The Wedding of al-Hadhād and al-Ḥarūrā: Glimpses of Paganism in Arabia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24425/for.2018.124684Abstract
Here is an analysis of the tale of the marriage of al-Hadhād (of the Himiar royal dynasty) with a woman of jinn found in Arabic sources dated from the 9th to 12th centuries. In the light of archaeological data and other folklore sources collected by scholars in the last 60 years (Serjeant, Daum, Rodionof), this tale could be interpreted as a foundation myth, with its strong anthropological and political implications, for the community of Maʾrib, the capital city and the main site of Sabaic religiousness in pre-Islamic times. It could also provide some keys of interpretation of a more general religious sensitivity in Arabia encompassing polytheistic or monotheistic creeds.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Folia Orientalia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright on any open access article in the Folia Orientalia journal published by Polish Academy of Sciences is retained by the author(s). Authors grant Polish Academy of Sciences a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Authors also grant any user the right to use the article freely if its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified. The Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 formalizes these and other terms and conditions of publishing articles.
The editorial team of Folia Orientalia implements an open access policy by publishing materials in the form of the so-called Gold Open Access and encourages authors to place articles published in the journal in open repositories (after the review or the final version of the publisher), provided that a link to the journal’s website is provided.
Exceptions to copyright policy
For the articles which were previously published, before year 2020, policies that are different from the above. In all such, access to these articles is free from fees or any other access restrictions. Permissions for the use of the texts published in that journal may be sought directly from the editorial team of Folia Orientalia, by e-mail: folia.orientalia@uj.edu.pl.
