A case of Aramaic-Arabic Pre-Islamic religious syncretism: mārē ’alāhē, rabb al- ’ālihah and its qur’ānic echo

Abstract

In this article we attemp to show how the Aramaic polytheistic expression mārē ´alāhē reached the pre-Islamic milieu to refer the main god in a pantheon of deities. At the same time, it can be shown that Muḥammad used this politheistic expression as a means of transition from the polytheism to the monotheism by replacing the pre-Islamic pantheon with ´Allāh.