THE ABSENCE OF MECCA IN THE ETHIOPIAN, SYRIAN, ARAMAIC AND COPTIC LITERATURE
The absence of Mecca in the Ethiopian, Syrian, Aramaic and Coptic literature points to the fact that it couldn't have been founded during the 3rd century A.D.Let's look at Ethiopian literature. The Ethiopians were also concerned with documenting Arabian cities on the opposite coast of the Red Sea, especially in the area where Mecca was eventually built. Again, we see that there is no mention of Mecca in their surveys. Neither do we find any mention of Mecca during the 2nd, 3rd or 4th century A.D. This also demonstrates that Mecca did not exist at the time of Ptolemy; we have to place its origin at a later date.
That Mecca was not built before the 2nd century is an indisputable fact. The question now is whether we can determine if Mecca was built in the 3rd century or the 4th century A.D. The absence of records in Syrian, Aramaic and Coptic literature makes the dates for the existence of Mecca later than the 3rd century A.D. Crone, whom I mentioned earlier, did a survey of the Coptic and Syrian literature which was concerned with Arabia, but none of these works mentioned Mecca.[lxiii][63]
We also have other reasons to assume that the date for Mecca's founding was after the beginning of the 4th century. We find some help in Christian evangelistic and missionary activities in Arabia and Christian literature. They do not mention Mecca either.
We also know that the Christians under the Byzantine Empire tried to evangelize Arabia. The Byzantine emperor targeted the main cities of Arabia and sent missionaries to evangelize and establish churches. This evangelism was so successful that, at the Nicea Convention around 320 A.D., an Arabic bishop participated.[lxiv][64] The church in Najran, a city on the border of Yemen toward Mecca, was established before the Nicea Convention. In 354 A.D., Constantine the Second sent Theophilus Indus to Arabia to evangelize the region. He established churches in Eden, Thafar and Hermez. The Ethiopians sent missionaries to Arabia to evangelize the cities around the Red Sea. The Nestorians sent missionaries to Hijaz, in northern and central western Arabia where Mecca was eventually built. Arabia was also the main target of missionary activity for the church of Hira in southern Iraq.
It is significant that we don't find any mention of Mecca in all the Christian records of this time. This suggests that Mecca did not exist in the 3rd century, or at the beginning of the 4th century. Because it was inhabited by many tribes and built by a big tribe, like Khuzaa'h, Mecca could not be a small village which would not have attracted the attention of the missionaries and the Christian churches of Mesopotamia, Ethiopia and Byzantium.
Once again, we see the writers of history confirming our research which shows that Mecca was built long after Muslims claim it was. This simple truth should challenge Muslims to take a fresh look at the teachings of the Bible and seek after the truth, which Jesus said, "-will make you free."
( For more studies on the true history of Mecca - see the book of Dr. Rafat Amari, Islam in light of History) Religion Research Institute -Home(Pete note - Some maps here but didn't transfer to this page.)
[1][a] Many of the reports which Eratosthenes based his map upon was lost, but much of the contents survive in the fragments of Agatharchides' work "on the Erythraean Sea," Burstein, page 12
[2] Many passages in "On the Erythraean Sea" clearly point to the fact that Agatharchides consulted eyewitness merchants and others who visited the region. See especially fragment 41.
[3][c] Although the book of Agatharchides is no longer in existence, it has been preserved through the synopsis of the classical authors Photius, Diodorus and Strabo. We find a good summary of the 5th book of Agatharchides in the work of Diodorus "Library of History, - chapters 12-48. The summary of Photius in his work "Bibliotheca," especially Codex 250, is very important.
[4][d] The geographical book "Western Arabia and the Red Sea," specifies the area of Wadi al- 'efal in the following area adjacent to the Gulf of Aqaba: "East of the Gulf of Aqaba two important watersheds lie, roughly parallel to one another and to the gulf; immediately behind the coastal lowlands the Ridge of al-Farwa separates the Wadis, which cut westward through the coastal ridge to the gulf, from those which drain southward to the Red Sea east of Ras Fartak. The chief of the latter wadis is Wadi al-Abyadh which, in its lower reaches, broadens and is called Wadi Efal- behind to be the plain inhabited by the Bythemani - Bythemaneas -"."; "Western Arabia and the Red Sea," Naval Intelligence Division, Geographical Handbook Series, 1946, page 40; see also footnote 3
[5][e] Regarding the expedition of Gallus; He returned to Negrana in nine days after he failed to occupy Marsiaba in Saba. Negrana is Najran, about 650 kilometers south of Mecca. On the 11th day he reached a village called Hepta phreata, then he went to another village named Chaalla, then on to another village named Malotha which, most probiblay, was Malothan located close to the actual city of Jadda, which is about 30 miles from Mecca. But between Malotha or Malothan and Egra (north of where Mecca was later built) there were no villages mentioned by Strabo who accompagned the expedition. Gallus badly needed urgent supplies of water and food, but he could not find villages which could give him rest, and re-supply his troops in the area where Mecca was eventually built.
See The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI. 4 . 24
[6][f] Scholars agree that Pliny wrote his Natural History after the compilation of The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, because Pliny seems to include many elements in the description of The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea of Arabia Felix. It is known that Pliny accomplished his work Natural History between 72-76 A.D.
[1] Strabo, Geography, xv.1:4
[ii][2] Stanley Burstein, Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, The Hakluyt Society London, 1989 , page 1
[iii][3] Stanley Burstein , Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, The Hakluyt Society London, 1989, page 30
[iv][4] Stanley Burstein , Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, The Hakluyt Society London, 1989 , page 3
[v][5] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .4:4
The Geography of Strabo, Volume VII, Harvard University Press, 1966, page 313
[vi][6] See C.Muller, Geographi Graeci Minores, Paris, 1855-1861, I,LIV-L,VIII; quoted by Burstein, page 13
[vii][7] Fraser, P.M., Ptolemaic Alexandria, Oxford, 1972, I, 549; cf. Peremans, W., "Diodore de Sicile et Agatharchide de Cnide'", Historia xvi, 1967, pp.443-4; cited by Burstein, page 30
[viii][8] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Photius, bibliotheca, cited by Burstein, page 147-fragment 87
[ix][9] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Diodorus, library of history, cited by Burstein, page 79-fragment 40b
- [10] Peremans, W., " Diodore de Sicile et Agatharchide de Cnide', pp.447-55, cited by Burstein, page 32
[xi][11] Burstein, Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, The Hakluyt Society London, 1989, page 160
[xii][12] There are fragments of the book of Pythagoras, kept by Aelian, NA 17.8-9 and Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 4 .183-4; citation of Burstein
[xiii][13] Strabo wrote: 'Eratosthenes takes all these as matters actually established by the testimony of the men who had been in the regions, for he has read many historical treatises - with which he was supplied if he had a library as large as Hipparchus says it was - he means the library of Alexandria - Strabo, Geography, book 2. 1:5
[xiv][14] Burstein , Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, The Hakluyt Society London, 1989 , page 36
[xv][15] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Photius, bibliotheca, cited by Burstein, page 169-fragment 105a
[xvi][16] See Burstein's study, footnotes, page 33
[xvi][17] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Photius, bibliotheca, cited by Burstein, page 148-fragment 87a
[xviii][18] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Diodorus, library of history, cited by Burstein, page 153-fragment 92b
[xix][19] Musil, page 303
[xx][20] Wilfred Schoff , The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Munshiram Manoharial Publishers Pvt Ltd., 1995, page 54
[xxi][21] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus,on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Photius, bibliotheca, cited by Burstein, page 150-155-fragment 90 a- 95a ; from book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Diodorus, library of history, cited by Burstein, page 150-155 "fragment 91b-93b
[xxii][22] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Photius, bibliotheca, cited by Burstein, page 155-fragment 95a
[xxiii][23] cf.Woelk, p.223; cited by Burstein, page 155
[xxiv][24] Nonnosus cited by Photius, bibliotheca, 1,5
[xxv][25] Crone page 197
[xxvi][26] Noted by Wellhausen, Reste, p.92, cited by Crone, page 197
[xxvii][27] Ibn Abbas in Tabari, Jami', xxx,171, cited by Crone, page 205
[xxviii][28] Nonnosus cited by Photius, Bibliotheque, 1,5
[xxix][29] Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, London 1924, Chapter III, page 27-97; Dougherty, Nab. And Bel., page 105-11; cited by F.V.Winnett and W.L.Reed, Ancient Records from North Arabia, University of Toronto Press, 1970, page 89
[xxx][30] C.J.Gadd, "The Harran Inscriptions of Nabonidus," ( Anatolian Studies, 8 ( 1958), page 59 ; cited by F.V.Winnett and W.L.Reed, Ancient Records from North Arabia, University of Toronto Press, 1970, page 91
[xxxi][31] From book 5 of Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, excerption from Photius, bibliotheca, cited by Burstein, page 152-fragment 92a
[xxxii][32] cf Woelk, p.223; quoted by Stanley Burstein, "Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea," The Hakluyt Society London, 1989, page 155
[xxxiii][33] H.Von Wissmann, Zaabram', Pauly's Realencyclopadie der Klassischen Altertumswissenschaft ( Stuttgart, 1894-1980) supp., XI {1968}col.1310 ; cited by Stanley Burstein, Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, The Hakluyt Society London, 1989 , page 155
[xxxiv][34] Western Arabia and the Red Sea, 1946, naval intelligence division, page 585
[xxxv][35] See Stanley Burstein on his introduction to "Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea," The Hakluyt Society, London, 1989, page 13
[xxxvi][36] Leopoldi, Helmuthus, De Agatharchide Cnidio (Diss.Rostow, 1892) pp.13-17 ; cited by Burstein, page 39
Strabo made abridgement of Agatharchides's book, adding material from the lost book of Artemidorus. The work which Artemidorus developed, especially about Arabia, is contained in Stabo's chapters especially 16.4.5-20. See Bunbury, E.H. a history of ancient Geography, 2nd ed. (London 1883), page 61-69; Burstein, page 38
[xxxvii][37] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .4.18
The Geography of Strabo, Volume VII, Harvard University Press, ( London, 1966), page 343
[xxxviii][38] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .4.18
The Geography of Strabo, Volume VII, Harvard University Press, ( London, 1966), page 345
[xxxix][39] Wilfred Schoff on his comment on The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Munshiram Manoharial Publishers Pvt Ltd. ( New Delhi, 1995), page 101
[xl][40] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI. 4 . 24
[xli][41] Dio Cassius: History of Rome, Book LIII. xxix.3-8
[xlii][42] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .4.20
The Geography of Strabo, Volume VII, Harvard University Press (London, 1966), page 349
[xliii][43] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .4.2
[xliv][44] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .4.22
[xlv][45] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .4.22
[xlvi][46] Wilfred Schoff on his introduction to The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Munshiram Manoharial Publishers Pvt Ltd.( New Delhi, 1995), page 14, 15
[xlvii][47] Among the places where Josephus mentions Malchus are in "The wars of the Jews," book 1, chapter 14 and "The Antiquities of the Jews," Book 14, chapter 14
[xlviii][48] The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, section 27
[xlix][49] The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, section 23
[l][50] Inscription No. 1619 by Glaser, cited by Wilfred Schoff, page 11
- [51] The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, section 4
[lii][52] ) H.Rackham, Introduction to Pliny, Natural History, Cambrigde, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd. (London, 1979), page vii
[liii][53]Tarikh al-Tabari, first volume, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyeh (Beirut, Lebanon 1991), page 142
[liv][54]Tarikh al-Tabari, first volume, page 355
[lv][55]Tarikh al-Tabari, I, 421
[lvi][56] Josephi Fischer S.J., Commentatio de CL. Ptolemaci vita, operibus, influxu sacculari, pages 65-79 (in his introduction to Vatican publication of Ptolemy: Claudii Ptolemaci Geographiac Urbinas Codex graccus 82 phototypice depictus); the same mentioned by Josephi Fischer in his introduction to Claudius Ptolemy The Geography, translated by Edward Luther Stevenson, Dover Publications, INC, (New York, 1991, page 7
[lvii][[lvii]57] Josephi Fischer in his introduction to Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography , translated by Edward Luther Stevenson, Dover Publications , INC, (New York, 1991), page 5
[lviii][58] Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, book II, Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, translated by Edward Luther Stevenson, Dover Publications , New York, 1991, page 47
[lix][59] Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, book VI chapter VI, Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, translated by Edward Luther Stevenson, Dover Publications , New York, 1991, page 137-138
[lx][60] Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mujam al-Buldan, iv, 587); quoted by Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade, Princeton University Press, 1987, page, 136
[lxi][61] ) The Geogrophy of Strabo, book 16, chapter iv, 2 (The Geogrophy of Strabo, volume vii, translated by Horace L. Jones , 1966, page 311 )
[lxii][62] Natural history of Pliny; Book VI, chapter 32
[lxiii][63] Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade, Princeton University Press, 1987, page 134,135
[lxiv][64] Nallino Carlo Alfonso , Raccolta di Scritti editti E ineditti, Roma, Istituto per l'Oriente, 1939-48 , Vol.III, page 122 ; Caetani, Annali Dell' Islam, I, (1907), page 125
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