3 ms·

Here's a good overview of some aspects: https://www.quranite.com/makkah-is-the-centre-of-a-cult/ https://www.quranite.com/makkah-is-the-centre-of-a-cult/

nl 8y ago
I don't think this kind of reference to a self-published author (Dan Gibson) should be posted without a reference to some of the criticism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gibson_(author)#Reception_and_critique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gibson_(author)#Reception_... I think it's fair to say his view is not shared by many scholars.
- selimthegrim 8y ago
  His other works are suggestive of a possible evangelical motive. I thought Patricia Crone was still the foremost proponent of deuterocanonical historiography as far as Muhammad’s location
  - no_identd 8y ago
    All of the above comments prompted me to look a bit deeper into this, and I found very interesting article by Gibson, written in response to a review of his book: https://www.academia.edu/34569516/Response_to_David_King_with_attached_article_from_http_muslimheritage.com_article_from-petra-back-to-makka https://www.academia.edu/34569516/Response_to_David_King_wit...
jcranmer 8y ago
The general consensus among historians is that the notion that Mecca was really Petra was bunk. To pick a specific example on your list (mostly because al-Aqsa is the only structure on that list I can quickly pinpoint on a map), the error of the main orientation of al-Aqsa to Petra is only about half that of the error of its orientation to Mecca, which is to say, it's not a particularly good correlate to either direction. When you step back and ask the question, how was the direction determined, you arrive at the basic problem that geodesic survey techniques to precisely determine latitude and longitude did not exist in the 7th and 8th centuries, nor would the Arabs have had access to accurate bearings. The closest they would have had were astronomically relevant observations, but these wouldn't have been able to provide a reliable basis for determining direction for a particular spot on Earth. See, e.g., https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/dome_of_the_rock/qibla.html https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/dome_of_the_...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

nl 8y ago

I don't think this kind of reference to a self-published author (Dan Gibson) should be posted without a reference to some of the criticism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gibson_(author)#Reception_and_critique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gibson_(author)#Reception_... I think it's fair to say his view is not shared by many scholars.

selimthegrim 8y ago
His other works are suggestive of a possible evangelical motive. I thought Patricia Crone was still the foremost proponent of deuterocanonical historiography as far as Muhammad’s location
- no_identd 8y ago
  All of the above comments prompted me to look a bit deeper into this, and I found very interesting article by Gibson, written in response to a review of his book: https://www.academia.edu/34569516/Response_to_David_King_with_attached_article_from_http_muslimheritage.com_article_from-petra-back-to-makka https://www.academia.edu/34569516/Response_to_David_King_wit...

jcranmer 8y ago

The general consensus among historians is that the notion that Mecca was really Petra was bunk. To pick a specific example on your list (mostly because al-Aqsa is the only structure on that list I can quickly pinpoint on a map), the error of the main orientation of al-Aqsa to Petra is only about half that of the error of its orientation to Mecca, which is to say, it's not a particularly good correlate to either direction. When you step back and ask the question, how was the direction determined, you arrive at the basic problem that geodesic survey techniques to precisely determine latitude and longitude did not exist in the 7th and 8th centuries, nor would the Arabs have had access to accurate bearings. The closest they would have had were astronomically relevant observations, but these wouldn't have been able to provide a reliable basis for determining direction for a particular spot on Earth. See, e.g., https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/dome_of_the_rock/qibla.html https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/dome_of_the_...

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]