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Mecca: Difference between revisions
After looking into this a lot more balance was needed, not least to reflect the content and weight of academic opinion, and there was too much personal opinion/language. The wiki cannot promote a particular theory here in its own voice, especially not a fringe theory.
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'''Mecca''', also known as ''Makkah al-Mukarramah'' (مكة المكرمة, lit. "the Blessed Mecca"), is a city located in the Hijaz region of the Arabian Peninsula and is described by Islamic scriptures as the birthplace of [[Muhammad]] (b. 570), the founder of [[Islam]]. Mecca is host to the [[Kaaba]], the holiest Islamic mosque (and central pagan shrine prior to Muhammad's conquest of Mecca), and thus the site of the annual Islamic pilgrimage called the [[Hajj]] which physically and financially able Muslims are required to attend at least once in their lifetimes (one of the [[Five Pillars of Islam|Five Pillars]] of Islam). Practicing Muslims face Mecca as they [[Salah|pray]] towards the Kaaba (their ''qibla'', or direction of prayer) five times a day (another one of the Five Pillars of Islam). | '''Mecca''', also known as ''Makkah al-Mukarramah'' (مكة المكرمة, lit. "the Blessed Mecca"), is a city located in the Hijaz region of the Arabian Peninsula and is described by Islamic scriptures as the birthplace of [[Muhammad]] (b. 570), the founder of [[Islam]]. Mecca is host to the [[Kaaba]], the holiest Islamic mosque (and central pagan shrine prior to Muhammad's conquest of Mecca), and thus the site of the annual Islamic pilgrimage called the [[Hajj]] which physically and financially able Muslims are required to attend at least once in their lifetimes (one of the [[Five Pillars of Islam|Five Pillars]] of Islam). Practicing Muslims face Mecca as they [[Salah|pray]] towards the Kaaba (their ''qibla'', or direction of prayer) five times a day (another one of the Five Pillars of Islam). | ||
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In the Qur'an, the city is also referred to as "Bakkah" as well as "Umm al-Qura" (lit. "mother of all settlements"). The city is described in Islamic scriptures as having been founded by [[Abraham]] as he constructed the Kaaba with his son Ishmael (''Ismail''), though there is an absence of any archaeological evidence to support this narrative. | In the Qur'an, the city is also referred to as "Bakkah" as well as "Umm al-Qura" (lit. "mother of all settlements"). The city is described in Islamic scriptures as having been founded by [[Abraham]] as he constructed the Kaaba with his son Ishmael (''Ismail''), though there is an absence of any archaeological evidence to support this narrative. | ||
Islamic | Islamic texts further maintain that Mecca was the trade capital of the Hijaz and Arabia at large, though even this lacks an archaeological basis. | ||
==Early history | ==Early history and modern controversy as to the birthplace of Islam== | ||
Traditionally, Mecca is assumed to be the birthplace of Islam. Starting with Abraham, who founded Al-Masjid-al-Haram, the Mosque of the sanctuary, or Holy Shrine, which encloses, or possibly is, the Ka’bah, or Cube, which holds the Black Stone. The holiness of this sactuary was confirmed by the prophet Muhammad, who was born and worked in Mecca, and started his preaching career in the city. | |||
Traditionally, Mecca is assumed to be the birthplace of Islam. Starting with Abraham, who founded Al-Masjid-al-Haram, the Mosque of the sanctuary, or Holy Shrine, which encloses, or possibly is, the Ka’bah, or Cube, which holds the Black Stone. The holiness of | |||
Very little is known through archaeological and historically relied-upon channels about the early and pre-Islamic history of Mecca, as the city is neither referred to unambiguously by any document prior to the rise of Islam, nor is there any architecture in Mecca that has been determined to have persisted from the life of Muhammad at the beginning of the seventh century.<ref>Robert Schick, ''Archaeology and the Quran'', Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an</ref> Indeed, even while contemporary Romans produced detailed descriptions of Arabia at large and Western Arabia (the Hijaz) in particular, no references can be found to anything that could be described as a pilgrimage or trade centre at Mecca. | Very little is known through archaeological and historically relied-upon channels about the early and pre-Islamic history of Mecca, as the city is neither referred to unambiguously by any document prior to the rise of Islam, nor is there any architecture in Mecca that has been determined to have persisted from the life of Muhammad at the beginning of the seventh century.<ref>Robert Schick, ''Archaeology and the Quran'', Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an</ref> Indeed, even while contemporary Romans produced detailed descriptions of Arabia at large and Western Arabia (the Hijaz) in particular, no references can be found to anything that could be described as a pilgrimage or trade centre at Mecca. | ||
A place called Macoraba in Arabia is mentioned in a geographic work by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE. Many academic scholars believe this is a reference to Mecca (first proposed in the 16th century), and some even think that the name derives from an ancient South Arabian word for temple, mkrb. | A place called Macoraba in Arabia is mentioned in a geographic work by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE. Many academic scholars believe this is a reference to Mecca (first proposed in the 16th century), and some even think that the name derives from an ancient South Arabian word for temple, mkrb. Other historians such as Patricia Crone and Ian D. Morris have argued that there is no good reason to believe Macoraba and Mecca are the same place. The idea has never been backed by any significant academic investigation, nor has any other ancient source been shown to describe Mecca or its temple.<ref>See the conclusion in Ian D. Morris (2018) [https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/article/view/6850 Mecca and Macoraba] in: al-Usur al-wusta vol. 26 (2018)</ref> | ||
Historian Patricia Crone is widely considered to have established that Mecca was of no wider importance at the time of Islam's emergence, was not on the major trade route, and traded in goods like leather, wool and other pastoral products.<ref>This was definitively argued by Crone in her 1987 book ''Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam'', and further defended and refined in her 1992 article [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4057061 Serjeant and Meccan Trade] and her 2007 article [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40378894 Quraysh and the Roman Army: Making Sense of the Meccan Leather Trade]</ref> She also pointed out that the audience of the supposedly Meccan verses of the Qur'an are prosperous farmers who have an interest in the sea and ate fish, activities difficult in the arid wastes around Mecca<ref>As pointed out by Patricia Crone, ''How Did the Quranic Pagans Make a Living? Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 68, No. 3 (2005), pp. 387-399. Available at <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/</nowiki>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/20181949], also in her ''Collected Studies''(2016).</ref>. | Historian Patricia Crone is widely considered to have established that Mecca was of no wider importance at the time of Islam's emergence, was not on the major trade route, and traded in goods like leather, wool and other pastoral products.<ref>This was definitively argued by Crone in her 1987 book ''Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam'', and further defended and refined in her 1992 article [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4057061 Serjeant and Meccan Trade] and her 2007 article [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40378894 Quraysh and the Roman Army: Making Sense of the Meccan Leather Trade]</ref> She also pointed out that the audience of the supposedly Meccan verses of the Qur'an are prosperous farmers who have an interest in the sea and ate fish, activities difficult in the arid wastes around Mecca<ref>As pointed out by Patricia Crone, ''How Did the Quranic Pagans Make a Living? Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 68, No. 3 (2005), pp. 387-399. Available at <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/</nowiki>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/20181949], also in her ''Collected Studies''(2016).</ref>. | ||
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5. Its climate is not compatible with the address of the supposedly Meccan verses of the Quran to prosperous fish eating farmers. | 5. Its climate is not compatible with the address of the supposedly Meccan verses of the Quran to prosperous fish eating farmers. | ||
6. Who are said to | 6. Who are said to pass day and night by the remains of Lot's people ({{Quran-range|37|133|138}}, {{Quran|11|89}}). Traditionally this is interpreted as a trade route, since {{Quran|15|76}} states that the punishment of Lot's people can be found on "an established road". Sodom and Gomorrah were traditionally somewhere near the Dead Sea. | ||
7. There is a rock inscription near Mecca which dates the building of Al-Masjid-al-Haram to 78 AH / 697-698 CE<ref>[https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/haram1 www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/haram1]</ref>. | 7. There is a rock inscription near Mecca which dates the building of Al-Masjid-al-Haram to 78 AH / 697-698 CE<ref>[https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/haram1 www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/haram1]</ref>. | ||
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The Becca problem could just be a scribal error. But then why was it not corrected before an authoritative text was issued? Furthermore, if the Quran is to be taken seriously as a source of historical knowledge, some explanation is required of why Abraham should have wanted to travel so far south from the Promised Land. Both problems could be solved by accepting that Becca is not Mecca, but somewhere further north. | The Becca problem could just be a scribal error. But then why was it not corrected before an authoritative text was issued? Furthermore, if the Quran is to be taken seriously as a source of historical knowledge, some explanation is required of why Abraham should have wanted to travel so far south from the Promised Land. Both problems could be solved by accepting that Becca is not Mecca, but somewhere further north. | ||
For advocates of a non-Hijazi origin, the only plausible solution to problems five and six, the fish eating farmers familiar with the cities of Lot, is to accept that some verses of the Qur’an were not written in either Mecca or Medina (which has an even lower rainfall than Mecca), or indeed anywhere in the Hijaz. To admit this undermines the project popular with scholars, of trying to explain the differences of style and doctrine to be found in the Qur’an by a sequential development in the career of its prophet. The problem is not simply a matter of determining the order in which verses were revealed, but where, when and by whom they were first written down<ref>More evidence for multiple authors is provided by Tommaso Tesei ''The Qurʾān(s) in Context(s)'' ''Journal Asiatique 309.2'' (2021) pp. 185-[https://www.academia.edu/75302962 202]</ref>. | |||
A useful overview of some of the main points in the academic debate on the Meccan origins of Islam is provided by Nicolai Sinai in chapter 3 of his book, ''The Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction''.<ref name="Sinai2017">Nicolai Sinai, ''The Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction'' Edinburgh University Press, 2017, Chapter 3: The Qur'anic Milieu</ref> | |||
===Palestine as a possible location=== | |||
Stephen Shoemaker and Guillaume Dye have both suggested Palestine as an alternative possible origin for at least part of the Quran. Shoemaker has argued for a connection between the Quranic nativity story ({{Quran|19|16|26}}) and the Kathisma Church in Palestine (see [[Parallels_Between_the_Qur'an_and_Late_Antique_Judeo-Christian_Literature#Jesus,_Mary,_and_the_Palm_Tree|Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature]]),<ref>Stephen Shoemaker, [https://www.academia.edu/1057321/Christmas_in_the_Qur%C3%A4n_the_Qur%C3%A4nic_account_of_Jesuss_nativity_and_Palestinian_local_tradition Christmas in the Qur’an: the Qur’anic Account of Jesus’ Nativity and Palestinian Local Tradition] Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 28, 11-39 (2003) pp. 19-21</ref> while Dye has argued for a connection with the same church and another element of Surah Maryam, the reference to Mary as "Sister of Aaron" (verse 28; see the discussion in the article [[Mary, Sister of Aaron]]).<ref>Guillaume Dye, “The Qur’ān and its Hypertextuality in Light of Redaction Criticism,” The Fourth Nangeroni Meeting Early Islam: The Sectarian Milieu of Late Antiquity? (Early Islamic Studies Seminar, Milan) (15-19 June 2015): 10</ref> | |||
===Gibson's Petra theory=== | |||
In 2011, independent scholar Dan Gibson first proposed his theory that Islam originated not in Mecca, but in Petra, the ancient Nabatean city in modern-day Jordan.<ref>Dan Gibson, ''Qur'ānic Geography: A survey and evaluation of the geographical references in the Qur'ān with suggested solutions for various problems and issues.'', Vancouver: Independent Scholar's Press, 2011</ref> He was motivated, among other factors, because geographical descriptions provided of Mecca in Islamic scriptures fail to map reliably onto the geography of the actual city of Mecca, and because in his opinion, ample archaeological evidence demonstrates that for roughly a century after Muhammad's death Muslim prayed toward Petra as their ''qibla''.<ref>Numerous videos by Dan Gibson arguing for the Petra hypothesis are available on YouTube, and there is a recent summary of the evidence at [https://nabataea.net/explore/founding_of_islam/ nabataea.net].</ref> This interpretation collides heavily with the explicit statements of Islamic scriptures and, advocates claim, conforms more readily with Islamic scriptures' implicit, geographical descriptions of Mecca, as well as with the archaeological evidence available to us today. | |||
Gibson's theory has a considerable following online, though has not met with acceptance in wider academic circles. Professor Sean Anthony, a renowned historian of Islam, has remarked that no scholars take the Petra origin theory seriously.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicQuran/comments/13rkbxo/comment/jlm3d57/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 Ask Me Anything comment by Sean Anthony] - AcademicQuran board on reddit.com, 27 May 2023</ref> Similarly, David King, who is a longstanding critic of Gibson, writes that "His claims about Petra as the cradle of Islam are not taken seriously by scholars of Nabataean Studies."<ref>See "Notes added in September 2020" in the article [https://muslimheritage.com/the-petra-fallacy/ The Petra Fallacy: Early Mosques do face the Sacred Kaaba in Mecca] by David King, 15 September 2020 - muslimheritage.com</ref> | |||
Dan Gibson<ref>Most recently in ''[https://nabataea.net/explore/founding_of_islam/ Let the Stones Speak]''</ref> has provided both an alternative to the Mecca hypothesis and new evidence, by measuring the orientations of early mosques in terms of the prayer niche, or ''mihrab'', indicating the direction of prayer. The Quran orders Muslims to face the Holy Mosque ({{Quran|2|144}}), and the accepted interpretation is that they must face Mecca when praying<ref>As Ohlig points out, praying is not in the original Arabic, but is added by all translators except Arberry. See ''From'' Muhammad ''Jesus to the'' ''Prophet of the Arabs'', section 6.5 ''The direction of prayer (Qibla)'', pp 300 to 304, in Karl-Heinz Ohlig ed. ''Early Islam'' (2013). Available at [https://archive.org/details/early-islam-a-critical-reconstruction-based-on-contemporary-sources-karl-heinz-ohlig-z-lib.org archive.org]. For a literal translation see https://quranwbw.com/2</ref>. As an aid, mosques are built facing Mecca. Which is to say, the prayer wall is built perpendicular to a straight line to Mecca, and worshippers face this wall. The question then is in which direction are early mosques orientated? And if not to Mecca, when did it change? | |||
Gibson claims to have found that the earliest mosques face Petra rather than Mecca, but there was a gradual reorientation to Mecca over a period of centuries. He suggests that the original Holy Mosque of Islam was at Petra, but was then changed to Mecca for political reasons, presumably encouraged by earthquakes at Petra. | |||
Gibson argues that Petra is the more plausible candidate for the original Muslim shrine. It was an important trade centre, even if declining by the time of the Prophet. Agriculture was possible, including the cultivation of olives mentioned in the Quran. And it had an archbishop, thus a large Christian population, likely of an anti Trinitarian variety which is compatible with Islamic monotheism<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra, ‘''Climate''’ and ‘''Byzantine Period''’</ref>. Gibson offers various other arguments in favour of Petra, and Peter Townsend argues more generally for a north Arabian location<ref>''The Mecca Mystery'' (2018)</ref>. | |||
One specific point against Petra is that it is not near the Dead Sea and thus the cities of Lot, or not near enough. But if Mecca is the only competition for the original shrine, it is much nearer. If Petra contained a sanctuary, it is possible that it would have been visited by farmers from further north. In any case, the Quran is inconsistent in a number of ways. The best that can be hoped for is to get a partial match to what it suggests about its historical context. | |||
Petra is the | A general objection to the Petra hypothesis is that it is difficult to understand how the real birthplace of Islam could have been erased so completely from Muslim traditions<ref name="Sinai2017" />. Advocates counter that there are numerous examples of partially successful attempts to rewrite history for political reasons. It is often noted that there is surprisingly little documentary evidence surviving from the first two centuries of Islam. Perhaps because the first Muslims were practical men more concerned with consolidating their new empire than writing about it. Or perhaps because by the second century a consensus had been reached about the value of the founding myth of Mecca, and all evidence to the contrary was destroyed. | ||
A | A significant linguistic problem with a Nabatean origin theory has been raised by Marijn van Putten, a leading academic scholar on early Arabic and in particular Quranic Arabic, who has argued in detail that the dialect evident in the Uthmanic rasm of the Quran (also found in the Sanaa 1 palimpsest, so predates canonization) is Old Hijazi and not Nabatean.<ref>Marijn van Putten, [https://brill.com/view/title/61587 Quranic Arabic: From its Hijazi origins to its classical reading traditions], Leiden: Brill, 2022 isbn: 9789004506251 (Open access pdf download, also available [https://www.academia.edu/71626921 here])<BR /> | ||
See especially pages 118, 120, 122, and footnote 32 on page 146.</ref> | |||
====Other criticisms of Gibson==== | |||
David A. King, who is a leading academic scholar on the Qibla and early Arab astronomy, has written a number of articles fiercely criticising Gibson's work.<ref name="King2017">[https://muslimheritage.com/pibla-back-to-qibla/ From Petra back to Makka – From “Pibla” back to Qibla] by David King, 22 August 2017 on muslimheritage.com</ref><ref>[https://muslimheritage.com/the-petra-fallacy/ The Petra Fallacy: Early Mosques do face the Sacred Kaaba in Mecca] by David King, 15 September 2020 - muslimheritage.com</ref> The most fundamental problem with Gibson's hypothesis, argues King, is that Muslims did not apply mathematical geometry nor accurate coordinates for locations when determining the Qibla until the 9th century. He says that the first mathematical determination of the qibla known to us comes from Baghdad c. 825 CE. Even centuries after and despite such advances, it was common for Muslims to use a variety of non-mathematical, "folk astronomy" methods for determining the Qibla. | |||
King discusses in one of his articles medieval examples of such methods illustrated in texts from the 9th century onwards. These divided the world into 4, 8, or later even more sectors, arranged around the sides of the Ka'bah, which itself was known even by medieval scholars to be aligned astronomically; its minor axis being aligned with summer sunrise/winter sunset and its major axis with the rising or setting of Canopus and Ursa Major. King writes, "Each sector is associated with a segment of the perimeter of the Kaʿba and the qibla in each sector is the direction in which one stands in front of the Kaʿba facing that segment of its perimeter"<ref>[https://muslimheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/1799/02/davidking-sacredgeography.pdf Islamic sacred geography for finding the qibla by the sun and stars: A survey of the historical sources] by David King, 2019</ref> Such texts advised Muslims to orient themselves towards the specified direction for their sector/location by observing the setting or rising direction of the sun on the winter or summer solstices, or the direction in which certain stars appear, or even the "four winds". In some cases cardinal directions were preferred. In particular, at a number of locations including Medina, Mecca was considered due south. | |||
King | King argues that folk astronomy methods such as these would have been used also by the first generations since they had not yet encountered and embraced mathematical methods nor accurate location coordinates. The first generations in Iraq were said to have used the winter sunset direction (which accords with the Ka'bah-sector orientation method outlined above) and this is what some early mosques show, just as some early Egyptian mosques are aligned to winter sunrise. According to King, many other mosques cited by Gibson as evidence for his theory were in fact aligned based on the foundations of pre-Islamic edifices.<ref name="King2017" /> | ||
King has also repeatedly emphasised that it is a basic fallacy even in principle to use exact individual directions or a statistical correlation of the sort asserted by Gibson to identify a specific directional intent on the part of early mosque builders, however strong or weak the correlation and the reliability of Gibson's underlying data may be (though King also questions Gibson's data). For centuries, those undisposed towards mathematical methods had only the very vaguest and often a highly inaccurate notion of the actual direction of Mecca, let alone anywhere else, and employed methods based on sacred geography, tradition, or roughly suitable pre-Islamic foundations that did not aspire in any way to accuracy. Gibson, recognising this problem, proposes various means by which the early mosque builders could have calculated accurate directions. However, these claims again receive scathing criticism from King.<ref name="King2017" /> | |||
While King critically engages with a large sample of Gibson's mosque datapoints,<ref name="King2017" /><ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330221815_King_The_Petra_fallacy_The_Petra_fallacy_-_Early_mosques_do_face_the_Sacred_Kaaba_in_Mecca_but_Dan_Gibson_doesn%27t_know_how_Comparing_historical_orientations_with_modern_directions_can_lead_to_false_re King: The Petra fallacy The Petra fallacy - Early mosques do face the Sacred Kaaba in Mecca but Dan Gibson doesn't know how / Comparing historical orientations with modern directions can lead to false results] - David King, December 2018</ref> another one discussed by Gibson is particularly interesting. The small mosque at the Humayma archaeological site in southern Jordan is located between Mecca and Petra, a mere 43km from the latter, yet its mihrab faces south towards Mecca, not towards Petra. Gibson claims without citing any evidence that it was built later than the next-door early 8th century Umayyad qasr (palace), which despite not being a mosque, Gibson also claims without evidence is intentionally oriented towards Petra.<ref>See [https://thesacredcity.ca/humeima.html Humeima Farm House] by Dan Gibson</ref> However, archaeologists have dated both the mosque and qasr to the same time in the early 8th century, supported by foundation pottery at both buildings as well as historical texts which mention the Abbasid family building a palace and mosque at that location during the Umayyad period.<ref>John Oleson and Rebecca Foote, [https://maxvanberchem.org/fr/activites-scientifiques/projets/archeologie/11-archeologie/54-humeima-excavation-project HUMEIMA EXCAVATION PROJECT, 1995-96] - Max van Berchem Foundation, Geneva, 1996</ref><ref>A photo of the mosque is available [http://jordanheritage.jo/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/%D8%A2%D8%AB%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A9-2-1024x676.jpg here]</ref> | |||
==Points raised by proponents of a Meccan origin== | |||
Those who favour the traditional Meccan setting for Muhammad's early career as a prophet point out a very direct reference to Mecca in the Quran itself: | |||
''' | {{Quote|{{Quran-range|48|24|25}}|And it is He who withheld their hands from you and your hands from them within [the area of] '''Makkah''' after He caused you to overcome them. And ever is Allah of what you do, Seeing.<BR /> | ||
They are the ones who disbelieved and obstructed you from al-Masjid al-Haram while the offering was prevented from reaching its place of sacrifice. And if not for believing men and believing women whom you did not know - that you might trample them and there would befall you because of them dishonor without [your] knowledge - [you would have been permitted to enter Makkah]. [This was so] that Allah might admit to His mercy whom He willed. If they had been apart [from them], We would have punished those who disbelieved among them with painful punishment}} | |||
Similarly, some point to another verse which accurately describes the Ka'bah as being sited near an uncultivated valley: | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|14|37}}|Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.}} | |||
Various other identifiable locations are mentioned in the Quran in the wider region, but most notably Yathrib in {{Quran|33|13}}. That Yathrib is the same as al-Medina is verified in the mid 7th century Syriac ''Khuzistan Chronicle''. In addition, the Constitution of Medina (between "the believers and submitters of Quraysh and Yathrib") is generally considered authentic.<ref name="Sinai2017" /> A migration after being driven out from the sacred precinct is alluded to in various verses of the Quran. Nicolai Sinai has noted a number of other useful observations, particularly that certain cultic practices alluded to in the Quran would more likely be found deep in the Arabian peninsula than its northern periphery. <ref name="Sinai2017" /> Regarding the religious environment suggested by the Quran, Sinai further points out that a ninth century CE Islamic source mentions a Christian cemetery in Mecca, while other vestiges Islamic sources permit the positing of a limited Christian presence in the Hijaz (which is also supported by rock inscriptions - see [[Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam]] regarding Christian inscriptions as well as the distinctive Quranic spelling of Allah found in inscriptions between Mecca and Ta'if). | |||
Regarding agricultural references in the Quran it is sometimes pointed out that Yāqūt al-Hamawī (d. 1229 CE) in his great work on geography describes Mecca as follows: | |||
{{Quote|Yāqūt al-Hamawī, ''Mu'jam ul-Buldān''<ref>Yaqut Al- Hamawi, ''Mu'jam ul-Buldān'':<BR />وليس بمكة ماء جار ومياهها من السماء، وليست لهم آبار يشربون منها وأطيبها بئر زمزم ولا يمكن الإدمان على شربها، وليس بجميع مكة شجر مثمر إلا شجر البادية فإذا جزت الحرم فهناك عيون وآبار وحوائط كثيرة وأودية ذات خضر ومزارع ونخيل وأما الحرم فليس به شجر مثمر إلا نخيل يسيرة متفرقة</ref>|There is no flowing water in Mecca, for its water falls from the sky. They have no wells suitable for drinking; the best of them is zamzam, and it cannot be drunk from continuously. There are no fruit-bearing trees in the entirety of Mecca other than desert trees. '''However, once one passes the limits of the sacred precinct (haram), there are many wells, springs and walled gardens and wadis with greenery, farms and palm groves, though within the sacred precinct there are no fruit-bearing trees other than a few scattered date palms.'''}} | |||
==Relevant Quotations== | ==Relevant Quotations== | ||
===Qur'an=== | ===Qur'an=== | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran|48|24|25}}|And it is He who withheld their hands from you and your hands from them within [the area of] '''Makkah''' after He caused you to overcome them. And ever is Allah of what you do, Seeing.<BR /> | |||
They are the ones who disbelieved and obstructed you from al-Masjid al-Haram while the offering was prevented from reaching its place of sacrifice. And if not for believing men and believing women whom you did not know - that you might trample them and there would befall you because of them dishonor without [your] knowledge - [you would have been permitted to enter Makkah]. [This was so] that Allah might admit to His mercy whom He willed. If they had been apart [from them], We would have punished those who disbelieved among them with painful punishment}} | |||
{{Quote|{{quran|6|92}}|And this is a blessed Scripture which We have revealed, confirming that which (was revealed) before it, that thou mayst warn <b>the Mother of Villages</b> and those around her. Those who believe in the Hereafter believe herein, and they are careful of their worship.}}{{Quote|{{quran-range|3|95|97}}|95. Say: Allah speaketh truth. So follow the religion of Abraham, the upright. He was not of the idolaters. | {{Quote|{{quran|6|92}}|And this is a blessed Scripture which We have revealed, confirming that which (was revealed) before it, that thou mayst warn <b>the Mother of Villages</b> and those around her. Those who believe in the Hereafter believe herein, and they are careful of their worship.}}{{Quote|{{quran-range|3|95|97}}|95. Say: Allah speaketh truth. So follow the religion of Abraham, the upright. He was not of the idolaters. | ||
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*[[Hajj]] | *[[Hajj]] | ||
*[[Kaaba]] | *[[Kaaba]] | ||
*[[Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam]] | |||
*[[Muhammad]] | *[[Muhammad]] | ||