Ruḍāʾ is a deity that was of paramount importance in the Arab pantheon of gods worshipped by the North Arabian tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia.
[1] The oldest reference to Ruda is found in the annals of Esarhaddon who ruled over the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BC.
The name is transliterated into Latin script from the original Akkadian as Ru-ul-da-a-a-ú and he is mentioned among the gods of the Arabs.
[3] Dierk Lange writes that Ruda formed part of a trinity of gods worshipped by the Assyrian-attested Yumu´il confederation of northern Arabian tribes, which he identifies with the Ishmaelites.
[4] A trinity of gods representing the sun, moon and Venus is also found among the peoples of the South Arabian kingdoms of Awsan, Ma'in, Qataban and Hadramawt between the 9th and 4th centuries BC.