According to hisotian Mecca exist before that time of christian Pagan Era :
Edward Gibbon writes about the Ka'bah and its existence before the Christian era in his book:
..... of blind mythology of barbarians - of the local deities, of the stars, the air, and the earth, of their sex or titles, their attributes or subordination. Each tribe, each family, each independent warrier, created and changed the rites and the object of this fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, has bowed to the religion as well as to the language of Mecca. The genuine antiquity of
Caaba ascends beyond the Christian era: in describing the coast of the Red sea the Greek historian Diodorus has remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians; the linen of silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by the Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years before the time of Mohammad.
Which of course only takes us back to the beginning of the Christian era - or
over 1500 years after Abraham lived.
18th century English author Edward Gibbon's misunderstanding is covered in the thread at the following link.
http://islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=1121.0Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian of 1st century BC who wrote Bibliotheca Historica, a book describing various parts of the discovered world. The following lines are the English translation of Greek quoted by Gibbon from the book of Diodorus Siculus (Diodorus of Sicily) describing the 'temple' considered to be the the holiest in the whole of Arabia.
And a temple has been set-up there, which is very holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians.[2]
It is interesting to know that Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, mathematician and astronomer, flourishing about a century after Pliny, undertook to make an atlas of the habitable world. He was not a descriptive geographer, and his book was intended to be no more than a commentary on his maps. He enumerated some hundred and fourteen cities or villages in Arabia Felix.
Which is of course southern Arabia and Yemen. Spices were grown there and transported by ship up into the fertile crescent,
because no overland route along the Red Sea was established until around the 6th century BC, or almost a thousand years after Abraham lived. Wells had to be dug and towns established along the way in order to accommodate the eventual caravans. The historical record suggests that
Mecca was one of the last such towns established along this historically and archaeologically well documented trade route.
For example, Dumaetha, placed by Ptolemy just outside the northern boundary of Arabia Felix, must be the mediaeval Arabian Daumet, which is today the chief village of the great oasis of Jauf. Hejr, famous in the "times of ignorance" ........
As we have learned repeatedly in this forum, the "times of ignorance" for Mohammed's followers BEGAN with Mohammed rather than ended with him. Today that ignorance, among any but Mohammed's 3rd world followers, is inexcusably self-imposed.
http://islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=2268.0........ as the seat of a kingdom, and now Medayin Salih, ........
Which of course has nothing whatsoever to do with Mecca, but it seems to have everything to do with where the Qibla of the oldest mosques point to, according to the compass roses provided by the
ISLAMIC SITE "Islamic-Awareness".
Visit this link for an eyeful on Medayin Salih
http://islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=1121.0
Even Mohammed's tribe the Quraish continued to go on a summer and winter pilgrimages long after Mohammed invented his 7th century religion. His jealousy finally resulted in another "revelation" that put an end to the pilgrimages.
Quran 106:1
For the covenants by the Quraish, 2 Their covenants journeys by winter and summer,- 3 Let them adore the Lord of this House,........ is Ptolemy's Egra. His Thaim is Teima, now known for its inscriptions to have had temples and some sort of civilization as far back as 500 BC.
Which, of course, helps make my point since this is still nearly
A THOUSAND YEARS AFTER Abraham lived.
It is the Tema of Job. In Lathrippa, placed inland from Iambia (Yambo), we recognize the Iathrippa of Stephan of Byzantium, the Yathrib of the early Arab traditions, now honoured as El Medina, the City of Cities.
Apart from this a place called Macoraba is also shown which is identified as Mecca (please refer to the map facing page 17 of reference . G E von Grunebaum says:
Mecca is mentioned by Ptolemy,.......
Which is false. This nonsense comes from "In the Encyclopedia of Islam Wensinck identifies Mecca with a place called Macoraba mentioned by Ptolemy. His text is believed to date from the second century AD."
However Macoraba was not only an interior settlement of Arabia, but it was a relatively new settlement at the time that Ptolemy wrote about it, so even if it had been Mecca that would only reinforce the fact that Mecca was new to the scene during the Christian era.
Ptolemy placed the city of Macoraba at 73 20 longitude which means about three and a third degrees east of Yathrib.
http://islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=1138.msg4433#msg4433http://www.historyofmecca.com/historical_claims.htm
