History Of Jeddah
INTRODUCTION
In examining the historicity of Mecca, and thus of Muhammad’s supposed ministry therein, and events like the Hijra to Abyssinia, we come upon a related issue – the historicity of Jeddah in terms of reaching back to the time f Muhammad. This paper examines this issue
MUSLIM CLAIMS
According to the Jeddah Municipality (https://www.jeddah.gov.sa/English/JeddahCity/History.php/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160307005027/https://www.jeddah.gov.sa/English/JeddahCity/History.php),
Some archaeologists’ studies suggest the existence of inhabitants in the region now known as Jeddah since the Stone Age seeing as they found some artifacts and ‘Thamoudian’ writings in Wadi (valley) Breiman east of Jeddah and Wadi Boib northeast of Jeddah. Some historians trace its founding to the tribe of Bani Quda’ah, who inhabited it after the collapse of Sad (dam) Ma’rib in 115 BC. Some believe that Jeddah had been inhabited before the tribe of Bani Quda’ah by fishermen in the Red Sea, who considered it a center from which they sailed out into the sea as well as a place for relaxation and well-being. According to some accounts, the history of Jeddah dates back to early times before Alexander the Great, who visited the city between 323 and 356 BC.
The site goes on to claim: ‘In 647 AD, Othman bin Affan chose the city as a major port for entering the city of Makkah and accessing it by sea. At that time, it was named ‘Balad Al-Qanasil’ (country of consulates). In their travels, Ibn Jubayr and Ibn Battuta mention that the city had Persian architecture when they visited it.’ Ibn Jubayr (1145 – 1217) was a Spanish-Arab geographer; Ibn Battuta (1304 – 1368/1369) was a Moroccan Berber scholar and explorer. Their contributions are too late for any impact on the city’s early existence. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj (https://www.hajinformation.com/main/h301.htm) declares: ‘Jeddah, located on the west coast of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea, was founded as a small fishing village more than 2,500 years ago.’ Encyclopaedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/place/Jeddah-Saudi-Arabia) entry on Jeddah states: ‘The city takes its name (which means “ancestress” or “grandmother”) from the location there of the reputed tomb of Eve, which was destroyed in 1928 by the Saudi government whose Wahhābī leanings taught that it encouraged shirk (idolatry).’
MODERN RESEARCH
G. R. Hawting ‘The Origin of Jedda and the Problem of al-Shuʿayba’, Arabica Tome 31, Fascicule 3 (Nov., 1984), observes some of the Islamic stories about Jeddah (p. 319):
Other traditions assume the existence of Jedda in the Jāhiliyya, even that it was the port of Mecca. Alexander the Great departed from Jedda for the bilād al-maghrib after coming to Mecca to accomplish the hajj. In one of the versions of the story which explains how the original monotheism of the Meccan sanctuary came to be corrupted it is said that certain idols were washed up at Jedda after the Deluge and later brought to Mecca where they were set up around the Ka`ba. AI-Ya’qūbī lists Jedda as the last of the makhālīf or kuwar of the Yemen in the pre- Islamic period. Jedda is, of course, closely associated with Eve in Muslim tradition, probably on account of the similarity between its name and the Arabic word for grandmother and it is frequently named as the place where Eve was set on earth after the expulsion from Paradise. At the time of Babel, it is reported, 'Amr b. Ma'add was dwelling at Jedda.
Clearly, much of this is legendary. Alexander was not a Muslim – he was a bi-sexual polytheist who believed himself to be the son of Zeus-Amon. He was intending to invade Arabia after his return from India, but died before he could do so: ‘But Alexander was dead, and his death also signalled the abandonment not only of his invasion of Arabia but also of his so-called final plans, which were contained in his alleged will that Perdiccas read out to the army.’ (Dawn L. Gilley and Ian Worthington, ‘Alexander the Great, Macedonia and Asia’, in Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington [Eds.] A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2010, p. 199)
Alexander did send naval expeditions there: ‘Alexander sent three naval expeditions from Babylon. The first was under Archias, “who went as far as the island of Tylus (Bahrain).” (Arrian, Anabasis, book vii, chapter 20:6 and 7) Alexander then sent another naval expedition under Androsthenes, who sailed to a part of the peninsula of Arabia. The third naval expedition Alexander sent was under Hieron of Soli. Arrian wrote: “Hieron had received instructions to sail round the whole Arabian peninsula as far as the Arabian Golf near Egypt over against Heroopolis. Though he had sailed round the greater part of Arabia Hieron did not dare go further, but turned back to Babylon.” (Arrian, Anabasis, book vii, chapter 20: 7, 8)
Hieron’s sailing “round the greater part of Arabia” means that he sailed around western Arabia. However, he turned back. We suppose the reason Hieron turned back before reaching the Egyptian Gulf opposite to Heroopolis was the arid tract of central western Arabia. There were no inhabitants, cities, or harbors to give anchorage for his fleet. This corresponds to the part of western Arabia where Mecca was later built, a region that later Greek geographers described as uninhabitable.
A previous expedition that Alexander sent while still in Egypt is very important. He sent Anaxicrates from the Egyptian city of Heroopolis to explore western Arabia. Scholars consider Anaxicrates’ reconnaissance very successful. Dr. Himanshu Prabha Ray wrote, “Anaxicrates surveyed the whole of the Western coast of Arabia as far as the Bab-al-Mandeb.” (The archaeology of seafaring in ancient South Asia, Press of the University of Cambridge, 2003, page 170. Dr. Stanley Burstein, an expert in the ancient geography of Arabia, stated that Anaxicrates provided an “accurate account of political conditions in Western Arabia.” (Burstein, Agatharchides of Cnidus, On The Erythraean Sea, The Hakluyt Society, London, 1989, page 3).’ (http://rrimedia.org/Resources/Articles/studies-by-classical-writers-show-that-mecca-could-not-have-been-built-before-the-4th-century-ad) This is what Arrian says (Aubrey de Selincourt/J. R. Hamilton [trans.], Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, London: Penguin, 1958, re. ed. 1971, pp. 381-383):
The fact is, Alexander had ideas of settling the seaboard of the Persian Gulf and the off-shore islands; for he fancied it might become as prosperous a country as Phoenicia. The naval preparations were directed against the Arabs of the coast, ostensibly because they were the only people in that part of the country who had sent no delegation to wait upon him, or shown their respect by any other normal act of courtesy; actually, however, the reason for the preparations was, in my opinion, Alexander’s insatiable thirst for extending his possessions.
Report has it that Alexander had heard that the Arabs worshipped only two gods, Uranus and Dionysus, the former because he is seen to contain within himself not only the stars but the sun too, the greatest and clearest source of blessing to mankind in all their affairs, and the latter, Dionysus, because of the fame of his journey to India. Alexander accordingly felt it would not be beyond his merits to be regarded by the Arabs as a third god, in view of the fact that his achievements surpassed those of Dionysus; or at least he would deserve this honour if he conquered the Arabs and allowed them, as he had allowed the Indians, to retain their ancient institutions. Moreover, the wealth of their country was an additional incitement - the cassia in the oases, the trees which bore frankincense and myrrh, the shrubs which yielded cinnamon, the meadows where nard grew wild: of all this report had told him. Arabia, too, was a large country, its coast (it was said) no less in extent than the coast of India; many islands lay off it, and there were harbours everywhere fit for his fleet to ride in and to provide sites for new settlements likely to grow to great wealth and prosperity.
This clarifies that Alexander never visited the Hijaz.
Hawting notes some confusion in the Islamic accounts of Jeddah (pp. 319-320): ‘Occasionally, different versions of the same report have Jedda and al-Shu’ayba as variant readings. For example, some versions of the story of the rebuilding of the Ka’ba by Quraysh have the ship wrecked at Jedda instead of the, in this instance, better attested al-Shu`ayba. Describing the flight of Safwān b. Umayya from Mecca at the time of its conquest by the Prophet, a tradition given by Ibn Ishaq says that he fled towards Jedda, while in the version given by al-Wāqidī he fled to al-Shu’ayba.’ He then observes (p. 320):
What these reports seem to show is that al-Shu’ayba is named with relative infrequency, that it occurs only in a limited group of traditions, and that there was a tendency to supplant it with the name of Jedda. It seems clear that, where both Jedda and al-Shu’ayba are named in different versions of the same report, al-Shu’ayba represents the «original» reading and Jedda a later emendation since, in the Islamic period, al-Shu’ayba had no importance and there would be no reason to substitute it for Jedda. On the other hand, the fact that the name of al-Shu’ayba is often followed by an explanatory gloss seems to point to a lack of familiarity with it in the Islamic period, and the substitution of Jedda for al-Shu’ayba may sometimes be an involuntary reading back into the Jāhiliyya of the conditions of the Islamic period. Those traditions associating Jedda with Eve could be relatively late attempts to provide it with a religious significance of the sort analysed by von Grunebaum.’
Significantly, he observes (p. 320f): ‘Muslim traditions about the origins of Jedda are scarce and problematic.’ He quotes two reports about Jeddah’s origins by Ibn al-Mujāwir (d. 1291) and then states: ‘…I am inclined to see both reports as reflexions of the fact that in the late 4th/10th century Jedda did receive an influx of, and was developed by, merchants from Persia.’ In other words, the traditions are read back at a later date. This is even more true of the tradition of Caliph ‘Uthmān making Jeddah the port of Mecca (p. 321-322):
The most frequent account of the circumstances in which Jedda became the port of Mecca associates it with the caliph ‘Uthmān. According to the most detailed version of this account, in the year 26/647 ‘Uthmān officially made Jedda the port of Mecca at the request of the Meccans. They has asked him to change (yuhawwilu) the sāhil from al-Shu’aybiyya (sic in the text), which was the sāhil of Mecca in the Jāhiliyya, to Jedda, which «is its sāhil today». The reason why they wanted the change was the greater proximity of Jedda to Mecca. In response to their request, ‘Uthmān, who was in Mecca for the performance of an ‘umra, went out to Jedda, saw its position, and ordered the changing of the sāhil to it. He went into the sea, made ghusl in it, and said that it was mubārak. He then ordered those who were with him to do the same, and everyone who did so wore a mi’zar. ‘Uthmān then left Jedda for Medina, and at that time the people abandoned the sāhil of al-Shu’aybiyya.
This detailed tradition appears, so far as I know, only in a comparatively late source, the of al-Nahrawālī, who died in 990/1582. He cites as his source the Ta’rīkh of al-Hafiz Najm al-Din ‘Umar b. Fahd, whose literary activity was in the second half of the 9th/15th century, and who was a pupil of al-Fāsī, the author of the Shifā. In the Shifā’, however, ‘Uthmān’s action is mentioned only briefly, not in the detail which al-Nahrawālī provides, and there has to be some doubt, therefore, about the source and antiquity of al-Nahrawālī’s details… Al-Fāsī’s briefer reference to the substitution by ‘Uthmān comes presumably from the 3rd/9th century al-Fakihī.
It can be seen that the supposed 7th century linkage of Jeddah to Mecca is based on much later traditions. Hawting then observes:
None of this seems sufficient as evidence for the origins of Jedda or whether it existed before Islam. On ground of common sense it is difficult to see why the Meccans should have used al-Shu’ayba as a port if a more convenient site was at hand and also why they would need to get the caliph’s agreement to use Jedda instead of al-Shu’ayba. In general the tradition of ‘Uthmān’s institution of Jedda as the port of Mecca, as well as being poorly attested, does riot sound convincing.’
Hawting does not consider the reverse of his statement – that if Jeddah did exist in antiquity, why would an existing inland oasis use a more distant port? Or, if there no early evidence for either Jeddah or Mecca, does this imply that neither existed? He then notes the lack of non-Muslim evidence (pp. 323-324): ‘Muslim sources, then, are of doubtful value when it comes to answering the various questions about the origins of Jedda. Non-Muslim sources certainly provide no grounds for thinking that it existed before Islam, in spite of the general assumption in modem works that it did. Jedda does not appear to be mentioned in any pre-Islamic source, either south Arabian or classical. This argument from silence is not in itself positive evidence, but it is striking that, in contrast to Jedda, we do have pre-Islamic attestation of Yanbū‘ (Jambia), the port of Medina (Yathrib).’
Hawting notes similar problems for al-Shu’ayba (p. 325): ‘It seems, therefore, that there is no information about al-Shu’ayba apart from the meagre details in Muslim tradition, and there is a strong impression that the Muslim scholars themselves had no real knowledge about it.’ He infers from all this (p. 326):
I would suggest that both are to be associated with the emergence of Mecca as the site of the Muslim sanctuary. Although, in the later Middle Ages, Jedda came to acquire a role as an entrepot in the trade between the Mediterranean and the Far East, and thus came to have some importance in its own right", generally it has been important only as the port of Mecca. One would expect, therefore, that its fortunes would be closely connected with those of Mecca. As has been noted, there is no reliable indication that Jedda had any importance before Islam, and it may be that its origins are to be put in the early Islamic period. It seems natural to associate it with the growing importance of Mecca at the same time. As for al-Shu’ayba, if it was indeed the port of Mecca in the Jāhiliyya, then its disappearance without trace seems to indicate that it must have been small and unimportant, and this too could throw light on the status of Mecca before Islam.
Ulrike Freitag, in her seminal work A History of Jeddah: The gate to Mecca in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020, p. 40) states:
According to Islamic tradition, Jeddah was founded by the third Caliph ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān in AH 26/AD 647 as the harbour best suited to supply Mecca and make it accessible to pilgrims arriving by sea. The fact that it replaced an earlier port in the vicinity, be it al-Shuʿayba or the Ptolomeian Kentos, points to the strategic importance of the location: seen from Mecca, the town was situated at the end of the shortest route to the sea. Its landing area, protected by coral reefs that were traversed by a canal and lagoons, offered shelter to small boats. Due to the wind regime in the Red Sea, ships from the Indian Ocean could sail about as far as Jeddah during the latter parts of the northeast monsoon. North of Jeddah, whereby persistent northerly winds and coral reefs were common, mostly smaller vessels which could sail closer to the coast were used. Jeddah also had disadvantages: freshwater had to be brought into the town as there were no springs in the vicinity. The coastal plain was only sparsely populated, with only a few oases situated in the foothills of the mountain range which separates the coastal plain (Tihāma) from the highlands.
If the vicinity of Jeddah was so sparse in terms of population and water, why would sail ships, coming from India or China want to stop there, rather than the more fertile African coast of the Red Sea? Agatharchides of Cnidus (2nd century BC) (Agatharchides of Cnidus On the Erythraean Sea, Translated and edited by Stanley M. Burstein, London: The Hakluyt Society, 1989), refers to what is now Yemen (pp. 159-160): ‘Immediately adjacent is the tribe of the Sabaeans, the greatest of the peoples in Arabia and the possessors of every sort of good fortune. For their country produces all the necessities for life as lived among us…’ However, he does not seem to mention any port near where Jeddah is. Similarly, the 1st century AD work The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea refers to the same general area (Wilfred H. Schoff, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and trade in the Indian Ocean by a merchant of the first century, New York: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1912, pp. 30-31):
The market-town of Muza is without a harbor, but has a good roadstead and anchorage because of the sandy bottom thereabouts, where the anchors hold safely. The merchandise imported there consists of purple cloths, both fine and coarse; clothing in the Arabian style, with sleeves; plain, ordinary, embroidered, or interwoven with gold; saffron, sweet rush, muslins, cloaks, blankets (not many), some plain and others made in the local fashion; sashes of different colors, fragrant ointments in moderate quantity, wine and wheat, not much. For the country produces grain in moderate amount, and a great deal of wine. And to the King and the Chief are given horses and sumpter-mules, vessels of gold and polished silver, finely woven clothing and copper vessels. There are exported from the same place the things produced in the country: selected myrrh, and the Gebanite-Minaean stacte, alabaster and all the things already mentioned from Avalites and the far-side coast. The voyage to this place is made best about the month of September, that is Thoth; but there is nothing to prevent it even earlier.
Yet nothing about the area near Jeddah. A recent study notes (Chiara Zazzaro, The Ancient Red Sea Port of Adulis and the Eritrean Coastal Region: Previous investigations and museum collections, Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013, pp. 1, 2):
…the Red Sea coast was characterised by a succession of well-protected bays, especially on the western side which is considered more suitable for navigation. In particular, the presence of springs originating from ancient wadyan (rivers) in the north-western coastal sector not only provided fresh water supplies for mariners but also helped to reduce the growth of coral reefs in correspondence to the merse (bays). In the 2nd millennium BC and in the early 1st millennium AD some of these bays formed lagoons developed at the wadi mouths which provided natural access for ships (Blue 2007; Hein et al. 2008). It was common during antiquity to exploit the geomorphology and natural conditions of the coast to establish ports, especially in the Indian Ocean.
It continues:
The Red Sea basin is characterised by three main deep channels for navigation. The central channel is the deepest, suitable for navigation by large modern ships. The two lateral channels are parallel and separated from the coasts by two sequences of coral reefs; they can take small and medium ships (Red Sea Pilot 1909: 3), as they did during antiquity.
Navigation in the Red Sea was conducted not far from the coast, always keeping sight of the mainland landmarks and such features as islands and coral reefs. Bays, scattered islands and reefs played an important role in the Red Sea navigation, being used as stopping places during the night. The fact that navigation in the Red Sea during Antiquity was mainly conducted at a short distance from the coast, and presumably along the two minor navigable channels, is also demonstrated by the fact that the first century sailors’ manual Periplus Maris Erythraei, gives particular emphasis to the description of the coastal landscape and of landmarks which served for orientation to sailing boats.’ The existence of this manual, Periplus Maris Erythraei, which we examined earlier, is significant.
On p. 2 it notes:
A series of well-protected bays all along the Eritrean coast may also have provided favourable mooring spots and anchorages. On the other side, the north-west coast of the Red Sea has a number of underground fresh water sources, not far from the coast, which may have guaranteed water supply for boats and ships navigating along the coast while the southern Red Sea coast is very arid and with few water resources. In this case, wells and cisterns carved in the bedrock all along the south-western shore of the Red Sea and on the islands may have provided the necessary water supply for sailing boats and ships in this region since earlier times (Puglisi 1953; Puglisi 1969)… the Eritrean coast south of Massawa is characterised by several protected bays that make for good anchorages.
So why would anyone choose the more hostile Arabian coast north of Yemen?
CONCLUSION
It can be seen that there are serious – indeed, severe - questions about the origins of Jeddah, and indeed, of any maritime trade reaching to the mid-Hijaz at the time of Muhammad. If Jeddah did not exist in antiquity, and neither did any comparable port near Mecca, what does this say about Mecca’s historical authenticity? Indeed, what does it say about the historicity of the traditional narrative of Islamic origins in general? What does it say about te origins of the Qur’an, if the preceding questions are valid?