John F. Healey, Ph.D. (1977), SOAS, University of London, is Professor of Semitic Studies at the University of Manchester. He has published extensively on Ugaritic and Aramaic Studies. His publications include The Nabataean Tomb Inscriptions of Mada'in Salih (Oxford, 1993) and, with H. J. W. Drijvers, The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene (Leiden, 1999).

'Healy, has composed a well-organized synopsis of what has been wirtten about Nabatean religion so far.’Lucinda Dirven, Bibliotheca Orientalis, 2002.This welcome study finally fills a gap by supplying for the first time a monograph devoted to the Nabataean religion.’L.L. Grabbe, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2002.The book under review is compulsory (and rewarding) reading for everyone involved, or thinking of becoming involved, in the study of the Nabateans, or of the Pre-islamic Arabs in general, or even more generally, of 'dead' or 'semi-dead' religions. - E.A. Knauf, Orientalistische Literaturzeigung 103, 2008