MECCA: Did Ptolemy refer to Mecca in the 2nd c. AD?

Описание: Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek writer and geographer from Alexandria, in Egypt wrote "A Guide to Geography" between 141 AD - 147 AD. In it he gave co-ordinates for a place called 'Macoraba' as 73% 20' 22%, which placed Macoraba south-east of what used to be called Yathrib, or Medina today.

It is this city that many historians in the West, particularly in Europe, believed was the city of Mecca.

The problem is that Mecca today is south-west of Medina, and not south east, so it is positioned in the wrong place.

Nonetheless, European scholars since the time of the French historian, Samuel Bochart, in 1651 AD, have claimed that Macoraba was indeed Mecca.

Others supported Bochart; Johann Heinrich Zedler in 1739 included this supposed reference to Mecca by Ptolemy in his German Encyclopedia. In 1799 Konrad Mannert, the Prussian historian suggested that the word Macoraba could mean a temple.

In 1846 the German scholar Albert Forbiger referenced Macoraba as Mecca in his encyclopedia which canonized the idea for most Europeans ever since.

In 1890 Eduard Gasser suggested that the word Macoraba was a southern Arabian word for 'Mihrab', which then meant a place of worship, and since then most Western Scholars believe Macoraba is Mecca.

But there are problems, according to Ian D. Morris, who has done the best and most thorough research on this theory in modern times. To begin with Ptolemy's map places Macoraba in the wrong place, southeast of Yathrib, when it should be southwest.

Furthermore, etymologically, Macoraba has many problems. As Morris noted, "It is telling that after 350 years of experimentation we have a handful of incompatible etymologies, none of which quite fits. It is also telling that five very different interpretations have resorted to languages that flourished outside ancient Mecca: Aramaic from Sprenger, Hebrew from Bochart and Dozy, and Old South Arabian from Glaser and Ali. Why, then, is there still a consensus that Macoraba is Mecca?"

He goes on to say, "the idea was first noted in the seventeenth century; in the eighteenth century it found its way into encyclopaedias; and in the nineteenth, it was fairly common knowledge among Orientalists. Konrad Mannert helped to popularise the idea, but it was probably Albert Forbiger’s entry in Pauly’s Encyclopaedia that assured its place in the canon of Orientalist thought."

He then concludes, "It is not impossible that Mecca is Macoraba, but right now, given the state of the field, there is no rigorous way to bridge the two names. It is easier to conclude that they are different places. Patricia Crone seems to be vindicated, and hopefully this blog post will be a second small step toward overturning the consensus."

So, what did Patricia Crone say in her best seller, 'Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam'? She devoted a number of pages arguing against the supposed evidence for Macoraba, and concluded, "The plain truth is that the name of Macoraba has nothing to do with that of Mecca, and that the location indicated by Ptolemy for Macoraba in no way dictates identification of the two.”

© Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2021
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