STUDIES BY CLASSICAL WRITERS SHOW THAT MECCA COULD NOT HAVE BEEN
BUILT BEFORE THE 4TH CENTURY A.D.
THE ROMANS EXPLORE WESTERN AND SOUTHERN ARABIA
The Roman Expedition into western and southern Arabia accurately described the villages which were built in the area of central western Arabia, but a city called Mecca was never mentioned.
Our history doesn’t end here. In the year 30 B.C.,
Egypt became a Roman province. The Romans then wanted to control the
Arabian regions along the Red Sea, especially south of the city called Leuce
Kome( known today as Haura’ الحوراء ) on the shore of the Arabian Red
Sea. From there, through the central western shore, were places where savage
tribes were acting as pirates and threatening sea navigation. The Romans also
wanted to control Yemen and, subsequently, the spice trade coming from India
through Yemen.
Rome trusted the military campaign to Gallus, the governor of Egypt. He was
unsuccessful, but his campaign provides more historical accuracy for us. Gallus
departed from the Egyptian shore of the Red Sea with 10,000 Roman soldiers,
1,000 Nabataean soldiers, and some other Roman allies in the region. The
Nabataeans were ruled by the Roman Empire
at that time, so they promised to help the Romans in this expedition as soldiers
and guides. The Nabataeans were ideal as guides because part of northern
Arabia along the Red Sea was under the Nabataean domain. Strabo, the famous geographer and
historian, took part in the expedition and wrote about it in his 16th
book. This gives to the expedition a special value in terms of geography; it is
a highly-documented expedition, and not a narration of any kind.
The expedition had special importance for a geographer, because it was not the
journey of a traveler who might have missed cities deeper inland. It was a
military expedition, intended to control all the villages and cities which
might threaten Roman trade within this strip of
land. The Romans were very thorough and would not
have missed a city. The Roman Expedition went through the strip of land which
geographers used to explore along the Red Sea, which I defined previously as
extending from the shore to at least 100 miles inland. The Romans wanted to subdue
every village because of the continuing piracy which originated from central
western Arabia. Therefore, no city or village
was left alone in this military expedition.
The expedition arrived at Leuce Come, which means the “white
village.” This village was part of the Nabataean territory at the time of the
expedition. Strabo attested to the flourishing of
the land route through this village to Petra, and from there to Egypt and
Syria. This village is placed in the today map of Arabia at El Haura, 25 7 N., 37 13 E.[lxxi]
Leuce Come is about 280 miles from the place where Mecca was later built. To
the south of this village lay the central western part of Arabia along the Red
Sea, which we previously saw was uninhabited in 103 B.C. But now, because the
land route along the Red Sea had started to flourish, there had been a few
villages built since 103 B.C., which Gallus occupied. These villages are
mentioned in the narration of Strabo, who was an eyewitness to this important
expedition.
After Leuce Come, Gallus marched to the south, through
Nabataean-controlled lands. Strabo describes the nature of the
region with these words:
Gallus moved his army from Leuce Come and marched through regions
where water had to be carried by camels.
Gallus marched until he reached the
desert assigned to Aretas, his kinsman, by King Obodas of Nabataean. We assume that Gallus was
marching toward the village of Egra about 1,100 Greek stadia from
Leuce Come (about 137 miles). Strabo described this part under
Aretas, as follows:
It
afforded only zea, a kind of coarse grain, a few palm trees and butter instead
of oil.[lxxii]
It
is a description of a deserted tract of land with few stations on the caravan
route coming from the south. These
stations are mainly Nabataean stations to protect and control
the trade passing through this area.
Then Strabo described the next segment of
the central-western Arabian campaign with these words:
The
next country which Gallus traversed belongs to nomads and
most of it was truly desert; and it was called Ararene, and he spent fifty days
arriving at the city of Negrani.
That
was a city of Najran on the border of Yemen about 385
miles south of Mecca, and about 125 miles from the shore of the Red Sea. We
understand from the description of Strabo that the central western tract
of Arabia along the Red Sea during the time of the expedition had few changes
since the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. This region was
described by previous geographers as uninhabited in its northern part, and
inhabited by Bedouins in its southern part, until reaching the more-civilized
people near Yemen. At least three of the stations which the Nabataeans had built on the caravan road
became small villages, which were mentioned in this expedition. The situation
was likely similar to that of the 2nd and 3rd centuries
B.C.
Gallus wanted to subdue the region to
protect the trade from the piracy coming from this area. His plan was to occupy
all the cities found in this dangerous tract, but he did not find any city
until he reached Najran. This demonstrates that Mecca was
not yet built in those times – that is, around 23 B.C. Gallus occupied Najran, then Asca
(within Yemeni territory). Going south, he occupied a city called Athrula, then advanced toward Marsiaba (probably Ma'rib, the capital of Saba). He assaulted and besieged the
city for six days, but desisted for want of water. He lost only seven soldiers in
war against the Arabians of Najran and in the battles south of it. Most of the
losses in his army came from lack of water and supplies, and disease.
If Mecca had existed at the time of the Roman Expedition, it would
have been impossible to be missed by a weary army which needed a city in which
to rest and replenish
supplies.
The
hardships of Gallus’ army were because of the huge
distances, which existed between the small few villages in this tract of
central Arabia where Mecca was built in later times. This caused many soldiers
to die from a lack of water and supplies. The Romans accused Syllaeus of not helping them as a guide
because the Romans accused him of choosing paths between the villages and
cities that were longer than they should have been. This did not affect the
plan of passing through all the villages which existed in the area, since the
villages and cities were known by all contemporaries to the expedition, and
confirmed by the inhabitants. In other words, each village or city knew the
name of the next city or village which Gallus needed to visit on the way to
Najran and the other cities of Yemen.
Since subduing all of central western Arabia was an important goal for the
expedition, Gallus would not have missed a city
like Mecca, if it had existed then.
Another thing to consider is that after Gallus failed to occupy the Yemeni city
of Marsiaba, he replaced Syllaeus as a guide, and instead depended
on native experts to return to Negrana and then to the Nabataean village of Leuce Come. Consequently, he made the
return trip more quickly, passing through the few villages which were built on
the caravan road where Mecca was eventually built. Strabo mentioned them by name, but
never mentioned Mecca.[7]
Ultimately, Gallus withdrew from the war. The huge distances between the
villages, which were built on this central Arabian tract, created a logistical
travel problem for an army of more than 11,000. Gallus lost thousands of his
soldiers because of lack of water and supplies.
The Roman historian, Dio Cassius, described the failure of the
expedition in his book, The History of Rome. Here’s what he wrote:
At
first Aelius Gallus encountered no one, yet he did
not proceed without difficulty; for the desert, the sun, and the water (which
had some peculiar nature) all caused his men great distress, so that the larger
part of the army perished.[lxxiii]
This
advances our argument. If Mecca had existed as a city, it would have been
Gallus’ main goal to control it. No
cities are described by any of the historians, except for the few villages I
mentioned previously which were built on the caravan road. If Mecca had
existed, it would have been an important place to rest, to replenish supplies
and to prepare a person to traverse the rest of this terrible tract toward
Najran and the other Yemeni cities. No
one who planned to occupy a desert would abandon its main city. But that desert
had no city in existence like Mecca; that is why the expedition had its
hardships and problems with supplies.
What this ultimately shows us is that the claims of Islam which state that
Mecca was a city that flourished during the time of Abraham, are
unsubstantiated and false. All the records of the historians of the time show
that Mecca was not in existence until the 4th century A.D.,
certainly not in the time of Abraham. If Islam is wrong on this key assertion,
how can we trust it in other assertions?
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