The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha1

D av i d K i l t z
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Potsdam

Abstract
Various etymologies have been proposed for Arabic allah but also for Syriac
allaha. It has often been proposed that the Arabic word was borrowed from Syriac.
This article takes a comprehensive look at the linguistic evidence at hand. Especially, it takes into consideration more recent epigraphical material which sheds
light on the development of the Arabic language. Phonetic and morphological
analysis of the data confirms the Arabic origin of the word allah, whereas the problems of the Syriac form allaha are described, namely that the Syriac form differs
from that of other Aramaic dialects and begs explanation, discussing also the possibility that the Syriac word is a loan from Arabic. The final part considers qur#anic
allah in its cultural and literary context and the role of the Syriac word in that context.
The article concludes, that both, a strictly linguistic, as well as cultural and
literary analysis reveals a multilayered interrelation between the two terms in question. The linguistic analysis shows, that Arabic allah must be a genuinely Arabic
word, whereas in the case of Syriac allaha, the possibility of both, a loan and a specific inner-Aramaic development are laid out. Apart from linguistic considerations,
the historical and cultural situation in Northern Mesopotamia, i. e. the early Arab
presence in that region is taken into scrutiny. In turn, a possible later effect of the
prominent use of Syriac allaha on the use in the Qur#an is considered. It is emphasized, that we are presented with a situation of prolonged contact and exchange,
rather than merely one-way borrowings.

1)

I would like to thank Christian J. Robin for pointing out important material
on the issue. I would also like to thank Dr. N. Sinai, Dr. J. Witztum and M. Marx for
proof-reading this paper and contributing valuable remarks. Any errors are, of
course, my own.
Der Islam Bd. 88, S. 3350
Walter de Gruyter 2012
ISSN 0021-1818

DOI 10.1515/islam-2012-0003

34

David Kiltz

I. Introductory remarks
Allah is used in the Qur#an as the designation of the one God, both as
an appellative and a proper name. The word has been variously interpreted
as a contraction of al-#ilah > allah2 but also, due to the apparent similarity
of the two words, as a loan from Syriac allaha.3 This article takes a fresh
look at the origins of and relation between Arabic allah and Syriac allaha.
Especially, it revisits the question of a possible loanword connection
Syriac > Arabic and/or Arabic > Syriac. Typically, if a loanword relation was
assumed, it has been presupposed that the direction was from Syriac into
Arabic, since Syriac is attested earlier as a literary language.4 A closer look
at the linguistic situation, however, calls this assumption into question.

II. The linguistic evidence

A. Common Semitic
In Semitic, the oldest, most common word for god has the following
attestations: Akkadian ilu(m), pl. ilu, Ugaritic #l-, pl. #lm, #lhm, that is
*/#ilu, #iluma, #lVhuma/, Hebrew #el, Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic and Old
Cf. Gerhard Bwering: God and his Attributes, in: Encyclopaedia of the
Qur#an, Vol. 2, Leiden/Boston, 2001, p. 316331, who states that this is the majority
view held today. Bwering, following Joshua Blau: Arabic Lexicographical Miscellanies, in: Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. 17, 1972, p. 173190, p. 175 ff. posits
Aramaic (i. e. Syriac) alaha as the source of Arabic allah. I would posit either Aramaic #elaha or Syriac allaha, but cf. section II C for a full discussion, especially of
Blaus theses, cf. Blau: Miscellanies, p. 155 ff., on which Bwerings remarks seem
to be based.
3) Cf. e. g. Arthur Jeffery: The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur#an, Baroda,
1938, p. 66 with earlier literature. Karl Ahrens: Christliches im Qoran, in:
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 84, 1930, p. 1568,
p. 35 assumes that Arabic allah is strongly influenced (stark beeinflusst) by Syriac alaha but allows for the possibility of an inner-Arabic development parallel to
that of Allat < al-#Ilat.
4) Both Enno Littmann: Nabatan Inscriptions from EgyptII, in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 16 (02), 1954, p. 211246, and
Susanne Krone: Die altarabische Gottheit al-Lat, Frankfurt a. M. et al., 1992, give
arguments for a reverse direction of borrowing, namely Arabic > Syriac. These arguments are, among others, discussed in this article, i. e. the Syriac phonetic shape
is difficult to explain. The Arabic form is natural in Arabic. Vicinity of speakers of
Arabic and Syriac.
2)

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

35

South Arabic #l.5 This warrants a reconstructed form Proto-Semitic *#il-.

In Central-Semitic, we also find an extended form6: Hebrew #eloah (mostly
in the pl. #elohim), Aramaic #lh, #elah, Arabic #ilah, Old South Arabic #lh.
In cuneiform writing, we find the forms (i)lu()a, -ila()i reflecting
Canaanite and Aramaic phonetics respectively. Based on this, we can
reconstruct Proto-Central-Semitic *#ilah-. Both Arabic and Syriac diverge
from this picture in that they have allah and allaha; i. e. they differ in the
vocalic anlaut7 and the doubling of the second radical. While in Syriac
allaha8 is the only form in use, Arabic has both (al-)#ilah and allah.9 So let
us take a closer look at both Arabic and Syriac.

B. Allah: the situation in Arabic

Possibly the oldest attestation for allah is found at Qaryat al-Faw in the
inscription of Igl dating to the 1st century CE.10 Given its importance we
will cite the inscription here in full.
5)

There is also H and I transmitted through Greek.

The origin of the second element -ah is not quite clear. It has been interpreted
as a directional element cf. e. g. Hans Bauer: Semitische Sprachprobleme, in:
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft, vol. 69, 1915, p. 561563,
and as related to the plural forms Ugaritic #lhm, fem. #lht, although these might
be rather read /#ilahuma, #ilahatu/, i. e. with a short second vowel, cf. Arab. #ummu,
#ummahat, but cf. also J. Huehnergard Features of Central Semitic, in:
A. Gianto (ed.) Biblical and Oriental Essays in Memory of William L. Moran,
Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2005, p. 192. At any rate, since nouns with two
radicals are rare in Semitic, the popularity of a fuller, triradical root is not surprising. For the relation between #el and #elohm in the Hebrew Bible, cf. already Theodor
Nldeke: Elohim, El, in: Sitzungsberichte der Kniglich Preuischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Berlin, 1982, p. 11751192.
7) Punic too, has a: alonim, alonuth but these are clearly different derivations
of the root *il-.
8) There is also el (West-Syriac il, written #Yl) in Syriac but other than being
a lexicographers item, it is only used in proper names or as a calque of Hebrew #el.
It may, however, reflect older usage, just as the element -#il/-il found in both North
and South Arabic names.
9) For the semantic difference between the Syriac and the Arabic, see further
below under C.
10) Christian Julien Robin: Les plus anciens monuments de la langue arabe
in: Ibid.: LArabie antique de Karib il Mahomet: nouvelles donnes sur lhistoire
des Arabes grce aux inscriptions, (Revue du monde musulman et de la Mditerrane,
Vol. 61), Aix-en-Provence, 1991, p. 113125, p. 115 f.
6)

36

David Kiltz
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

gl bn Hfm bn l-#-h Rbbl bn H=

f m qbr w-l-hw w-l-wld-hw w-m=
r#t-h w-wld-hw w-wld wld-hm
w-ns1y-hm hryr w-#l Glwn f-h b-Khl w-Lh w-r
S2rq mn zzm w-wnym ws2rym w-mrthnm #bdm
bn wks1 m d-ky tmt=
r #-s1my dm w-l-#r=
d s2 r

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Igl fils de Hofiamm a construit pour son frre Rabi<#>il fils de Hofiamm <ce> tombeau, ainsi que pour lui, pour ses enfants, pour son pouse, pour ses enfants ( elle), pour leurs petits enfants
et pour leurs femmes, nobles du lignage de Ghalwan. Puis
il la confi Kahl, <Al>lah, Aththar
a<sh>-Shariq contre nimporte qui de puissant et de faible,
acheteur et preneur de gages, pour toujours,
contre tout dommage, tant que donnera
le ciel de la pluie et que la terre sera couverte dherbe11

This text makes use of the definite article #l-, showing the same behaviour as known from Classical Arabic, i. e. assimilation before solar consonants, cf. #-s2rq and #-s1my for /as-sariq/ and /as-sama#/.12 As is to be expected, doubling of consonants is not indicated. Furthermore, the first alif
of the definite article is hamzat al-wasl, that is, it is dropped when preceded by another vowel, cf. w-l-#rd = /wa-l-#ard/. Hence w-Lh in line 5 could
be read as /wa-Llah/ rather than /wa-Lah/. This seems to be confirmed by
another inscription from Qaryat al-Faw13:

11) English translation: Igl, son of Hofiamm, has built <this> grave for his
brother Rabib<>i, son of Hofiamm, as well as for himself, his children, his wife, her
children, their grand-children and their wives, nobles of the line of Galwan. After
that, he has entrustet it to Kahl, <Al>lah, Aar a<s>-Sariq against anyone,
powerful or weak, buyer or mortgage taker (?), forever, against any harm, as long as
the sky give rain and the world be covered with grass.
12) Or perhaps rather /as
-sariq/ and /as-samay/.
13) Jan Ryckmans: Alphabets, Scripts and Languages in Pre-Islamic Arabian Epigraphical Evidence, in: Abd Al Rahman T. al-Ansary et alii (Ed.): PreIslamic Arabia (Studies in the History of Arabia, II, Riyadh), Riyadh, 1984,
p. 7386, p. 75.

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

1
2
3

]ft #q=
[ny mr]#-hw #lh f-s1m=
[ l-hm]w

37

[ ]ft a d[di son seign]eur Allah, et Il les a

exauc]s

Here we find the form #lh /allah/ with the onset intact. Theoretically,
one could read lah in the first inscription and #ilah in the second. However,
since the inscriptions are likely to be in the same variety of Arabic, applying Oghams Razor, it is preferable to assume a form (a)llah in both cases.
This Early North Arabic inscription displays, next to a few others, e. g. in
Namara and Harran, the use of the definite article al-.14 What is more, the
article behaves, as noted above, as in Classical Arabic. There is a good deal
of evidence for both allah and al-#ilah, both epigraphical and other. In addition to the above mentioned inscriptions there are also transcriptions of
Arabic names found in bilingual Arabic-Greek texts, which confirm the
existence of the form allah even in Safaitic,15 cf. an inscription from the
Jordanian desert (WH 1894) where WHB#LH is transcribed into Greek as
OYABAAC, suggesting an underlying Arabic form /wahballah/. The
same evidence is found in Nabatean.16 In Palmyra we find two proper
names ZBDLH and NBWLH that might be interpreted as something like
/zabdallah/ and /nabullah/ Zabd is the God and Nab is the God.17 At
the same time we find al-#ilah e. g. in Zabad (60 km south-east of Aleppo) in
an inscription dated to ca. 512 CE18:
[](k)r #l-#lh Srgw bn #mt Mnfw w-Tlh# bn Mr# l-Qys w-Srgw bn
Sdw w-Strw w-Sy[.]thw.
Que Dieu se [souvi]enne de Serge fils dAmat Manaf, de Tlh# (?) fils dImru alQays, de Serge fils de Sad, de Strw et de Sy[.]thw (?)19

14) Rainer Maria Voigt: Der Artikel im Semitischen, in: Journal of Semitic
Studies, Vol. 43, 1998, p. 221258, p. 225.
15) The issue of the early North Arabic definite article is a complicated one.
For the present study it is sufficient to note, that the article al- is attested in the
respective areas, at least in personal names. For more on the question see Alfred F. L.
Beeston: Languages of pre-islamic Arabia, in: Arabica, Vol. 28, p. 178186;
Voigt: Der Artikel im Semitischen and Christian Julien Robin: Les inscriptions de larabie antique et les tudes arabes, in: Arabica, Vol. 48, p. 509577,
p. 541 f.
16) Written WHB#LHY, cf. also Littmann: Nabatan Inscriptions, p. 222f.
17) Cf. Krone: al-Lat, p. 463.
18) After Christian Julien Robin: La rforme de lcriture arabe lpoque
du califat mdinois, in: Mlanges de lUniversit Saint-Joseph, Vol. 59, p. 319364,
p. 337.
19) The translations given are by Robin: La rforme, p. 337.

38

David Kiltz

This latter inscription illustrates the use of al-#ilah in a Christian context. This means that use of the definite article with the generic term
for god was seen as suitable to denote the Christian God. Indeed, the use of
al-#ilah next to allah in a monotheistic context is also attested e. g. in a
poem by an-Nabiga a-ubyani:20
Lahum simatun lam yutiha llahu gayrahum // mina l-qudi, wa-l-#ahlami gayri
awazibi
maqallatuhum atu l-#ilahi, wa-dinuhum // qawimun fa-ma yarquna gayra
l-awaqibi.
They have a virtue that God [allah] has given to no one but them, // [a virtue]
of bounteousness, and unyielding prudence.
Their scripture is that of God [al-#ilah], and their religion is one of rectitude,
they only want (anticipate) the consequences [of their acts].21

As mentioned before, it has been suggested very early on to derive allah

from a contraction of al-#ilah. Barring the assumption of a loan from a different language, such a contraction would seem to be the only way to explain the form in question. Infact this kind of contraction seems to be
regular at least in some parts of Arabia. Already Brockelmann (Brockelmann: Vergleichende Grammatik, 54e) states:
Die Aufeinanderfolge gleicher und hnlicher Laute wird im Arab. sogar dann
noch als strend empfunden, wenn ein fest eingesetzter Vokal zwischen ihnen
steht al-#ilahu > allahu Gott, al-#ilatu (Herodots A) > allatu die Gttin, al-#ula#i > alla#i welche, *al-#unasu > annasu die Menschen.

It was David Testen 22 who noted, that al- + #u/iCaC > al-CaC23 is a
regular Hijazi development, not shared by all dialects.24 We would second the analysis of allah as being made up of the definite article al + #ilah
since

20) An-Nabiga a-ubyani: Diwan an-Nabiga a-ubiyani, Egypt, 1911, p. 15;

cf. also Toshihiko Izutsu: God and man in the Koran [Reprint der Ausgabe Tokyo,
1964], New York 1980, p. 116.
21) Translation by Ghasan El-Masri.
22) David Testen: Literary Arabic and Early Hijazi: Contrasts in the Marking of Definiteness, in: Elabbas Benmamoun, Mushira Eid, Niloofar Haeri (Eds.),
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics, Vol. XI, Atlanta, 2005, p. 209225.
23) In this, schematic notation C stands as a place-holder for any consonant.
The anlaut of the respective word can have either i or u but not a.
24) It seems likely, however, that this development is not exclusive to Hijazi
but was actually characteristic of a more widespread western dialect continuum.

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

39

1) the anlaut behaves like the definite article in Classical Arabic.

2) al + #u/iCaC > al-CaC is a regular phonetical development in at least
some dialects of Arabic.
3) the doubling of l cannot otherwise be explained in Arabic.
4) there is a parallel case with al-#ilat > allat25.
5) allah is used parallel to al-#ilah26.
6) allah means one particular god/the God27.
So what was understood in Arabia by the use of allah? Firstly, the word
seems to be employed to denote a specific god as in the Qaryat al-Faw inscription, invoked next to other gods. Also, it would appear that it can be
understood as the specific god in context, i. e. the one whom I worship or
who is related to a certain sanctuary or the like, as perhaps proper names
like Nabllah Nab is the god suggest. Even Wahballah may be interpreted
that way. I. e. allah could not only be taken to refer to a god named allah but
also as meaning gift of the god, scil., of the god whom I worship. In this
case allah would function as a generic term. This interpretation would also
account for the high number of personal names that contain the element
allah against the scarcity of the word occuring in isolation.28
That means that in actual inscriptions, the name of the god invoked is
mentioned, whereas in names a particular god is only implied but simply
designated as the god. A parallel can be found in Old South Arabic where
the word #lh-n /#ilahan/ that is #ilah + the OSA definite article -an is employed to denote the god venerated at a specific temple, when and where it
is used en lieu of the proper name of the god to whom the temple is dedicated. It is also found in monotheistic contexts.29 Lastly there is evidence,
25) #ilat is, of course, not just the feminine form of #ilah , but rather an old
formation, to be compared with Ugaritic ilt /#ilat/ (del Olmo Lete & Sanmartn
2003:66) and Phoenician #lt /#ilot/ (Krahmalkov 2000:56f.).
26) For point 5 and 6 see below.
27) Although not necessarily exclusively so, see the following.
28) Healey (2001:92) mentions an inscription from Ruwafah, which is, according to the author, probably post-Nabataean, where the dedication is to #lh# #lh#lh#,
the god of... In #lh# we might have an aramaicized form of Arabic allah. In that
case, Allah would have been used as the proper name of a god. The use of allah as at
times denoting either, in a generic way, the specific god in question and at times
Allah as the personal name of a god (and then later of the only God) would be similar
to the etymon #il- in North-West Semitic, where it can mean both god in a generic
sense and the god Il.
29) Cf. also Christian Julien Robin: Les hautes-terres du Nord-Ymen avent
lIslam, I. Recherches sur la gographie tribale et religieuse de Hawlan Qudaa et du

40

David Kiltz

from the Qur#an, that allah has been understood as a High God even before the adoption of Islam. This is suggested by passages like:
Q 43:87: If thou ask them, who created them, they will certainly say, God
(allah).
Q 10:31: Say: Who is it that sustains you (in life) from the sky and from the
earth? or who is it that has power over hearing and sight? And who is it that
brings out the living from the dead and the dead from the living? and who is it
that rules and regulates all affairs? They will soon say, God(allah). Say, will
ye not then show piety (to Him)?
Q 39:38: If indeed thou ask them who it is that created the heavens and the
earth, they would be sure to say, God (allah).

These verses seem to address polytheists rather than Christians or

Jews. Hence they would seem to suggest belief in a supreme creator God
among pagan Arabs.30 In brief, we find the use of allah denoting either
the god in a specific context or an individual god who might have been
viewed as a high god before Islam. The term is also used by Christians to
denote their God.31

C. Allaha: the situation in Syriac

In Syriac allaha the generic name for god, most notably, but not exclusively, is used for the Jewish and Christian God. Thus, in a pagan context, we find e. g. allaha sane bnayya the God who hates (his) children, for
Saturnus (Kronos). We find it also in following contexts: in the absolute
state haykla d-metqre d-kul allah the temple which is called of every god,
i. e. the Pantheon; in the plural yawmata d-allahe the days of the gods, i. e.
the seven days of the week; in a Jewish and Christian context e. g. allaha

Pays de Hamdan; II. in: Nouvelles inscriptions, Vol. 1, 1982, p. 184, p. 58, and Ibid.:
Le judasme de Himyar, in: Arabia, Vol. 1, 2003, p. 97172.
30) Cf. Peterson (2004). On the question, compare also Krone: al-Lat,
p. 467 ff. and William Montgomery Watt: Belief in a High God in pre-islamic
Mecca, in: Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. 16 (1), 1971, p. 3540, and Ibid.:
The Quran and Belief in a High God, in: Der Islam, Vol. 56, 1979, p. 205211; see
also Izutsu: God and man, p. 96119. If adressed to Christians, the passage
would at least attest the monotheistic use of allah.
31) For the presence of Christians in Arabia and adjacent territories cf. e. g.
John Spencer Trimingham (1979) and Theresia Hainthaler: Christliche Araber
vor dem Islam: Verbreitung und konfessionelle Zugehrigkeit; eine Hinfhrung,
Leuven et al., 2007.

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

41

d-alme eternal God, rendering Hebrew #el olam; distinctly Christian in

allaha rabba yesu msiha the great God Jesus the Messiah;32 and, last but
not least, in bsem aba wa-bra w-ruha qaddisa, had allaha sarrira in the
name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One true God.
The exact shape of the Syriac word has been debated. One finds both
transcriptions as allaha and alaha. While we find references to doubling in
standard grammars, e. g. Nldecke (Nldecke: Kurzgefasste Syr. Grammatik S. 14/ 21) and Brockelmann (Brockelmann: Syrische Grammatik,
135), it was Blau who argued strongly for reading alaha.33 This form is,
however, morphonetically impossible in Syriac. A proto-form **alah- must
become > elah(a) in Syriac, according to the well-known rule of vowel-reduction: a pretonic a is reduced, and the remaining aleph is then vocalised
to e, as can be seen in verbs with initial aleph, e. g. *#amara > #( )mar >
emar, analogous to *qatala > q tal. Blau claims that the initial a- of
al(l)aha was preserved due to a preceding #. In Syriac however, # (aleph)
seems never to be retained at the beginning of a word, no matter what the
quality of the anlauting vowel, as can be easily gathered from Syriac phonotactics.34 Blau refers to Nldeke35 for examples of retention of a (not #,
one may add!) as in e. g. akol/akul (the imperative of ekal to eat) or amir
(passive participle of emar to say). Yet, the anlauting a- here is not due to
a retained # but rather to paradigmatic leveling. At any rate, to my knowledge, all instances of *aCa - show > eCa -, cf. e. g. *ana (older *an#a) > ena
(I), that is the regular development as expected. The Syriac evidence,
as noted by Brockelmann (Brockelmann: Syrische Grammatik, 135)
and others, clearly points to ll. In West-Syriac, allaha is only secondarily
pronounced alaha /aloho/, as all doubled consonants are simplified in that
dialect. This, however, does not affect the establishment of the original
form and is a later development, not specific to the word in question.
Blaus statement seems to be based on Bar Hebraeus36 who notes that
the East Syrians (madnhaye) do not double the l in al(l)aha. It is, however,
not clear, whether this reflects the original state of affairs. It could also be

32) The Syriac examples are taken from Richard Payne Smith: Thesaurus
Syriacus, Vol. 1, Hildesheim et al., 1981, p. 195 f.
33) Cf. Blau: Miscellanies, p. 155 ff.
34For example the uniconsonantal preposition b-, l- form one syllable with a
vowel, in /ballaha/ballahay, /lallaha/not /b-#allaha, /l-#allaha. The original # is never
stable.
35) Theodor Nldeke: Kurz gefasste syrische Grammatik, Leipzig, 1908, p. 24
34.
36) Moberg (1922:227)

42

David Kiltz

secondary since laryngeals, pharyngeals and also r lose, as noted by Bar

Hebraeus (ibidem), their doubling even in East Syriac.37 The latter is
clearly a secondary development. Note that in a different area of phonetics l behaves similarly to the above mentioned consonants in that an
original *e > a before l.38 Indeed, Brockelmann explains the Syriac form
by this process: *#ilaha > #ellaha > (#)allaha. In order to do that, he still has
to posit a doubled l since the soundchange *el > al only occurs in closed syllables. That means that the change of initial e > a would be even less explainable within Syriac, if we would posit +alaha since we are dealing with
an original #e- < #i not a- as in am ir etc. Note also, that Bar Hebraeus mentions the pronunciation of the l in West-Syriac allaha as mufaama.39 He
goes on to note, that some speakers of West-Syriac use the same pronounciation with secondarily doubled l (p ipa). This pronounciation, at least in
the divine name, could, of course, be due to Arabic influence rather than to
the preservation of something old. It is, however, remarkable, that this pronounciation was conferred to cases of (secondarily) doubled l in West-Syriac. While its not possible to infer the original pronounciation of allaha in
West-Syriac from Bar Hebraeus statement, allaha must have been felt to
contain a double l be it due to Arabic influence or not. Last but not least, it
should be noted that there seems to be a tradition that has a Jewish Babylonian vocalisation of the divine name as #alaha.40 The vocalisation is, however, fraught with difficulties. Note, that the more common form is #ylh
/elaha/ and that the former is typically found in the mouth of non-Jews.
Hence, apart from the difficulties in vocalisation, it is doubtful whether
alaha represents a genuine phonetic development in a dialect independent
of Syriac or rather a form used by non-Jewish Syriac or Arabic speakers.
Thus, for the purpose of this study, Ill posit an original form allaha.
Note, however, that many of the major points made in what follows are
valid also if one posits alaha. So, to sum up, Syriac allaha is phonetically
problematic.

37) Bar Hebraeus uses the term hwisa for doubling which corresponds to Arabic musaddad. Cf. also Moberg (19071913:38).
38) As minor details, I would posit *#elaha (with e) as Aramaic proto-form and
leave out the glottal stop (#) in the Syriac since it isnt pronounced.
39) He uses the word tlihta which was misunderstood by Payne-Smith (1981),
but is probably correctly understood by Moberg (19071913:45). Cf. also Sokoloff (2009:532). Phonetically, tafim in Arabic is either velarisation or pharyngealisation.
40) Cf. Sokoloff 2002:133

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

43

All other Aramaic dialects have continuations of Proto-Central-Semitic *#ilah, namely elah(a). That means that the Syriac form differs in
two crucial points: 1) the anlaut has a- rather than e-, and 2) the second
radical is doubled, i. e. ll vs. l. One might account for the second phenomenon by referring to the doubling or gemination of a consonant after short
vowel found in some Syriac words, e. g. lessana < *lisan-, attana < *#atana
she-ass etc.41 This, however, still does not account for the anlaut a-. A development eCC- > aCC other than due to analogy is, to my knowledge, unattested in Classical Syriac. For now, this leaves us essentially with three
possibilities: Syriac allaha (<common Aramaic #elah(a)) may be due to
either:
1)
2)
3)

some sort of analogy,

morphological adjustment or
borrowing.

As for 1), the problem with analogy due to semantic attraction is, that
there seem to be no candidates that would be semantically close enough to
trigger such a development.42 With regard to 2), there is a possibility that
because the form p al(a) (< *paal) in Syriac is overwhelmingly associated
with abstract or action nouns, allaha owes its form to alignment with the
agent noun pattern paal(a). Note the Aramaic elah- is from < *pial, not
*paal, but the two patterns coalesced in Syriac into > p( )al so that, synchronically, there would have been no difference for speakers of Syriac.
This alignment could have happened after a strengthening of the second
radical *elah > *ellah or without this intermediate step. An intermediate
step would, however, probably have facilitated the passage from Pattern
p al > paal. As for 3), one could assume a loan from Arabic, namely allah,
which, unlike the Syriac, is morphonetically motivated or derivable.43

Cf. Carl Brockelmann: Syrische Grammatik: mit Paradigmen, Literatur,

Chrestomathie und Glossar, Berlin, 1991, p. 18.
42) Semantic attraction refers to the fact that words which are either antonyms,
near synonyms or are otherwise semantically grouped together, often show secondary morphological alignment.
43) The problematic form of the Syriac word was already noted by W. Fischer
and the possibility of a loan from some Arabic dialect into Syriac is discussed in
Krone: al-Lat, p. 464 ff.
41)

44

David Kiltz

III. Discussion
In what follows I will further discuss the possibility of Syriac allaha
being a loanword from Arabic, the possible influence of Syriac on the Arabic
word and the state of affairs as present in the Qur#an. Speakers of Arabic
dialects using the definite article al- and showing the form allah rather than
al-#ilah settled in the vicinity of Syriac language centres. Indeed, it is the
official language of Edessa, the capital of the realm of Osrhoene44 which was
founded by an Arabic dynasty in 132 BCE, at least some of whose members
bore Arabic names: Abgar(?), Wa#il (w#l), Manu.45 There are also a number
of words in Syriac which might be early loans from Arabic, such as wale it is
fit, behoves, one should (< Arabic WLY?) and wada appointment (the
latter being also attested in other Aramaic dialects). Arabic loans are also
found in other Aramaic dialects, most notably Nabatean. Most importantly, perhaps, there are a number of divine names of Arabic origin attested
in Edessa, as well as in other cities of Greater Syria, like Hatra and Palmyra. Thus, Azizu (zyzw, Greek Azizos) and Munim (Mn(y)m, Greek Monimos) are well attested in Edessa.46 Of special importance are PN like bdlt
/abdallat/ and whblt /wahballat/ in Old Syriac and Palmyrene inscriptions
respectively.47 It seems to reflect the Arabic theonym allat. This then would
indicate not only the presence of Arabic theonyms but moreover, one that is
probably formed in analogy to allah, namely allat < al-#ilat, cf. Brockelmanns statement cited before.48 All taken together there is a visible Arabic
element in the Osrhoene. Note also, that most early Christian texts attested
in Arabic use al-#ilah but allah is also found.49 Given its use in a pagan conCf. Jan Rets: The Arabs in Antiquity: Their history from the Assyrians to
the Umayyads, New York, 2003, p. 440 ff.
45) Cf. Klaus Beyer: Die aramischen Texte vom Toten Meer: samt den Inschriften aus Palstina, dem Testament Levis aus der Kairoer Genisa, der Fastenrolle
und den alten talmudischen Zitaten : aramaistische Einleitung, Text, bersetzung,
Deutung, Grammatik/Wrterbuch, Gttingen, 1984, p. 46 und Ernst Axel Knauf:
Arabo-Aramaic and Arabiyya: From Ancient Arabic to Early Standard Arabic
200 CE600 CE, in: Angelika Neuwirth/Nicolai Sinai/Michael Marx (Eds.), The
Qur#an in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur#anic Milieu,
Leiden, 2010, p. 197254, p. 212 fig. 8.
46) Cf. Hendrik J. W. Drijvers: Cults and Beliefs at Edessa, Leiden, 1982.
47) See for example Drijvers & Healey 1998:58 and Healey 2009:158ff. The
latter, i.e. /wahballat/, corresponds to Greek Athenodoros gift of Athena.
48) Cf. however Healey 2001:112f. for different derivations of the name Allat.
49) That these forms were felt to be interchangeable is also demonstrated by the
two versions of the inscription of Hind bint al-Hari, transmitted by al-Bakri and
44)

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

45

text, it could be argued that if allaha was a loan from Arabic, allah must
have been tuned down to a less definite meaning than the particular
god etc., so that in Syriac it could be used just as a generic term for god,
without any definiteness attached to it per se.50 On the other hand, incorporation of a word with a definite article is nothing unusual. One example
from Arabic is timsah, pl. tamasih crocodile < Copt. ti- (def. article) +
msah51. Conversely, there are examples of loans from Arabic into other languages like Coptic /attalak/ < at-talaq (divorce) or Spanish e. g. alcalde <
al-qadi (mayor, < judge), neither of which bears any definite quality.52
Regardless of whether the Arabic word was or was not the source of
Syriac allaha, Arabic allah can be plausibly explained as being not a loan
word but the result of inner-Arabic developments, namely resulting from
al + #ilah. As mentioned above, the development al+#i/uCaC > al-CaC is
well documented. The word also behaves just as we would expect, as the anlaut is treated as an alif al-wasl. One could, of course, suppose that if allah
was a loan from Syriac, it would have been secondarily adjusted, that is, reinterpreted as containing the definite article. Such developments are
known from Arabic, cf. e. g. the reinterpretation of Alexandria as al-Iskandariyya. However, the very early use of allah as meaning the god/God and
the parallel use of #ilah + definite article in Old South Arabic seem to
counter this scenario.53 Also, the parallel scenario of *al-#ilat > allat, earlier attested also as han-#ilat54 speaks strongly in favour of an inner-Arabic
genesis.
Yaqut, cf. Christian Julien Robin: Les Arabes de Himyar, des Romains et des
Perses, in: Semitica et Classica, Vol. 1, 2008, p. 167202, p. 185 f., where al-Bakri
uses al-#ilah twice, whereas Yaqut has first al-#ilah and then allah with no difference
in meaning.
50) In monotheistic use the word does, of course, acquire that definiteness
by virtue of the creed associated with it. Its not a god or this specific god but the
one and only God. However, if Arabic allah was loaned into Syriac, this would have
happened before the advent of Christianity because allah is already attested in
pagan Syriac inscriptions, cf. e. g. Hendrik J. W. Drijvers: Old Syriac (Edessean)
Inscriptions, Leiden, 1972, p. 2.
51) Cf. Carsten Peust: Egyptian phonology: an introduction to the phonology
of a dead language, Gttingen, 1999, p. 70; Werner Vycichl: Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue copte, Leuven 1983, p. 123.
52) Thus e. g. in Spanish there can be un alcalde a mayor or el alcalde the
mayor.
53Cf. Peter Stein Himyar und der Eine Gott: Sdarabien in den letzten zwei
Jahrhunderten vor dem Islam, in: Orientalia, Vol. 79 (4), 2010, pp. 558566, p. 558.
54) Cf. Knauf: Arabo-Aramaic, p. 227.

46

David Kiltz

At the same time, Syriac-speaking Christians were present from al-Hira

to Naqran at least from the 6th century CE onwards55, that is, Christians
whose literary language, if not that of daily speech, would have been at
least partly Syriac. Therefore, the use of Syriac allaha for the Christian
God would have been familiar to some Arabs. It could thus, although not as
a formal loanword, still have semantically influenced the use of Arabic
allah. This is borne out by a brief look at the Qur#an. There, we find essentially three more or less appellative denominations of God: rabb, rahman
and allah. Rabb is of very early attestation, it is found in South Arabic
inscription referring to gods. Rahman is well known as a designation of
the monotheistic God in South Arabia. It is also common in Jewish postbiblical literature. In the course of the Qur#an both rahman and allah are
accepted as names for God (Q 17:110) although rahman is later relegated
to the role of epithet56. Allah, who was probably already a prominent god
in Mecca57 becomes the God in the monotheistic sense of Islam. Since God
is one of a kind, allah is both a nomen genericum and a nomen proprium.

IV. Conclusion
Three points emerge from the above: 1) With the evidence at hand it remains unclear whether Syriac allaha, a curious form within the framework
of Syriac, is due to inner-Syriac development or due to borrowing from an
Arabic source. 2) There is no reason to assume a loan from Syriac into
Arabic, as allah is perfectly motivated, i. e. phonetically regular, in (some
dialects of) Arabic and its development within Arabic is safely accounted
for. 3) The use of allah (next to ar-rahman) as personal/generic name for
the One God in the Qur#an can be explained by its use in Arabic proper.
There is, however, a good possibility that the prominence of Syriac allaha
and its near homophony positively influenced the use of allah in the
Qur#an. That is to say, we find allah in the Qur#an not only because it was
the most fitting word to be used,58 in spite of or because of allahs promiCf. Hainthaler: Christliche Araber, p. 143 ff.
See Bwering: God and his Attributes.
57) Cf. Montgomery Watt: Belief and also John F. Healey: The Religion of
the Nabataeans, Leiden, 2001, p. 8385.
58) Eschewing rahman as sole designation. Although the latter is found prominently in rabbinic writings and was used in (South) Arabia as the near exclusive designation of the monotheistic God and, apparently, also by contemporary prophets,
most notably Musaylima, it was given less prominence than allah, possibly due to an
55)

56)

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

47

nent position within pre-islamic religion, but perhaps because pre-islamic

connotations were more easily superseded taking into consideration that
its near homophone Syr. allaha was already prominently used in a monotheistic context.
To sum up, Arabic allah denoted a specific god, in the sense of the god in
question or an individual god who, at least at some point, had assumed the
role of a high god. The word was therefore, on the one hand, suited to be
taken over into Syriac as a generic term for god, especially so, because in
the receiving language the Arabic definite article did not necessarily manifest its determining character. On the other hand, in Arabic and on the
Arabic peninsula, it was understood as the god, and thus lent itself to the
designation of the monotheistic God, as, next to Judaism and Christianities, pagan henotheistic or even monotheistic tendencies were already
present.59 This latter use of the word could well have been enforced by the
near homophone Syr. allaha,60 which had become the standard word to
refer to the Christian and Jewish God in Syriac and would, given the presence of Christians whose literary language was Syriac, have had at least
some currency in Arabia.
We find, then, that both, inter- and intralingual specifics have to be
considered. A strict look at phonetics and morphology yields results with
respect to the question of immediate physical borrowing. Of course these
findings should, if possible, be accompanied by a historically plausible
scenario taking into proper consideration both physical and intellectual
effort to draw a line between Islam and other monotheistic movements in Arabia,
cf. Kister (2003). Note that next to its use in monotheistic contexts, rahman is
widely attested in non-Jewish and non-Christian contexts, cf. e. g. Healey: Nabataeans, p. 190, and especially Ibid.: The Kind And Merciful God: On Some Semitic
Divine Epithets, in: Manfred Dietrich/Ingo Kottsieper (eds.), Und Mose
schrieb dieses Lied auf. Studien zum Alten Testament und zum Alten Orient: Festschrift fr Oswald Loretz zur Vollendung seines 70. Lebensjahres mit Beitrgen von
Freunden, Schlern und Kollegen, Mnster, 1998, p. 349356, p. 355 f. Kister
(1980), Brockelmann (1922), Gibb (1962). Cf. also Kister (1980), especially pp. 36
and 48. See also J. C. Greenfield From LHRHMN to Al-Rahman: The source
of a Divine Epithat, in B. H. Hary, J. L. Hayes & F. Astren (eds.) Judaism and
Islam: Boundaires, Communication and Interaction Essays in Honor of William u.
Brinner, 2000, Brill: Leiden.
59) For a more general picture cf. Polymnia Athanassiadi/Michael Frede:
Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity, Oxford, 1999, and Healey: Nabataeans, p. 189ff.
60) Arne A. Ambros: Zur Entstehung der Emphase in Allah, in: Wiener
Zeitschrift fr die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Vol. 73, p. 2332, notes that the velarised pronunciation of ll in Arabic allah may be due to Syriac influence.

48

David Kiltz

circumstances. As the above indicates, we do not deal with simple who

from whom-scenarios but intricate interrelationships between languages
and groups engaged in a process of simultaneous giving and taking, rather
than just one or the other.

Bibliography
Abou-Assaf (1982): Ali Abou-Assaf, Pierre Bordreuil, Alan R. Millard (Hgg.), La
Statue de Tell Fekheriye et son inscription bilingue assyro-aramenne, Paris: Recherche sur les civilisations.
Ahrens (1930): Karl Ahrens, Christliches im Qoran, Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft 84, 1568.
Ambros (1981): Arne A. Ambros, Zur Entstehung der Emphase in Allah, Wiener
Zeitschrift fr die Kunde des Morgenlandes 73, 2332.
Athanassiadi u. Frede (1999): Polymnia Athanassiadi u. Michael Frede, Pagan
Monotheism in Late Antiquity, Oxford.
Bauer (1915): Hans Bauer, Semitische Sprachprobleme, Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft 69, 561563.
Beeston (1981): Alfred F. L. Beeston, Languages of pre-islamic Arabia, Arabica
28, 178186.
Beyer (1984): Klaus Beyer, Die aramischen Texte vom Toten Meer: samt den Inschriften aus Palstina, dem Testament Levis aus der Kairoer Genisa, der Fastenrolle und den alten talmudischen Zitaten: aramaistische Einleitung, Text,
bersetzung, Deutung, Grammatik/Wrterbuch, Gttingen.
Blau (1972): Joshua Blau, Arabic Lexicographical Miscellanies, Journal of Semitic Studies, 17, 173190.
Bwering (2001), Gerald Bwering, God and his Attributes, in: Encyclopaedia of
the Quran vol. 2, Leiden/Boston, 316331.
Brockelmann (1908): Carl Brockelmann, Kurzgefasste vergleichende Grammatik
der semitischen Sprachen. Elemente der Laut- und Formenlehre, Berlin.
Brockelmann (1922): Carl Brockelmann, Allah und die Gtzen, der Ursprung
des islamischen Monotheismus, Archiv fr Religionswissenschaft 21, 99121.
Brockelmann (1991), Carl Brockelmann, Syrische Grammatik: mit Paradigmen,
Literatur, Chrestomathie und Glossar, Berlin.
Drijvers (1972): Hendrik J. W. Drijvers, Old Syriac (Edessean) Inscriptions, Leiden.
Drijvers (1982): Hendrik J. W. Drijvers, Cults and Beliefs at Edessa, Leiden.
Drijvers & Healey (1998): Hendrik J. W. Drijvers and John F. Healey, The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene. Texts, Translations and Commentary,
Leiden.
Gibb (1962): Hamilton A. R. Gibb, Pre-Islamic Monotheism in Arabia, Harvard
Theological Review 55, 269280.
Gimaret (2007): Daniel Gimaret, Les noms divins en Islam, Paris.

The relationship between Arabic Allah and Syriac Allaha

49

Greenfield (2000): J. C. Greenfield From LHRHMN to Al-Rahman: The

source of a Divine Epithat, in B. H. Hary, J. L. Hayes & F. Astren (eds.)
Judaism and Islam: Boundaires, Communication and Interaction Essays in
Honor of William u. Brinner, Brill: Leiden.
Hainthaler (2007): Theresia Hainthaler, Christliche Araber vor dem Islam: Verbreitung und konfessionelle Zugehrigkeit; eine Hinfhrung, Leuven u. a.
Healey (1998): John F. Healey, The Kind And Merciful God: On Some Semitic Divine Epithets, in: Manfried Dietrich, Ingo Kottsieper (Hgg.), Und Mose schrieb
dieses Lied auf. Studien zum Alten Testament und zum Alten Orient: Festschrift
fr Oswald Loretz zur Vollendung seines 70. Lebensjahres mit Beitrgen von
Freunden, Schlern und Kollegen, Mnster, 349356.
Healey (2001): John F. Healey, The Religion of the Nabataeans, Leiden.
Healey (2009): John F. Healey, Aramaic Inscriptions and Documents for the Roman
Period, Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions, Vol. IV, Oxford.
Huehnergard (2005): J. Huehnergard Features of Central Semitic, in:
A. Gianto (ed.) Biblical and Oriental Essays in Memory of William L. Moran,
Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, p. 192.
Izutsu (1980): Toshihiko Isutzu, God and man in the Koran [Reprint of edition Tokyo, 1964], New York.
Jeffery (1938): Arthur Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran, Baroda.
Kister, (1980): Meir Jacob Kister, Labbayka, Allahumma Labbayka , On a monotheistic aspect of a Jahiliyya practice, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 2,
3357.
Knauf (2010): Ernst Axel Knauf, Arabo-Aramaic and Arabiyya: From Ancient
Arabic to Early Standard Arabic 200 CE600 CE, in: Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai u. Michael Marx (Hgg.), The Quran in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Quranic Milieu, Leiden, 197254.
Krahmalkov (2000): Charles R. Krahmalkov, Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Leuven.
Krone (1992): Susanne Krone, Die altarabische Gottheit al-Lat, Frankfurt a.M. u. a.
Littmann (1904): Enno Littmann, Syriac Inscriptions, Publications of the
Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria IV, 356.
Littmann (1954), Nabatan Inscriptions from EgyptII, Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies, 16 (02), 211246.
Martin (2004): Richard C. Martin, Allah, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim World vol. 1, New York, 39.
McAuliffe (2003): Jane D. McAuliffe, Musaylima, in: Encyclopedia of the Quran
vol. 3, Leiden/Boston.
Moberg (190713): Axel Moberg, Das Buch der Strahlen, die grere Grammatik des
Bar Hebraeus, 2 vols., Leipzig.
Moberg (1922): Axel Moberg, Le Livre des splendeurs, la grande grammaire de Grgoire Bar Hebraeus, Lund.
Montgomery Watt (1971): William Montgomery Watt, Belief in a High God in
pre-islamic Mecca, Journal of Semitic Studies 16 (1), 3540.
Montgomery Watt (1979): William Montgomery Watt, The Quran and Belief in
a High God, Der Islam 56, 205211.

50

David Kiltz

Diwan an-Nabiga a-ubiyani (1911), Egypt.

Nldeke (1882): Theodor Nldeke, Elohim, El, Sitzungsberichte der Kniglich
Preuischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Berlin, 11751192.
Nldeke (1908): Theodor Nldeke, Kurz gefasste syrische Grammatik, Leipzig.
del Olmo Lete & Sanmartn (2003): Gregorio del Olmo Lete and Joaqun Sanmartn, A dictionary of the Ugaritic language in the alphabetic tradition, Leiden
et al.
Payne Smith (1981): Richard Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus vol. 1, Hildesheim
et al.
Peust (1999): Carsten Peust, Egyptian phonology: an introduction to the phonology
of a dead language, Gttingen.
Rets (2003): Jan Rets, The Arabs in Antiquity: Their history from the Assyrians
to the Umayyads, New York.
Robin (1982): Christian Julien Robin, Les hautes-terres du Nord-Ymen avant lIslam, I. Recherches sur la gographie tribale et religieuse de awlan Quddaa et du
Pays de Hamdan; II. Nouvelles inscriptions, vol. I, 184.
Robin (1991): Christian Julien Robin, LArabie antique de Karibl Mahomet:
nouvelles donnes sur lhistoire des Arabes grce aux insciptions, (Revue du monde musulman et de la Mditerrane 61,19911993), Aix-en-Pro-

vence.
Robin (2001): Christian Julien Robin, Les inscriptions de larabie antique et les
tudes arabes, Arabica 48, 509577.
Robin (2003): Christian Julien Robin, Le judasme de Himyar, Arabia 1, 97172.
Robin (2006): Christian Julien Robin, La rforme de lcriture arabe lpoque du
califat mdinois, Mlanges de lUniversit Saint-Joseph 59, 319364.
Robin (2008): Christian Julien Robin, Les Arabes de Himyar, des Romains et des
Perses, Semitica et Classica 1, 167202.
Ryckmans (1984): Jan Ryckmans, Alphabets, Scripts and Languages in Pre-Islamic Arabian Epigraphical Evidence, in Abd Al Rahman T. al-Ansary et alii
(Hgg.), Pre-Islamic Arabia (Studies in the History of Arabia, II, Riyadh), Riyadh, 7386.
Sokoloff (2002): Michael Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic,
Ramat-Gan, Baltimore, London.
Sokoloff (2009): Michael Sokoloff, A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake/Piscataway.
Stein: Himyar und der Eine Gott: Sdarabien in den letzten zwei Jahrhunderten
vor dem Islam, in: Orientalia, Vol. 79 (4), 2010, pp. 558556.
Testen (2005): David Testen, Literary Arabic and Early Hijazi: Contrasts in the
Marking of Definiteness, in: Elabbas Benmamoun, Mushira Eid, Niloofar
Haeri (Hgg.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XI, Atlanta, 209225.
Trimingham (1979): John Spencer Trimingham, Christianity among the Arabs in
Pre-Islamic times, Beirut.
Voigt (1998): Rainer Maria Voigt, Der Artikel im Semitischen, Journal of Semitic
Studies 43, 221258.
Vycichl (1983): Werner Vycichl, Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue copte, Leuven.