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112-520: The Taym Allah were originally called 'Taym Allat' after their eponymous progenitor, a son of Tha'laba ibn Ukaba ibn Sa'b ibn Ali ibn Bakr ibn Wa'il. The name may have been altered to 'Taym Allah' after their embrace of Christianity or Islam as ' Allat ' referred to an Arabian polytheistic god . They were a branch of the Banu Bakr ibn Wa'il tribe, part of the larger group of north Arabian tribes descended from Rabi'a ibn Nizar . Although not specified in

224-508: A great degree of local autonomy. In 1803 the city was captured by the First Saudi State , which held Mecca until 1813, destroying some of the historic tombs and domes in and around the city. The Ottomans assigned the task of bringing Mecca back under Ottoman control to their powerful Khedive (viceroy) and Wali of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha . Muhammad Ali Pasha successfully returned Mecca to Ottoman control in 1813 . In 1818,

336-554: A great quantity of alms for the support of those who were staying in Mecca and Medina". While in Mecca, prayers were made for (not to) the King of Iraq and also for Salaheddin al-Ayyubi , Sultan of Egypt and Syria at the Ka'bah. Battuta says the Ka'bah was large, but was destroyed and rebuilt smaller than the original. According to Ibn Battuta, the original Kaaba, prior to the conquest of Makkah by

448-627: A lion and a gazelle, the lion representing her consort, and the gazelle representing al-Lat's tender and loving traits, as bloodshed was not permitted under penalty of al-Lat's retaliation. Al-Lat was associated with the Greek goddess Athena (and by extension, the Roman Minerva ) in Nabataea , Hatra , and Palmyra . It seems that her identification with Athena was only a mere change in iconography, and al-Lat's character noticeably softened

560-602: A local Hijazi form of her attested in Hegra alongside Dushara and Manat was "Allat of 'Amnad". Al-Lat was closely related to al-'Uzza , and in some regions of the Nabataean kingdom , both al-Lat and al-'Uzza were said to be the same goddess. John F. Healey believes that al-Lat and al-'Uzza originated as a single goddess, which parted ways in the pre-Islamic Meccan tradition . Susan Krone suggests that both al-Lat and al-'Uzza were uniquely fused in central Arabia. Al-Lat

672-624: A reference to Mecca, similar to the Quran at Surah 3:96 In the Sharḥ al-Asāṭīr , a commentary on the Samaritan midrashic chronology of the Patriarchs, of unknown date but probably composed in the 10th century CE, it is claimed that Mecca was built by the sons of Nebaioth , the eldest son of Ismāʿīl or Ishmael . Thamudic inscriptions Some Thamudic inscriptions which were discovered in

784-860: A report by Abu Mikhnaf , cited by al-Tabari. Another poet and chief of the Taym Allah, Nahar ibn Tawsi'a, was a commander in the conquests led by the Umayyad commander Qutayba ibn Muslim in Transoxiana (the part of Central Asia beyond the Oxus ) in the early 8th century, despite having earlier mocked Qutayba in verse. Nahar was known as the Bakr's best poet in Khurasan. The founder of the Hanafi madhhab (Islamic school of jurisprudence), Abu Hanifa (d. 767),

896-533: A separate deity in the Meccan pantheon. Redefining Dionysos considers she might have been a deity of vegetation or a celestial deity of atmospheric phenomena and a sky deity. According to Wellhausen, the Nabataeans believed al-Lat was the mother of Hubal (and hence the mother-in-law of Manāt ). It has been hypothesized that Allah was the consort of al-Lat, given that it is typical of deities in that area of

1008-552: A silver bowl dedicated by a Qedarite king, with the goddess' name inscribed on it. The Nabataeans and the people of Hatra also worshipped al-Lat, equating her with the Greek goddesses Athena and Tyche and the Roman goddess Minerva . She is frequently called "the Great Goddess" in Greek in multilingual inscriptions. The Nabataeans regarded al-Lat as the mother of the deities, and her family relations vary; sometimes she

1120-617: A state like that of eaten straw. Economy Camel caravans, said to have first been used by Muhammad's great-grandfather, were a major part of Mecca's bustling economy. Alliances were struck between the merchants in Mecca and the local nomadic tribes, who would bring goods – leather, livestock, and metals mined in the local mountains – to Mecca to be loaded on the caravans and carried to cities in Shaam and Iraq . Historical accounts also provide some indication that goods from other continents may also have flowed through Mecca. Goods from Africa and

1232-478: A threat to Mecca, as in 575 CE they protected it from a Yemeni invasion, led by its Christian leader Abraha . The tribes of southern Arabia asked the Persian king Khosrau I for aid, in response to which he came south to Arabia with foot-soldiers and a fleet of ships near Mecca. By the middle of the 6th century, there were three major settlements in northern Arabia , all along the south-western coast that borders

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1344-615: A tremendous expansion in size and infrastructure, with newer, modern buildings such as the Abraj Al Bait , the world's fourth-tallest building and third-largest by floor area , towering over the Great Mosque. The Saudi government has also carried out the destruction of several historical structures and archaeological sites , such as the Ajyad Fortress . However, many of the demolitions have officially been part of

1456-567: A year-round population of scholars, pious Muslims who wished to live close to the Kaaba, and local inhabitants who served the pilgrims. Due to the difficulty and expense of the Hajj, pilgrims arrived by boat at Jeddah, and came overland, or joined the annual caravans from Syria or Iraq. Mecca was never the capital of any of the Islamic states . Muslim rulers did contribute to its upkeep, such as during

1568-529: Is Islam's holiest site and the direction of prayer ( qibla ) for all Muslims worldwide. Muslim rulers from in and around the region long tried to take the city and keep it in their control, and thus, much like most of the Hejaz region, the city has seen several regime changes . The city was most recently conquered in the Saudi conquest of Hejaz by Ibn Saud and his allies in 1925. Since then, Mecca has seen

1680-590: Is also mentioned in pre-Islamic Arab poetry, such as in al-Mutalammis ' satire of Amr ibn Hind : Thou hast banished me for fear of lampoon and satire. No! By Allat and all the sacred baetyls (ansab) thou shalt not escape. A poem by the pre-Islamic monotheist Zayd ibn Amr mentions al-Lat, along with al-'Uzza and Hubal : Am I to worship one lord or a thousand? If there are as many as you claim, I renounce al-Lat and al-Uzza, both of them, as any strong-minded person would. I will not worship al-Uzza and her two daughters… I will not worship Hubal, though he

1792-600: Is just a few kilometers outside the main sites of the Hajj, Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat. Mecca is not served by any airport, due to concerns about the city's safety. It is instead served by the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah (approx. 70 km away) internationally and the Ta'if Regional Airport (approx. 120 km away) for domestic flights. The city today is at the junction of

1904-608: Is regarded as the consort of Dushara and at other times as the mother of Dushara. Nabataean inscriptions call her and al-'Uzza the "brides of Dushara ". A temple was built for al-Lat in Iram of the Pillars , by the tribe of ʿĀd . Al-Lat was referred to as "the goddess who is in Iram" in a Nabataean inscription. She was also referred to as "the goddess who is in Bosra ". Perhaps

2016-715: Is revered in Islam as the birthplace of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . The Hira cave atop the Jabal al-Nur ("Mountain of Light"), just outside the city, is where Muslims believe the Quran was first revealed to Muhammad. Visiting Mecca for the Ḥajj is an obligation upon all able Muslims. The Great Mosque of Mecca , known as the Masjid al-Haram , is home to the Ka'bah , believed by Muslims to have been built by Abraham and Ishmael . It

2128-535: Is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia ; it is the holiest city according to Islam . It is 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea , in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its metropolitan population in 2022 was 2.4   million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Around 44.5% of

2240-567: Is the official transliteration used by the Saudi government and is closer to the Arabic pronunciation. The government adopted Makkah as the official spelling in the 1980s, but it is not universally known or used worldwide. The full official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah ( Arabic : مكة المكرمة , lit.   'Makkah the Honored';). Makkah is used to refer to the city in

2352-735: Is to be sought. The word gharaniq was translated as "most exalted females" by Faris in his English translation of the Book of Idols , but he annotates this term in a footnote as "lit. Numidean cranes". According to Islamic tradition, the shrine dedicated to al-Lat in Ta'if was demolished on the orders of Muhammad , during the Expedition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb , in the same year as the Battle of Tabuk (which occurred in October 630 AD). The destruction of

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2464-682: The Banu Tamim . Other regional powers such as the Abyssinians , Ghassanids, and Lakhmids were in decline leaving Meccan trade to be the primary binding force in Arabia in the late 6th century. Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 CE, and thus Islam has been inextricably linked with it ever since. He was born into the faction of Banu Hashim in the ruling tribe of Quraysh . It was in the nearby mountain cave of Hira on Jabal al-Nour that Muhammad began receiving divine revelations from God through

2576-540: The Battle of Siffin in 657, during the First Muslim Civil War . Another member of the tribe, Bahr ibn Ka'b ibn Ubayd Allah, is held by the 10th-century historian al-Tabari to have struck and killed a young nephew of Husayn ibn Ali , grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , at the Battle of Karbala in 680. Members of the tribe played an increasingly prominent role in the easternmost provinces of

2688-582: The Battle of the Trench in 627 CE, the combined armies of Arabia were unable to defeat Muhammad's forces (as the trench surrounding Muhammad's forces protected them from harm and a storm was sent to breach the Quraysh tribe). In 628 CE, Muhammad and his followers wanted to enter Mecca for pilgrimage, but were blocked by the Quraysh. Subsequently, Muslims and Meccans entered into the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah , whereby

2800-475: The First World War . This plan was later carried out by the Saudi government, which connected the two holy cities of Medina and Mecca with the modern Haramain high-speed railway system which runs at 300 km/h (190 mph) and connects the two cities via Jeddah, King Abdulaziz International Airport and King Abdullah Economic City near Rabigh within two hours. The haram area of Mecca, in which

2912-820: The Ghassanids and the Himyarites of the south supports the Arabic sources tradition that associates Quraysh as a branch of the Ma'add and Muhammad as a direct descendant of Ma'ad ibn Adnan . Historian Patricia Crone has cast doubt on the claim that Mecca was a major historical trading outpost. However, other scholars such as Glen W. Bowersock disagree and assert that Mecca was a major trading outpost. Crone later on disregarded some of her theories. She argues that Meccan trade relied on skins, hides, manufactured leather goods, clarified butter, Hijazi woollens, and camels. She suggests that most of these goods were destined for

3024-485: The Ka'bah . The Quran refers to the city as Bakkah in Surah Al Imran (3), verse 96: "Indeed the first House [of worship] , established for mankind was that at Bakkah". This is said to have been the name of the city at the time of Ibrahim and it is also transliterated as Baca, Baka, Bakah, Bakka, Becca and Bekka , among others. It was a name for the city in the ancient world. Makkah

3136-591: The Negus of Axum . It gained widespread fame, even gaining attention from the Byzantine Empire . Abraha attempted to divert the pilgrimage of the Arabs from the Ka'bah to al-Qullays, effectively converting them to Christianity. According to Islamic tradition, this was the year of Muhammad 's birth. Abraha allegedly sent a messenger named Muhammad ibn Khuza'i to Mecca and Tihamah with a message that al-Qullays

3248-736: The Red Sea , but piracy had been increasing. Another previous route that ran through the Persian Gulf via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was also being threatened by exploitations from the Sassanid Empire , and was being disrupted by the Lakhmids , the Ghassanids , and the Roman–Persian Wars . Mecca's prominence as a trading center also surpassed the cities of Petra and Palmyra . The Sassanids however did not always pose

3360-571: The Safaitic script frequently invoked al-Lat in their inscriptions. She was also worshipped by the Nabataeans and was associated with al-'Uzza. The presence of her cult was attested in both Palmyra and Hatra . Under Greco-Roman influence, her iconography began to show the attributes of Athena , the Greek goddess of war, as well as her Roman equivalent Minerva . According to Islamic sources,

3472-729: The Siege of Kut . The British intelligence agent T.E. Lawrence conspired with the Ottoman governor, Hussain bin Ali , the Sharif of Mecca to revolt against the Ottoman Empire and it was the first city captured by his forces in the 1916 Battle of Mecca . Sharif's revolt proved a turning point of the war on the eastern front. Hussein declared a new state, the Kingdom of Hejaz , declaring himself

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3584-684: The Syria -based Umayyads . With all of the Bakrite tribesmen of Khurasan, Aws ibn Tha'laba held out in Herat for a year before being slain. The Umayyads reasserted control over the Caliphate by 692. In the eastern provinces, the Taym Allah tribesmen Tayhan ibn Abjar is mentioned as the first person to have renounced the authority of Caliph Abd al-Malik and joined the anti-Umayyad rebellion of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath in 700-701, according to

3696-626: The archangel Jibreel in 610 CE, according to Islamic tradition. Advocating his form of Abrahamic monotheism against Meccan paganism, and after enduring persecution from the pagan tribes for 13 years, Muhammad emigrated ( hijrah ) in 622 CE with his companions, the Muhajirun , to Yathrib (later renamed Medina ). The conflict between the Quraysh and the Muslims is accepted to have begun at this point. Overall, Meccan efforts to annihilate Islam failed and proved to be costly and unsuccessful. During

3808-421: The local tribes , but once a year they would declare a truce and converge upon Mecca in an annual pilgrimage. Up to the 7th century, this journey was intended for religious reasons by the pagan Arabs to pay homage to their shrine, and to drink Zamzam . However, it was also the time each year that disputes would be arbitrated, debts would be resolved, and trading would occur at Meccan fairs. These annual events gave

3920-489: The "idol of jealousy" erected in the temple of Jerusalem according to the Book of Ezekiel , which was offered an oblation of barley-meal by the husband who suspected his wife of infidelity. It can be inferred from al-Kalbi 's Book of Idols that a similar ritual was practiced in the vicinity of the image of al-Lat. The second proposed etymology takes al-Lat to be the feminine form of Allah . She may have been known originally as ʾal-ʾilat , based on Herodotus' attestation of

4032-399: The 11th century. Allat al-Lat ( Arabic : اللات , romanized :  al-Lāt , pronounced [alːaːt] ), also spelled Allat , Allatu , and Alilat , is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess , at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula , including Mecca , where she was worshipped alongside Al-Uzza and Manat as one of

4144-416: The 1st century BCE in his work Bibliotheca historica , describing a holy shrine: "And a temple has been set up there, which is very holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians". Claims have been made this could be a reference to the Ka'bah in Mecca. However, the geographic location Diodorus describes is located in northwest Arabia, around the area of Leuke Kome , within the former Nabataean Kingdom and

4256-578: The Arab tribes of Quraysh, Kinanah, Khuza'a and Hudhayl united in the defense of the Ka'bah and the city. A man from the Himyarite Kingdom was sent by Abraha to advise them that Abraha only wished to demolish the Ka'bah and if they resisted, they would be crushed. Abdul Muttalib told the Meccans to seek refuge in the hills while he and some members of the Quraysh remained within the precincts of

4368-627: The Far East passed through en route to Syria including spices, leather, medicine, cloth, and slaves; in return Mecca received money, weapons, cereals and wine, which in turn were distributed throughout Arabia. The Meccans signed treaties with both the Byzantines and the Bedouins , and negotiated safe passages for caravans, giving them water and pasture rights. Mecca became the center of a loose confederation of client tribes, which included those of

4480-495: The Greek form of his name. In Islamic sources discussing pre-Islamic Arabia , al-Lat is attested as the chief goddess of the Banu Thaqif tribe. She was said to be venerated in Ta'if , where she was called ar-Rabba ("The Lady"), and she reportedly had a shrine there that was decorated with ornaments and treasure of gold and onyx . There, the goddess was venerated in the form of a cubic granite rock. The area around

4592-409: The Greek historian Herodotus in his fifth-century BC work Histories , and she was considered the equivalent of Aphrodite ( Aphrodite Urania ): The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta , the Arabians Alilat [Greek spelling: Ἀλιλάτ], and the Persians Mithra . According to Herodotus, the ancient Arabians believed in only two deities: They believe in no other gods except Dionysus and

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4704-402: The Heavenly Aphrodite; and they say that they wear their hair as Dionysus does his, cutting it round the head and shaving the temples. They call Dionysus, Orotalt ; and Aphrodite , Alilat . Al-Lat was widely worshipped in north Arabia, but in South Arabia she was not popular and was not the object of an organized cult, with two amulets (inscribed "Lat" on one, "Latan" on the other) being

4816-410: The Ijl. The Taym Allah are reported to have fought alongside their Bakrite tribesmen against the al-Hira -based Lakhmids , Arab client kings of the Sasanian Empire , including at the famed Battle of Dhi Qar in 611 CE. The Taym Allah, and the largely Christian, core tribes of the Lahazim in general, appear to have fought against the Muslim conquests of eastern Arabia in the Ridda wars (632–633) and

4928-424: The Kaaba. Abraha sent a dispatch inviting Abdul-Muttalib to meet with Abraha and discuss matters. When Abdul-Muttalib left the meeting he was heard saying: "The Owner of this House is its Defender, and I am sure he will save it from the attack of the adversaries and will not dishonor the servants of His House." Abraha eventually attacked Mecca. However, the lead elephant, known as Mahmud, is said to have stopped at

5040-421: The Kinana tribe and destroy the Ka'bah. Ibn Ishaq further states that one of the men of the Quraysh tribe was angered by this, and going to Sana'a, entering the church at night and defiling it; widely assumed to have done so by defecating in it. Abraha marched upon the Ka'bah with a large army, which included one or more war elephants , intending to demolish it. When news of the advance of his army came,

5152-405: The Lahazim group. The alliance's purpose was to strengthen these tribes' position against the powerful Bakrite nomads of the Banu Shayban , or more likely, to better defend themselves against the large nomadic tribe of Tamim , specifically its Banu Yarbu division. The Shayban and the Bakrite Banu Dhuhl never fought against the Lahazim, and at times, fought alongside the Lahazim in the battles with

5264-401: The Prophet, contained images of angels and prophets including Jesus (Isa in Islamic tradition), his mother Mary (Maryam in Islamic tradition), and many others - Ibn Battuta however states these were all destroyed by the Prophet in the year of victory. Battuta describes the Ka'bah in his time as an important part of Mecca due to the fact that many people make the pilgrimage to it. Battuta describes

5376-404: The Quran and ahadith . Another name used historically for Mecca is Tihāmah . According to an Islamic suggestion, another name for Mecca, Fārān , is synonymous with the Desert of Paran mentioned in the Old Testament at Genesis 21 :21. Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah coastal plain and the site where Ishmael settled

5488-478: The Quran in Surah Al-Fath (48), verse 24. The word Mecca in English has come to be used to refer to any place that draws large numbers of people, and because of this some English-speaking Muslims have come to regard the use of this spelling for the city as offensive. Nonetheless, Mecca is the familiar form of the English transliteration for the Arabic name of the city. Macoraba, another ancient city name mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy Felix' Arabia Felix ,

5600-468: The Quraysh and their allies promised to cease fighting Muslims and their allies and promised that Muslims would be allowed into the city to perform the pilgrimage the following year. It was meant to be a ceasefire for 10 years; however, just two years later, the Banu Bakr , allies of the Quraish, violated the truce by slaughtering a group of the Banu Khuza'ah, allies of the Muslims. Muhammad and his companions, now 10,000 strong, marched into Mecca and conquered

5712-409: The Red Sea, in a habitable region between the sea and the Hejaz mountains to the east. Although the area around Mecca was completely barren, it was the wealthiest of the three settlements with abundant water from the renowned Zamzam Well and a position at the crossroads of major caravan routes. The harsh conditions and terrain of the Arabian peninsula meant a near-constant state of conflict between

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5824-424: The Roman army, which is known to have required colossal quantities of leather and hides for its equipment. Mecca is mentioned in the following early Quranic manuscripts: The earliest Muslim inscriptions are from the Mecca- Ta'if area. Islamic narrative In the Islamic view, the beginnings of Mecca are attributed to the Biblical figures , Adam , Abraham , Hagar and Ishmael . It was Adam himself who built

5936-409: The Roman province of Arabia Petraea . Ptolemy lists the names of 50 cities in Arabia, one going by the name of Macoraba. There has been speculation since 1646 that this could be a reference to Mecca. Historically, there has been a general consensus in scholarship that Macoraba mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE is indeed Mecca, but more recently, this has been questioned. Bowersock favors

6048-422: The Saud were defeated again but survived and founded the Second Saudi State that lasted until 1891 and led on to the present country of Saudi Arabia. In 1853, Sir Richard Francis Burton undertook the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina disguised as a Muslim. Although Burton was certainly not the first non-Muslim European to make the Hajj ( Ludovico di Varthema did this in 1503), his pilgrimage remains one of

6160-409: The Sharif of Mecca was overthrown by the Saud family, and Mecca was incorporated into Saudi Arabia. Under Saudi rule, much of the historic city has been demolished as a result of the Saudi government fearing these sites might become sites of association in worship besides Allah ( shirk ). The city has been expanded to include several towns previously considered to be separate from the holy city and now

6272-415: The Sharif of the state and Mecca his capital. News reports in November 1916 via contact in Cairo with returning Hajj pilgrims, stated that with the Ottoman Turkish authorities gone, the Hajj of 1916 was free of the previous massive extortion and monetary demands made by the Turks who were agents of the Ottoman government. Saudi Arabian conquest and modern history Following the 1924 Battle of Mecca ,

6384-417: The Tamim, The Taym Allah are rarely mentioned specifically in the Arabic ayyam literature, which referred to the battle-days of the pre-Islamic Arab tribes. However, as a component of the Lahazim, they probably participated in its battles against the Tamim. In any case, they did not fight with any distinction or provide important battle leaders to the alliance in those engagements, most of whom were supplied by

6496-436: The alleged Satanic Verses incident, an occasion on which the Islamic prophet Muhammad had mistaken the words of "satanic suggestion" for divine revelation. Many different versions of the story existed (all traceable to one single narrator Muhammad ibn Ka'b, who was two generations removed from biographer Ibn Ishaq). In its essential form, the story reports that during Muhammad 's recitation of Surat An-Najm, when he reached

6608-438: The boundary around Mecca and refused to enter. It has been theorized that an epidemic such as by smallpox could have caused such a failed invasion of Mecca. The reference to the story in Quran is rather short. According to the 105th Surah of the Quran, Al-Fil , the next day, a dark cloud of small birds sent by Allah appeared. The birds carried small rocks in their beaks, and bombarded the Ethiopian forces, and smashed them to

6720-433: The canonical hadith compilations, though reference and exegesis about the Verses appear in early histories, such as al-Tabari 's Tārīkh ar-Rusul wal-Mulūk and Ibn Ishaq 's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (as reconstructed by Alfred Guillaume ). Various legends about her origins were known in medieval Islamic tradition, including one that linked al-Lat's stone with a man who grinds cereal ( al-latt , "the grinder"). The stone

6832-401: The capital to Damascus in Syria and the Abbasid Caliphate to Baghdad , in modern-day Iraq, which remained the center of the Islamic Empire for nearly 500 years. Mecca re-entered Islamic political history during the Second Fitna , when it was held by Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr and the Zubayrids. The city was twice besieged by the Umayyads in 683 CE and 692 CE, and for some time thereafter,

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6944-405: The city figured little in politics, remaining a city of devotion and scholarship governed by various other factions. In 930 CE, Mecca was attacked and sacked by Qarmatians , a millenarian Shi'a Isma'ili Muslim sect led by Abū-Tāhir Al-Jannābī and centered in eastern Arabia. The Black Death pandemic hit Mecca in 1349 CE. One of the most famous travelers to Mecca in the 14th century

7056-424: The city. The pagan imagery was destroyed by Muhammad's followers and the location Islamized and rededicated to the worship of Allah alone. Mecca was declared the holiest site in Islam ordaining it as the center of Muslim pilgrimage ( Hajj ), one of the Islamic faith's Five Pillars . Muhammad then returned to Medina, after assigning ' Attab ibn Asid as governor of the city. His other activities in Arabia led to

7168-413: The common ancestor of the Old World monkeys and apes . The fossil habitat, near what is now the Red Sea in western Saudi Arabia, was a damp forest area between 28 million and 29 million years ago. Paleontologists involved in the research hope to find further fossils in the area. The early history of Mecca is still largely shrouded by a lack of clear sources. The city lies in the hinterland of

7280-434: The continued expansion of the Masjid al-Haram at Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina and their auxiliary service facilities in order to accommodate the ever-increasing number of Muslims performing the pilgrimage ( hajj ). Non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city . Under the Saudi government, Mecca is governed by the Mecca Regional Municipality, a municipal council of 14 locally elected members headed by

7392-408: The cult image was a demand by Muhammad before he would allow any reconciliation to take place with the tribes of Ta'if, who were under his siege. According to the Book of Idols , this occurred after the Banu Thaqif converted to Islam , and that her temple was "burnt to the ground". In the Quran , she is mentioned along with al-‘Uzza and Manat in Quran 53:19–22 , which became the subject of

7504-424: The daughters of Allah . The word Allat or Elat has been used to refer to various goddesses in the ancient Near East , including the goddess Asherah-Athirat . She also is associated with the Great Goddess . The worship of al-Lat is attested in South Arabian inscriptions as Lat and Latan , but she had more prominence in north Arabia and the Hejaz , and her cult reached as far as Syria . The writers of

7616-402: The early Arabic sources, the Taym Allah's abode was probably in eastern Arabia . They embraced Monophysite Christianity , like many Bakrites, before the advent of Islam in the 620s–630s. A relatively minor nomadic tribe on its own, the Taym Allah allied with other Bakrite tribes, namely its brother tribe, the Banu Qays ibn Tha'laba, and the Banu Ijl , and the non-Bakrite Anaza tribe, to form

7728-431: The early Caliphate, especially in Khurasan and Sijistan . There, a governor and poet from the Taym Allah, Aws ibn Tha'laba ibn Zufar ibn Wadi'a, defended the city of Herat with distinction against the forces of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr led by Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami in 684–685. At the time, the Caliphate was in middle of the Second Muslim Civil War , with Mus'ab representing the Mecca -based Zubayrid side against

7840-420: The first God's house in Mecca according to a heavenly prototype but this building was destroyed in the Noahic Flood . The civilization of Mecca is believed to have started after Ibrāhīm (Abraham) left his son Ismāʿīl (Ishmael) and wife Hājar (Hagar) in the valley at Allah 's command. Some people from the Yemeni tribe of Jurhum settled with them, and Isma'il reportedly married two women, one after divorcing

7952-403: The first, on Ibrahim's advice. At least one man of the Jurhum helped Ismāʿīl and his father to construct or according to Islamic narratives, reconstruct, the Ka'bah ('Cube'), which would have social, religious, political and historical implications for the site and region. Muslims see the mention of a pilgrimage at the Valley of the Bakha in the Old Testament chapter Psalm 84 :3–6 as

8064-420: The following verses: Have you thought of al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzá and Manāt , the third, the other? Satan tempted him to utter the following line: These are the exalted gharāniq, whose intercession is hoped for. (In Arabic تلك الغرانيق العلى وإن شفاعتهن لترتجى.) Following this, the angel Gabriel chastised Muhammad for uttering that line, and the verses were abrogated with a new revelation: Are yours

8176-587: The goddess as Alilat . Al-Lat was used as a title for the goddess Asherah or Athirat . The word is akin to Elat , which was the name of the wife of the Semitic deity El . A western Semitic goddess modeled on the Mesopotamian goddess Ereshkigal was known as Allatum , and she was recognized in Carthage as Allatu . The goddess Allat's name is recorded as: Al-Lat was mentioned as Alilat by

8288-477: The grinder. Michael Cook noticed the oddity of this story, as it would make al-Lat masculine. Gerald Hawting believes the various legends that link al-Lat with that of al-latt , "the grinder", was an attempt to relate al-Lat with Mecca. He also compared the legends to Isaf and Na'ila , who according to legend were a man and a woman who fornicated inside the Kaaba and were petrified. These two stones representing

8400-412: The identity of the former, with his theory being that "Macoraba" is the word " Makkah" followed by the aggrandizing Aramaic adjective rabb (great). The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus also enumerated many cities of Western Arabia, most of which can be identified. According to Bowersock, he did mention Mecca as "Geapolis" or "Hierapolis", the latter one meaning "holy city" potentially referring to

8512-706: The lower Euphrates in modern Iraq afterward. The Taym Allah tribesmen are mentioned as being among the fighters of Abjar ibn Bujayr of the Ijl, who backed the rebellion of the pro-Sasanian al-Hutam from the Qays ibn Tha'laba in eastern Arabia during the Ridda. They are then found in the ranks of the Christian Ijl chief Abu al-Aswad when he and a local Sasanian garrison fought the Muslims at the Battle of Walaja in Iraq. No members of

8624-496: The males and His the females? That were indeed an unfair division! The majority of Muslim scholars have rejected the historicity of the incident on the basis of the theological doctrine of 'isma (prophetic infallibility i.e., divine protection of Muhammad from mistakes) and their weak isnads (chains of transmission). Due to its defective chain of narration, the tradition of the Satanic Verses never made it into any of

8736-733: The mayor (called Amin in Arabic) appointed by the Saudi government . In 2015, the mayor of the city was Osama bin Fadhel Al-Barr; as of January 2022 , the mayor is Saleh Al-Turki. The City of Mecca amanah , which constitutes Mecca and the surrounding region, is the capital of the Mecca Province, which includes the neighbouring cities of Jeddah and Ta'if , even though Jeddah is considerably larger in population than Mecca. Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud has been

8848-548: The middle part of western Arabia of which there are sparse textual or archaeological sources available. This lack of knowledge is in contrast to both the northern and southern areas of western Arabia, specifically the Syro-Palestinian frontier and Yemen, where historians have various sources available such as physical remains of shrines, inscriptions, observations by Greco-Roman authors, and information collected by church historians. The area of Hejaz that surrounds Mecca

8960-576: The most famous and documented of modern times. Mecca was regularly hit by cholera outbreaks . Between 1830 and 1930, cholera broke out among pilgrims at Mecca 27 times. Hashemite Revolt and subsequent control by the Sharifate of Mecca In World War I , the Ottoman Empire was at war with the Allies . It had successfully repulsed an attack on Istanbul in the Gallipoli campaign and on Baghdad in

9072-458: The only indication that this goddess received worship in the area. However, she seems to have been popular among the Arab tribes bordering Yemen . She was also attested in eastern Arabia ; the name Taymallat (a theophoric name invoking the goddess) was attested as the name of a man from Gerrha , a city located in the region. From Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions, it is probable that she

9184-495: The pair of baetyls were finally removed and placed at Jabal as-Safa'a and Jabal al-Marwah in Mecca. F. V. Winnet saw al-Lat as a lunar deity due to association of a crescent with her in 'Ayn esh-Shallāleh and a Lihyanite inscription mentioning the name of Wadd over the title of ' fkl lt . René Dussaud and Gonzague Ryckmans linked her with Venus, while others have thought her to be a solar deity. John F. Healey considers al-Uzza might have been an epithet of al-Lat before becoming

9296-582: The people of the city as being humble and kind, and also willing to give a part of everything they had to someone who had nothing. The inhabitants of Mecca and the village itself, he says, were very clean. There was also a sense of elegance to the village. Under the Ottomans In 1517, the then Sharif of Mecca, Barakat bin Muhammad, acknowledged the supremacy of the Ottoman Caliph but retained

9408-456: The population are Saudi citizens and around 55.5% are Muslim foreigners from other countries. Pilgrims more than triple the population number every year during the Ḥajj pilgrimage , observed in the twelfth Hijri month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah . With over 10.8 million international visitors in 2023, Mecca was one of the ten most visited cities in the world. Mecca is generally considered "the fountainhead and cradle of Islam ". Mecca

9520-446: The population was closer to 10,000 individuals, a figure extrapolated from data taken from historical records about the Battle of Badr and other military expeditions , emigrants to both Abyssinia and Madinah , and Muhammad’s own household. Al-Ateeqi, a researcher from Kuwait who has written extensively about the early history of Mecca, also makes deductions about the numbers of women, children, servants, and slaves living in Mecca at

9632-504: The primordial couple (sic Adam & Eve the so called ancestors of the human race) most likely pre-existed this cautionary tale promulgated by Islam. Furthermore, Isaf and Na'ila played a central role in the Quraish and al-Khuza'a's ritual practice of hierogamy or 'sacred marriage' culminating in a communal wedding feast 'walima'. This joyful event took place every year during the mid-winter month of Dhu'l Hijjah on and around Mt. Arafat until

9744-409: The provincial governor of the province since 16 May 2007. Mecca has been referred to by many names. As with many Arabic words, its etymology is obscure. Widely believed to be a synonym for Makkah , it is said to be more specifically the early name for the valley located therein, while Muslim scholars generally use it to refer to the sacred area of the city that immediately surrounds and includes

9856-528: The reigns of ' Umar (r. 634–644 CE) and ' Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656 CE) when concerns of flooding caused the caliphs to bring in Christian engineers to build barrages in the low-lying quarters and construct dykes and embankments to protect the area around the Kaaba. Muhammad's return to Medina shifted the focus away from Mecca and later even further away when ' Ali , the fourth caliph, took power and chose Kufa as his capital. The Umayyad Caliphate moved

9968-571: The sanctuary of the Kaaba . Patricia Crone , from the Revisionist school of Islamic studies on the other hand, writes that "the plain truth is that the name Macoraba has nothing to do with that of Mecca [...] if Ptolemy mentions Mecca at all, he calls it Moka, a town in Arabia Petraea ". Procopius ' 6th century statement that the Ma'ad tribe possessed the coast of western Arabia between

10080-540: The shrine was considered sacred; no trees could be felled, no animal could be hunted, and no human blood could be shed. According to al-Kalbi 's Book of Idols , her shrine was under the guardianship of the Banū Attāb ibn Mālik of the Banu Thaqif . She was also venerated by other Arab tribes , including the Quraysh , and their children would be named after the goddess, such as Zayd al-Lat and Taym al-Lat . Al-Lat

10192-467: The south Jordan contained names of some individuals such as ʿAbd Mekkat ( عَبْد مَكَّة ‎ , "Servant of Mecca"). There were also some other inscriptions which contained personal names such as Makki ( مَكِّي , "Makkan, of Makkah"), but Jawwad Ali from the University of Baghdad suggested that there's also a probability of a tribe named "Makkah". Sometime in the 5th century, the Ka'bah

10304-641: The time, pointing out that some wealthy individuals, such as Abdullah ibn Jud’an , had as many as 100 slaves. The first clear reference to Mecca in non-Islamic literature appears in 741 CE, long after the death of Muhammad, in the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle, though here the author places the region in Mesopotamia rather than the Hejaz. Possible earlier mentions are not unambiguous. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus writes about Arabia in

10416-642: The tribe are recorded as participants on the Muslim side during the Iraqi conquests. The tribe, nonetheless, embraced Islam. A member, Iyas ibn Abd Allah, played a role among the Muslim rebels who killed Caliph Uthman in Medina in 656. In the Kufa -based army of Uthman's caliphal successor, Ali , a member of the tribe, Ziyad ibn Khasafa, was a commander who fought against the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan at

10528-400: The tribe of Banu Thaqif in Ta'if especially held reverence to her. In Islamic tradition , her worship ended in the seventh century when her temple in Ta'if was demolished on the orders of Muhammad . There are two possible etymologies of the name al-Lat . Medieval Arab lexicographers derived the name from the verb latta (to mix or knead barley-meal). It has also been associated with

10640-498: The tribes a sense of common identity and made Mecca an important focus for the peninsula. The Year of the Elephant (570 CE) The " Year of the Elephant " is the name in Islamic history for the year approximately equating to 570–572 CE , when, according to Islamic sources such as Ibn Ishaq , Abraha descended upon Mecca, riding an elephant, with a large army after building a cathedral at San'aa , named al-Qullays in honor of

10752-511: The two most important highways in all of the Saudi Arabian highway system, Highway 40, which connects the city to Jeddah in the west and the capital, Riyadh and Dammam in the east and Highway 15, which connects it to Medina , Tabuk and onward to Jordan in the north and Abha and Jizan in the south. The Ottomans had planned to extend their railway network to the holy city, but were forced to abandon this plan due to their entry into

10864-531: The unification of the Arabian Peninsula under the banner of Islam. Muhammad died in 632 CE. Within the next few hundred years, the area under the banner of Islam stretched from North Africa into Asia and parts of Europe. As the Islamic realm grew, Mecca continued to attract pilgrims from all across the Muslim world and beyond, as Muslims came to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Mecca also attracted

10976-761: The warlike Athena in places where she was equated with al-Lat. One Nabataean relief of Athena-al-Lat depicts the goddess bearing both Athena and al-Lat's attributes. The relief depicts the goddess in the style of Athena, but having a Nabataean religion stylized eye- betyl in place of the Gorgoneion . Al-Lat can also be identified with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar , with both of the deities taking part in prosperity, warfare, and later being linked to Aphrodite and Athena. The two's similarities also appeared in their symbols, as both were associated with lions, morning star, and crescents. Like Al-Lat, Ishtar's origin

11088-495: The world to have consorts. In Ta'if, al-Lat's primary cult image was a cubic stone, sometimes described as white in color. Waqidi 's mention of the 'head' ( ra's ) of ar-Rabba may imply that the image was perceived in human or animal form, although Julius Wellhausen resisted this implication. Early Palmyrene depictions of al-Lat share iconographical traits with Atargatis (when seated) and Astarte (when standing). The Lion of Al-Lat that once adorned her temple depicts

11200-453: Was Mecca. Yaqut al-Hamawi , the 12th-century Syrian geographer, wrote that Fārān was "an arabized Hebrew word, one of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah." In 2010, Mecca and the surrounding area became an important site for paleontology with respect to primate evolution, with the discovery of a Saadanius fossil. Saadanius is considered to be a primate closely related to

11312-429: Was a Moroccan scholar and traveler, Ibn Battuta . In his rihla (account), he provides a vast description of the city. Around the year 1327 CE or 729 AH, Ibn Battuta arrived at the holy city. Immediately, he says, it felt like a holy sanctuary, and thus he started the rites of the pilgrimage. He remained in Mecca for three years and left in 1330 CE. During his second year in the holy city, he says his caravan arrived "with

11424-612: Was a place of worship for the deities of Arabia's pagan tribes . Mecca's most important pagan deity was Hubal , which had been placed there by the ruling Quraish tribe. and remained until the Conquest of Mecca by Muhammad . In the 5th century, the Quraish took control of Mecca, and became skilled merchants and traders. In the 6th century, they joined the lucrative spice trade , since battles elsewhere were diverting trade routes from dangerous sea routes to more secure overland routes. The Byzantine Empire had previously controlled

11536-501: Was also claimed to be Mecca. Some studies have questioned this association. Many etymologies have been proposed: the traditional one is that it is derived from the Old South Arabian root M-K-R-B which means "temple". Another name used for Mecca in the Quran is at 6:92 where it is called Umm al-Qurā ( أُمّ ٱلْقُرَى ‎ , meaning "Mother of all Settlements"). The city has been called several other names in both

11648-589: Was also venerated in Palmyra , where she was known as the "Lady of the temple". According to an inscription, she was brought into the Arab quarter of the city by a member of the Bene Ma'zin tribe, who were probably an Arab tribe. She had a temple in the city, which Teixidor believed to be the cultic center of Palmyrene Arab tribes. The practice of casting divination arrows, a common divination method in Arabia ,

11760-576: Was attested in her temple; an honorific inscription mentioning "a basin of silver for [casting] lots ( lḥlq )". By the second-century AD, al-Lat in Palmyra began to be portrayed in the style of Athena , and was referred to as "Athena-Allāt", but this assimilation does not extend beyond her iconography. The Palmyrene emperor Vaballathus , whose name is the Latinized form of the theophoric name Wahballāt ("Gift of al-Lat"), began to use Athenodorus as

11872-510: Was both much better than other houses of worship and purer, having not been defiled by the housing of idols. When Muhammad ibn Khuza'i got as far as the land of Kinana , the people of the lowland, knowing what he had come for, sent a man of Hudhayl called ʿUrwa bin Hayyad al-Milasi, who shot him with an arrow, killing him. His brother Qays who was with him, fled to Abraha and told him the news, which increased his rage and fury and he swore to raid

11984-450: Was characterized by its remote, rocky, and inhospitable nature, supporting only meagre settled populations in scattered oases and occasional stretches of fertile land. The Red Sea coast offered no easily accessible ports and the oasis dwellers and bedouins in the region were illiterate. While one individual has suggested that Mecca’s population at the time of Muhammad was around 550, research published by Binimad Al-Ateeqi in 2020 shows that

12096-595: Was of Semitic roots. The Lion of Al-Lat statue that adorned her temple in Palmyra was damaged by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2015 but has been since restored. It now stands in the National Museum of Damascus , but it may be returned to Palmyra in the future. Mecca Mecca ( / ˈ m ɛ k ə / ; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah , commonly shortened to Makkah )

12208-464: Was our lord in the days when I had little sense. Al-Lat was also called as a daughter of Allah along with the other two chief goddesses al-'Uzza and Manat . According to the Book of Idols , the Quraysh were to chant the following verses as they circumambulated the Kaaba: By al-Lat and al-'Uzza, And Manat, the third idol besides. Verily they are the gharaniq Whose intercession

12320-444: Was sometimes given the tribe's epithet, 'al-Taymi', because his grandfather had been a freed mawla (client) of the Taym Allah. A small part of the Taym Allah eventually settled in the valley at the western foot of Mount Hermon . The valley became known as Wadi al-Taym (Wadi Taym-Allah) after them. This valley became one of the first places where the heterodox Druze faith, which branched out of Isma'ili Shia Islam , took root in

12432-521: Was used as a base for the man (a Jew) to grind cereal for the pilgrims of Mecca . While most versions of this legend place the man at Ta'if, other versions place him at either Mecca or 'Ukaz. After the man's death, the stone, or the man in the form of a stone, was deified, according to some legends after the Khuza'a drove the Jurhum out of Mecca, while other legends report it was Amr ibn Luhayy who deified

12544-472: Was worshipped as Lat ( lt ). In Safaitic inscriptions, al-Lat was invoked for solitude and mercy, as well as to provide well-being, ease and prosperity. Travelers would invoke her for good weather and protection. She was also invoked for vengeance, booty from raids, and infliction of blindness, and lameness to anyone who defaces their inscriptions. The Qedarites , a northern Arabian tribal confederation, seemed to have also worshipped al-Lat, as evidenced by

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