasheh) and Gad (Gd)were a confederation of the "house of Jacob." Joseph represents the Kushitic/Egyptian heritage of the people. As the Biblical anthropologist Susan Burns points out, "Joseph is the patriarch of the ceph tribes. Ceph is suph (papyrus)." Jacob symbolizes the Semitic/Aramaic/Mesopotamian heritage of the people, symbolized the gd ha-nasheh, the sinew which was touched by the angel of the Lord.

Susan Burns writes at her blog, "This sinew is called gid ha'nasheh in Hebrew. The sciatic nerve begins at the heel of the foot and travels up the back of each leg to the base of the spine. This nerve is enclosed in a protective sinew that is common to all mammals. When the angel touched his own thigh, the thigh of Jacob was damaged. The connection Jacob had with his angel was located in the gid or sciatic nerve."

There is a relationship between nasheh and nahushtan, the bronze serpent on Moses' rod. Reeds, sinews, veins, lightening and rivers are like serpents. It is easy to see how prehistoric man might have thought of lightening as God's serpent. Where it struck there was a connection between heaven and earth. That place would be considered the sacred center, just as the Nile was the sacred center between the Pole Star and the rising sun, and the Jordan was the sacred center between M-nasheh/Ephraim and M-nasheh/Gad.

In the older Proto-Saharan languages spoken by Abraham's Kushite ancestors N at the end of the word designates 2. In Dravidian appa is father, but appan means fathers. Har-appa in Dravidian means Horus is father.

At the beginning of the word N designates 1 and refers to the deity, as in the Egyptian ntr - god/deity, a compound of N and TR, meaning pure. The original root for vein, river, tongue, serpent, sinew and lightening was NS. The S originally would have been a pictograph representing a serpent or anything serpentine. It also indicates "great" and can mean "Man" (Egyptian - sa), and throne (Proto-Saharan es or is). NS suggests connection between heaven and earth, and between deity and man. The serpent was a sacred symbol to the Kushites, especially to the metalworking clans such as the Hittites who called themselves NS (Nes).

Manasseh was divided because Joseph's other son was of the House of Potiphar and probably stayed in Heliopolis, Egypt. This is consistent with the marriage and ascendancy pattern of firstborn sons among Abraham's Horite people. The firstborn of the ruler's half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. So Isaac ascended to the throne of Abraham. The firstborn son of the ruler's cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. So Joktan, Abraham's firstborn son by Keturah, ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. Joktan the Younger was the progenitor of the Joktanite Tribes of Arabia (shown above).


Related reading: Pepinakht-Heqaib: Upholding the Rights of Two Sons; The Peoples of Canaan; The Sacred Center in Biblical Theology; The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion; Sister Wives and Cousin Wives; Recovering the African Background of Genesis

The Ancient Afro-Asiatic World

The following paper was written by one of my World Religions students and I thought it was an interesting overview of my research on the ancient Afro-Asiatics.  Mr. Lewis has kindly given me permission to publish it and I hope that others will find it interesting also.

As background, see A Scientific Timeline of Genesis.



Jeffrey L. Lewis

The Afro-Asiatic Dominion, a term coined by Alice C. Linsley, is used to describe the correspondence of religious concepts and practices diffused across a vast area which extends from west central Africa to the Indus River Valley as well as religious practices among the Sarki who live as ‘Haruwa’ in the Tarai region of Nepal.

The Afro-Asiatic Dominion concept in the Hebrew Scriptures is suggested by the correspondence of western (Afro) and eastern (Asiatic) traditions (Linsley, July, 2009). Many similarities exist between these 2 traditions. Among them are the 2 creation stories, the 2 flood stories, and a consistent binary framework of both traditions. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), through the book of Genesis (in the beginning), is a Biblical explanation of how the world came into existence; however Linsley provides another view of the book of Genesis through an anthropological interpretation. Through research conducted over 32 years of study, she has identified a specific kinship pattern that shows Afro-Asiatic beliefs and practices widely spread through a lineage of ruler-priest who intermarried throughout the areas of Africa, Mesopotamia, and India to exercise control over the water systems at a time when these areas were wetter.

Linsley’s research unveils geological, biological, and linguistically equivalent evidence relevant to the spread of the Afro-Asiatic religion and its worldview. Through comparisons of the languages of Saharan Africa, Semitic languages, Sanskirt and Dravidian, evidence suggests a vast extension of Afro-Asiatic Dominion practices across the Atlantic coast of modern Nigeria to the Indus River as much as 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. Cultural diffusion [1] may explain why people across such a vast area share similar words and linguistic affinities between languages. In relation to the genealogy of the sons of Noah, who replenished the earth after the flood, Genesis 11:1 states that the ‘whole earth had one language and one speech’. According to scripture in Genesis chapter 11, the people attempted to unify and honor themselves rather than God by building a monument unto them. As a result the Lord confused their language and scattered them across the earth (vs. 7-8), and the unfinished monument became known as the Tower of Babel [2]. These descendants of Noah are "Afro-Asiatics", according to Linsley, and at one time spoke the same words, thus explaining common root systems supporting linguistic similarities.

In addition to geologic, biologic, and linguistic evidence of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion, Linsley has identified eight key features of the ancient religion’s worldview. This essay will discuss those key features shared in common with Christianity today. The eight key features of Afro-Asiatic religion include: Triune God; the Sun as an emblem of the Deity; concept of the Son of God; fixed order of creation; hereditary priesthood; blood sacrifice at altars; a common number symbolism; and prophets.

One religious feature shared between the Afro-Asiatic Dominion and the Christian Doctrine is the Triune God. Triune God is the concept that God exists in 3 persons; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most important doctrine beliefs within the Christian faith. Referred to as the Trinity, the concept of God existing in three persons can be founded in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Trinity teaches that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three persons in one Godhead and that each has the same attributes and power as the other. The first recorded indication to the Trinity actually comes from Genesis 1:26, when God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” This statement in itself can be used to support the doctrine of a Triune God. Another example may be seen in Genesis 18:1-2, where God appears to Abraham as three men standing by him as he sat under the shade of the terebinth tree, yet when Abraham speaks, he speaks only, “my Lord” (vs. 3).

When looking for commonality for the sharing of the Sun as Deity in the Christian faith, Luke 1: 76-79 may be considered. In these verses, Zacharias prophesies about the ministry of John the Baptist, who would be the forerunner or the one preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Within these verses, verse 78 likens Christ’s coming to the sunrise. In the Holman Christian Standard Bible it reads: "Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us." For Christians this was an accurate prediction of Jesus’ coming. Christ would be Sun in an otherwise dark world, bringing light and peace to a dying world.

The concept of Jesus Christ as The Son of God incarnated is also a key feature of Christian Doctrine. In Hebrew Scripture New Testament writings, John 3:16 is a foundational scripture for the plan of salvation to the Christian believer. John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This feature shared among one of the eight in the Afro-Asiatic Dominion religious life is indeed keen in modern day Christianity.

The next feature, Fixed Order of Creation, begins with the first statement in the first book in the Hebrew Scriptures. Genesis 1:1 reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God began creation alone, and the creation is His kingdom, and He alone is the ruler. Psalm 104:19 states, “The Lord has established His throne in heaven and His kingdom rules over all”. According to Hebrew Scriptures, God used an orderly fashion when creating the earth and creatures over six days and resting on the seventh. After His divine order of creation, He saw that all created ‘was good’. He also instructed each kind of creature to reproduce according to its own kind, representing order in multiplication. Violations of the order of creation represent rebellion against the Creator as was the case when Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Other scriptures define the Fixed Order of Creation, such as Jeremiah 33:25, which speaks of God separating the day and night and fixing laws that govern heaven and earth and Jeremiah 31: 35-36 which details the ordinances of order and the consequences if those ordinances are not kept. (Linsley, May, 2009).

In the Afro-Asiatic tradition there is evidence of intermarriage of the priestly lines as far back as Kain and Seth, (sons of Adam and Eve) and Ham and Shem (sons of Noah and his wife). This is also noted through Aaron and his half-brother Korah, who was also a priest. This type of intermarriage was necessary to preserve the priestly bloodline leading to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Priest Messiah. Preserving this lineage of ruler-priest bloodline also influenced the spread of the Afro-Asiatic religion.

Blood Sacrifices at Altars and Common Number Symbolism will be discussed together as some aspects of each coincide at times. Blood sacrifices were preformed by priest in the Afro-Asiatic religion and throughout the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures as a priestly duty for the atonement of sin. The number seven symbolizes completion to Christians based upon the fact that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day from all His work having been complete. Seven has thus been significant in reference to perfection and or completion in these religions and some practices. According to priestly laws, the sacrificial blood of the animal sacrificed was to be sprinkled seven places on the altar. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrifice for the atonement of their sin as He died on the cross, therefore sacrificing of animals are no longer necessary for their sin. Jesus Christ bled from seven areas of His body and His blood offers believers ‘Eternal Life’ (John 6:54).

The final feature of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion identified by Linsley that shares commonality with the Christian faith are the belief of prophecy and prophets. A prophecy is a divinely inspired prediction, instruction, or exhortation spoken by a prophet who is one chosen to speak for God or a deity. Prophecy and prophets are often spoken of in Hebrew Biblical writings used as the foundation of Christianity. In the Afro-Asiatic civilizations prophets live near bodies of water or sacred springs and there we find prophecy to be attested at the shrines along the Nile, at Hama on the Orontes, and at Mari on the Euphrates (Linsley, July 2009).

For Christians the greatest prophecies were those that predicted the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. In the book of Isaiah chapter 6, we see Isaiah as he is called to be a prophet. He saw a great vision of the King of kings, whom we later learn in John 12:39-41 is the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘high and lifted up’ (Isaiah 6:1b). Many other prophecies point to the Messiah throughout chapters 7-12 of Isaiah. One of much significance is Isaiah 7:14 which reads, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”[3] Although some dispute this being a prophecy of the Messiah because of the Hebrew word ‘almah’, which could mean ‘virgin’ or ‘young woman’, the New Testament teaches that Christ was virgin-born and both Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:27 use the Hebrew word ‘parthenos’ which can only mean virgin.

While this essay discusses several commonalities of the eight key features of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion with Christianity, there are surely are many more. Afro-Asiatic religious culture diffusion has resulted in the spread of this religion from west central Africa to the Indus river Valley and beyond. Both Afro-Asiatic Dominion and Christianity religions share these eight key features all of which are based on Biblical truths. All these truths point to a God with whom we can have eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ.


NOTES

[1] Cultural diffusion is the process by which different cultures initiate regular contact through migration, commerce, and alliances. It involves the spreading of knowledge, skills, and technology between cultures.

[2] Tower of Babel represents a symbol of divine judgment against self-pride and self-rule. It is a monument that began as an attempt to build a tower to heaven with the intention to glorify man-kind’s superiority as opposed to man’s dependence upon the one and only true God.

[3] The use of the name Immanuel, which means “God-With-Us”, tells us of the virgin-born human form of God in the birth of Jesus Christ the Messiah.


References

1) Linsley, A.C. (2009, July 22). One Worldview, Many Priests. Retrieved September 30,2010.

2) Linsley, A.C. (2009, March 14). The Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Retrieved September 28, 2010.

3) Linsley, A.C. (2009, July 7). Afro-Asiatic Religious Life. Retrieved October 4, 2010.

4) Linsley, A.C. (2009, May 9). Genesis and Genetics. Retrieved October 5, 2010.


Related reading:  African Religion Predates Hinduism; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Who Were the Horites?

Alignment of the Oldest Mosques

Alice C. Linsley

The prayer alignment of some 200 mosques is not to the Ka'bah in Mecca. Neither do the original prayer orientation of the oldest mosques in Cairo, Baghdad and Wasit. They triangulate to a single point a little north of Dedan, probably Al-`Ula, one of several important ancient Afro-Arabian sites that were shrines in ancient times. Another is Al-Hijr, to the northwest of Al-Ula.  Al-Hijr which was earlier simply HR, a reference to Horus, the "son" of the Creator born to Hathor. Hathor was the patroness of the metal workers among Abraham's Horite people. Incense was supplied to these ancient shrines in ka-Hr-ka-jars, that is royal jars consecrated to Horus by Horite priests.

Al-Hijr is in northern Saudi Arabia, about 1400 km to the north of Riyadh. It is called "Mada'in Saleh" and is considered one of the oldest settlements in the Saudi Arabia. Mada'in Saleh was recognized by the UNESCO as a site of patrimony, the first world heritage site in Saudi Arabia.

The people of these ancient settlements spoke languages identified as Thamudic. Within this group three dialects have been identified by linguists: Thamudic B, C and D. These were spoken at Petra and are mentioned several times in the Quran along with prophet Saleh.

The oldest mosque in Egypt is Fustat in Cairo. It dates to the reign of Qurra b. Shira between 709-714 A.D. The oldest mosque in Saudi Arabia is Quba Mosque. It was rebuilt in the 1980's.

All mosques have a niche called a "qiblah" which shows the direction of prayer. The older mosques are aligned with a point north of Mecca but south of Jerusalem. If early mosques were aligned toward northern Arabia or Jerusalem, a qiblah facing the Ka'bah represents a later development. (Source: BBC News)

The qiblahs of the oldest mosques in Mecca, Iraq and Egypt do not align with Mecca. Instead they align to the region of Dedan, home of some of Abraham's Horite ancestors. Abraham's Horite people spoke languages in the North Arabian group (sometimes called "Dispersed Oasis North Arabian"). Abraham's ancestors controlled this area and spread their religious beliefs along the water ways, expanding their influence across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Abraham's six sons by Keturah are the founders of the Joktanite clans who dwell in the region of Mecca and Southern Arabia.

The ancient Afro-Arabians included the clans of Joktan and Yishbak, Abraham's sons by Keturah and the clans of Yishmael the Egyptian, Abraham's son by his concubine Hagar. The Afro-Asiatic Arameans became linguistically distinct in the time of Peleg and his brother Joktan the Younger. However, the ruling lines of the Afro-Arabians and the Arameans continued to intermarry exclusively according to the marriage and ascendency pattern of the ancient Horites.

Mount Ithlib (map) is located to the north-east of Al-Hijr. It was a Horite shrine later dedicated to the Nabatean deity Dushara. Đū Shará (Arabic: ذو شرى‎) means "Lord of the Mountain." It is transliterated as "Du-sares." The Lord of the Mountain was worshipped by the Nabataeans at Petra and Madain Saleh. The Dushara sanctuary at Petra contained a great temple in which a large cubical stone (Ka'ba) was the centrepiece. Ka-Ba is an Egyptian word that refers to the body-soul.

Abraham's Horite ancestors controlled this part of Arabia. The Nabateans appear to be descendants of the Horites. Keturah and Abraham were the progenitors of the Joktanite clans of Arabia who still reside in this region.

The three mosques under consideration reflect a late development over a very ancient earlier religion. The Wasit Mosque (built 705 A.D.) and the Kufa Mosque (built about 698 A.D.) align to a point in northwest Arabia, not to Mecca. According to Islamic tradition, Mohammad's household taught that Kufa Mosque was founded by Adam. Another tradition states that it was built by the angels in accordance with Gabriel's revelation to Prophet Muhammad. No other narrator of Islamic tradition has referred to this however.

Related reading:  The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Hittite Religion; The Dedanites and the Edomites Intermarried; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; Who Were the Horites?; Peleg: Time of Division