Ibn Isḥāq said (1): Every household placed an idol inside its dwelling and worshipped it. Whenever a man set out on a journey, he would rub himself against the idol as he mounted his ride; it was the last thing he did before departing. And when he returned, he would again rub himself against it—(2) the first thing he did before entering his family’s quarters.

He added: When God sent Muḥammad—peace and blessings be upon him—with the call to pure monotheism, Quraysh exclaimed, “Has he made all the gods into a single God? This is indeed something astonishing!” (Q. Ṣād 38:5).

Ibn Isḥāq continued: Alongside the Kaʿbah the Arabs had set up additional idols (ṭawāghīt), shrines they honored just as they honored the Kaʿbah. Each had its own custodians and gatekeepers; offerings were presented to them as offerings were presented to the Kaʿbah; people circumambulated them just as they circumambulated it (3), and animals were sacrificed at them as they were at it (4). Yet they still recognized the Kaʿbah’s superiority, for it was the structure and mosque of Abraham the Friend, upon him be peace.

Thus al-ʿUzzā at Nakhlah belonged to Quraysh and the clan of Kinānah; its custodians and gatekeepers were the Banū Shaybān of Sulaym, allies of Banū Hāshim. Khalid ibn al-Walid demolished it during the Conquest, as will be related.

Al-Lāt was the idol of Thaqīf in al-Ṭāʾif; its custodians and gatekeepers were the Banū Muʿattib of Thaqīf (5). Abū Sufyān and al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah destroyed it after the people of al-Ṭāʾif embraced Islam, as will be mentioned.

(6) Manāt was venerated by the Aws, the Khazraj, and those who followed their religion among the people of Medina. It stood on the coast at al-Mashallal near Qudayd (7). It too was demolished by Abū Sufyān—some say by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—as will be detailed.

Dhū’l-Khalṣah belonged to the tribes of Daws, Khathʿam, and Bajīlah, and to the Arabs living in their lands, and was located at Tabālah (8). It was called “the Yemeni Kaʿbah,” while the Kaʿbah in Mecca was called “the Syrian Kaʿbah.” Jarrīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī destroyed it, as will be narrated.

Fals, the idol of Ṭayyʾ (9), stood between the two famous mountains Aja and Salmā, as noted earlier.

[Likewise, Riyām (10) was a shrine for the Ḥimyar and the people of Yemen, as has been mentioned] (11); it is cited in the story of Tubbaʿ, one of the kings of Ḥimyar.