[antiRepublicrat]

Damn typos. You're right, Al-ilah. "Ilah" is very close to the singular "Eloah" especially considering regional pronounciation differences for letter combinations. Thus the currently held belief in the Jewish origins of the word Allah referring to the god of the book.

while others belief 'Allah' may be merely the male name for a well known Pagan deity of the time

I don't hold that in very high confidence. First of all, Allah has no gender. Second, both Allah and Eloah are titles of the one great deity, not names.

[JohnSmithee]

"First of all, Allah has no gender."

Allah is a third person singular noun. There was a well known female pagan deity worshipped by the early Arabs named 'Allat', which obviously is a third person feminine noun.

"Second, both Allah and Eloah are titles of the one great deity, not names."

Eloah was rarely used in Hebrew, if that is what you are implying. The point about Allah is that this word was used by the early Arabs as a name for a pagan god -- one among many.

[JohnSmithee]

"Thus the currently held belief in the Jewish origins of the word Allah referring to the god of the book."

Scholars tend to believe that the word 'Allah' may have been based on the *Syriac* or *Aramaic* word for god, not the Jewish term.

[JohnSmithee]

Here's a link to a fairly good discussion. Hopefully you know some Arabic or some other Semitic language (Arabic, Hebrew, Syria, Accadian) otherwise it might be difficult to follow.

http://answering-islam.org.uk/Quran/Sources/alaha2.html