Establishing proof and evidence that Mecca is Macoraba.
1)MACORABA
MACORABA (Μακοράβα), an inland city of Arabia Felix, placed by Ptolemy in lat. 73° 20′, long. 22°, universally admitted to be the ancient classical representative of the modern Mekka or Mecca, which Mr. Forster holds to be an idiomatic abbreviation of Machoraba, identical with the Arabic “Mecharab,” “the warlike city,” or “the city of the Harb.” (Geog. of Arabia, vol. i. pp. 265, 266.) A very high antiquity is claimed for this city in the native traditions, but the absence of all authentic notices of it in the ancient geographers must be allowed to disprove its claim to notoriety on account of its sanctity at any very remote period. The territory of Mekka was, according to universal Arabian history or tradition, the central seat of the kingdom of Jorham and the Jorhamites, descendants of the Joktanite patriarch Sherah, the Jerah of the book of Genesis (10.26), who in the earliest times were the sovereigns of Mekka, the guardians of the Kaaba, and the superintendents of the idolatrous sacrifices in the valley of Mina, from whence they derived their classical synonym MINAEI It is quite uncertain when they were superseded by the Ishmaelite Arabs of the family of Kedar, whose descendants, according to immemorial Arabic tradition, settled in the Hedjaz; and one tribe of whom was named Koreish (collegit undique), “quod circa Meccam, congregati degerent.” (Canus ap. Golium, in voc., cited by Forster, Geog. of Arabia, vol. i. p. 248, n.) This tribe, however, from which Mohammed sprung, had been for centuries the guardians of the Kaaba, and lords of Mekka, prior to his appearance: for if the very plausible etymology and import of the classical name, as above given, be correct, and Beni-Harb was, as Mr. Forster has elaborately proved, a synonym for the sons of Kedar, it will follow that they had succeeded in fixing their name to the capital some time before it appeared in Ptolemy's list, nor can any traces of a more ancient name be discovered, nor any notices of the ancient city, further than the bare mention of its name by the Alexandrian geographer.“Mekka, sometimes also called Bekka, which words are synonymous, and signify a place of great concourse, is certainly one of the most ancient cities in the world. It is by some thought to be the Mesa of Scripture (Gen. 10.30), a name not unknown to the Arabians, and supposed to be taken from one of Ishmael's sons” (Gen. 25.15). (Sale's Koran, Preliminary Discourse, sect. i. p. 4.) Its situation is thus described by Burckhardt:--“The town is situated in a valley, narrow and sandy, the main direction of which is from north to south; but it inclines towards the north-west near the southern extremity of the town. In breadth this valley varies from one hundred to seven hundred paces, the chief part of the city being placed where the valley is most broad. The town itself covers a space of about 1500 paces in length; .... but the whole extent of ground comprehended under the denomination of Mekka” (i. e. including the suburbs) “amounts to 3500 paces. The mountains enclosing this valley (which, before the town was built, the Arabs had named Wady Mekka or Bekka) are from 200 to 500 feet in height, completely barren and destitute of trees..... Most of the town is situated in the valley itself; but there are also parts built on the sides of the mountains, principally of the eastern chain, where the primitive habitations of the Koreysh and the ancient town appear to have been placed.” It is described as a handsome town; with streets broader, and stone houses more lofty, than in other Eastern cities: but since the decline of the pilgrimage “numerous buildings in the outskirts have fallen completely into ruin, and the town itself exhibits in every street houses rapidly decaying.” Its population has declined in proportion. The results of Burckhardt's inquiries gave “between 25,000 and 30,000 stationary inhabitants for the population of the city and suburbs, besides from 3000 to 4000 Abyssinians and black slaves: its habitations are capable of containing three times this number.” This estimate, however, shows a considerable increase within the last three centuries; for “in the time of Sultan Selym I. (in A. H. 923, i. e. A.D. 1517) a [p. 2.240]census was taken, and the number found to be 12,000 men, women, and children.” In earlier times the population was much more considerable; for “when Abou Dhaker sacked Mekka in A. H. 314 (A.D. 926) 30,000 of the inhabitants were killed by his ferocious soldiers.” Ali Bey's estimate in A.D. 1807 is much lower than Burckhardt's in A.D. 1814. Yet the former says “that the population of Mekka diminishes sensibly. This city, which is known to have contained more than 100,000 souls, does not at present shelter more than from 16,000 to 18,000;” and conjectures that “it will be reduced, in the course of a century, to the tenth part of the size it now is.” The celebrated Kaaba demands a cursory notice. It is situated in the midst of a great court, which forms a parallelogram of about 536 feet by 356, surrounded by a double piazza. This sanctuary, called, like that of Jerusalem, El-Haram, is situated near the middle of the city, which is built in a narrow valley, having a considerable slope from north to south. In order to form a level area for the great court of the temple, the ground has evidently been hollowed out, subsequently to the erection of the Kaaba, which is the only ancient edifice in the temple. The building itself (called by the natives Beit-Ullah, the House of God), probably the most ancient sacred building now existing, is a quadrilateral tower, the sides and angles of which are unequal. Its dimensions are 38 feet by 29, and its height 34 feet 4 inches; built of squarehewn but unpolished blocks of quartz, schorl, and mica, brought from the neighbouring mountains. The black stone, the most sacred object of veneration, is built into the angle formed by the NE. and SE. sides, 42 inches above the pavement. It is believed by the Moslems to have been presented to Abraham by the angel Gabriel, and is called “the heavenly stone.” Ali Bey says that “it is a fragment of volcanic basalt, sprinkled throughout its circumference with small, pointed, coloured crystals, and varied with red feldspath upon a dark black ground like coal.” The famous well of Zemzem, in the great mosk, is 56 feet deep to the surface of the water, fed by a copious spring; but its water, says Burckhardt, “however holy, is heavy to the taste, and impedes digestion.” Ali Bey, on the contrary, says that “it is wholesome, though warmer than the air even in that hot climate. The town is further supplied with rain-water preserved in cisterns: but the best water in Mekka is brought by a conduit from the vicinity of Arafat, six or seven hours distant.” (Ali Bey, Travels, vol. ii. pp. 74--114; Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, pp. 94, &c. 2) Second proof that Macaroba is Mecca:- Claudius Ptolemy (Born: 90 AD – Died: 168 AD)
Claudius Ptolemy was a Greco-Roman writer of Alexandria, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer; is another person, centuries before Islam who makes mention of Makkah. He uses the name ‘Makoraba’ for Makkah.
In the Book: ‘The New Encyclopedia of Islam’, written by Cyril Glassé says that Ptolmey, in the second century mentioned Makkah. Here is what he wrote,
“Mecca (Makkah al-Mukarramah, lit ‘Mecca the blessed’). For thousands of years Mecca has been a spiritual center. Ptolemy, the second century Greek geographer, mentioned Mecca, calling it ‘Makoraba’. Some have interpreted this to mean temple (from Maqribah in south Arabian) but it may also mean ‘Mecca of the Arabs’.” [5]
Ilya Pavlovich Petrushevsky (1898–1977) was an Professor of History of the Near East at the University of Leningrad for twenty years, he also makes mention that Ptolemy in the second Century mentioned Makkah:
“On the caravan route from Syria to the Yemen, in the Hijaz neighbourhood, lay Mecca. Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, mentions it as early as the second century calling it Makoraba, which is derived from the south Arab word Maqrab meaning ‘sanctuary’. [6]
Michael Wolfe:
“Mecca lies midway along the west coast of Arabia in a mountainous barrier region named the Hijaz. This narrow tract of land about nine hundred miles long with the Tropic of Cancer passing through its center. The second-century Greco-Egyptian geographer Ptolemy called the city Makoraba, the temple.” [7]
Paul Wheatley:
“it was its virtual monopoly of Hijaz commerce which made of Mecca, in the words of the Quran, ‘a city secure and at peace; provisions flowing in from every side’. But all this is concerned with the expansion of the influence of a city which already existed. The name Mecca (strictly transliterated as Makkah) had been mentioned in the Ptolmaic corpus in the 2nd century AD under the orthography Makoraba, which itself derived from the Sabaean Makuraba, meaning ‘sanctuary’. Long before Muhammad the Ka’bah had served as the central shrine of a group of clans, each of whom had deposited its ritual stone, symbolizing its own god, in the sacred precinct.” [8]
In the book ‘A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures: An Investigation’, by Mogens Herman Hansen; in Note 24 he makes it clear when Ptolemy mentioned the name ‘Macoraba’, that he meant Mecca:
“Ptolemy in Geographies refers to Mecca as Macoraba.” [9] 3) It is interesting to know that Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, mathematician and astronomer, flourishing about a century after Pliny, undertook to make an atlas of the habitable world. He was not a descriptive geographer, and his book was intended to be no more than a commentary on his maps. He enumerated some hundred and fourteen cities or villages in Arabia Felix.
For example, Dumaetha, placed by Ptolemy just outside the northern boundary of Arabia Felix, must be the mediaeval Arabian Daumet, which is today the chief village of the great oasis of Jauf. Hejr, famous in the "times of ignorance" as the seat of a kingdom, and now Medayin Salih, is Ptolemy's Egra. His Thaim is Teima, now known for its inscriptions to have had temples and some sort of civilization as far back as 500 BC. It is the Tema of Job. In Lathrippa, placed inland from Iambia (Yambo), we recognize the Iathrippa of Stephan of Byzantium, the Yathrib of the early Arab traditions, now honoured as El Medina, the City of Cities.[3]
Apart from this a place called Macoraba is also shown which is identified as Mecca (please refer to the map facing page 17 of reference [3]). G E von Grunebaum says:
Mecca is mentioned by Ptolemy, and the name he gives it allows us to identify it as a South Arabian foundation created around a sanctuary.