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WikiIslam:Sandbox/Fernando/Mecca: Difference between revisions
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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, then some explanation is required of why Abraham should have wanted to travel so far south from Canaan. Both problems could be solved by accepting that Becca is not Mecca, but somewhere further north. In which case the sanctuary of Abraham has been lost. | 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, then some explanation is required of why Abraham should have wanted to travel so far south from Canaan. Both problems could be solved by accepting that Becca is not Mecca, but somewhere further north. In which case the sanctuary of Abraham has been lost. | ||
The only plausible solution to problems five and six, the fish eating farmers familiar with the city of Lot, is to accept that some verses of the Qur’an were not written in either Mecca or Medina (which is even more arid 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 [https://www.academia.edu/75302962/ ''The Qurʾān(s) in Context(s)''] Journal Asiatique 309.2 (2021) pp. 185-202 </ref>. | The only plausible solution to problems five and six, the fish eating farmers familiar with the city of Lot, is to accept that some verses of the Qur’an were not written in either Mecca or Medina (which is even more arid 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 [https://www.academia.edu/75302962/ ''The Qurʾān(s) in Context(s)''] ''Journal Asiatique 309.2'' (2021) pp. 185-202 </ref>. | ||
If Mecca is not the birthplace of Islam, where did it start? Further progress requires, not only more evidence, but an alternative theory. | If Mecca is not the birthplace of Islam, where did it start? Further progress requires, not only more evidence, but an alternative theory. | ||