Al-Uzza
Al-ʻUzzá or al-ʻUzzā was one of the three chief goddesses of Arabian religion in pre-Islamic times and she was worshipped by the pre-Islamic Arabs along with Al-Lat and Manāt. A stone cube at Nakhla was held sacred as part of her cult. She is mentioned in Qur'an 53:19 as being one of the goddesses whom people worshiped.
Al-ʻUzzā, like Hubal, was called upon for protection by the pre-Islamic Quraysh. "In 624 at the 'battle called Uhud', the war cry of the Qurayshites was, "O people of Uzzā, people of Hubal!". Al-‘Uzzá also later appears in Ibn Ishaq's account of the alleged Satanic Verses.
The temple dedicated to al-ʻUzzā and the statue was destroyed by Khalid ibn al Walid in Nakhla in 630 AD.
Cult of al-‘Uzzá
According to the Book of Idols by Hishām ibn al-KalbīThis last phrase is said to be the source of the so-called Satanic Verses; the Arabic term al-gharānīq is translated as "most exalted females" by Faris in the Book of Idols, but he annotates this much-argued hapax legomenon in a footnote as "lit. Numidian cranes."
Each of the three goddesses had a separate shrine near Mecca. The most prominent Arabian shrine of al-ʻUzzā was at a place called Nakhlah near Qudayd, east of Mecca toward aṭ-Ṭā’if; three trees were sacred to her there ‘Abdu l-‘Uzzá was a favourite proper name before the advent of Islam. The name al-‘Uzzá appears as an emblem of beauty in late pagan Arabic poetry quoted by Ibn al-Kalbī, and oaths were sworn by her.
Susan Krone suggests that the identities of al-‘Uzzá and al-Lāt were fused in central Arabia uniquely.
On the authority of ‘Abdu l-Lāh ibn ‘Abbās, at-Tabari derived al-ʻUzzā from al-‘Azīz "the Mighty", one of the 99 "beautiful names of Allah" in his commentary on Qur'an 7:180.
Destruction of temple
Shortly after the Conquest of Mecca, Muhammad began efforts to eliminate the last cult images reminiscent of pre-Islamic practices.He sent Khalid ibn Al-Walid during Ramadan 630 AD to a place called Nakhlah, where the goddess al-ʻUzzā was worshipped by the tribes of Quraish and Kinanah. The shrine's custodians were from Bani Shaiba. Al-ʻUzzā was considered the most important goddess in the region.
Arab Muslim historian Ibn al-Kalbī tells how Muhammad ordered Khālid ibn al-Walīd to kill the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess al-ʿUzzā, who was supposed to inhabit one of three trees: