- Introduction:
- The Nabataeans are associated with Gods as they were seeking to please them believing that they more competent than humans. It was for the worshiper to seek attention of Gods, exerting all possible means and methods, expressing veneration and awe, so in return it will bestow upon the worshiper its blessing and welfare (Ali 1968: 197). Through this concept humans were considered to be slaves of the Gods, it was the duty of the “slave-worshiper” to provide duties and obligations imposed by the religious life to the Gods at certain times of the year, or on religious occasions, such as offering to the Gods vows and offerings as part of a preliminary ritual to worship. By sacrifice, the worshiper convinces the Gods that he had presented the most precious thing possessed in order to satisfy it, and he did not forget nor overlooked it, and it will respond to him whenever appealed to them, and he had done the duties imposed or desired to them, served them and implemented its orders and rules to the best of his knowledge and interpretation over fixed days or months or seasons set by priests. The worshiper thus expected the Gods to be willing to hear his complaint, fulfill the demands he has and as part of the Gods’ duty, which requires of him to visit the temples and be blessed by the Gods and make vows and offerings, and pray and learn the rituals of Hajj (al-Jarim 1923: 118-124; Ditlef 1958 :227).
- Vows:
- Vows constitute the manifestation of belief in the spirituality of the Gods, and the vows are just an expression of a conditioned promise (at- Tabari 1954: 91-93). It shows that this asceticism worship may have been also practiced by the Nabataeans. Vows were divided into two parts:
- (1) The first material offerings such as sacrifices that are welled in the linguistic sense as dwelling (perhaps dwelling of the Gods) (az-Zabidi 1965 vol. 8: 183; Ibn Manẓūr 1956 vol. 10: 396-397)
- (2) the forehead and perhaps (Qibla) direction to Holy Macca, which convey the Holy saying: “And (He revealed) that the masjids are for “Allah” the mosques are for God” (Surat al-Jinn verse: 18). Also present in the Nabataean text is the word “try ‘Mḥrmt (RES: 2093-1) and Mḥrmtʼ (CIS II: 158. 1, 5, 6; RBL: XIV 199 f. 215-1)” which means trace or Holy placement, (CIS II: 158. 1, 5; RES: 2094; Starcky RB: LXIV)
Offerings:
Prayer:
Feasts:
Festivities Nabataean was organized twice a year in the first of the spring period and the second period in the fall, one of the most popular holidays in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula before Islam (Glueck 1965: 26).
