Definition of Al-lat

Al-Lat may refer to:

• Allat ~ A pre-Islamic Arabian goddess who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca.
• al-Lat (Dune) ~ The ancient name for the Sun in Frank Herbert's Dune universe.

Mentioned in the Qur'an (Sura 53:20), Allāt (a contraction of pre-Arabic *al-ilāhat "the Goddess") was a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca. She is one of three goddesses that the pre-Islamic Meccans referred to as "The Daughters of God",but she was also considered the bride or consort of the Father God, Allah. She is mentioned along with ˤUzzā and Manāt in Qur'an Sura 53:19-23. Her name also occurs in earlier Safaitic graffiti (Safaitic han-'Ilāt "the Goddess") and she was worshipped by the Nabataeans of Petra and the people of Hatra, who equated her with the Greek Athena & the Roman Minerva. According to Wellhausen, they believed Allāt was the mother of Hubal (and hence the mother-in-law of Manāt). The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century B.C., considers her the equivalent of Aphrodite:"The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta, the Arabians Alilat, and the Persians Mitra" (Histories I:131). According to Herodotus, the ancient Arabians believed in only two gods: "They believe in no other gods except Dionysus and the Heavenly Aphrodite; and they say that they wear their hair as Dionysus does his, cutting it round the head and shaving the temples. They call Dionysus, Orotalt; and Aphrodite, Alilat." (Histories III:38).