Editing Hubal (section)

==Origins of Hubal==
There may be some foundation of truth in the story that Amr travelled in Syria and had brought back from there the cults of the goddesses [[Al-Uzza|ʻUzzāʼ]] and [[Manāt]], and had combined it with that of Hubal, the idol of the Khuza'a.<ref>Maxime Rodinson, 1961.</ref> According to Al-Azraqi, the image was brought to Mecca "from the land of Hit in Mesopotamia" ([[Hīt]] in modern Iraq). [[Philip K. Hitti]], who relates the name ''Hubal'' to an Aramaic word for spirit, suggests that the worship of Hubal was imported to Mecca from the north of Arabia, possibly from [[Moab]] or [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>Hitti, ''[[History of the Arabs (book)|History of the Arabs]]'' 1937, p. 96-101.</ref> Hubal may have been the combination of Hu, meaning "spirit" or "god", and the Moabite god [[Baal]] meaning "master" or "lord" or as a rendition of Syriac ''habbǝlā''/Hebrew ''heḇel'' "vanity".<ref>R.M. Kerr, '[https://www.academia.edu/38000472/Koranisches_G%C3%B6ttermanagement_III_Hubal_alles_eitel_und_ein_Haschen_nach_Wind_ 'Koranisches Göttermanagement III: Hubal – „alles eitel und ein Haschen nach Wind“?''], ''imprimatur'', 2018, pp. 293-297.</ref> Outside South Arabia, Hubal's name appears just once, in a [[Nabataea]]n inscription;<ref>''Corpus Inscriptiones Semit.'', vol. II: 198; Jaussen and Savignac, ''Mission Archéologique en Arabie'', I (1907) p. 169f.</ref> there Hubal is mentioned along with the gods [[Dushara]] (ذو الشراة) and [[Manāt|Manawatu]]—the latter, as Manat, was also popular in Mecca. On the basis of such slender evidence, it has been suggested that Hubal "may actually have been a Nabataean".<ref>Maxime Rodinson, ''Mohammed'',  1961, translated by Anne Carter, 1971, pp. 38-49.</ref> There are also inscriptions in which the word Hubal appears to be part of personal names, translatable as "Son of Hubal" or "made by Hubal".<ref name = "heal">John F. Healey, ''The religion of the Nabataeans: a conspectus'', BRILL, 2001, pp.127-132.</ref>