[Cronos]

I wonder if the Emesa priests took the black stone down south to Mecca? After all, when the Palmyrene Empire came to be, it initially ruled lands right up to the Hejaz

It's not hard to believe that they went south to the lands just outside the reach of the Empire and between the Empire and the Axumite Empire.

[patriotfury]

Could be the best theory I have read on the stone.

[patriotfury]

Thanks for the post.

[Prospero]

It's artfully reproduced (no pun intended) original appearance on the coins certainly reminds me of First Millennium descriptions of the idol housed at the kaaba, IIRC today alone at a much older desert pilgrimage site that was for centuries a central location for more than two hundred similarly revered idols "of every description."

Presently, "there is no other god" than Allah, and Hajar-al-Aswad is now alone at this focus of all Muslim worship, at Mecca.

I suppose it's no stretch.

[Cronos]

What do you think? I strongly believe that the Black stone of the Kaaba in Mecca is from this stone of emesa

The name of Al-ilah el gabal (the god of the moountains) parallels Al-illah (Allah = the god). The followers of Elgabalus had to be circumcised and were not allowed to eat pork.

The walking around the Kaaba 7 times is also an old semitic practice