The making of Mecca

Later this year, over two million Muslims will travel to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, for the Hajj, one the five pillars of Islam. Yet the historical basis for the Meccan pilgrimage is far from clear. During Muhammad’s lifetime, Mecca was literally off the map for most of the world. No pre-Islamic source so much as mentions its existence, despite the contemporary interest in the region. A number of Roman historians provide detailed descriptions of western and southern Arabia, yet did not make so much as a single mention of Mecca. On this basis alone we are reasonably safe in concluding that, contrary to Islamic tradition, Mecca was at the beginning of the seventh century a relatively minor, isolated settlement in the arid deserts of western Arabia. It was not well integrated with the broader worlds of the ancient Mediterranean and Mesopotamia.