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Kahl is a god of pre-Islamic Arabia. His worship was closely associated with the city of Qaryat al-Faw, the capital of the Kingdom of Kinda, beginning in the 2nd century BC. Kahl is attested regularly, but the evidence is more sparse with respect to how Kahl was understood. Based on recent evidence, it has been posited that Kahl was an Arabian version of the smiting or menacing god that is known in the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia.

Name

In Ancient South Arabian texts, his name is rendered as khl. Due to the absence of information about how the name of this god is pronounced, his name has been transcribed in many ways in studies, including as kahl, kāhil, kuhūl and kāhal. Sometimes, it takes the grammatical form khlm (Kāhilim) with a final mimation.

In one Sabaic dictionary, khl means 'ruler, powerful'. Generally, it is a Semitic root that denotes an element of strength. Elsewhere, khl also occurs as a personal name and as the name of some places.

Qaryat al-Faw

In the 2nd century BC, Kahl becomes a prominent deity at Qaryat al-Faw, the capital of the Kingdom of Kinda, which goes on to become the city primarily associated with his worship. Qaryat al-Faw is called Qaryatum dhāt Kāhilim, or "the City Kahl" more often than it goes by other names, and Kahl himself is regularly called khlm bʿl qrytm, or "Kāhlum, the Lord of Qarytum", acting as a reflection of the relationship that formed between him and this city. From the 2nd century BC until the 1st century AD, Kahl appears on many coins from this site where his name is artistically depicted as a single unit (a monogram). These coins can contain text that refers to Kahl as "Lord Kahl" (Baʿl Kahl). These coins, in addition to some figurines and rock carvings, present a consistent anthropomorphic image that has been speculatively connected with Kahl: this image shows a standing figure with his right arm holding a weapon, perhaps a club, over his right shoulder, and with a protruding left arm. This is consistent with notions and poses of the smiting god or menacing god known from West Asian and East Mediterranean deities, such as Resheph.

Awwam Temple

Kahl is mentioned along with the god Almaqah in a few inscriptions from the Awwam Temple, including ZI 11 and Sh 31/33 where Kahl may occupy connotations of a solar deity. The latter reads:

b‐ʾlmqhw bʿl ʾwm w‐b‐rbʿ‐hmw rmn w‐b‐šms‐hmw khlm w‐bʿlt nʿmn (‘with ʾAlmaqah, the Lord ʾAwwām, and with their patron god Rummān, and with the help of their Kāhlum and the mistress Nuʿmān’)

References

Citations

1. De Lara 2024, p. 137–138.
2. De Lara 2024, p. 138–142.
3. De Lara 2024, p. 138.

Sources

• De Lara, Juan (2024). "Qaryat al-Fāw/Qaryatum dhāt Kāhilim: On the identity of the god Kahl". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 35 (1): 136–154.

• Arabian gods