A funny thing happened
on the way to Mecca
on the way to Mecca
Part Two:
Mecca has likely been substituted for Beersheba
by
Damien F. Mackey
“Apparently drawing from early Jewish scriptural interpretations known as Targumim, Muslim interpreters linked the building of the sanctuary in Mecca with the account in
Gen 21 of digging a well in Beersheba—the place where, according to the Targumim, Abraham also built a shrine”.
The Qur’an (Koran) can, at times, present its reader with some appallingly bad geography; with unashamedly anachronistic history; and with endless biblical and Jewish appropriations.
For example, in my article:
Durie's Verdict: No Mohammed
I quoted the Rev. Mark Durie to this effect: “Another issue is the observation in Q37:137–38 that the Qur'an’s audience can pass by the remains of Lūṭ’s [Lot's] people in the morning and by night. The Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is associated with the region around the Dead Sea...”.
Geographical swing and a miss!
A vast geographical distance separates Lot’s place of abode from that of the early Moslems.
Moreover, whilst Abram (Abraham), considered to be the very father of the Islamic religion, lived in a most ancient time that has been properly (so I believe) located archaeologically to the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze phase (c. 3500 BC, conventional dating), the site of Mecca, to where Abraham is supposed to have gone, is, in archaeological terms, extremely young.
As I wrote in Part One:
…. I, whilst indeed accepting at least the religious and the evangelical aspects of things in relation to Islam, find, nevertheless, that there are immense problems with the conventional view of Islam as an historical phenomenon. There are many articles currently surfacing that support a view that the historical claims of Islam are quite false and inaccurate, with no underlying archaeology to support them.
‘A funny thing has happened on the way to Mecca’ – for it is most curious that, according to this recent scholarship:
· “Archaeology of Mecca – the History of Mecca”. There is no archaeological evidence that suggests that Mecca is an ancient town that existed before the Christian era, or even that it existed before about the 4th century A.D. ….
· “Did Abraham Build the Kaaba?” The body of this paper will deal primarily with places and destinations, not theology or personality. I will examine the Biblical accounts of Abraham in the natural and sequential order in which they are preserved in the Bible, while I examine and compare a small sampling of the similarities and differences in the Quran and other Islamic sources. In doing so, I’ll point out the several fatal contradictions in the Islamic perspective and leave the reader to determine whether the Islamic version is truth to be believed or fable created to connect a pagan Arabian shrine to the Biblical patriarch of the Israelites. I will cover the ancient evidence and promptly dismember Islamic dogma as inauthentic and based on inadequate grounds. ….
[End of quotes]
Brannon Wheeler thinks that (and I would have to agree with him here) Moslem interpreters appropriated the biblical (the Jewish) story of Abraham at Beersheba and shifted it to Mecca: https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/people/related-articles/abraham-and-islam
Abraham and Islam by Brannon Wheeler
Muslims understand Islam to be the religion of Abraham. The biblical figure of Abraham is mentioned by name in the Qur’an 69 times—more than any other person except for Moses (137 times). Muslim interpreters of the Qur’an provide additional details linking the passages in the Qur’an to the stories of Abraham known from the Bible and from Jewish and Christian interpretation.
The Qur'an is familiar with some of the biblical stories about Abraham, including his journey to the promised land (Qur’an 21:71-73), the annunciation of Isaac (Qur’an 11:69-74, Qur’an 15:51-56, Qur’an 51:24-30), God's command for Abraham to sacrifice his son (Qur’an 37:99-113), the sacrifice of the birds (Qur’an 2:260), and Abraham's interaction with Lot and the angels (Qur’an 11:74-83, Qur’an 29:28-35, Qur’an 51:31-37).
In the Qur’an, God calls upon people to "follow the religion of Abraham" (Qur’an 3:95). Abraham is the "model" of obedience to God (Qur’an 16:120) and the "friend of God," and no one can be "better in religion" (Qur’an 4:125) than those who follow him.
The Bible begins the narrative of Abraham's life with his call by God in Gen 12, but the Qur’an begins earlier, with the story of Abraham smashing the idols of his father. A number of close parallels exist between Jewish versions of this story (found in rabbinic literature) and the details provided by Muslim interpreters, including Abraham's discovery of monotheism (Qur’an 6:74-87, Qur’an 41:37), his scheme to disprove idolatry (Qur’an 19:41-50, Qur’an 21:51-70), and his escape from the fiery furnace into which he was cast as punishment by the Babylonian king Nimrod (Qur’an 37:83-99, Qur’an 29:16-27).
Abraham is credited with establishing both the sanctuary in Mecca known as the Kaaba and the practice of Islamic pilgrimage (Haj) to that site (Qur’an 22:26-27, Qur’an 3:96-97, Qur’an 2:125-129).
Apparently drawing from early Jewish scriptural interpretations known as Targumim, Muslim interpreters linked the building of the sanctuary in Mecca with the account in Gen 21 of digging a well in Beersheba—the place where, according to the Targumim, Abraham also built a shrine.
The Qur’an does not identify the name of the son whom Abraham is commanded to sacrifice (see Gen 22), and the earliest Muslim interpreters were divided over whether it was Isaac or Ishmael. In the context of the larger narrative linking Abraham with Mecca, later Muslim traditions clearly identify the son to be sacrificed as Ishmael, the ancestor of the prophet Muhammad. Muslim interpreters also differ from the biblical account in making explicit that Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son, trying a number of times to slit his son's throat. ….
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