ABSTRACT
Authoritative accounts of Nabataean religion in the period after the establishing of the Province of Arabia relegate the identification of Dushara with the sun-god to a secondary stage of development under Greco-Roman influence or deny it altogether. Dushara was eventually identified with various other deities: with the god of Bosra, the god of Adraa and, under Greek and Roman influence in certain areas, with Dionysos and Zeus. The fragmentary evidence listed is insufficient to warrant a firm conclusion that Dushara was originally a sun-god, but sun-gods were commonplace in the Ancient and Late Antique Middle East and there is no intrinsic improbability in such a suggestion. It remains true, however, as noted by Teixidor, that the spread of the sun cult owed much to the Arabs.
