What if the heart of Islam rested on a ghost city? The Mecca of tradition would be a physical impossibility: without water, without trade, ignored by ancient history. Yet, the sacred text describes fertile lands, vineyards, and olive trees… in the Levant. By scrutinizing the Quran, this work reveals an explosive truth: originally, the holy city was not Mecca, but Jerusalem. Discover how the caliphs might have invented this narrative to legitimize their power, substituting Mecca, an imaginary city, for the biblical city. A fascinating investigation that shakes a millennia-old dogma.
Authors: Collectif Nour Al Aalam — Odon Lafontaine
“Mecca, an Imaginary City?” investigates the supposed birthplace of Islam. A desert climate, isolation and scarce resources that would barely allow an insignificant hamlet to take root: the book sets the Mecca of tradition against what we know of the terrain. The Quran’s proclamations, meanwhile, address a population of farmers and fishermen hard to imagine in such an environment.
Crossing historical research, Islamology, economics and agronomy, the inquiry also notes that many descriptions fit Jerusalem far better than the pagan Arab city of tradition. From there, two dizzying questions, more relevant than ever even after 1,400 years: who created the imaginary city of Mecca, and who rewrote the history of Islam — and why?
A desert climate, isolation, limited resources: according to the book, the site of Mecca would barely allow an insignificant hamlet, far from the great city of tradition. Yet the Quranic proclamations address farmers and fishermen, hard to place in such a hostile environment.
Many passages, the inquiry stresses, fit Jerusalem far better — its geography, its customs — than the pagan Arab city described by Muslim tradition.
The subtitle says it: “how the caliphs invented Islam.” The book examines the hypothesis of a rereading, even a rewriting, of the origins of Islam, and asks who would have carried it out and for what reasons.
Odon Lafontaine is the author of “The Great Secret of Islam,” a popularising work drawing on the research of Father Édouard-Marie Gallez. Here he continues his inquiry into the origins of Islam, published together with the Nour Al Aalam collective.
Nour Al Aalam