Were early mosques originally oriented on Petra instead of Mecca according to archaeological record?
Upvote:-1
This and other questions about the history of Islam in its first 100 years, from which very few written records survive, are discussed in Peter Townsend's book 'The Mecca Mystery' and also the debate 'Did the Mohammed of the Quran exist?' between Jay Smith and David Wood on YouTube.
The few surviving mosques from the 7th Century and early 8th Century AD (so 1st Century of the Islamic Calendar) tend to show an orientation towards the area of Petra, which in later mosques is towards Mecca. Given the lack of independent evidence of Mecca existing before the Islamic period some have argued that much of the early history of Islam is false and it may have begun as a vaguer monotheistic religion based at Petra, initially in alliance with Jews.
My own view after listening to the above debate is that this is too radical an interpretation and that it would not have been possible to move the place of pilgrimage several hundred miles in the early 8th Century without causing serious commotion within the Islamic World and probably a lasting schism. Most likely the mosques pointing roughly towards Petra were oriented inaccurately using the stars as a guide, before more accurate geographical information became known.
However, I am persuaded of the wider point that the early history of Islam is so poorly documented that some of what has long been taught may well not be true.
Upvote:11
First, there’s a Wikipedia article on Dan Gibson, and it says he is not a professional historian, and is criticized by them. The article also contains links to critical reviews you may want to read. For example, here’s a criticism from David King and Gibson’s response.
However, it’s a traditional knowledge in Islam that before Mecca, Jerusalem was Qibla. The switch happened in Muhammad’s lifetime, actually, they switched mid-prayer. See Wikipedia article for the mosque where it happened. But I never heard of any other surviving mihrab pointing to Jerusalem.
In addition to that, I’d say that early mosques were likely built with much rougher directions than later when Islamic scholars honed their astronomy for this very purpose.
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