Kamal F. Ishak

 

STUDIES BY CLASSICAL WRITERS SHOW THAT MECCA COULD NOT HAVE BEEN BUILT BEFORE THE 4TH CENTURY A.D.

 

By Dr. RAFAT AMARY

 

We refer the reader to the book of Dr. AMARI, Islam in light of History, for more arguments on the true history of Mecca 

 

Accurate data from Greek geography also excludes the appearance of Mecca before the 4th century A.D.

 

There is no mention of Mecca in the writings of any classical writer or geographer.  This fact is an important argument against Islam's claim that Mecca has existed since the time of Abraham.  We have complete records of Greek and Roman writers, as well as many geographers who visited Arabia from the 4th century B.C. through the 3rd century A.D.  Some of these people drew maps of Arabia telling us about every city, village, tribe, and temple existing there, yet none mentioned Mecca.  If Mecca did indeed exist at the time of any of these geographers and writers, surely someone would have told us about this city.

    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 , who lived between 64 B.C. and 23 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]  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 A.D.  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 and the geographers  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.

 

READ the complete ESSAY

 

http://religionresearchinstitute.org/mecca/classical.htm