Chapter 3 — KUSHITE ORIGINS of ISLAM

**THE THEBAN TRIAD & THE CRESCENT AND STAR**

The Kushite Triad in Thebes consisted of Amun, Mut, and their adopted son Khonsu.

Amun – The Father

Thebes, which is known to have been founded by a colony of Ethiopians, was called the City of Ammon [Amun]. The origin of the Egyptian divinities may be traced to Ethiopia.  (Waddington 1822, p. 185)

(Note: Amun (also spelled Amen) is an Ethiopian divinity, later called Zeus Ammon by the Greeks, and Jupiter Ammon by the Romans. Some scholars use the Roman name “Jupiter Ammon” when referring to the Ethiopian/Kushite “Amun”.)

(Note: “Jupiter and Jehovah [YHWH] are one and the same, both implying the supremacy of the unity.”  (Melville 1863, p. 61))

(Note: Greeks are found to have a substantial relatedness to sub-Saharan (Ethiopian) people. The time period when these relationships occurred might be related to the displacement of Egyptian-Ethiopian people living in pharaonic Egypt. (Arnaiz-Villena 1998)

Dr. Lewis Gordon states, Amun rose to prominence during the Middle Kingdom (see chapter 2), and that Amun means “hidden”.

“Syria . . . is called Sham after Shem, its people’s ancestor, worshiped as Jupiter Ammon [Amun], and suggests that Kush was the son of Shem . . . “.  (Meakin 1901)

Furthermore, Shem written in Hebrew is nearly identical in appearance to Allah written in Arabic (added and circled in red). (Both languages are read from right to left.)

In Qur’an, the very first word, bismillah, contains Shem in its Arabic form, sm.  (Heeks, 2012)

Mut – The Mother

Mut means “mother”. She was the destroyer of Amun’s enemies.

Mut was associated with the moon.

Pictured below, the crescent moon shaped lake adjacent to the Mut Temple in Thebes, on the east bank of the Nile, in South Karnak.

Mut’s manifestation on Earth is “kingship” (male authority).

When the above “Hymn to Mut” is compared to the Surah 112 of Qur’an, the similarities are clearly evident. Qur’an, however, presents the message from a male authority perspective.  Also recall, “Mut did not bear Khonsu but adopted the younger god .”   (Lesko, 1999, p. 132)

Additionally, Surah 114 (An-Naas) refers to Allah as, among other titles, “the King of mankind”.

Khonsu – The Son

Khonsu is comparable to the Nile Valley civilization lunar deities Iah and Djheuty (Thoth), symbolized by the crescent moon, the ibis, and the falcon.

In Hebrew, “Iah” (pronounced as “Yah”) is a shortened form of YHWH, and is a prefix or suffix to many Hebraic names, for example Isaiah.

Pictured below, a rare bronze Khonsu-Djheuty composite from the Egyptian late period, on display at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, in Atlanta, Ga.

Khonsu (Khons) is also associated with the star Canopus.

Similarly, the Black Stone of the Kaaba in Mecca faces Canopus.

Below, a satellite view of the central square in Mecca, showing the alignment of the Kaaba’s south-east corner, where the Black Stone is located, with Canopus.

Chapter 53, verse 49, of Qur’an says,

“And that He, He is the Rabb of Ash-Shera”.

There are two stars with the name Ash-Shera, and both together are called the two Sisters of Suheyl [i.e. Canopus]; and hence Allah is said in Qur’an to be the lord of Ash-Shera.  (Lane 1863, p. 1560).

The “crescent and star” symbol commonly associated with Islam represents the Kushite triad of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu.

Below, the Kushite triad of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu shown on the Nation of Islam flag.  (Muhammad, E., 1934)

“The religions of the ancient Cushites were full of their deified ancestors and their legends and the celestial Zodiac.”  (West 2009, p. 118)

**KUSH: THE ARCHAIC CIVILIZATION**

Traces of Ancient Kush have been found worldwide. In the work of John G. Jackson, it is referred to as the Archaic Civilization.

Some historians are of the opinion that the Kushites (Aithiopik races) (Forlong 1883, p. xxiv) are the earliest branch of the human family, and originated in Central America.

Geneticists have discovered the A00 y-chromosome in North America, which is older than both, all known modern human DNA, and all known anatomically modern human fossils. The A00 lineage was discovered in a large database of consumer samples of African Americans, and has not been identified in traditional hunter-gatherer populations from sub-Saharan Africa.

“From the haplotypes analysis it seems that a whole series of haplogroups, namely A00, A0, A1a, and A1b1 have moved to Africa from non-African regions…”.   (Klyosov 2014)

**EL, ELOHIM, & ALLAH**

In Qur’an 38:3-5, the Arabians who rejected Muhammad questioned, “Has he made the gods one single God?”.

Above, Qur’an applies the plural pronoun “We” to Allah. In the Bible there are many deities referred to by the common noun “Elohim” (‘Elohiym).

‘Elohiym (Strong’s H430) is the plural of ‘Eloah (Strong’s H433).

Eloah (Strong’s H433) is prolonged from El (Strong’s H410). Both are commonly translated as, deity, or as God.

However, there are a number of passages in the Old Testament where Elohim cannot reasonably be translated god or gods.   There is evidence that Elohim means, ancestors.  (Hodge 1971)

It seems that the term Elohim might in some cases also refer to divinized ancestors. (Parsons 2012, p.6)

Elohim pertains to the separate elements as Creator, Preserver, and Regenerator [Father, Mother, and Son]. El represents the abstract principle taken collectively, as one.

El, Eloah, and Elohim are Shemitic (Semitic) cognates of Allah.

**THE CRESCENT AND DISC**

Kushite usage of the “crescent and disc” symbol dates back to 1st millennium B.C.E.

Below, an artifact containing the “crescent and disc”, discovered on the mound of Ziban Adi (c. 1st millennium B.C.E.) near the village of Meqaber Ga’ewa, in the Ethiopian highlands.

The “crescent and disc” is also found on 3rd century CE Kushite (Aksumite) coins.

**KUSHITE CONNECTION TO TURKEY**

Below is the national flag of Turkey adopted in  June of 1936, which contains the “crescent and star” symbol.

Turkey also has ties to Kush. Based on the evaluation of anthropological, historical, and linguistic evidence, Dr. Clyde Winters concludes that the ancient Anatolian population is the result of an ancient Kushite migration.