i. _Heathenism_ was the religion of the majority of the Arabs. In the cities of south Arabia it was a survival from the forms represented in the Sabaean, Minaean and Himyaritic inscriptions of south Arabia (see ARABIA: _Antiquities_). The more popular form current among the nomads is known very imperfectly from the remains of pre-Islamic poetry and such works as the _Kitab ul-Asnam_ contained in Yaqut's geography, from Shahrastani's work on the sects, and from the few references in classical writers. From these we have mostly names of local deities (cf. J. Wellhausen, _Reste arabischen Heidentums_, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1897) and ancient religious customs, which remained in part after the introduction of Islam (cf. W. Robertson Smith, _The Religion of the Semites_, Edinburgh, 1889, and _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_, Cambridge, 1885). From these sources we learn that Arabian religion was a nature-worship associated with fetishism. Sun, moon and stars were worshipped, some tribes being devoted to the worship of special constellations. Certain stones, wells and trees were regarded as sacred and as containing a deity. Many (perhaps most) tribes had their own idols. Hobal was the chief god of the Ka`ba in Mecca with its sacred stone, but round him were grouped a number of other tribal idols. It was against this association (_shirk_) of gods that Mahomet inveighed in his attempt to unify the religion and polity of the Arabs. But there were features in this heathenism favourable to unity, and these Mahomet either simply took over into Islam or adapted for his purpose. The popularity of the Ka`ba in Mecca as a place of resort for worshippers from all parts of Arabia led Mahomet not only to institute the _hajj_ as a duty, but also to take over the customs connected with the heathen worship of these visits, and later to make Mecca the _qibla_, i.e. the place to which his followers turned when they prayed. The name of Allah, who seems to have been the god of the Koreish (cf. D. S. Margoliouth, _Mohammed_, p. 19, London, 1905), was accepted by Mahomet as the name of the one God, though he abandoned the corresponding female deity Al-lat.