STUDIES
BY CLASSICAL WRITERS SHOW THAT
By Dr. Rafat Amari
We
refer the reader to the book of Dr. Amari, Islam in light of History,
for more arguments on the true history of
Accurate data from Greek geography excludes the appearance of
There is no mention of
To give you a better understanding, we'll look at the work of some of these classical writers. Greeks were well known for their accuracy in geography. So much so, that they didn't put much stock in reports provided by merchants. We can see this in the writings of Strabo, a famous Greek geographer and historian of the 1st century A.D. He emphasized how important it is to not depend on reports from merchants, but, to depend upon the official findings provided by geographers and historians who visited the regions themselves.[i][1] This makes the research on the geography of Arabia provided by ancient Greek geographers and historians a valuable resource, especially when they tell us which cities existed in West Arabia since the end of the 5th century B.C. through the 4th century AD. We see, then, that facts gathered by Greek geographers and historians are extremely important in establishing the dates when these cities first appeared. Since those geographers provided us with accurate reports dated between the end of the 5th century B.C. and the 3rd century A.D., scholars can easily determine within approximately 20 years the date of each city built in West Arabia. With reliable accuracy, we find that Mecca is absent from all the years documented by the Greek and Roman geographers. How ironic it is to claim that a city like Mecca existed as early as the Muslims claim, when it was never mentioned by the historians who documented that time period. So, the case for Mecca existing as a city since Abraham's time is more than a lost cause. It's the most unhistorical assertion that anyone could claim or insert into history.
Herodotus, an Ancient Greek Historian, Visits Arabia
Greeks have been interested in the Red Sea and its Western coast region since the 6th century B.C.[ii][2] One valuable geographical survey, which describes in detail the geography of Arabia, first appeared with another important document provided by Herodotus, the famous Greek historian of the 5th century B.C. Living between 485 B.C. and 425 B.C., Herodotus traveled throughout the ancient World. His main work Histories describes the countries he visited. He visited Arabia around the middle of the 5th century B.C. and wrote about the geography of Arabia. In his writings, he mentioned the names of the cities in the Arabian Peninsula. He did not mention Mecca.
Any religious city would be worthy of note, because those cities were critical to the culture of the times. Jerusalem, in Israel, and other religious cities were mentioned by Greek historians and geographers in their writings, as were religious cities in other parts of the world, such as Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. Due to its importance, Mecca would have been the first city to be mentioned in any survey or writing about Arabia. Yet, we find that an attentive historian like Herodotus, mentioned all the cities known at his time in Arabia – but he didn't mention Mecca.
THE GEOGRAPHERS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND ARABIA
A survey prepared by two geographers commissioned by Alexander the Great also excludes the presence of Mecca from accounts in the 4th century B.C.
We come to the 4th century B.C. Alexander the Great sent two Greek geographers to make a survey of Arabia in preparation for an invasion Alexander was planning. Although his death in 323 B.C. stopped the invasion, the classical historians and geographers whom Alexander sent succeeded in providing the Greeks with detailed information about Arabia. Those two men, Batlimos Bin Lagos and Aristopolos, developed an important survey which came to us through the Greek classical writer, Arianos, and the famous historian, Strabo. In their survey, they mention important details about the coast of the Red Sea and the surrounding region. If Mecca existed in the 4th century B.C., they couldn't have missed it. But there's no mention of Mecca in their reports.
The expedition of the two Greek historians sent by Alexander the Great is of special importance, because Alexander is known to have studied the cultural, historical and religious aspects of each country before battle, in order to determine how to deal with its inhabitants. If Mecca had existed at the time of Alexander's expedition, it would have attracted attention from the Greek geographers and historians whom he sent ahead.
If the Muslim's claim that Mecca, as the center of a monotheistic religion, had existed since the time of Abraham, it would have attracted worshippers from tribes in Arabia, including Yemen. Therefore, it would have been the subject of Alexander's two scholars. No other city would have been more important to present to their master, Alexander the Great, who doted passionately on religion and the history of religions. But the fact that they mention every detail of Arabia, without mentioning Mecca, is a clear demonstration that Mecca did not exist in the 4th century B.C. This leads us to the conclusion that the Qur'an and the Muslim claims about this city is historically inaccurate.
When comparing the historical claims of the Qur’an, with those of the Bible, we find that the Biblical claims are true and historically accurate. I cannot find a single critic in history who argued about the existence of Jerusalem. Records concerning Jerusalem and its monotheistic faith have come from each generation since the time the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, in the 15th century B.C. Records from Mesopotamia and Egypt all contain important entries about Jerusalem. We find in Hebrew literature complete records about the kings who reigned in the city of Jerusalem. Much literature attested to by internal and external records tells about the monotheistic worship by the Jews in the temple of Jerusalem.
These facts should convince our Muslim friends to return to the historical legacy of a monotheistic worship as proclaimed in the Bible and known through documented history – and not to give heed to claims which create a worship without any historical foundation housed in a pagan temple built in the 5th century A.D.
THEOPHRASTOS' SURVEY
Theophrastos' survey also excludes the existence of Mecca during the end of the 3rd century B.C.
We continue our study by looking at the works of other classical writers who wrote on the geography of Arabia. If we really study these works, we'll learn that they prove that Mecca did not exist until after the 4th century A.D.
An important Greek historian, Theophrastos, lived in the 4th century B.C. He wrote about the Sabaeans – their trade, their land and their marine routes. He wrote in detail about the region but he never mentioned Mecca . That is significant, because Muslims claim that, in ancient history, Mecca was a center of commerce with Yemen and the Sabaeans. In spite of this claim, we find that Theophrastos, who specialized in describing details about the region – especially all trade connections and the routes – did not mention Mecca.
After the death of Alexander the Great, many classical writers and historians arose who were concerned about the geography and history of Arabia. Most of these historians and geographers lived in the city of Alexandria, which was the capital of the Ptolemies. The first university in the world was established in Alexandria, and it boasted of a famous library, the Library of Alexandria. One of the most important historical figures of Alexandria was the famous geographer, Eratosthenes. He lived between 275-195 B.C., And he contributed greatly to documenting the geography of Arabia. Eratosthenes gathered important information from various resources. He examined the data obtained by the explorers who were sent by Alexander the Great, and data by geographical expeditions initiated by the Alexander Ptolemaic successors.[iii][3] These Greek expeditions continued through the 3rd century B.C.[iv][4]
Information from the expeditions of Ptolemy II in 278 B.C. encompassed the southern regions of the Red Sea and the African coast. They were used to help in the control of the spice route coming from India and Yemen. This information was also used to facilitate elephant hunts. Elephants were used in the Ptolemies wars against the Seleucids, the royal Greek family which dominated Syria. These factors opened the door for a systematic collection of geographical data of the African coast of the Red Sea and the Arabian coast. The results of this geographical activity was the book of Eratosthenes, and an important map.[1][a]
Eratosthenes measured the length of the Red Sea. He also gave a complete survey of the land and marine routes which connect southern Arabia with Aqaba, or Ilat on the north, which is the Israeli port on the Red Sea. He described all the people and centers in the region, but he didn't mention Mecca, even though he followed the land route upon which Mecca was eventually built.
Classical Geographers Describe the Area Where Mecca was Eventually Built as “Uninhabitable.”
Among the things which Eratosthenes described is the Arabian region, which corresponds to Africa's coastal region along the Red Sea called the Troglodytic land.[v][5] The Troglodytic Land is an important region for our study because there is a huge desert area opposite it on the Arabian coast of the Red Sea. This was described by the classical geographers. The southern part of the Troglodytic Land was an arid area without cities or villages. It was a dangerous region where savage nomads roamed from time to time, attacking caravans. This area was described by the classical writers as uninhabitable, dividing the region of Northern Arabia from Southern Arabia. We know of nothing that was built in that area until Mecca was built there around the 4th century A.D. Yet, it was the most fearful tract in the land route. During the 3rd century B.C., around the time of the Sabaeans of Yemen, they began using the land route in commerce with Israel and Syria. It continued to be the most dangerous tract of land until after the Christian era.
Eratosthenes mentioned the area of Arabia, opposite to the African Red Sea region called Troglodytic Land. While geographers, who came in the centuries following Eratosthenes, described some areas near this one, Eratosthenes did not. This tells us that in 275-195 B.C., at the time of Eratosthenes, many areas around this one were not inhabited. They were part of a huge desert. Since the land route beside the Red Sea from Yemen toward Palestine was scarcely used in Eratosthenes' time, we conclude that no villages were yet established along it.
We know that Eratosthenes’ report expresses not only his time – starting from the end of the 3rd century B.C. but also the various geographers who ventured and visited the area before, starting with the two explorers of the Alexander the Great during the last part of the 4th century B.C. If Mecca had existed in Eratosthenes' time, how had he failed to put it on his map of that region? It would have become a refuge for the travelers and their caravans, and would have become the pride of the Red Sea. No villages or cities were described by him, or by those who explored before him, because no villages or cities existed. Mecca would have become a center of rest and hope for the geographers and those who crossed that arid and terrible tract of the desert. Mecca, if it had existed in Eratosthenes' time, would likely have been the main reference point for his map – for it is logical that he would have used Mecca as the point of reference from which distances to other regions were estimated and measured. But, unfortunately, geographers such as Eratosthenes did not have any city or village to use as reference in the area where Mecca was eventually built. Nor was there a temple in that arid and desert region, to be a pride for such desert. Nor were there religious or non-religious tribes which would require a temple to be built for their worship.
How ironic it is to build a historical, monotheistic faith on this arid uninhabited tract of the desert. And how strange that it shifted people’s attention from the Truth to Arabian paganism in the centuries following the Christian era.
If this is the picture of this neglected part of the desert in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. , even when the initiated land route had just scarcely started, then how unrealistic it is to conclude that this part of the desert was a center of the Monotheism in the 21st century B.C. at the time of Abraham, where no land routes were known, and Yemen, itself, was unknown to the contemporaries of the Patriarch. To build an eternal hope on this tract of sand, which did not express life through history to help anyone create a religious legacy, is fatal for the soul. However, the tribe of Mohammed came to live on this unimportant region of sand in the 5th century A.D. After emigrating from Yemen, and after Mohammed claimed himself as prophet of Allah, he wanted to shift the legacy of the Bible to his tribe’s new location, yet it did not affect the historical reports about such tract of the desert. Our Muslim friends need to return to the real legacy of monotheism known in history. They need to acquire a Biblical view, where it is prophesied many times that the true Savior of the world is Jesus Christ. This is the only trustworthy legacy through which all people are called by God to seek Him and His salvation. Many, many people in every generation have received salvation when they have believed in the atoning death of Christ as prophesied in the Old Testament.
Isaiah, who prophesied in 750 B.C. concerning the suffering of Christ, said in chapter 53 verse 5:
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
This is an invitation for every person who longs to be healed from his or her sin, to look to the righteous lamb who was slain for us on the cross. Jesus did not refuse to be led to the place where He would be slain, as Isaiah also prophesied in the next verse:
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.
He was willing to be slain, though He is the all-powerful One about whom Isaiah said in chapter 9, verse 6:
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.
The powerful God went to the Cross – though He was able to avoid it – because He was willing to pay the penalty for our sins so that we can live forever.
In our study, we now come to the 2nd century B.C. Without doubt, the most important geographer and historian of the time was Agatharchides of Alexandria, who wrote between 145-132 B.C. He was believed to be a major figure in compiling Egypt's political history in the late 2nd century B.C.[vi][6]
Because he was very close to the royal palace of the Ptolemies, he had first-hand knowledge of the results of the expeditions which took place throughout the 3rd and 2nd centuries, especially in the regions around the Red Sea, the African shore and West and South Arabia. He had access to sources which documented the achievements of the Ptolemies. These were mainly reports presented by the envoys of the kings during the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd centuries B.C.[vii][7] Agatharchides coordinated all the information as a keen synthesizer and analyzer. He documented the names of the explorers who visited the region. Among those he mentioned was the name of the geographer, Ariston. That geographer is the one Ptolemy dispatched in the 3rd century B.C. to explore Arabia, especially the regions of West Arabia near the Red Sea where Mecca was later built.[viii][8]
Agatharchides mentioned the name of other explorers, such as Simmias, whom Ptolemy III sent to explore the region. Agatharchides told how Simmias described the region, and how this had become an important resource.[ix][9]
Agatharchides also studied books written by other geographers sent by the Ptolemies.[x][10] Scholars think he drew heavily from Anaxicrates' voyage to South and West Arabia.[xi][11] We know of at least seven authors who visited and wrote about the Red Sea region during the 3rd century B.C. Among them are: Pythagoras,[xii][12] who was an admiral under Ptolemy II, Basilis, Dalion, Bion of Soli, Simonides the Younger, Aristocreon, and Philon. Scholars assert that Agatharchides consulted all of their writings. Those books were available in the famous Library of Alexandria. In fact, we understand from the narration of Strabo, that Eratosthenes made a collection of these books.[xiii][13] Agatharchides synthesized and gathered information from reports and books which explorers and geographers had written before his time. He also depended upon people he encountered whom he called “eyewitness.” Among them were envoys of the king, traders and explorers who visited the regions surrounding the Red Sea.[2][b] Unfortunately, the original documented survey of Agatharchides on the Erythraean Sea disappeared, but almost the entire book has survived in the writings of three classical writers: Strabo, Photius and Diodorus. The most significant summary of Agatharchides' book is found in Photius' book, “Bibliotheca.” [3][c]
The accuracy of his survey is very much accepted by scholars. The expeditions and discoveries from the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. confirmed the accuracy of the writings of Agatharchides, as they corresponded completely to his writings. Burstein, in his book Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, describes it this way, “they have vindicated its basic accuracy so that, once again, it is recognized by scholars as one of the most important sources for the study of the history and human geography of ancient northwest Africa and western Arabia to survive from antiquity.”[xiv][14]
One example scholars give to defend Agatharchides' accuracy is how he described the shores and adjoining water. Agatharchides tells us that the color of the water opposite Saba Land, South Arabia, was white, like river water. The phenomenon is still true today.[xv][15] Another element which proves the accuracy and value of his writings is the similarity between his descriptions of tribes and people living in the area, and the description of the same people in later reports.[xvi][16] Agatharchides gives measurements of various tracts along the shores of the Red Sea in West Arabia. This tells us that his writing depended on testimony from expert geographers who examined the shore and the regions of Arabia connected to it.
Ptolemies wanted an exact study of the region to protect their trade in the Red Sea, and to know how to deal with various groups of population or tribes living in regions connected with the Red sea. They also wanted to know the exact lengths of regions where the trade might find uninhabited areas, or areas with savage tribes or Bedouins. This justified the quantity and the quality of a prolonged, intensive and accurate study through the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., where the Ptolemies started to control the movement of trade on the Red Sea, and deal with piracy which threatened such trade coming from the interior Arabian regions. The book of Agatharchides reflected the success of the Greek geographers in providing to the Ptolemies accurate and detailed geographical and geographical information of the region of West Arabia.
Although Agatharchides wrote about locations along the Red Sea, including all the temples and routes which pass through the area where Mecca was eventually built, he never mentioned Mecca, nor its temple.
In his description of West Arabia, Agatharchides mentions each of the populations present in the 3rd century and the first half of the 2nd century B.C. in the regions adjacent to the Red Sea. He began with the Nabataeans, who had their capital in south Jordan and then penetrated into north Arabia, and he went on to describe each population, city, port, temple and mountain, until he reached Yemen. Here's what we learn from Agatharchides' accounts: He passed through the region where Mecca was later built, but he never mentioned Mecca, nor did he mentioned a single temple in that region, although temples were a central subject in his study. We find him stopping to give the origin of the Poseidon Temple, in the northwest coast of Sinai. He tells who built it and for whom it was built. We find him also giving much attention to the temple located in the Negev desert, saying:
There is also an ancient altar that is made of hard stone and bears an inscription in lettering that is archaic and unintelligible. The sanctuary is cared for by a man and a woman who occupy their sacred office for life.[xvii][17]
Agatharchides accurately reports the Greek trend to know about the temples existing in each region, especially in Sinai and West Arabia, where a temple is a rarity. The Greeks had a passion to know the origin of each temple. In the temple in the Negev, the Greeks made an effort to analyze the archaic inscription carved in the stone altar. They also described the source of the priesthood who served in the temple.
Agatharchides told about another temple close to Ilat in the Aqaba gulf area. It is in a land belonging to a tribe called “Batmizomaneis.” Agatharchides emphasizes that the temple, in his own words, “is highly revered by all the Arabs.”[xviii][18]
Many Muslims claim that Agatharchides’ temple was actually the temple of Mecca. To fix the exact place of that temple, let’s follow the narration of Agatharchides, as reported by Photius and Diodorus. Agatharchides began to describe regions north of this temple, including the Nabataeans around the Gulf of Aqaba, which was called the Laeanites Gulf. In Photius and Diodorus, Agatharchides says:
One encounters the Laeanites Gulf around which there are many villages of the so-called Nabataean Arabs. They occupy much of the coast and not a little of the adjacent country which extends into the interior and contains a population that is unspeakably great as well as herds of animals that are unbelievably numerous. In ancient times they led a just life and were satisfied with livelihood provided by their flocks, but later, after the kings in Alexandria had made the gulf navigable for merchants, they attacked those who suffered shipwreck. They also built pirate vessels and plundered sailors, imitating the ferocity and lawlessness of the Tauri in the Pontus. But later they were caught at sea by quadriremes and properly punished. After what is called the Laeanites Gulf, around which Arabs live, is the land of the Bythemaneas.
Notice that the land of Bythemaneas is connected to the south of the Nabataeans' region, close to Gulf of Aqaba. ( See FIG. 2, at the end of the article). Musil, a famous scholar on Arabia, declared that this land was the “lower portion of the Wadi al- Abjaz, namely the so-called Wadi al 'efal[4][d], a lowland 50 Km long by 20 km. wide just east of the Gulf of Aqaba.”[xix][19] The narration of Agatharchides continues:
Next after this section of the coast is a bay which extends into the interior of the country for a distance of not less than five hundreds stades. Those who inhabit the territory within the gulf are called Batmizomaneis and are hunters of land animals.
The stade, or stadia, according to the system of Eratosthenes, equals one tenth of an English mile,[xx][20] thus making the land of Bythemaneas only about 50 miles. He is placing the inhabitants of Batmizomaneis within the gulf region, as we see from his statement, “Those who inhabit the territory within the gulf are called Batmizomaneis.” He means that these people lived within the Laeanites Gulf, which was the old name for the Gulf of Aqaba. The narration of Diodorus is parallel to that of Photius because both copied the writings of Agatharchides in his fifth book On the Erythraean Sea. Diodorus says:
The people who inhabit the country beside the gulf ,who are named the Banizomenes , support themselves by hunting and eating the flesh of land animals. A very sacred temple has been established there which is highly revered by all the Arabs.
We see that both Photius and Diodorus placed the people of Banizomenes or (Batmizomaneis) beside the gulf of the Laeanites, or the Gulf of Aqaba, many miles from where Mecca was eventually built. Mecca is in central western Arabia, very close to Yemen. Following their comments on Banizomenes, the two authors speak of another area in the south, the Thamud territory. They describe it in these words, “after these it is the territory of the Thamoudeni Arabs.” [xxi][21] The Thamud tribe was known in history to inhabit northern Arabia close to the Aqaba gulf, they never reached to the south, toward the area where Mecca was later built. So the temple described by Diodorus was between the Thamud region and the city of Petra, within the Gulf of Aqaba region.
After Photius mentioned the Thamud region, he mentioned the next segment to the south of Thamud. [xxii][22] Scholars have identified this segment as the portion of the coast between Ras karama (25 54 N, 36 39 E.) and Ras Abu Madd (24 50 N, 37 08 E). [xxiii][23] Ras Abu Madd is about 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of Mecca. This accurate study shows clearly that the Temple mentioned by Diodorus was in the Aqaba Gulf region, north to the Thamud region, and could not be identified with the temple of Mecca. (See Fig.2, at the end of the article )
Nonnosus, another classical writer, seems to speak about the same temple at the same place close to Petra. This temple is built to honor the Arabian deities. Nonnosus says:
Most of the Saracens, those Phoinikon and those beyond the Taurenian mountains, consider as sacred a place dedicated to I do not know what god and they assemble there twice a year. [xxiv][24]
The Saracens are a people mentioned by Pliny in Natural History, Book V, Chapter 12, as people who live in the Gulf of Aqaba not far from the city of Petra. Crone studied the locations and tribes who venerated this temple. She has located the temple in the northern region of the Gulf of Aqaba. The Saracens are people in northern Arabia. Since the Taurenian Mountains are Jabal Tayyi', the sanctuary is located in the northern area of the Gulf of Aqaba. [xxv][25] This leads us to assume that Nonnosus was speaking about the same temple mentioned by Diodorus.
This temple mentioned by Diodorus is built to honor the Arabian deities. The remarks of the Greek historians and geographers about this temple though situated within the secondary tribe’s domain, is very significant. They remark that the temple is highly revered by all the Arabs. The Greeks are very careful to distinguish the temple, which has special importance and is revered by many, in a land, regardless of where it is located.
With such propensity of the Greek historians and geographers, it seems impossible that they could fail to mention a temple with a special claim such as to draw worshippers from all tribes, as Islam claims, for the temple of Mecca. The fact is that neither Mecca, nor its temple, is mentioned by Agatharchides, although he to pursue with such passion all temples existent until his time;This is a clear indication that Mecca, nor its temple, did not exist during such times.
Agatharchides covered the narrations of geographers of the 3rd century and his time which was the first part of the 2nd century B.C. Scholars today confirm the fact that the temple near the Aqaba Gulf, close to the border with South Jordan, was revered by Arabian tribes, just as the classical authors had written.
Scholars today believe that even Quraish, which is the tribe of Mohammed, traveled north every year to a revered temple. There are many proofs that Quraish neglected the temple of Mecca and made their Hajj to the north. Wellhausen quotes the words of al-Kalbi, “people would go on a pilgrimage and then disperse, leaving Mecca empty.” [xxvi][26] In their thinking, another temple had pre-eminence over Kaabah, the temple at Mecca.
Verses in the Qur'an tell us that the citizens of Mecca used to make a trip “far away,” but later the Qur'an put a stop to the practice. Mohammed also prohibited people from making this religious trip after he occupied Mecca. Quraish used to go to Taif in the summer. This is attested to by a saying of Ibn Abbas, as reported in the Tabari. [xxvii][27] The other trip may be toward a northern temple.
Agatharchides' survey, along with what we have discussed, confirms the fact that Mecca and its temple didn't exist during the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. Even when the temple was eventually built in later centuries A.D., it was a local temple of secondary importance, disregarded even by the tribe to which Mohammed belonged. Mohammed's tribe used to make a pilgrimage with other Arabian tribes to a temple in the far northern part of Arabia.
It's unhistorical to believe the Islamic claim that the temple in Mecca was built by Abraham and Ishmael as a center of monotheistic worship for Arabia. Muslims today need to renounce this claim and return to the true monotheism of history, the revelation of God, which the Bible alone represents. Such Biblical revelation has been documented in all epochs since the time Moses received the first five books of the Bible until Revelation, the last book of the New Testament.
Nonnosus Reports on the Temple in the Gulf of Aqaba Area
This temple mentioned by Agatharchides in northern Arabia in the Aqaba Gulf region is attested to by Nonnosus. Previously, I quoted the words of Nonnosus regarding this temple, as we find them in the book of Photius:
Most of the Saracens , those Phoinikon and those beyond the Taurenian mountains, consider a place dedicated to I do not know what god as sacred, and assemble there twice a year.
The first of these gatherings lasts a whole month and goes on until the middle of Spring. The other lasts two months. While these gathering last, they live in complete peace not only with each other, but also with all the people who live in their country. They claim that even the wild beasts live in peace with men and, what is more, among themselves.[xxviii][28]
This tells us that the northern temple was a place where many tribes would perform a pilgrimage twice a year. During this pilgrimage, the tribes abstained from fighting each other. If one of the religious trips of Quraish was to this temple, It is clear that Mohammed tried to stop this famous and historical Arabian temple pilgrimage. He directed Quraish, the tribe of Mecca, as well as other tribes, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca instead.
From the quotation of Nonnosus, we see that the northern temple had similarities between their rituals and the rituals we encounter in the temple at Mecca and in other temples of Arabia. These rituals included the Hajj, and abstinence from war during the Hajj. These rituals performed in the temple of Mecca reflect those of pagan Arabian religions. The temple of Mecca was built in the 5th century A.D. by Tubb'a, the Himyarite leader of Yemen. However, the Quraish tribe, like many Arabian tribes, continued to make a pilgrimage twice a year. The word "Hajj" means pilgrimage. Scholars think the Quraish were regularly traveling on these pilgrimages to the temple at Taif and to a temple located in the far north of Arabia. These travels were performed long before Mohammed imposed worship at the Temple of Mecca on all Muslims and annulled worship at the other temples of Arabia. Therefore, with the accuracy of Agatharchides and the geographers of that time, we see that neither the temple of Mecca nor the city of Mecca existed at that time. Instead, there was another temple, which attracted the Arabian tribes. That temple was located near the border between northern Arabia and Jordan.
Quraish, the tribe of Mohammed, occupied Mecca after it was built around the 4th century A.D. by another tribe called Khuzaa'h who had come from Yemen. So the Quraish tribe did not find a revered ancient temple in the city. Even after the temple of Mecca was built in the city later, the Quraish continued the practice of many Arabian tribes and made a pilgrimage twice a year.
The Qur’an in Sura Quraish 106 verses 1-3 prohibits the tribe to do their “covenant” for two journeys. I think the two pilgrimages to a northern temple and to the temple of Taif are intended in the Qur’anic verse and, instead, compel them to worship Allah in the temple of Mecca. Sura Quraish 106 verses 1-3 says:
for the covenants by the Quraish; their covenants covering journeys by winter and summer. Let them adore the lord of this house.
Islamic tradition confirms that Quraish used to have two religious Hajj to other places in northern Arabia. Scholars think that Quraish were traveling on these pilgrimages to a temple located in the far north of Arabia and to the Taif temple. These travels were regularly performed before Mohammed imposed worship at the temple of Mecca, called Kaabah, on all Muslims. Mohammed annulled worship at the other temples of Arabia, many of which were also called Kaabah.
The Kaabah of Mecca was Part of a Religious System Involving Many Kaabahs of Arabia That Belonged to Arabian Star Worship
In the worship before Mohammed's time, “Kaabah” was the name given to all the temples of the so-called “Family Star Religion” of Arabia. The Kaabah of Mecca was no exception. Each Kaabah had the same basic cubic form, with the same structural details on the inside as are found in the temple at Mecca. For example, each temple had a well where gifts were placed. Also, each temple had a well which provided holy water for use in the rites of the pilgrimage. In the case of Mecca, this well is called Zamzam.
The Main element in the Kaabahs are the black stones, a key element in worship. These stones are meteorites that the Arabians found and revered. Wherever one of these stones was found, a temple was built around it. So each Kaabah has one black stone which is held in esteem as a deity representing the family star. Pilgrims visiting any of these Kaabahs perform many of the same rites we encounter in the rites at Mecca. For example, men and women wearing special clothing circle around the black stone. The Kaabahs originated in Yemen and were dedicated to “The Star Family.” Hilal, the moon, was the father and Ellat, the sun, was his wife. The Kaabahs spread across Arabia with the emigration of many Yemeni tribes in the north. The tribe of Khuzaa'h emigrated from Yemen in the 2nd century A.D. to the area where Mecca was later built. In the 4th century A.D. they built the city of Mecca. Asa’d Abu Karb, the Yemeni leader who occupied Mecca during his reign in Yemen from 410 to 435 A.D., built the temple of Mecca with the same specifications as Yemeni existing temples. They worshipped the daughters of Allah, and his wife, Ellat, the sun, just as in every Kaabah in Yemen and in regions of northern Arabia.
Through the report of Agatharchides , we know that the area where Mecca was eventually built as uninhabited during his time.
We will now return to our discussion of the works of Agatharchides. He is known for describing in detail the regions of Arabia along the Red Sea. He identified all the peoples that lived along the entire Arabian coast of the Red Sea. Agatharchides described the geography from the coast of the Red Sea to 100 miles inland. He mentioned cities like Petra, located about 80 miles from the coast. This was the area that the caravans begin to use in the 3rd century B.C. as their land trading route along the Red Sea.
The Greek and Roman geographers were very interested with the strip of land which extended in depth from the shore of the Red Sea to about 100 miles inland, and in length from Sinai to Yemen. This strip of land is important to our study, because this is the place where Mecca was later built – about 40 miles from the shore. Although sites in this area were well documented, Mecca is absent in the descriptions of all the Greek and Roman geographers from this time who explored and described this strip of land.
There is another historical strip of land which starts about 150 to 200 miles from the Red Sea in northwestern Arabia. A few cities were built on some of the oases in this region around the 9th century B.C. Among the first cities built were Dedan and Qedar. Other cities were built later when a trading route developed between the oasis cities and Yemen in the 8th century B.C. Among these cities were Yathrib and Khaybar, which are mentioned in various records of the kings and the people who occupied northwestern Arabia, an area also called Hijaz. The location where Mecca was later built is also located in Hijaz. Mecca is not mentioned in these different records.
One of the kings who ruled in the area of northwestern Arabia, known as Hijaz, was Nabonidus, the Babylonian king. Nabonidus transferred his residence to the city of Teima in northern Arabia for 10 years (550-540 B.C.). In what has been called, the “Verse Account of Nabonidus ” we read:
Nabonidus killed the prince of Teima and took his residency and built there his palace like his palace in Babylonia.[xxix][29]
From an inscription which Nabonidus left at his original city Harran, we know that during his sojourn at Teima he also ruled the cities of Hijaz existing at that time. Among them were Yathrib (Medina) and Khaybar,[xxx][30] but he did not mention Mecca. (See Fig. 4, at the end of the article) Mecca, if it existed at that time, would have been the only city of Hijaz which he did not conquer. This would have been strange for a strong Babylonian king to conquer so deep and far into the land of Hijaz, reaching as far as Yathrib, and then spare Mecca. The fact is that he did not mention Mecca because it did not exist in his time, which was the middle of the 6 th century B.C. Therefore, Mecca is absent from the historical picture of the events of northern Arabia during the aforementioned times.
This strip of land bordering the Red Sea holds yet another key to the dating of Mecca. The land is historically attested to by expeditions of Greeks and Romans . It is also attested to by kingdoms that tried to control the trade across it from Yemen toward Palestine and Syria. One of these kingdoms is the Nabataean kingdom, situated on the border between Arabia and Jordan. Another is the Main Kingdom in Yemen. In all their reports, Mecca is absent from the archaeological records.
Agatharchides’ survey covered, in detail, this strip of land along the Red Sea where Mecca was built in later times. He started systematically with the Nabataeans and mentioned a body of water called the Laeanites Gulf. This confirms the influence of the Lihyan kingdom on the region of Aqaba Gulf. This influence extended from the 4th century B.C. until the 2nd century B.C.
Agatharchides also tells us about the land inhabited by people called the Batmizomaneis. He says:
Next after this section of the coast is a bay which extends into the interior of the country for a distance of not less than five hundred stades. Those who inhabit the territory within the gulf are called Batmizomaneis and they are hunters of land animals.[xxxi][31]
( A "stade" is one eighth of an English mile.) Fig.2(at the end of the article) shows the Gulf of Aqaba where the land of the Batmizomaneis is located – south of the Nabataeans and north of the Thamud.
In this land Agatharchides mentioned the temple which all the Arabs used to revere, the temple that I discussed previously. This temple is not the temple of Mecca; geographers had placed the temple in the land of the Batmizomaneis, close to Petra, about 700 miles distant from where Mecca was built. It is interesting to note that Agatharchides describes each group of people living on the strip along the Red Sea, and he explicitly mentions how far each one's territory extended into the interior. As a careful Greek geographer, he documented, in detail, all the people and the geography of the strip, mentioning places at least 100 miles into the interior of Arabia.
After describing land along the Red Sea, Agatharchides turns to the Thamud region, which covered a section north of the strip about which we've been talking. He says this area is inhabited by "Arabs called Thamoundeni," or Thamud, a tribe which first appeared in the 8th century B.C. and continued until the 5th century A.D. The existence of the Thamuds is also reflected in Assyrian records, whose inscriptions on rocks proved that the Thamuds were scattered through a wide part of northern Arabia, including the strip along the Red Sea. Agatharchides describes many details about this part of strip – the length of the Thamudic coast, and other particulars. This helped scholars to identify the coasts which come next after this Thamudic coast, corresponding to today’s maps of the Red Sea. In fact, the next coast he described have been identified by geographers as the coast between the following current locations in Arabian peninsula: Ras Karkama located at 25 54’ N, 36 39’ E, and Ras Abu Madd located at 24 50’ N, 37 08 E.[xxxii][32] Ras Abu Madd is about 450 kilometers (280 miles) from Mecca.
After describing the place identified today as Ras Abu Madd, Agatharchides seemed to pass through uninhabited areas. Previously, he would stop to describe the inhabitants of each area, but after leaving the area which the geographers identified with the region that ends with Ras Abu Madd, there are no description of inhabitants. It is unusual for Agatharchides and the other geographers upon whom he depended to fail to describe an area if it was inhabited. To fail to tell about the inhabitants of an area allows us to conclude that the area was uninhabited. This segment without inhabitants corresponds to the strip where Mecca was built in later times. This fact is reconfirmed by other geographical facts; not only by scholars recognizing the tract that it precedes it, namely, the tract between Ras Karkama and Ras Abu Madd, the two cities which we find today on the map of Arabia. But it is also identifiable by the tract, which follows in the description of Agatharchides, which he describes with the following words:
The next part of the coast is dominated by dunes which are infinite in their length and breadth and black in color.
This is identified by scholars with (the black basalt Harat Shama half way between Jeddah and the lagoon of al-Sharifa.)[xxxiii][33] Today Jeddah is considered as the port of Mecca – it is about 40 miles distant from it. Al-Sharifa is described by the geographical books as “a very long inlet, parallel to the coast immediately northwest of al-Lith, shut in by a long narrow island, Jezirat Qishran.”[xxxiv][34] (See Fig. 3, at the end of the article)
After the area where Jeddah and Mecca were built, Agatharchides described another arid, uninhabited area in his time which extended about 86 miles to the south. From his description, we can see a long tract, starting from Ras Abu Madd until half-way between Jeddah and the Lagoon of al-Sharifa, which was uninhabited in the time of Agatharchides. It is the tract where Mecca was built in later times. This tract we can estimate to be about 460 miles in length. Mecca was built in the 4th century A.D. in the middle of this tract which divides northwestern Arabia (particularly where some of the Thamuds came to live along the Red Sea) from other tracts which connect central west Arabia with southern Arabia. It was a huge arid geographical barrier between northwestern Arabia and the southwest, where no inhabitants lived at the time of Agatharchides, who wrote about the 3rd century B.C. and his times, the middle of the 2nd century B.C.
This observation of Agatharchides about this tract located in central western Arabia is understandable historically, because the tribes which inhabited the north of Arabia along the Red Sea were mainly Lihyanites and Thamuds, along with the Nabataeans who extended their dominion sometimes over Northwestern Arabia. None of these tribes were known in history to have lived toward the central western portion of Arabia where this uninhabited tract (that later became the city of Mecca) is situated. All this tells us is that it would be easier for the people of Alaska to claim that Abraham went to the frozen north and built a temple to establish a monotheistic religion, than for Mohammed to claim that Abraham built a city in an arid tract along the Red Sea in central west Arabia – an area which never attracted people to inhabit it, even the closest tribes of North Arabia. Neither of the tribes and nations closest to such tract from the southern direction had ever inhabited such tract of central western Arabia.
ARTEMIDORUS’ SURVEY
Artemidorus’ survey showed that the tract on central western Arabia, where Mecca was later built, was still uninhabited as late as 103 B.C.
Another Greek geographer and historian, Artemidorus of Ephesus, wrote a total of eleven geography books. He lived around 103 B.C. and was quoted by the historian, Strabo. Although Artemidorus included extensive excerpts from the book of Agatharchides in his eleven-book survey of world geography,[xxxv][35] he also included additional information gathered by others in his time, and from his own travels, as well.[xxxvi][36] Consequently, Artemidorus, as well as Agatharchides, described the strip of land along the Red Sea. Just like Agatharchides, Artemidorus described the nature of each tract along the coast of the Red Sea and the population who lived there. When he came to the same central western Arabian tract where Mecca was later built, he didn’t mention any people living there, making it clear that around 103 B.C. this tract was still uninhabited. He mentioned some islands near that area which were also uninhabited.[xxxvii][37] He has to walk very much more to the south of this region in order to find a small port. To the south of this port was a land inhabited by the so-called “Debae” people. There were Bedouins traveling in the area and a few farmers, but no cities were seen in that area. Artemidorus had to travel much further south to near the border of Yemen to find, as he said, “more civilized” people.[xxxviii][38] In other words, the tract of central western Arabia where Mecca was built later was still uninhabited as of 103 B.C. This tract is divided from Yemen by an area, which is inhabited only by uncivilized Bedouin tribes.
The Roman expedition into western and southern Arabia accurately described the villages which were built in the area of central western Arabia , but they never mentioned a city called Mecca.
Our history doesn’t end here. In the year 30 B.C. Egypt became a Roman province. The Romans then wanted to control the Arabian regions along the Red Sea, especially south of the city called Leuce Kome on the shore of the Arabian Red Sea. From there, through the central western shore, were places where savage tribes were acting as pirates and threatening sea navigation. The Romans also wanted to control Yemen and, subsequently, the spices trade coming from India through Yemen.