Sura 2: Many Qiblas?
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SURA 2: MANY QIBLAS? The Qibla in the Koran, Abu Lahab, and the Birth of Islam A. J. Deus Copyright: author A.J. Deus, August 30, 2016. [email protected] All rights reserved. No part, concept, or discovery of this paper may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Copyright 2016: A.J. Deus ─ SURA 2: MANY QIBLAS? The Qibla in the Koran, Abu Lahab, and the Birth of Islam Page | 2 This research paper is in honor to the kindness of my father-in-law Mhmd Safdari September 9, 1945 – July 9, 2016. His religious curiosity inspired me to search for answers in places where nobody else has gone before. Copyright 2016: A.J. Deus ─ SURA 2: MANY QIBLAS? The Qibla in the Koran, Abu Lahab, and the Birth of Islam Page | 3 Introduction Sura 2 in the Koran introduces a ritual change that came to be one of the elements that defines the religious culture of Muslims across the world, the change that indicates to worshipers a direction of prayers (qibla). The worshipping toward Mecca is perhaps the very symbol of the birth of Islam. While this change should manifest itself in the archaeological evidence of early mosques, it is widely accepted that this is a matter of broad interpretation. However, the questions that derive from the Koranic passages might find their answers if the focus of rotating places of worship was based on a system – any system. Older mosques have typically been erected with different geographical orientations. Multiple variations in building rotations can often be found inside any given city or even within a single mosque. Since the data is confusing, modern research tends to ignore this question. The current understanding is that Muslim builders should have been able to determine the orientation of a building within a few degrees but that they were satisfied when a place of worship pointed into the ‘general’ direction of Mecca within the inter-cardinal quadrants. However, a fourteenth century table with almost three thousand entries is extant that are mostly correct to the nearest minute. According to David A. King, the errors are so small that it is still a mystery how it was computed.1 If Muslims were capable of such calculations, how long before did they have this knowledge? This paper sets out to investigate the relevant passages in the Koran and to ask whether there might be a reason as to why orientations changed inside a city’s walls or with additions to mosques. Could it be possible that the mathematical knowledge to orient buildings with precision had been there all along but kept secret? Even though the here presented results are preliminary and could still contain errors (in particular in respect to demolitions and reconstructions), the discoveries in this paper have fundamental consequences for the approach to the history of the beginnings of Islam, the Koran, and beyond. Some of the discoveries are as following: 1) The Koran speaks of two qibla changes. 2) The Koran neither commands a change from Jerusalem, nor to Mecca, but instead to Al-Haram in present day Israel (as confirmed with orientations from various mosques). 3) Babylonian Pharisee qiblas show a consistent prayer orientation to the location of the Exilarch (not to the Temple in Jerusalem). 4) The pattern of directing places of worship toward the Exilarch continues through all three mosques of Medina and beyond. 5) For the first time, the Ethiopian kernel of the early Muslim story can be confirmed with archaeology. There may indeed have been two ‘Muslim’ stations in that country: With surprising accuracy and with conversion points from multiple directions, 1 David A. King, The Orientation of Medieval Islamic Religious Architecture and Cities (Journal for the History of Astronomy, 1995) 261. Copyright 2016: A.J. Deus ─ SURA 2: MANY QIBLAS? The Qibla in the Koran, Abu Lahab, and the Birth of Islam Page | 4 – the Quba Mosque in Medina is precisely oriented toward Axum – the Mosque of the Prophet is precisely oriented toward the Imam Mesgid in Negash. 6) Levite-Sadducee qiblas show a consistent prayer orientation to the location of the Nasi (also not to the Temple Mount). 7) There are many qibla changes that can be attributed to ‘Muslim’ structures. The pattern follows the dynastic paraclete leadership from which follows that each town can reveal its individual story about dynastic expansions and contractions through the archaeology of the mosques. Similar to changes in dynastic territories, the stories told through mosques in multiple towns are interlinked and overlap. 8) Since none of the early structures point to Mecca, the Muslims have arrived there much later than is assumed in the traditional accounts. Even after the first appearance in the historical record, the practice of orienting places of worship toward the dynastic leadership would persist for centuries. 9) Jacob of Edessa’s comment that the Jews were praying toward Jerusalem implies that the Exilarch or the Nasi was occupying the Temple Mount at that time. 10) The Al-Askari Shrine and mosque in Samarra was built by Seljuks over one and a half century after the disappearance of the Mahdi, and it would be expanded by Ismaili’s thereafter. The premise that a building points to a common location (Mecca, for example) when it only sort of lies in the general direction is here dismissed in favor of a broader search for geographical patterns. The old approach has prevented the here shared discoveries to surface decades ago. Instead, the reliance is on accuracy with the help of modern tools. In this paper, re-measured orientations of important places are documented with satellite imagery. This is a fairly exact but tedious exercise. In addition, the margin of error within which builders could orient their structures toward a distant location is defined. While this is a catch-twenty-two (we do not know where the target location was), it should at least be possible to narrow this down to less than an inter-cardinal quadrant. A first part investigates the related passages in sura 2, a second part establishes what they should have been able to achieve according to modern understanding, and a third part shows how good the ancients really were. Before assessing sura 2 and orientations of various structures, a brief reflection is opportune. Following the just made statements, it is perhaps fair to say that we know very little about ‘Judaism’ before the seventh century and this religion’s pre-Temple history and rituals. But the little that we do know allows for vastly diverse kinds of ‘Judaisms’ to grow out of the Biblical narrative. Thus, when we examine the relationship between Judaism and Islam (or Christianity), one can easily get confused over the origin – if there even is one origin and not several. Not only do we know nothing about their sectarian differences in beliefs and rituals, but the historic evidence tells us that they entered the historic record fighting with each other. They continued their bloody struggle through to the emergence of Islam and beyond. A similar statement could perhaps be made about the emergence of the various Christian competitors, let alone the Zoroastrian or Manichean religions. Thus, when any question about early Islam is investigated, researchers face a weak foundation that may be misleading at times. Copyright 2016: A.J. Deus ─ SURA 2: MANY QIBLAS? The Qibla in the Koran, Abu Lahab, and the Birth of Islam Page | 5 The facts here presented are precise. The challenge lies in understanding why it should have been acceptable that the orientations of mosques could be as much as 10° or more off when a simple verification of the exact direction of any mosque should have brought forth potential target locations and provided exact answers to the meaning of key passages in the Koran. For verification of the data by researchers, the measurements of the structures of worship are placed into a separate document Orientation of Structures in Early Islam2 together with methodological instructions. Sura 2: Two Qibla Changes The orientation of prayer rituals is only addressed in Sura 2 of the Koran. It is generally understood as changing the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca. If anything, the respective passages are vague and difficult to understand. The foolish ones will say, “What hath turned them from the kebla which they used?” SAY: The East and the West are God's. He guideth whom he will into the right path. Thus have we made you a central people, that ye may be witnesses in regard to mankind, and that the apostle may be a witness in regard to you. We appointed the kebla which thou formerly hadst, only that we might know him who followeth the apostle, from him who turneth on his heels: The change is a difficulty, but not to those whom God hath guided. But God will not let your faith be fruitless; for unto man is God Merciful, Gracious. We have seen thee turning thy face towards every part of Heaven; but we will have thee turn to a kebla which shall please thee. Turn then thy face towards the sacred Mosque, and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that part. They, verily, to whom “the Book” hath been given, know this to be the truth from their Lord: and God is not regardless of what ye do. Even though thou shouldest bring every kind of sign to those who have received the Scriptures, yet thy kebla they will not adopt; nor shalt thou adopt their kebla; nor will one part of them adopt the kebla of the other.