#history #Islam #religion #Mecca #Muslim
Did Mecca Exist Before Islam?
Is ancient Mecca is an Islamic myth? Is it a modern city that didn’t exist in Mohammed’s life time? The truth behind the Mecca hoax.
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I am interested in history, stories, and ideas; questions about the early rise of the world’s major religions are fascinating. I’m not a Muslim, so I have no vested interest in the answer.
Mohammed is said to have lived 570–632, born in Makkah (which is known as Mecca), and died in nearby Medina.
Wikipedia tells us the first non-Islamic reference to Mecca dates to 741 CE, more than 100 years after Mohammed’s death.
If Mecca (aka Makkah) — did not exist in the 5th and 6th centuries and the accounts of Mohammed there are fictional, then Islam would have a BIG problem as so much of the story is set around Makkah.
What is the significance of Makkah according to Islam?
Islam associates Mecca with Adam and Eve, the black stone, and Abraham , and Mohammed.
- Mohammed is said to have been born and raised in Makkah, and experienced his first revelations there in 610.
- The House of God, AKA the “Kaaba”, is said to have been at this same location for thousands of years.
- It is claimed the Kaaba has been rebuilt many times.
- Abraham is said to have built the Kaaba with Ishmael. You can read more about why Abraham built the Kaaba at Makkah from a Muslim perspective here.
- Ishmael, son of Abraham, is said to have lived near Makkah.
- The Kaaba is said to have become a focus for the pagan polytheistic worship of idols.
Most Jews and Christians do not see any direct and explicit reference to Mecca and the Kaaba in their traditional holy texts.
Muslims infer some references to Makkah in the bible. And Makkah is explicitly mentioned once in the Quran.
Bakkah (in the bible and the Quran) is also interpreted to mean Makkah or, specifically, the Kaaba.
If you would like to better understand the Judeo-Christian understanding of Abraham and Ishmael, Dr. theol. Michael I. Muluk covers that story here on Medium.
He explains that the Jewish story of Abraham’s son Ishmael is located in the Desert of Beersheba (southern Israel today), whereas the Muslim version transports the location to Mecca, 900 miles south. He says the Islamic version of events is not credible.
Mecca Is Not an Ancient City: 3 Reasons
This summarises the 3 arguments by those who claim Mecca didn’t exist before Islam.
Note: In my opinion, these claims don’t stand up to scrutiny, as I will explain below.
- It doesn’t appear in ancient maps or writings.
- Lack of water in the area so people wouldn’t create a settlement there.
- The orientation of early Mosques (7th & 8th Century) do not face Mecca.
The implication is the people who invented Islam long after the time of Mohammed wanted to create a backstory for him but didn’t know Makkah didn’t exist in the past. Hence, they made a mistake in placing his life story in a town that never existed.
https://pixabay.com/photos/map-saudi-arabia-countries-borders-3473163/
Mecca Did Not Exist a Flawed Conspiracy Theory — A Summary
I’m not going to say Abraham was there and built the Kaaba. He is a religious mythical figure, and there is no real evidence that he lived.
However, based on evidence and logical deduction, I think:
- there is enough evidence to point to Makkah pre-dating Islam and the birth of Mohammed.
- Makkah as a settlement was probably a small settlement, a village.
- Makkah is not on old maps because it was a small settlement. It was not on the coast, and it was not of interest to the people who used maps.
- Makkah did have a water supply — via a well — from exactly the same source that is there today. The underground water source is replenished from the surrounding mountains.
- It is in a reasonable location to believe it could have been inhabited by people in ancient times. And if there wasn’t a permanently settlement in ancient times it could have been visited by nomads and pilgrims.
- I don’t know when the Kaaba was built. I suspect the Kaaba pre-dates Islam, which I will explain. Evidence might exist but I am not aware of it.
1. Putting Makkah on the Map
It is true Makkah isn’t on any map that predates Islam.
As a small inland village, Makkah was of no significance to ancient map drawers who were interested in maritime travel.
Robinson’s research suggests that about 500–600 people may have lived in Makkah during the time of Mohammed.
Even if the legend of the Kaaba as pre-existing ancient pagan shrine is true this would have not been of interest to those who draw ancient maps. It wasn’t like an impressive Greek temple. And many ancient structures didn’t make it onto ancient maps — I would point to the interior of the African continent to demonstrate how much was ignored.
Exception: There is Ptolemy’s Second Century World Map, which is based on his writings and identifies a place called Macoraba.
Mecca is called Macoraba (Makkah-Arabia? or Makkah-Kaaba?) and appears on the second-century Ptolemy map.
It seems like an open and shut case — there it is Makkah before Mohammed.
Of course it isn’t that simple! It isn’t certain that Ptolemy was referring to Makkah with this reference. There is no other reference giving Makkah the name Macoraba and the meaning of this name is uncertain.
You can read about the issue in detail in a paper on the subject by Ian D Morris at the University of Amsterdam.
Conclusion: Makkah isn’t on an old map, but we can’t deduce it didn’t exist.
Furthermore, a study of ancient trading routes shows boats travelling up the Red Sea would stop at ports on the African side because there were no ports on the Arabian side
The Arabian side was an inhospitable arid dessert which quickly turns into a wall of steep mountains. The mountains might have been a big reason why no port was built along there.
2. Makkah is in a Dessert with no access to Water or Food
This isn’t true! Don’t look from out of space and decide that all of Arabia is sand, zoom in! Consider different data.
Makkah in a hilly region on the western slope of a mountain range. It is at an elevation of 909 feet (277 m) above sea level and well served by clean groundwater via a well.
It is located near the valley between the ends of two mountain ranges.
It’s not farming terrain, that’s true. The inhabitant must have always traded for food. Traveling nomads must have brought food with them.
Zoom in with your satellite view and discover it is near to the Arabian green belt that runs along the mountain range from Petra in the north to the coast in the south (now Yemen).
There is plenty of evidence for human habitation stretching way back in history along the mountain range, the same area that was the ancient traders’ overland caravan route.
Most notable of all, The nearby town of Taif is particularly noted for its pleasant summer climate, fertile land, and bountiful harvests.
Merchants from Makkah would have traded with Taif and others.
There is no dispute that there was a settlement at Makkah from the ninth Century. If people thought it was a good place to live and thrive, then why not 200–300 hundred years earlier? What changed?
Conclusion: Makkah always had a good water supply and access to food. It was near the main ancient travel route. Access to food and water doesn’t rule out the possibility of an ancient village settlement at this location.
Water at Mecca — More Information
In case you want to know more about his subject I have a lot more on it. Too much to put here. But here is a little more.
This map shows waterways in Saudi Arabia.
Across the world oasis settlements in desert areas are often at places where there is surface water. But that isn’t always the case.
Humans use a lot of water from below ground by digging wells (which I’ve written about elsewhere), and this isn’t new.
The problem with surface water, especially in an area like this, is that it dries up in the sun. Underground water has been filtered by the rocks it’s clean, cool, and rich in nutrients. Humans use a lot of water from underground like this.
Humans have been digging wells for thousands of years.
There is every reason to believe that Mecca was the perfect place for a settlement supported by a well that was replenished by rain water that filtered through the rocks of the nearby mountains (which are over 1000m above sea level and you can see on this elevation topography map).
The local Zamzam Well is said to date to be ancient. I can’t assess this claim, but it is perfectly possible. Here is more about the Zamzan Well and why it will never run dry.
The eight-century historian, Ibn Ishaq, wrote about the Zamzam Well.
3. Early Mosques Don’t Face Mecca, Proving the Place Didn’t Exist in the 7th Century
The Direction of Prayer
The qibla is the direction in which Muslims pray.
Since 264 CE they were instructed to face the Kaaba in Mecca and the qibla was marked in every Mosque to indicate the direction of the Kaaba.
Before this date, Mohammed and his followers prayed toward Jerusalem. This is not surprising as Islam developed as a Judeo-Christian religion.
Jewish Synagogues are also supposed to be orientated so that prays are said towards Jerusalem. Historically, ancient Jewish synagogues had trouble identifying the correct direction. Many settled with it being roughly in the direction of the morning sun.
FYI, like Jews, Christians were supposed to face east to pray in their churches since earliest times, which is a whole interesting story in itself when you stop to also consider how the Christians accommodated the sun-worshiping pagans. Like the Jews, the Christians weren’t consistent with the orientation of churches.
It should be no surprise that the qibla in Mosques built in the seventh and eighth centuries are not perfectly aligned with Makkah. Mostly, they are very close. Many of them are actually closer to the direction of Jerusalem than Makkah.
On average, the qibla of the earliest mosques point somewhere in between, which has given rise to a theory that the Kaaba was actually in Petra.
As soon as I heard the Petra alignment theory presented as an argument that Makkah didn’t exist I saw the problem with it because I’ve studied university level mathematics and I took an undergraduate module specifically on the history of mathematics.
It is most impressive that the qibla alignment is as accurate as it is!
David A. King is a professor of the History of Science and has written extensively on the subject, concluding the Petra Theory is a fallacy. To better understand the issue in relation to early mosques, you might want to read King’s explanation here.
In fact, the Petra theory developed by an expert in nothing is completely debunked and yet given a lot of publicity by people with nefarious motives. They are motivated to prove Islam wrong/false/fake and that Mecca didn’t exist. And/or they are money motivated. As we all know, religious-related conspiracy theories are fascinating and lucrative.
Conclusion: In the 7th & 8th Century the mathematics had not been developed for pinpoint accuracy of the alignment of the qibla to point to a far away location over a massive distance.
Evidence Makkah Pre-Dates Mohammed and Islam
I have shown that it is possible that Makkah did exist in Mohammed’s time and earlier.
Next, I am going to show you evidence that it did exist.
And finally, I will speculate about some of its history.
Evidence for Makkah
The strongest evidence we currently have that Makkah exists is the various tribal histories that corroborate each other.
Wikipedia has a page about about Arabian tribes that interacted with Mohammed (though not necessarily Makkah).
If the Kaaba and the location of Makkah were established after Islam, I can’t imagine so many local people and rival tribes conspiring to keep it a secret.
The Quran reference to Makkah & Bakkah
The Quran existed in written form soon after the death of Mohammed, in the first half of the seventh Century. It was already being learned and passed on via oral traditions.
The Sanaa Manuscript is firm evidence that the Quran dates back to the seventh century , and we have other fragments dating back to that time.
Makkah & the History of Local Tribes
The Banu Thaqif tribe were near neigbours to the Quraysh tribe in Makkah they were close trading partners pre-Islam. They joined together to fight against Mohammed but were defeated when he conquered Makkah.
The victors write history, but in a place where tribal histories are passed on through oral traditions, this is just one of many examples of how separate tribes would have had to conspire to keep a massive secret if there had not been Makkah when the battle for Makkah happened.
According to the Islamic story of Mohammed, he was born into a branch of the Quraysh tribe, which inhabited and controlled Makkah.
Based on a detailed statistical analysis of the historical records, it is likely that:
The Quraysh tribe emerged as a new coming together of people from other tribes and settled in Makkah — establishing it as the settlement that Mohammed knew from birth. It was a village of less than 600 people.
According to Majied Robinson, who conducted this research, the tribe may have been founded in the mid-sixth Century, and Mohammed’s grandfather may have been among the first tribes’ people and Makkah settlers, which is slightly different from the dominant narrative.
Robinson’s analysis is pretty conclusive. The tribe was already formed when Mohammed was born and settled in Makkah. He suggests Makkah would have been chosen as a good defensive location.
Robinson can’t tell us whether anyone lived at that location previously. We can speculate that the area was known for its water source and may have been used in the past, but we have no way of knowing.
Robinson can’t tell us anything about the Kaaba. I am going to offer two different guesses:
ONE Possible History For the Kaaba
An ancient and ruined structure may have been there prior to the arrival of the newly formed Quraysh tribe in the mid-sixth Century. Its origins may be lost to the mists of time.
This structure may have been known about and held in reverence by local pagans. The local people may have stopped here on journeys in order to revere their gods and use the Zamzam well. The well may have been first dug way back in time.
There may even have been myths about Abraham building the structure. Judeo-Christian ideas had been in circulation in the area for hundreds of years.
ANOTHER Possible History For The Kaaba — pure speculation
I think the Kaaba predates Islam. It is such a farfetched notion that Abraham happened to visit this location and visit this structure. Also, if it was built later, once Islam was established, I don’t think the secret of it being built would have been maintained.
The construction and mythological stories surrounding the Kaaba may have begun with the first settlers — Mohammed’s grandfather’s generation and just before Mohammed was born.
This would be a way to elevate the social standing of the new tribe.
I would love to hear of more evidence of pagan pilgrims visiting the Kaaba before Islam.
CONCLUSION: Makkah Pre-Dates Mohammed & Islam
There is no evidence Makkah existed before the sixth century but we can’t rule it out.
We don’t have any areal photography to confirm whether or not Makkah existed so we need to make deductions based on the evidence.
Just because there is no conclusive record we can’t be certain Makkah wasn’t there.
On balance, it is highly likely to was there in the sixth century and there is no evidence that it wasn’t.
In fact, there would have to be a lot to explain if Makkah wasn’t there. Like where was the Quraysh tribe before Islam and why would they have settled their after Islam was a big thing?
Here is another website on the revisionist theories.
WDYT? Leave comments and links.
