Excerpt from Chapter Three of An American Woman Living in Egypt: Life during an Islamic takeover
The following excerpt is from page 88-91: Mecca
Mecca
Before and during the period of Muhammad, Mecca sat isolated in an infertile, uninhabitable depression between ranges of hills. Miles to its west was the blistering Red Sea coast, with extreme desert temperatures compounded by suffocating humidity. To Mecca’s north, south and east was the Rub al-Khali, or the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter is the largest continuous body of sand and desert on the planet.
Mecca is one of the hottest locations on earth.
Compounding the extreme heat, there were no reliable water sources before or during Muhammad's lifetime. There are no perennial lakes or rivers in Arabia. According to official climate data, there is virtually no rainfall in Mecca. The average rainfall per year is 5.8 mm, or 0.22 inches (see: Mecca Climate). Some years there may be a short, sudden rain that causes deadly flash floods, but these are unpredictable and rare with years passing between occurrences.
In certain months, though extreme temperatures continue to plague the daylight hours, nighttime temperatures suddenly drop so low, that even a modern-day traveler risks death.
In 1931, an American named Karl Twitchell and a team of geologists went to Saudi Arabia to do exploratory work in the Hijaz where Mecca lies. "On the subject of water, they brought disappointing news to [King] Abd al-Aziz: There was none…there was no possibility of large-scale development of water resources because they didn't exist." (Lippman 2004, p.19)
At the time this exploratory expedition took place, water was being imported from Egypt. But this import of water hadn't begun until after the invention of the steamship.
Besides extreme heat and lack of water, violent winds are frequent in the Hijaz region of Arabia. Hammering 40-100 mph winds are common and cause deadly sand storms that can bury people alive. Settlement in an area lying in a barren hollow, such as Mecca, would have been avoided.
The Hijaz was not an adaptable environment for permanent settlement, yet according to Muslim writers of their history, in the 500s and 600s Mecca was a grand city with public buildings, temples, and magnificent houses belonging to wealthy traders, houses that included elaborate gardens.
There is no archeological evidence of a trade center or trade routes in the Hijaz or in Mecca during or before the period of Muhammad. There are no remains of any Arab cultures in the Hijaz during the sixth and seventh centuries of which was supposedly the grand period of Mecca and Muhammad (see: Winnett & Harding 1978).
Extensive archeological surveys of the Hijaz region conducted in the 1900s uncovered no pre-Islamic pagan sites, nor any pagan sanctuaries such as those described in the Muslim sources. Many scholars believe the Muslim writers of “Islamic History” invented these stories in order to support the Arab ruling powers and to give them a history (see: Crone 1987; Crone & Cook 1977; Crone & Hinds 1986; Wansbrough 1977, 1978).
The Muslim sources of Islamic history state that Mecca was a wealthy trading center with enormous numbers of merchants who exchanged goods with Yemen to the south and Syria to the north. Yet oddly, in the literature written by the people living during those centuries, there is no mention of a trade center in the Hijaz or Mecca.
According to Crone (1987), “if” the Meccans had been middlemen in long distance trade, as described by Muslim writers depicting their history, there would have been mention of this in the writings and documents of their “customers.”
Greek and Latin authors had written significantly about the people of Yemen who traded in frankincense and myrrh. Writers gave details about Yemen’s cities, their tribes, their political organizations and their trade. In the sixth century, Greek and Latin authors wrote extensively about the Ethiopian trade. Egyptians wrote about trade in Yemen, Khartoum and Ethiopia.
There are no writings about Mecca or a trade center, not in Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Egyptian Coptic or any other literature.
These stories of a trading center in Mecca began to appear some 200 years after the death of Muhammad—and were written by the Muslim authors who created Islamic history. These stories were written during the period when the ruling powers desperately needed a “backstory” to validate their rule.
Densely populated areas did develop in Yemen, thanks to farming, fishing, and tradable resources. Yemen's mountains provided a natural border dividing it from Arabia. Yemen traded extensively with Egypt and Ethiopia. Yemenis crossed over to Ethiopia at Bab al-Mandab—a distance of only 20 miles.
Crone (1987) examined the documented evidence on the spice trade and showed that Mecca could not possibly have been a trade center. Crone points out that Mecca was not situated at any crossroad of any trade route. Nor was it a natural stopping place, nor was it a place on the incense route from Yemen to Iraq. Mecca was not a natural crossroad between a north-south route, nor a crossroad between an east-west route.
The only underground water that existed in Arabia, and where it surfaced high enough to be extracted by well, was in the eastern region, hence why the only trade route that did erupt from Yemen was on the eastern coastline to Iraq. The eastern region also benefited from a small annual rainfall.
There is no evidence that the advanced culture of Yemen had any influence on the Bedouin of Arabia. The Arab’s primitive lifestyle was a completely different phenomenon from the sophisticated Yemeni civilization.
The Arabs were also unrelated linguistically from the Yemeni people, furthering the evidence of no north-south trade route through the Hijaz towards Syria.
It wasn't until the eleventh century and the full creation and development of Islam that professional caravan trips to Mecca began to be more organized. But the trip to Mecca, no matter how organized and well planned, was treacherous and deadly. In 1183, one traveler wrote that many died along the way and that "many hells…strew the road to Makkah (Mecca)." (Tschanze 2004, p.6)
The trip to Mecca was "an extraordinarily long and difficult marathon across often unforgiving terrain, and an individual's travel could take years…The land routes were often littered with the remains of caravans…stricken by disease, short of water, or just plain lost." (Tschanze 2004, p.4)
Many died from contaminated food and water carried with them on the long journey through the vast inhospitable desert. They died from "exposure, thirst, flash flood, disease... In 1361, 100 Syrian pilgrims died of cold, and in 1430 some 3,000 Egyptians died of heat and thirst. In 1757, virtually the entire Damascus caravan was lost…" (Tschanz 2004, p.7)
Sketches, drawings and photos made by travelers in the 1700s and 1800s continue to depict a relatively barren Mecca. It wasn't until the invention of the steamship in the 1800s that water was made more available through a system of cisterns and importation of water.
Traveling the Red Sea before the invention of the steamship was deadly (see: Lippman 2004). It wasn't until the creation of the Hijaz Railway in 1908 did travel by caravan end, and travel to Mecca became less deadly.
There was never a trade route through the Hijaz to Mecca.
There was never a Mecca before or during Muhammad's lifetime.
The word Mecca has never been explained etymologically on the basis of Arabic. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. The word Mecca did not originate from any Arab dialect, nor any Arabic word.
Mecca is not an Arabic word.
Mecca is an Aramaic word. The word Mecca is an Aramaic adjective that means “the lower one;” i.e. topographically, it describes the physical feature of a land area. This adjective is used to designate a place located “in a valley.”
As explained more thoroughly in a moment, this valley called Mecca was in the Negev Desert of Israel, and not located in Saudi Arabia.
Additionally, the etymological origin of the word “Arab” shows that starting in the 9th century B.C. arab originally meant “those from the West as seen from the Tigris [Iraq].”
West of the Tigris is the desert regions of Syria, Jordan and Israel. Even more specific is the etymological origin of the word araba, which referred to the desert tract of the Dead Sea area of Israel. (p.178, Ohlig 2013)
In the Old Testament, the word arabi meant “inhabitants of the steppe” and was the word used to designate non-Jewish tribes who inhabited the steppes of the Negev Desert highlands of Israel (p.178-9, Ohlig 2013).
Before and during the period of Muhammad, Mecca sat isolated in an infertile, uninhabitable depression between ranges of hills. Miles to its west was the blistering Red Sea coast, with extreme desert temperatures compounded by suffocating humidity. To Mecca’s north, south and east was the Rub al-Khali, or the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter is the largest continuous body of sand and desert on the planet.
Mecca is one of the hottest locations on earth.
Compounding the extreme heat, there were no reliable water sources before or during Muhammad's lifetime. There are no perennial lakes or rivers in Arabia. According to official climate data, there is virtually no rainfall in Mecca. The average rainfall per year is 5.8 mm, or 0.22 inches (see: Mecca Climate). Some years there may be a short, sudden rain that causes deadly flash floods, but these are unpredictable and rare with years passing between occurrences.
In certain months, though extreme temperatures continue to plague the daylight hours, nighttime temperatures suddenly drop so low, that even a modern-day traveler risks death.
In 1931, an American named Karl Twitchell and a team of geologists went to Saudi Arabia to do exploratory work in the Hijaz where Mecca lies. "On the subject of water, they brought disappointing news to [King] Abd al-Aziz: There was none…there was no possibility of large-scale development of water resources because they didn't exist." (Lippman 2004, p.19)
At the time this exploratory expedition took place, water was being imported from Egypt. But this import of water hadn't begun until after the invention of the steamship.
Besides extreme heat and lack of water, violent winds are frequent in the Hijaz region of Arabia. Hammering 40-100 mph winds are common and cause deadly sand storms that can bury people alive. Settlement in an area lying in a barren hollow, such as Mecca, would have been avoided.
The Hijaz was not an adaptable environment for permanent settlement, yet according to Muslim writers of their history, in the 500s and 600s Mecca was a grand city with public buildings, temples, and magnificent houses belonging to wealthy traders, houses that included elaborate gardens.
There is no archeological evidence of a trade center or trade routes in the Hijaz or in Mecca during or before the period of Muhammad. There are no remains of any Arab cultures in the Hijaz during the sixth and seventh centuries of which was supposedly the grand period of Mecca and Muhammad (see: Winnett & Harding 1978).
Extensive archeological surveys of the Hijaz region conducted in the 1900s uncovered no pre-Islamic pagan sites, nor any pagan sanctuaries such as those described in the Muslim sources. Many scholars believe the Muslim writers of “Islamic History” invented these stories in order to support the Arab ruling powers and to give them a history (see: Crone 1987; Crone & Cook 1977; Crone & Hinds 1986; Wansbrough 1977, 1978).
The Muslim sources of Islamic history state that Mecca was a wealthy trading center with enormous numbers of merchants who exchanged goods with Yemen to the south and Syria to the north. Yet oddly, in the literature written by the people living during those centuries, there is no mention of a trade center in the Hijaz or Mecca.
According to Crone (1987), “if” the Meccans had been middlemen in long distance trade, as described by Muslim writers depicting their history, there would have been mention of this in the writings and documents of their “customers.”
Greek and Latin authors had written significantly about the people of Yemen who traded in frankincense and myrrh. Writers gave details about Yemen’s cities, their tribes, their political organizations and their trade. In the sixth century, Greek and Latin authors wrote extensively about the Ethiopian trade. Egyptians wrote about trade in Yemen, Khartoum and Ethiopia.
There are no writings about Mecca or a trade center, not in Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Egyptian Coptic or any other literature.
These stories of a trading center in Mecca began to appear some 200 years after the death of Muhammad—and were written by the Muslim authors who created Islamic history. These stories were written during the period when the ruling powers desperately needed a “backstory” to validate their rule.
Densely populated areas did develop in Yemen, thanks to farming, fishing, and tradable resources. Yemen's mountains provided a natural border dividing it from Arabia. Yemen traded extensively with Egypt and Ethiopia. Yemenis crossed over to Ethiopia at Bab al-Mandab—a distance of only 20 miles.
Crone (1987) examined the documented evidence on the spice trade and showed that Mecca could not possibly have been a trade center. Crone points out that Mecca was not situated at any crossroad of any trade route. Nor was it a natural stopping place, nor was it a place on the incense route from Yemen to Iraq. Mecca was not a natural crossroad between a north-south route, nor a crossroad between an east-west route.
The only underground water that existed in Arabia, and where it surfaced high enough to be extracted by well, was in the eastern region, hence why the only trade route that did erupt from Yemen was on the eastern coastline to Iraq. The eastern region also benefited from a small annual rainfall.
There is no evidence that the advanced culture of Yemen had any influence on the Bedouin of Arabia. The Arab’s primitive lifestyle was a completely different phenomenon from the sophisticated Yemeni civilization.
The Arabs were also unrelated linguistically from the Yemeni people, furthering the evidence of no north-south trade route through the Hijaz towards Syria.
It wasn't until the eleventh century and the full creation and development of Islam that professional caravan trips to Mecca began to be more organized. But the trip to Mecca, no matter how organized and well planned, was treacherous and deadly. In 1183, one traveler wrote that many died along the way and that "many hells…strew the road to Makkah (Mecca)." (Tschanze 2004, p.6)
The trip to Mecca was "an extraordinarily long and difficult marathon across often unforgiving terrain, and an individual's travel could take years…The land routes were often littered with the remains of caravans…stricken by disease, short of water, or just plain lost." (Tschanze 2004, p.4)
Many died from contaminated food and water carried with them on the long journey through the vast inhospitable desert. They died from "exposure, thirst, flash flood, disease... In 1361, 100 Syrian pilgrims died of cold, and in 1430 some 3,000 Egyptians died of heat and thirst. In 1757, virtually the entire Damascus caravan was lost…" (Tschanz 2004, p.7)
Sketches, drawings and photos made by travelers in the 1700s and 1800s continue to depict a relatively barren Mecca. It wasn't until the invention of the steamship in the 1800s that water was made more available through a system of cisterns and importation of water.
Traveling the Red Sea before the invention of the steamship was deadly (see: Lippman 2004). It wasn't until the creation of the Hijaz Railway in 1908 did travel by caravan end, and travel to Mecca became less deadly.
There was never a trade route through the Hijaz to Mecca.
There was never a Mecca before or during Muhammad's lifetime.
The word Mecca has never been explained etymologically on the basis of Arabic. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. The word Mecca did not originate from any Arab dialect, nor any Arabic word.
Mecca is not an Arabic word.
Mecca is an Aramaic word. The word Mecca is an Aramaic adjective that means “the lower one;” i.e. topographically, it describes the physical feature of a land area. This adjective is used to designate a place located “in a valley.”
As explained more thoroughly in a moment, this valley called Mecca was in the Negev Desert of Israel, and not located in Saudi Arabia.
Additionally, the etymological origin of the word “Arab” shows that starting in the 9th century B.C. arab originally meant “those from the West as seen from the Tigris [Iraq].”
West of the Tigris is the desert regions of Syria, Jordan and Israel. Even more specific is the etymological origin of the word araba, which referred to the desert tract of the Dead Sea area of Israel. (p.178, Ohlig 2013)
In the Old Testament, the word arabi meant “inhabitants of the steppe” and was the word used to designate non-Jewish tribes who inhabited the steppes of the Negev Desert highlands of Israel (p.178-9, Ohlig 2013).
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