According to the 5th century BCE Greek historian Herodotus, Orotalt () was a god of pre-Islamic Arabia whom he identified with the Greek god Dionysus:
Also known as ÃÂà « Shará or Dusares (which means "Possessor of the (Mountain) Shara"), Orotalt was worshipped by the Nabataeans, Arabs who inhabited southern Jordan, Canaan and the northern part of Arabia.
Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions states that Orotalt is a phonetic transcription of the name of the sun god Ruá¸ÂÃÂ.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable derives it from a corruption of AllÃÂh ta'ÃÂla ("God Exalted"). The transcription from AllÃÂh ta'ÃÂla to Orotalt can be explained thus: The Semitic 'l' is commonly equated with 'r' in Greek, and vice versa. For example, the word "river" is Nahr in Arabic, Nehar in Hebrew and Nahal in other Semitic languages, which was likely transcribed as ÃÂÃ栨Âûÿàin Greek (as in the Nile river).