Al-Kutbay

Al-Kutba, also rendered Al-Kutbay, was a north Arabian deity of disputed gender whose name derives from the Semitic root for writing and is understood to mean the scribe. Represented as a betyl at Wadi Rum alongside Al-Uzza, already recorded on this atlas, Al-Kutba was regarded as a god of intellect and writing. Nabataeans and other mercantile Arab tribes carried the god's worship from Petra to Egypt, where a temple to Al-Kutbay has been found at Qasr Gheit built in characteristic Egyptian style, its altar inscribed with a Nabataean dedication. In the Hellenistic era Al-Kutbay was associated with Hermes and Mercury, an identification possibly influenced by the figure of Hermes Trismegistus.