The present study aims to investigate whether or not there are affinities between the Ugaritic texts and the Hebrew Bible with regard to the nature and roles of divine beings ranked as lesser deities. The first chapter investigates that the Ugaritic and biblical Hebrew texts contain evidence of polytheistic backgrounds of the divine assembly, which entails that it consists hierarchically of the higher deities and other lesser deities who are associate with these higher deities. The second chapter examines that the lesser deities in the Ugaritic and biblical Hebrew texts are understood as having a kinship relation to their master god(dess). The third chapter scrutinises that whilst diverse titles are employed to indicate the divine messengers in the Ugaritic texts. The fourth chapter observes that whilst the lesser deities appear as the warrior deities with a diversity of titles in the context of the divine warfare in the Ugaritic texts, the lesser deities in the Hebrew Bible are represented also as warrior deities through various titles. The last chapter arranges the miscellaneous roles of the lesser deities into the categories of mediator deities, guardian deities, chanter deities, and servant deities represented in both Ugaritic and biblical Hebrew descriptions. Through the striking parallels displayed between the lesser deities of the Ugaritic texts and the Hebrew Bible, this research concludes that the Hebrew religions tradition has shared the same theological conceptions as Ugaritic religion.

In this present thesis, we are concerned with the distinguished scholar Ibn Qutaybah al-Dinawari who wrote on several fields of knowledge, such as Qur'=anic studies, Traditions of the Prophet, Theology and Arabic literature and language. The field of Ibn Qutaybah's Qur'=anic studies (exegesis and the other Qur'=anic sciences) has not received much attention from modern scholars. There is therefore a need to investigate this, especially those points which may have been discussed by him for the first time in Islamic scholarship. Thus this thesis will be concerned with Ibn Qutaybah's contribution to Qur'=anic studies. He wrote two books concerning the interpretation of the obscure passages of the Qur'=an (<i>Ta'wil Mushkil al-Qu'=an</i>) and the difficult words of it (<i>Tafsir Gharib al-Qur'=an</i>). Other books which have a bearing on this matter are <i>al-Ikhtil=af fi al-Lafz wa-al-Radd 'Al=a al-Jahmiyyah wa-al-Mushabbihah</i>, in which he gives a clear account of the dispute concerning the creation of the Qur'=an and its utterances; <i>al-Mas=a'il wa-al-Ajwibah</i> and <i>Ta'wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith</i>, in which he generally discusses some of the Qur'=anic verses. He also wrote other books on Qur'=anic sciences which have been mentioned in early sources; these are: <i>Ma'=an=i al-Qur'=an</i>; <i>I'r=ab al-Qur'=an; al-Qir=a'=at;</i> and <i>=Ad=ab al-Qir=a'ah</i>. In this thesis we shall discuss these works in general, and in particular we will give a general account of Ibn Qutaybah's life and works, and an investigation of certain subjects to which he pays particular attention. These will include the science of the obscure and ambiguous verses of the Qur'=an; exegesis by relation; Arabic grammar, philology and figure of speech (including <i>i'j=az al-Qur'=an</i>); the readings of the Qur'=an; the Qur'=anic sciences; and finally the issue of the creation of the Qur'=an and its utterances. In the course of his discussion, Ibn Qutaybah details most of the accusations against the Qur'=an in these areas, gives a clear account and refutes them all. The thesis will investigate all these matters in detail in order to elucidate his views and his contributions to Qur'=anic studies.

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