Alfonsi recast the Ka’ba as a repurposed pagan shrine to Saturn and Mars

Evidence

The two sons of Lot, Amon and Moab, honored this house, and the two idols were brought there by them, one made of white stone, the other of black stone. The name of the one, that was of black stone, was Merculicius, the name of the other was Chamos. The one which was of black stone was erected in honor of Saturn, the white one in honor of Mars. Twice in the year their devotees came up to these idols to pray to them, to Mars when the sun was in the first degree of Aries (because Aries is the honor of Mars). When Mars leaves Aries, as was the custom, they threw stones. [They came] to Saturn when the sun entered the first degree of Libra, because Libra is the honor of Saturn. They burned incense, naked and with heads tonsured; this is still celebrated in India today, as I said. Indeed the Arabs adored idols with Amon and Moab. Then Muhammad, coming after a long time, was not able to remove the original custom, but by a change in the custom he permitted them to make the circuit of the house covered with seamless garments. But lest he seem to enjoin sacrificing to idols, he constructed a likeness of Saturn in the corner of the house. And so that his face might not appear, he placed it so that the back side was facing out. The other idol, that of Mars, because it was sculpted in the round, he put underground and placed a stone on top of it. He ordered the men who convened there for prayer to kiss these stones and, bent over and with heads tonsured, to throw stones backwards between their legs. In bowing down they bare their rears, which is a sign of the original law. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 816

Categorization

• CANDY: Muhammad concealing a pole-facing idol in the Ka’ba corner and burying the round sculpted idol under a stone, ordering pilgrims to kiss and throw stones — bizarre, vivid, and immediately tellable.
• SEED: An essay on how conquerors and reformers ‘repurpose’ sacred sites they cannot destroy — Alfonsi’s invented astronomy-coded idol worship as a template modern polemicists still use when framing rivals’ rituals.