Qur’anic Geography
by Dan Gibson. $30
Hardcover edition
Qur'anic Geography
By Dan Gibson
Independent Scholars Press
ISBN: 978-0-9733642-8-6
Hardcover $ 30 plus shipping and handling
PDF version, $ 15 downloadable.
Dan Gibson believes that four times in ancient history the Arab people united and burst out of the Arabian deserts to conquer other nations. The first is described in the Qur'an as the people of 'Ad. The Bible describes them as an alliance of tribes led by Edomites living in the land of 'Uz or 'Ud. The Egyptians named them Hyksos or shepherd kings who invaded Egypt from Arabia. By combining these three identities together, Gibson sees evidence of this powerful alliance from archaeological remains in Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen and Oman. In the end the Egyptians crushed this alliance and the remaining Arabs dispersed and returned to living as isolated tribes in the desert.
Eventually Arabia united again, this time under the leadership of the Midianites. The Qur'anic and Biblical records clearly remember when the Arabs united under Midianite leadership and challenged the nations outside of Arabia. This time they met their defeat in the Levant.
Many centuries later, the tribes of Ishmael take leadership, this time under the direction of the Nabataean tribe, descendants of the eldest son of Ishmael. This empire would be different, for the backbone of this empire was trade not military force. The Qur'an calls them the people of Thamud, meaning after 'Ud. The Jews called them Nabataeans, and the Romans simply refer to them as Arabs. In 106 AD the northern part of their kingdom was absorbed into the Roman Empire and eventually they faded from view.
It was not until 600 AD that the Arabian Peninsula was again united, this time under the flag of Islam. Once again the tribes of Arabia burst from the deserts challenging the surrounding nations. This time they would not be easily defeated, and their armies marched to China in the east, Spain in the west, and Vienna in the north.
But there is more to this book than a study of the four times when the Arabs demonstrated their greatness. This book also examines the geographical references in the Qur'an cross-referencing them with historical locations. The surprise comes when Gibson examines the Holy City of Islam, known as Mecca. Here Gibson finds evidence that the original Holy City was in northern Arabia in the city of Petra. He theorizes that during an Islamic civil war one hundred years after Muhammad, the Ka'ba was destroyed and the Black Rock was moved to its present location. Gibson examines archaeological, historical and literary evidence that support this theory and addresses many questions and objections that readers may have.
This book contains many references, as well as some useful appendices including a 32 page time line of Islamic history from 550 AD - 1095 AD, and a 20 page annotated selected bibliography of early Islamic sources in chronological order from 724 AD - 1100 AD plus a list of many early Qur'anic manuscripts. Easy to read, fully referenced with many illustrations and photos. 470 pages.
Below is a copy of the table of contents from Gibson's book: Qur'anic Geography. On this website yo can get a short summary of section VI in the booklet The Mecca Question by Jeremy Smyth which is free and may be copied and sent to friends. In this section on Evidence, we will look in more detail at Chapters 16 - 20 which is the core of Gibson's arguments about the Holy City of Islam actually being the city of Petra in Jordan.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PART I
Geographical Background to Arabia
Chapter 1 Geographical Locations in the Qur'ān . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 2 The Founding of the Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
PART II
The People of ’Ad
Chapter 3 The People of ’Ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Chapter 4 ’Ad in the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Chapter 5 The Kings of ’Ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Chapter 6 ’Ad and the Book of Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Chapter 7 ’Ad and the Pharaohs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Chapter 8 ’Ad, Edom and the Hyksos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
PART III
The People of Midian
Chapter 9 The People of Midian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
PART IV
The People of Thamud
Chapter 10 The Kingdom of Thamud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Chapter 11 Thamudic Trade Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146
Chapter 12 The Thamudic Golden Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Chapter 13 The Thamudic Kingdom Crumbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
Part V
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Chapter 14 The Tribes of Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Chapter 15 The City of Medina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Part VI
Islam’s Holy City
Chapter 16 The Holy City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Chapter 17 The Qibla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238
Chapter 18 Archeological Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
Chapter 19 Literary Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275
Chapter 20 Historical Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .302
Chapter 21 Navigation and Pre-Islamic Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Chapter 22 The Abbāsid Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Chapter 23 The Case for Aqaba and Al-Aqṣa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Chapter 24 Qur'ānic Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .370
Part VII
Appendices
A Timeline of Early Islamic History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .382
B Annotated Bibliography of Early Islamic Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
C Early Qur'āns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435
D Bibliography of Secondary Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
E Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
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