Founding of Mecca

Last updated: April 16th, 2025 at 9:55 am · Est. Reading Time: 4 minutes

The date of birth of Mecca is not known.¹  Early Islamic sources claim that it was Abu Karib Asʾad Tubba’, the Himyar king, who had donated the kiswah (كِسوة) of the Ka’ba (cloth that covers the Ka’ba).²  As a dated inscription verifies As’ad Tubba’ ruling the Ḥimyar kingdom in August of 433 CE, it can be assumed that Mecca existed by that time.³

Mecca, per se, is not mentioned in any pre-Islamic source. Diodorus of Sicily, a Greek historian of 1^st Century BCE, wrote a book, Bibliotheca Historica.  While discussing the geography of the Red Sea coast of Arabia, its inhabitants and their cultures, he mentions in this book that the Banizomenes people had set up a temple located on the coast, exceedingly revered by all Arabs.⁴  Since he doesn’t mention the place of the temple by name, this hint does not automatically establish as a fact that Diodorus is mentioning the Ka’ba and Mecca.  Similarly, Ptolemy of Alexandria, who was a 2nd-century CE geographer, mentions a place by the name of Macoraba in Arabia Felix (south Arabia) at a latitude of 73 degrees, 20 minutes and a longitude of 22 degrees in his book Geographia.⁵  Ptolemy also lists some other similarly sounding towns.   For example, his Mochura is at 69 degrees, 40 minutes and 24 degrees, 45 minutes latitude in Arabia Felis.  His Moca in at 67 degrees, 50 minutes and 30 degrees, 10 minutes latitude in Arabia Petraea.⁶  Crone rejects either of these cities to be Mecca.  She argues that the positions of these places mentioned by Ptolemy are far from the current location of Mecca, which is currently located at 21 degrees, 41 minutes north and 39 degrees, 81 minutes east. ⁷  By the way, Procopius, a Byzantine historian of the 6^th century CE, while describing the wars of Justinian, provides his reader a survey of the entire coast of western Arabia as it was known in the mid-6^th century.⁸  He does not describe Mecca (or Ptolemy’s Makorabo), neither does he describe the Quraysh.  Failure to find mention of Mecca by this name in any pre-Islamic source convinces Crone that it, actually, did not exist.⁹  Sergeant, on the other hand, calls this assertion of Crone as polemic.  He argues that sources for this era are fragmentary, so absence of a town in sources does not automatically mean its non-existence.¹⁰

Actually, the oldest historical material that mentions Mecca clearly by name is an Armenian geography, Ashkharhatsuyts, guessed to be written between 591 CE to 636 CE and attributed to Ananias of Shirak. It says “…it is bounded on the south by Fortunate Arabia, on the east by Desert Arabia, and on the north by Syria and Judaea.  It has five small districts near Egypt, Tackastan, the Munuchiatis Gulf by the Red Sea [other side of Sinai], and Pharanitis, where the town of Pharan, which I think Arabs call Mecca.  Here begin the mountains called Melana which extend northwards turning slightly to the east, then the Elanites [Gulf of Aqaba] which is near a plateau.  Fortunate Arabia contains the River Tretenon but not a single spring. It is six degrees long and two wide.”¹¹  Though the location of Mecca is vague in this account, its time of writing nearly coincides with advent of Islam.  At least, the town was known by its current name at the time of advent of Islam.  A later historical source that mentions Mecca by name is “The Anonymous Chronicle of 741CE.”  This history, written in Spain, is dated not to be earlier than 741 CE.  This chronicle mentions Mecca in context of the war between the Umayyads and Abdullah bin Zubayr. Even in this chronicle its location is told to be between Ur of Chaldees and Carras, the city of Mesopotamia.¹²

Ibn Ishaq (d. 767 CE), a early Islamic source, writes that Mecca was also called Bakka because it used to break necks of the tyrants.¹³  Guillaume suggests that the root of this word is Arabic verb bakka meaning ‘he broke’.  It is plausible that Mecca was known as Bakka or another similarly sounding name in pre Islamic times. This plausibility gets further support when we hear from another Islamic source, Baladhuri (d. 892 CE), that Mecca was called Ṣalāḥ in pre-Islamic times.¹⁴  This could be the reason that we don’t find name ‘Mecca’ in pre Islamic sources. Interestingly, Ashkharhatsuyts gives the town two names, Mecca and Pharan.

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History of Islam, Geography & Climate of Pre-Islam, https://historyofislam.org/geography-and-climate/

Footnotes

1. Jacqueline Chabbi, “The origins of Islam,” in Roads of Arabia, ed. ‘Ali ibn Ibrāhī.m Ghabbān, Beatrice Andre-Salvini Francoise Demange, Carine Juvin and Marianne Cotty, (Paris: Louvre, 2010), 101.
2. Muḥammad Ibn Ishaq,  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume  (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 9. AND Abū Ḥanīfah Aḥmad bin Dāwūd al-Dīnawri, al-Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, ed. Vladimir Guirgass, (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1888), 46.
3. For the notes of the original discoverer of the inscription, see:  Gonzague Ryckmans, Inscriptions sud-arabes. Douzieme serie, Le Museon 68 (1955): 297 – 312.  For the interpretation of the inscription see: Christian J. Robin, “Le Royaume Ḥujride, dit ‘royaume de Kinda’, entre Ḥimyar et Byzance,” Comptes Rendus de l’Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, (1996): 703 – 703, fig. 4-5.  (Inscription Ry 534 + MAFY/Rayda 1).
4. Diodorus Siculus, The Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus, trans. G. Booth, (London: J. Devis, 1814), P 184, Vol. I, Book III, chap. III.
5. Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, ed. and trans. Edward Luther Stevenson (New York: Dover Publications, 1991), 139.
6. Claudius Ptolemy. The Geography, ed. and trans. Edward L. Stevenson (New York: Dover, 1991),129, 137.
7. For Crone’s discussion, see: Patricia Crone. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2004), 134 – 37.
8. Procopius. History of the wars, Books I and II, ed. and trans. H. B. Dewing (London: William Heinemann, 1914), 181 – 83, Vol. I.
9. Patricia Crone. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2004), 134 – 37.
10. R. B. Serjeant, “Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam: misconceptions and Flawed Polemics,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 110, no.3, (Jul. – Sep., 1990): 472.
11. Anania Shirakatsi, The Geography of Ananios of Sirak (Asxarhoc ‘oyc’): The Long and Short Recensions, trans. R. H. Hewsen (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1992), 71.  For the dating of the text see p 15.
12. Corpus scriptorium Muzarabicorum, ed. Fernandez J. Gil (Madrid: Instituto Antonio de Nebrija, 1973), Vol 1 P7-14.  AND The Byzantine-Arab Chronicle of 741 in: Robert G. Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others saw it (Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 1997), 622.
13. Muḥammad Ibn Ishaq.  The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 47.
14. Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri.  Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 80).