I need to sleep soon (so take my word for it that you always do this), l’m just trying to explain the mind of God within a 1,000 word limit. I can feel a vessel throbbing in a part of my skull it shouldn’t do. I may have to cop out.
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I think Baal is a title, like Lord.
So for example Baal Hammon = Ammon Ra.
More than a Mesopotamian religion, it was a pseudo-common Mediterranean pantheon.
Yes l know the Bible somewhere condemns the worship of Baalim (plural). But l thought l had read an Islamicate origins story about him, it may have been an Isra’iliyyat hadith i.e. a tradition brought to Islam via Jewish converts (it featured a lot in the Bible), not a saying o f the Prophet, but it went along the lines of what l said. It seems odd, as l’m sure Ba’al itself means Lord so it was a ready-made deity, surely? Not originally a human. But this is what i read, l cannot retrieve the source.
I also read Palermo in Sicily was derived from Baal Haram i.e. Sanctuary of Ba’al (Phoenicians probably) - but l can’t find a source on that either!
I don’t think it was a ready made deity, it was simply a title. Whether strictly divine, like Holy Mary, or also applicable to humans, like Lord God, unsure. But we can see that though Egyptians also worshiped Amon, they did not use b’’l but ra.
It’s possible that at times it was used as shorthand, like The Lord or just Lord often means God. But almost certainly it is a title rather than specific immortal.
Hi thank you for the info, it’s good to know.
Paul Smith was my mentor. It was he, who gave me the book on Ibn Arabi.
Please read what is written about him below.
The Book of Ibn 'Arabi Paperback
by Ibn 'Arabi (Author), Paul Smith (Translator)
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THE BOOK OF IBN 'ARABI Translation & Introduction Paul Smith
In the West he is known as the Doctor Maximus and in the Islamic world as The Great Master. Born in Murcia in Spain in 1165 his family moved to Seville. At thirty-five he left for Mecca where he completed his most influential book of poems The Interpreter of Ardent Desires (Tarjuman al-Ashwaq) and began writing his masterpiece, the vast Meccan Revelations. In 1204 he began further travels. In 1223 he settled in Damascus where he lived the last seventeen years of his life, dying in 1240. His tomb there is still an important place of pilgrimage. A prolific writer, Ibn ‘Arabi is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as the ‘Unity of Being’. His emphasis was on the true potential of the human being and the path to realizing that potential and becoming the Perfect or complete person. Hundreds of works are attributed to him including a large Divan of poems most of which have yet to be translated. Introduction… on his life and poetry, forms he composed in & Sufism in poetry, Selected Bibliography. Appendix: The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq of Ibn ‘Arabi, Translation of Poems & Commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept as well as the beauty and meaning of this selection of his beautiful, mystical poems in the forms of qit’as, ghazals and a qasida. Large Format Paperback 7” x 10” 284 pages.
COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH’S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ’S ‘DIVAN’.“It is not a joke… the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished.” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran.“Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz’s Divan off by heart. “Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz.” Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books). Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages… including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu’in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Omar Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Mahsati, Lalla Ded, Abu Nuwas, Ibn Farid, Majnun, Iqbal, Ghalib, Baba Farid, and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and a dozen screenplays.
No, l meant you do say that stuff about Muslims worshipping the moon more than once, from what l recall.
I am awaiting publication of the Makkan Revelations in English translation by Eric Winkel (see the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi society’s page on it).
Winkel’s translation when complete will probably cost within an order of magnitude the cost of gold.
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