23وَقالوا لا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُم وَلا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلا سُواعًا وَلا يَغوثَ وَيَعوقَ وَنَسرًاMuhammad Asadinasmuch as they said [to their followers], 'Do not ever abandon your gods: abandon neither Wadd nor Suwa', and neither Yaghuth nor Ya'uq nor Nasr!'1As is evident from early sources, these five gods were among the many worshipped by the pre-Islamic Arabs as well (see the small but extremely valuable work by Hishim ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam, ed. Ahmad Zaki, Cairo 1914). Their cult had probably been introduced into Arabia from Syria and Babylonia, where it seems to have existed in earliest antiquity.