Evidence for the existence of Kaaba before Quranic inspiration

Sakr EL Majid نوفمبر 19, 2016

31 7 دقائق

Evidence for the existence of Kaaba before Quranic inspiration

Islam claims that Kaaba at Mecca existed since the time of Abraham. No proof supports this claim since their not one inscription or archeological discovery older than the 3rd century AD at the meccan location.

Mecca apparently was uninhabited during ancient times.

Muhammad tried to identify Abraham with Mecca and the Kaaba in order to gain respect to Islam and make Islam as if an Abrahamic religion and natural continuation to Judaism and Christianity, although in the very core and foundation doctrine, theology values Islam is not an Abrahamic religion for more about that refer to this article

http://www.islamicbag.com/quran-hadith/qur-anic-studies/item/1665-en-islamslaverypart1allahrefusesfatherhood

As you see in Surah Al Baqara 2:127

And [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael, [saying], “Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing (Sahih international)

Muhammad said that Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba at Mecca

But is that true? The evidence goes against that

Evidence 1

Up to Muhammad’s time, Mecca had never been recorded in any ancient history. The following prominent Roman and Greece geographers and historians visited and explored the Arabian peninsula, yet they never mentioned Mecca or the Kaaba even once:

1- Herodotus (450-420 BC) wrote about Arabian cities

2- Theophrastus (4th Century BC) wrote about Sabian, Arabian and Yemeni societies

3- Eratosthenes (3rd Century BC) wrote about locations along the Arabian side of the Red Sea and about Arabian societies

4- Agatharchides (2nd Century BC) wrote about the Arabian cities and temples along the Red Sea)

5- Strabo (1st Century BC) wrote about Arabian tribes and cities in central and western Arabia and about locations along the Red Sea

6- Pliny the Elder (1st Century BC) wrote about 92 regions, cities and tribes of Arabia but did not mention Mecca

7- Ptolemy (1st Century AD) listed all the cities and regions of Arabia but did not mention Mecca

Muslims claim that the city of Macoraba mentioned in Ptolemy’s Geography was actually Mecca. But Macoraba could not be Mecca since Ptolemy wrote that Macoraba was the sixth city south of Yathrib, and further south than Carna, the capital city of Ma’in a kingdom in Yemen.

And off course everybody knows that Mecca is much north of Yemen and Carna

Evidence 2

No trace of pre-Islamic Mecca can be found, neither in archeology, nor in inscriptions, scrolls and reliefs from the ancient empires that conquered Arabia. The Roman empire attacked western Arabia along the Red Sea in 23 BC. The Assyrian empire conquered northern Arabia in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The Babylonian empire conquered the Hijaz under king Nabonidus (556-539 BC). The Persian empire conquered northern Arabia during the Achaemenid erx 6th Century BC. And all those no traces of Mecca and Kaaba

Evidence 3

No ancient city or country in middle east failed to leave remnants of inscriptions, buildings or archaeological objects, for instance:

1- Remnants of Dedan northern Arabia, 9th Century BC

2- Remnants of Khaybar western Arabia, 8th Century BC

3- Remnants of Tayma northern Arabia, 1st Century BC

4- Stone carving from an ancient palace at Shabwa, the capital city of Hadramawt in Yemen, southern Arabia 8th to 3rd Century BC

5- Ancient Khaybar dam

6- Palace of Petra, carved out solid rock by the Nabataeans in Jordan 2nd Century BC

Evidence 4

All ancient countries and cities left many inscriptions, monuments, buildings, and their names were mentioned in other countries inscriptions as well. There is no archeological findings in Mecca from th before the 4th Century AD. This indicates that Mecca did not exist in the time of Abraham and ishmael, nor even in the early Christian era. Example inscriptions that has cities and places on it are:

1- Seal of the Dilmun kingdom eastern Arabia, 3rd Century BC

2- Inscriptions of the Sabeans 1st Century BC

3- Remnants of the Dilmun kingdom 3rd Century BC

4- Ancient fort of Ma’rib, Ma’in kingdom, Yemen, 1st Century BC

5- Inscriptions of the Magan kingdom, south eastern Arabic 3rd – 2nd Century BC

6- Mahram Bilquis temple Ma’rib 1st Century BC

Evidence 5

If the city of Mecca and Kaaba existed since Abraham’s era, it would be impossible for the city inhabited for over two thousand years not to leave a single trace. Archeological findings from the ancient middle east are abundant since the area is arid, so nature does not destroy historical monuments or objects as quickly as elsewhere, Thus an examination by Muslims of the purported historical information in the Quran is long overdue

Evidence 6

In the Torah, Moses mentioned many tribes, cities and countries of the Middle East and surely if Mecca and Kaaba exists specially if it has religious significance to Abraham, why did not the Torah specified that??? If Abraham had built Mecca in the 19th Century BC that makes him the first builder of any city in Arabia. If this were true, such a great achievement would have become family lore and would have been recorded by Moses in the Torah

Evidence 7

Since there was no city anywhere near Mecca in ancient times, that area was uninhabited. Camels need to drink at least every hundred miles. Without any city within a hundred miles of Mecca, it is not likely that Mecca was a caravan stop until a century or two before Islam

Evidence 8

We already know who is the first tribe to inhabit this place and who built the Kaaba

In the 2nd Century AD, a dam was breached in Ma’rib that is a city in Yemen, forcing the Khuza’ah tribe to migrate from there to the location where they later founded Mecca

See A. Jamme, W.F. Sabeen inscriptions from Mahram Biliqis (Ma’rib)

Because no temple existed there, the Khuza’ah tribe erected a tent in which to worship, in the same location the Kaaba was later built. In the 4th Century, they started to build the city of Mecca.

See Al-Azruqi, Akhbar Mecca, 1, p.6

King of Yemen, Abu Karb Asa’d, or Tubb’a, came to Mecca in the 5th Century. He built the Kaaba similar to the Kaaba found in Yemen

See A. Jamme, W.F. Sabeen inscriptions from Mahram Biliqis (Ma’rib), the Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1962, Vol 3, p. 387)

Tubb’a ordered Amir from Azed to complete the interior of the Kaaba

See Ibn Saad, Al-Tabaqat Al-Kabir, 1, p. 64

Abu Karb Asa’d covered the Ka’ba with a curtain (Kiswah), which was the second most important step after building the temple itself

See Al-Azruqi, Akhbar Mecca 1:173, Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mujam al-Buldan, 4:463

So no muslim can’t say that we provide evidence from ignorance, no we know when is the first time people started to inhabit a place which is the current Mecca and build what is know today to be Kaaba

Evidence 9

Abraham never stepped foot in Mecca. The bible explains that Abraham lives last in Hebron (in what is know Israel or Palestine), the Main city of southern canaan until he died and was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 25:9) near Hebron, a thousand miles from Mecca

Evidence 10

Abraham source of living and wealth was all Livestock, those that can only service near rich natural resources, water supplies and areas with fertile Lands, we see that when Hebron suffered famine he had to go through the trouble of moving to Egypt in order to survive until the famine was over and he returned to Hebron, can you imagine Abraham suddenly decided to commit suicide and travel with all his possessions to Arabian peninsula???

Evidence 11

It is well known that an average person on travel can only carry water that is enough for 3 days, after Abraham ordered Hagar and Ishmael to leave, almost dieing of thirst they drank from a well at Beersheba (Genesis 21:14-21) and that is approximately 3 days travel away from Hebron, no such thing that Hagar took Ishmael to Mecca siz months travel in the dessert to drink from Zamzam that is all Pagan myths. Why would an Egyptian woman who had been abandoned take her son to somewhere and travel six months in the desert without water???? Unless she lost her mind!! Naturally she will travel in place close with natural resource and that is why the Genesis account makes sense, she took him to Paran (a place between a wife and Jordon) and got him a wife from her country of origin Egypt

For more about wilderness of Paran refer to this research

http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-wilderness-of-paran.htm

And by the way the well of Zamzam was dug out by Muhammad’s grandfather Abdul Mottalib in the beginning of 7th century AD, and that is more than 2700 years after Hagar and Ishmael time!!

The lie of Mecca in Psalms 84

Muslims as usual lie about the bible and say that Psalm 84:5,6 talks about Mecca, let us see what Psalm 84:5,6 says

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs: the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

So where is Mecca? It is Baca not Mecca and Baca is a valley in the current Israel or palestine area as in the following map

In the ancient maps of Israel, Baca is by the bank of Mediterranean sea, and it is named like that because it is famous with the balsam tree that produce a liquid looks like tears and that is the Baca hebrew word means, Baca based on crying or tearing. And off course scientifically and fact on the ground Mecca can not have such trees

Kaaba is only of Pagan origin and has no relation so ever to Abrahamic religions

For evidence watch this video