Source: – @Aabhas24 / Twitter.
1/n “Ka’ba’s location has to be biggest debate of modern times, for the present one isn’t what historical sources say.”
I elaborate my studies in thread below, while drawing references from “Quranic Geography” by Dan Gibson. https://t.co/yifQyg6uDB
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
2/n In the final section of his book Gibson talks about the city of Mecca which is mentioned once in Skra 48. Quranic commentators have always tried to link the location of Bekka in Skra 3:96 with Mecca.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
3/n There are multiple references in the Quran to the sacred place,
the Ka’ba,& the house; terms which are universally associated with Mecca today. Nevertheless, the Quran doesn’t mention strongly that the Ka’ba was located in Mecca.Let me quote references in Quran.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
4/n
While Quran (3.96) mentions “Bekka”, we find mention of “Mecca” in (48.24). Refer Snippets.It must be noted that “Quran” was being revealed to Muhammad till his death. pic.twitter.com/MKaUS0VWQF
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
5/n Though Islamic scholars have shown zero interest to doubt the commonly believed Mecca’s location, but, some recent historians have raised questions.
Let me refer to Dr. Patricia Crone’s book “Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam”.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
6/n Dr Crone, mentions that the descriptions of Mecca in Islamic literature don’t seem to match the present day location of Mecca.
Prior to it,Dr. Crone co-authored a book with Michael Cook called “Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World”.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
7/n In that book they proposed a theory that “Islam, as represented by contemporary, Non-Muslim sources, was in essence a tribal rebellion against the Byzantine and Persian empires with deep roots in Judaism, and that Arabs and Jews were allies in these conquering communities.”
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
8/n Reference for 7/n & 9/n: Sean Gannon 2008-12-04, “The gospel truth?” The Jerusalem Post
This theory became popular but strong opposition made Crone’s later arguments about Mecca were obscured and eventually lost to the wider Muslim audience.https://t.co/DrHEudMbTN
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
9/n Gibson discovered while discussing early Islamic history with Muslim scholars that as soon as one mentioned Dr. Crone,the conversation immediately focuses on the “Hagarism” theory,often with angry reactions. It became impossible for them to address her thoughts.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
10/n Now I’ll put across several problems which exist with the location of Mecca. I’ll also share my explorations for the possibility that Mecca was originally located elsewhere and later moved to where it sits today.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
11/n Early Mentions of the Holy City
Gibson first time found this as an issue when talking to Muslims who had returned from their maiden Haj. They were surprised at the smallness of mountains,the distance they were from the city & expressed a vague dissatisfaction.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
12/n They were disheartened that it wasn’t what they had imagined when reading the Quran & the Hadiths. This made Gibson wonder if they had wrong expectations bcoz they had misinterpreted the passages, or if the passages themselves said something that didn’t match the location.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
13/n Now let’s look at some of the notions people have gained from reading ancient Islamic literature, and deduce how the present location of Mecca doesn’t seem to match these descriptions.
Read on👇🏼
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
14/n A) Mentioned as the “mother of all cities”
This is a term which brings to mind either a large and impressive city or a city of great antiquity.
Check this snippet. Quran, 6.92 pic.twitter.com/9tyLpKUzHr
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
15/n The term mother of all cities (Umm al-Qura) is still used for Mecca and Muslim scholars try to point out that it is worthy of this description.
Ref: Historic cities and sacred sites : cultural roots for urban futures (English), by Serageldin, Ismail; Shluger, Ephim; pg 8 pic.twitter.com/x3rLFJ7wzk
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
16/n In 2002 Gibson got chance to visit the Second Conference on Nabataean Studies organized by the Al Hussein Bin Talal University at Petra, Jordan. During the conference he had occasion to speak with several leading Jordanian & Saudi archeologists.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
17/n He asked them specifically about the archeological record in and around Mecca. Requesting not to be quoted publicly, they admitted that the archeological record at Mecca was basically non-existent before 900 AD.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
18/n Gibson had expected them to defend the opinion that ancient Mecca was a walled city with houses, gardens, public buildings and temples. But to his surprise,they shook their heads and said, “There was nothing like that there.”
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
19/n Let’s now look into other ideas regarding Mecca.
B) Described as the “center of the trade route”
Multiple times caravans are mentioned as coming and going from the Holy City & indeed Muhammad’s uncle was a merchant who regularly sent caravans on trading missions. pic.twitter.com/OQhqPYb3F5
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
20/n Reference for 19/n
“Life of Muhammad” by Ibn Ishaq , Pg 79
Link: https://t.co/hpa6nlVhrA
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
21/n Later, Muhammad married Khadija who also managed caravans of camels. Still later when living in Medina, Muhammad would raid Meccan caravans, some which consisted of as many as three thousand men.
Ref: “Life of Muhammad” by Ibn Ishaq , Pg 82
Link: https://t.co/hpa6nlVhrA pic.twitter.com/V3GJUXYkKA
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
22/n While conservatives are adamant that Mecca was the center of the trade route, modern historians give us a different picture. Dr. Patricia Crone mentions as below:
“Mecca was a barren place, and barren places do not make natural halts, and least of all when they are found..
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
23/n …at a short distance from famously green environments. Why should caravans have made a steep descent to the barren lands of Mecca when they could have stopped at T’if? Mecca did, of course, have both a well and a sanctuary, but so did T’if, which had food supplies, too”.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
24/n Reference for above: Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, by Patricia Crone, page 6-7https://t.co/oSPQdgMW8Z
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
25/n Dr. Crone further asks,”What commodity was available in Arabia that could be transported such a distance, through such an inhospitable environment, and still be sold at a profit large enough to support the growth of a city in a peripheral site bereft of natural resources?”
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
26/n Reference for 25/n
“Meccan Trade & the rise of Islam” by Patricia , page-7https://t.co/oSPQdgMW8Z— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
27/n Many claim that the caravans carried exotic goods,but according to research by Kister & Sprenger,the age of frankincense was over & the Arabs now engaged in a trade of leather and clothing;hardly items which could have founded a commercial empire of international dimensions.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 9, 2019
28/n Gibson has often traced the various trade routes on a map of Arabia during his seminars on pre-Islamic Arabia. Then he asks the audience to mention where all the
trade routes intersect. This would obviously seem to be the “center of the trade route.”— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
29/n Inevitably, everyone responds that they intersect in northern Arabia,not at Mecca which wasn’t even a stopping place on the caravan routes. 😊
It’s getting interesting isn’t it. Let me add more information.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
30/n Can you believe
C) Mecca missing on early maps
Anyone would expect that a major trade city in Arabia would be plotted on early maps. Such maps never claimed to show every sites, but certainly plotted significant and famous cities.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
31/n You will be surprised to know that not one map before 900 AD even mentions Mecca (Almost 2.5 centuries post Muhammad’s death).
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
32/n Gibson has done hard work of gathering copies of ancient maps of Arabia,diligently translating and transcribing,but couldn’t find once Mecca mentioned on an early map. An often quoted example of this is Ptolomy’s map of Arabia for 2nd Cen AD. Can u find Mecca in Snippet? 😉 pic.twitter.com/ZnGX3DpncV
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
33/n Mecca is never shown, and indeed the mention of Mecca does not appear in any literature prior to 740 AD (approximately 122 years after the Hijra) when it first appears in the Continuatio Byzantia Arabica. (Ref pg267, Appendix A,pg 396 in Quranic Geography by Gibson).
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
34/n Lets now talk about
D) The Meccan valley
The Quran & the Hadiths clearly speak of Mecca being in a valley, and as having another valley next to the Ka’ba (possibly a stream bed). Check the snippets from Quran and Hadith of Bukhari👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/2oPpfUVmX7
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
35/n Again Bukhari 4.583 talks of the valley again. Check the snippet pic.twitter.com/MIn4pj1asi
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
36/n Then let’s look into Bukhari 2.685. It gets even more interesting as it talks of rain in Holy Land.
Rain in currently known Mecca, isn’t it interesting?
Check the snippet. pic.twitter.com/0I30PTeegM
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
37/n The above verse is very important that helps to disqualify Mecca and accept Petra as a valid solution. Al Bukhari tells us that rain used to run in a passage between these two mountains, and that Muhammad whould walk between the two mountains in a rain water passage.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
38/n This indeed is a very unique description. Usually water runs between two mountains but never from one mountain to another.
Isn’t it?
In essence the Holy City was in a valley which contained a water passage that ran from one mountain to the other.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
39/n Speaking plainly,it was located in a large valley, and beside the Ka’ba existed a small valley with stream in it.
THIS IS WAY DIFFERENT FROM MODERN DAY MECCA.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
40/n Lets look at other aspect now
E) Something wrong seems with Mecca’s mountains
The Holy City is described to be surrounded by mountains where people could look down into the city to see the Yemeni elephant attacking the Ka’ba. Ref: “Life of Muhammad” by Ishaq, p25-26 pic.twitter.com/POi2d2c4kQ
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
41/n So what does it imply?
The mountains were close enough to Mecca & the Ka’ba that the people of Mecca could watch from the mountaintops in enough detail. Today in Mecca the nearest small outcropping of rocks is 1/2 a KM away from the Ka’ba with a gradual slope to the top.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
42/n But there are no recorded fortifications atop this mountain. The rest of the mountains are 3+ KMs away.
Can any Islamic expert pl tell me how do you get power to see an elephant at a distance of 3 km? 🤔🤔
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
43/n How much could you actually see?
Mecca is situated at an elevation of 277 meters AMSL in the wide dry river beds of the Wadi Ibrahim and several of its short tributaries. It is surrounded by low mountains. pic.twitter.com/3Md9HCDQfV
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
44/n Gibson has documented distances of mountains quite well in his book. The main wadi (valley) lies some 10-15 km away means that Mecca isn’t a valley in reality.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
45/n Throughout the year this wadi is dry and only flows during seasonal rains in the mountains.
In ancient times there was no natural flow of water through the village
of Mecca. pic.twitter.com/r1eChp6j2X— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
46/n One enters area through five wide passes in the surrounding mountains. These passes lead from the northeast to Jebal Min & Jebal ’Arafat; from the northwest to a coastal road to Medina; from the west to Jeddah on the coast; and from the south to Yemen. pic.twitter.com/9tzlDmrFFo
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
47/n The gaps have also defined the direction of the contemporary expansion of the city.
Many pilgrims feel disappointed with the two mountains called bafa and Marwah. They are so small that today they are totally enclosed inside of the mosque building complex.
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
48/n If we observe the Ka’ba in the center of the mosque complex, to the right is a long walkway that leads to Jebal bafa on one side & Jebal Marwah on the other (check the image below, the walkway is top to bottom). pic.twitter.com/wtdcqFa1ce
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
49/n The two mountains are actually so small that they are totally enclosed inside the building, allowing pilgrims to walk between them.
Now note these verses that describe the mountains of bafa and Marwah that supposedly has a rainwater passage between them👇🏼
— Aabhas Maldahiyar 🇮🇳 (@Aabhas24) July 10, 2019
