Evidence Mecca existed during the time of revealing the Torah to prophet Moses

๐„๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐Œ๐ž๐œ๐œ๐š ๐ž๐ฑ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐“๐จ๐ซ๐š๐ก ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐ž๐ญ ๐Œ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฌ


Mohamad Mostafa Nassar

Twitter:@NassarMohamadMR

๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Œ๐ž๐œ๐œ๐š’๐ฌ ๐„๐ฑ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐.๐‚.

Powerful proof that Mecca already existed as a city at the time of revealing the Torah to the prophet Moses (pbuh).

[NOTE: the below info are an excerpts from my polish book entitled โ€œZnaki i proroctwa Starego Testamentu o nadejล›ciu Ostatniego Posล‚aล„ca Bogaโ€]

Today, very few Muslims and Christians alike are aware of that Mecca – along with Medina โ€“ is explicitly mentioned by name in an early rabbinic translation of the Pentateuch.

๐ˆ๐ง ๐†๐ž๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ:๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ ๐š๐œ๐œ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Œ๐š๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐œ ๐“๐ž๐ฑ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ :

โ€œAnd their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest toward Sephar, unto the mountain of the east.โ€ [JPS, 1917]

However, the above passage according to the Judeo-Arabic translation – i.e. the process of reading runs as in Arabic, but the script is written with Hebrew letters –

๐Œ๐š๐๐ž ๐›๐ฒ ๐‘๐š๐›๐›๐ข ๐’๐š๐š๐๐ข๐š ๐›๐ž๐ง ๐‰๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฉ๐ก ๐š๐ฅ-๐…๐š๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข (๐œ๐š. ๐Ÿ–๐Ÿ–๐Ÿ-๐Ÿ—๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ), ๐š๐ฅ๐ฌ๐จ ๐ค๐ง๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐š๐ฌ ๐’๐š๐š๐๐ข๐š ๐†๐š๐จ๐ง, ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐๐ฌ ๐š๐ฌ:

Translation:

โ€œAnd their dwelling was from Mecca towards al-Medina, unto the mountain of the East.โ€ [ล’uvres complรจtes de R. Saadia ben Iosef al-Fayyoรปmรฎ, ed. by J. Darenbourg, vol. 1 (Paris: E. Leroux, 1893), p. 17.]

Everyone who is familiar with Hebrew will not contradict me in this matter (Mekka was marked with blue color, al-Medina with red color).

First of all, Saadia Gaon is one of the most prominent Jewish scholars, and it is said that his translation holds an unchallengeable authority over all other biblical translations since he was the best, especially in scriptural exegesis, Jewish history, and Talmudic knowledge in general, and he is responsible for the first and most important Arabic translation of the Torah which became the standard version for all Jews living in Muslim countries.

๐Œ๐š๐ข๐ฆ๐จ๐ง๐ข๐๐ž๐ฌ ๐ก๐ข๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿ, ๐š ๐ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐‘๐š๐›๐›๐ข (๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ“-๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ’) ๐ฌ๐š๐ข๐:

โ€œwere it not for Saadia, the Torah would almost have disappeared from the midst of Israel; for it was he who made manifest what was obscure therein made strong what had been weakened, and made it known far and wide by word of mouth and in writing.” [H. Malter,ย Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works, (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1921), p. 279.]

Therefore, as you can see, his translation is a primary source when it comes to the accuracy of Old Testament interpretation. As to the mentioning of Mecca and Medina in Genesis.

Let us recall e.g. the statement of the Rev. Professor William Paul who in his critical interpretation to the Hebrew fragment ื”ึทืงึถึผื“ึถื ื”ึทืจ [#996] from Genesis 10:30, has wrote: โ€œmountain (mountains) of the East.

These are supposed to be those mountains of Arabia running from the neighborhood of Mecca and Medina to the Persian Gulf.โ€ [Rev. W. Paul,ย Analysis and critical interpretation of the Hebrew text of the Book of Genesis, (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1852), p. 100.]

Other scholars also share a similar view. This of course explains why rabbi Saadia Gaon has mentioned Mecca and Medina in Genesis 10:30. This is not only his paraphrase concluded from the context as some might think because if you go to the Hebrew text you will notice there such words as ื‘ืื›ื” (baka) which was translated as โ€œas thou goestโ€ !ย 

Other scholars also share a similar view. This of course explains why rabbi Saadia Gaon has mentioned Mecca and Medina in Genesis 10:30. This is not only his paraphrase concluded from the context as some might think because if you go to the Hebrew text you will notice there such words asย ื‘ืื›ื”ย (baka) which was translated as โ€œas thou goestโ€ !ย 

ื•ื™ื”ื™ ืžื•ืฉืื‘ื ืžืžืฉืื ื‘ืื›ื” ืกืคืจื” ื”ืจ ื”ืงื“ื
On that occasion it must be stressed that the Hebrew ืžืฉืื (Mesha), that preceds ื‘ืื›ื”, does not stand here for Mecca as some of you would suppose.

Lexicons says that this word is of foreign derivation, and there is no consensus as to whether it refers to a place somewhere in Arabia, or to a region, or to a north Arabian tribe.

In any case, we have to concentrate onย ื‘ืื›ื”ย (bakah), and it would be quite preferable to remember this word in its exact Hebrew form for the next portion of information.

The second proof that Allah Almighty let me to discover comes from a rare book calledย The Asatir: The Samaritan Book of the Secrets of Mosesย which was translated and published by Dr. Moses Gaster in 1927.

This ancient document according to Dr. Moses is much older than Josephus or the Palestinian Targum, and after comparing it with the other manuscripts assumes that this book could not have been compiled later than between 250-200 B.C. In Chapter VIII of this book we read:

๐๐จ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญโ€ฆ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐œ๐ซ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ฅ ๐œ๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐จ๐Ÿ! ๐๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ž๐ญโ€™๐ฌ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ƒ๐ซ. ๐Œ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐š๐ข๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐š๐ฌ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ โ€œ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐ญ ๐Œ๐ž๐œ๐œ๐šโ€ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ž ๐Ÿ‘:

Note:

In the above-mentioned image, there is an error in writing: instead of “nead” read “reading”, the same is with “nead” which stands of course for “read”. and “preserved” for “preserved”, but these spelling errors are not so much significant since every English reader should not have a problem understanding the text.

๐๐ซ๐จ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ ๐‘๐ž๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ž๐ง ๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ง๐ž (๐๐ก๐), ๐๐ซ๐จ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Œ๐ž๐๐ข๐ž๐ฏ๐š๐ฅ ๐‰๐ž๐ฐ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ˆ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐š๐ฆ๐ข๐œ ๐’๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐ข๐ž๐ฌ ๐š๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐Œ๐ž๐œ๐œ๐š ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ž๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐ข๐›๐ฅ๐ž.

Reference:

The Asatir: The Samaritan Book of the Secrets of Moses, together with the Pitron or Samaritan commentary and the Samaritan story of the death of Moses, introduction, translation and notes by M. Gaster, Ph.D. (London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1927), p. 262.

Notice the same wordย ื‘ืื›ื”ย (Baka) which can be found in the Hebrew text of Genesis 10:30 !
Mecca was mentioned among other biblical places, and so in the first and oldest book of the Torah. On the other hand, Ptolemyโ€™s Makoraba – or most probably Makkorabba as some scholars suggested โ€“ is also an intriguing issue, and it seems that this word consists of two separable segments, namely:

1. Makko = Mekka = Bakka
2. Rabba = from Rabb which means in Arabic “The Lord”

Based on this, it can be translated literally as โ€œMekka of the Lordโ€ or โ€œthe Lord of Mekkaโ€. Such interpretation is reinforced by discovering an inscription that was engraved in one of the corners of the foundation of the Kaaba during its renovation in 605 A.D. by the people of Quraysh.

The mysterious writing was composed in Syriac as relates to Ibn Ishaq, and they could not understand it until some Jew read it for them. The text goes as follows:ย โ€œI am Allah,ย the Lord of Bakka, I created it on the day that I created heaven and earth and formed the sun and moon.

And I surrounded it with seven pious angels. It will stand while its two mountains stand, a blessing to its people with milk and water.โ€ [Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, trans. A. Guillaume, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004), pp. 85-86.]

Ibn Ishaq immediately after citing this amazing inscription said:ย โ€œI was told that they found in theย maqamย a writing: โ€˜Mecca is Godโ€™s holy houseโ€ฆโ€

I believe this is the answer, because if Ptolemy by saying Makorabba has in mind a temple rather than a city it would make sense in relation to what we have just read, i.e. that Mecca according to the writing on maqam was called a โ€œholy house of Godโ€.

And in result, this perfectly fits the conception of Ptolemyโ€™s Makkorabba as โ€œThe Lord of Mekkaโ€. Some scholars also have proposed the translation โ€œThe Temple of the Lordโ€ which again leads to the same point.

Anyway, in conclusion, we have at least two strong proofs directly from an ancient source showing that Mecca is a historical location and indeed existed long before the Christian era, as it is testified by ancient versions of the Torah. The Christians of course will try to deny their authority as usual.

Allah knows Best.

Jewish Proof for the existence of Makkah

Kaโ€™bah As A Place Of Worship In The History-Mecca

Did Kabah In Makkah Exist before 4th Century?

Makkah And Hajj (Pilgrimage) In Bible

Was there any evidence NOT from the Quran that Prophet Ibrahim =Abraham was in Mecca and Built the Kaabain Mecca?

Is Becca =Bacca=Baca=Baka in the Bible the same Makkah=Mecca in the Quran ?

Did the Bible mention Makkah = Mecca?