Word journey
The word Allah
God; from a common Semitic word for "god" (El, Elohim, Ilu)
The journey
| Form | Language | Date | Sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| *ʔil- | Proto-Semitic (reconstructed) | undated | god; reconstructed |
| ilum | Akkadian · Mesopotamian Religion | 2,300 BCE | god |
| ʾilu (El) | Ugaritic · Canaanite Religion | 1,300 BCE | god; El, father of the gods |
| ʾl | Phoenician · Canaanite Religion | 1,000 BCE | god, El |
| ʾēl | Biblical Hebrew · Judaism | 800 BCE | god, God; in names like Israel, Michael |
| ʾĕlōhīm | Biblical Hebrew · Judaism | 800 BCE | God (plural form, singular sense) |
| ʾelāhā | Biblical Aramaic · Judaism | 450 BCE | the god |
| ʾalāhā | Syriac · Christianity | 200 CE | God |
| Allāh | Arabic · Islam | 632 CE | God (al- "the" + ilah "god") |
| Allah | English · Islam | 1585 CE | God in Islam |
What is certain and what is not
Most scholars take Allah as a contraction of al-ilah, "the god"; a minority see a loan from Syriac Alaha, and traditional Muslim grammarians proposed other origins. The Proto-Semitic word is reconstructed, and some scholars place an East Semitic supreme god El as early as the third millennium BCE.