region
Arabia
The peninsula that includes Mecca and the Hijaz. Islamic orientation toward the Kaaba is a fact of this geography, not a later occult compass.
Also known as Arabian Peninsula
Egyptian religion
Arabia appears in Egyptian religion.
Herodotus’s Arabian logos, tied through Egypt and the incense routes, treats Arabia as the region of frankincense and myrrh. A named arabia region in that traveler’s speech, not frankincense/myrrh as the resins already walked and not a modern nation-state dump.
from Herodotus · Histories, c. 440s BCE
appears in · sourced · documented
Islam · Arabia
Islam appears in Arabia.
The Hijaz is the geography of Mecca and the early community. Islam later travelled; the qibla still names that house.
from M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (translation) · The Qur’an, 2004 (this translation); Arabic text 7th century CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Mecca appears in Arabia.
Mecca is a Hijazi city. The region is the map, not a mystic east.
from M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (translation) · The Qur’an, 2004 (this translation); Arabic text 7th century CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Arabia
Frankincense appears in Arabia.
Frankincense is a southern Arabian and Horn resin of priced trade. Aromatic geography, not a proof that Islamic prayer is incense-magic.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Myrrh appears in Arabia.
Myrrh belongs to the same resin trade as frankincense. Pliny lists aromatics; he is not writing a Qur’an commentary.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
appears in · sourced · documented
sources
- Histories · Herodotus
Herodotus, Histories.
- The Qur’an · M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (translation)
M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an (Oxford).
- Natural History · Pliny the Elder
Pliny, Naturalis Historia.