| Part of themyth series on Religions of the ancient Near East |
| Pre-Islamic Arabian deities |
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| Arabian deities of other Semitic origins |
Atarsamain (also spelledAttar-shamayin,Attarshamayin,[1]Attarsame (ʿAttarsamē);[2] "morning star of heaven") (Arabic:عثتر سمين) was anastral deity of uncertain gender, worshipped in thepre-Islamic northern and centralArabian Peninsula. Worshipped widely byArab tribes, Atarsamain is known from around 800 BC and is identified in letters of theAssyrian kingsEsarhaddon andAssurbanipal.[3] Atarsamain may be identical withAllāt, whose cult was centred onPalmyra and also withAttar.
According to Dierk Lange, Atarsamain was the main deity in a trinity of gods worshipped by what he calls the Yumu'il Confederation, which he describes as a northern Arab tribal confederation ofIshmaelite ancestry headed by the "clan of Kedar" (i.e. theQedarites).[4] Lange identifiesNuha as thesolar deity,Ruda as thelunar deity, and Atarsamin as the main deity associated withVenus.[4] A similar trinity of gods representing the sun, moon and Venus is found among the peoples of the South Arabian kingdoms ofAwsan,Ma'in,Qataban andHadhramawt between the 9th and 4th centuries BC.[4] There, the deity associated with Venus wasAstarte, the sun deity wasYam, and moon deity was variously calledWadd,Amm andSin.[4]
Atarsamain is twice mentioned in the annals ofAshurbanipal, king of theNeo-Assyrian Empire in the 7th century BC. The reference is toa?lu (sā) a-tar-sa-ma-a-a-in ("the people ofAttar of Heaven") who are said to have been defeated together with the Nebayot (Nebaioth/Nabataeans) and the Qedarites led by Yauta ben Birdadda, who was also known as "king of theArabs".[1]