Huge new monumnet found at Petra - could this be what the first Mosques pointed to?

[ReptilianPeon]

Petra, Jordan: Huge monument found 'hiding in plain sight'

Dan Gibson, the author of the book Quranic Geography, found out that Mosques built before about 720 did NOT have qibla towards Mecca - at all. And you can see see his finding by adding "markers" to Google Maps which can be downloaded at the link. For those interested in the book, here are the ISBN numbers (I really need to get the book, but it's expensive)

• ISBN-10: 0973364289
  
• ISBN-13: 978-0973364286
  

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36498234][/url]
So that got me thinking. We know from looking at early Mosques that they don't all face the direction of Mecca. But why? Petra was a great place of trade near to the silk road. So when people tell me, asserting from the traditions, that Mecca was a hub of trade are they really talking about Petra without realizing it?

[Minimalist]

Here:

http://religionresearchinstitute.org/mec...eology.htm


You can thank me later.

[abaris]

I'm not really sure, Min. The Kaba is supposed to have been worshipped before monotheism in any shape or form arrived.

[Minimalist]

Yeah... and fucking jesus is supposed to have come back from the dead, too.  I don't put too much stock in any religious claims that cannot be supported by evidence.

[abaris]

Yeah, I stand corrected. Arabian history isn't my strong suit. I looked up my own sources and they all speak of Mecca being founded by Yemenite migrants in the 4th century.

[ReptilianPeon]

Dr. Rafat Amari is great. I've heard of them before. Thanks for th link. I can't remember, though, if he's the one who said that all of the events of the Quran actually happened in North Arabia.

[ReptilianPeon]

I'm not really sure, Min. The Kaba is supposed to have been worshipped before monotheism in any shape or form arrived.

How they get to that conclusion is the assert, based on the content of a couple of verses in the Quran (which have no historical basis whatsoever)

Quran 2:127 "And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord! Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower."

and

Quran 3:26 The first House (of worship) appointed for men was that at Bakka: Full of blessing and of guidance for all kinds of beings:

Whenever the Quran says Bakka they like to twist it and say it's referring to the Valley of Becca from the Bible. This is silly. There is no archeological evidence supporting either verse.

[Minimalist]

Dr. Rafat Amari is great. I've heard of them before. Thanks for th link. I can't remember, though, if he's the one who said that all of the events of the Quran actually happened in North Arabia.

Yeah.  So on the one hand we have Luxenbourg ( a pseudonym for a scholar who doesn't want to have his family killed by fanatics) along with Spencer explaining his rather deep book suggesting that the origins of the koran were actually a Syriac book from a heretical xtian sect which had been driven out of the Roman Empire and into the marginal lands of Arabia after  the Council of Chalcedon (451). These monophysite (one nature) xtians were quite similar in their view of god to what later turned into islam's view.  Add to that the interesting fact that the Ghassanid kingdom arose right in north Arabia (coincidence?) and that they merged with Greek monophysite heretics.  The Ghassanids were reliable allies of the Byzantines in the long wars against the Persians effectively holding the Byzantines right flank.

So.  We have a heretical xtian army ( as far as the Byzantines were concerned) in North Arabia with a doctrine not at all dissimilar from what later came to be islamic in the right place at the right time after the Byzantines and Persians tore each other to shreds in the 6th century.

Yes.  It is all most interesting.