What Is Mecca? Meaning, History & Islam's Holiest City

Mecca Etymology

What Is Mecca? Mecca, officially known as Makkah al-Mukarramah, is Islam's holiest city. It is also the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The city has been known by several names throughout history. Like many Arabic words, its etymology is uncertain. Many scholars believe the name originally referred to the valley surrounding the Ka'bah. This guide explains what Mecca is, its meaning, history, and importance in Islam.
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Bakkah, Mecca

The Quran refers to the city as Bakkah in Surah Al Imran , verse 96, 
(("Indeed the first House , established for mankind was that at Bakkah"))
" – Quran 3:96  Also This is, presumed to have been, the name of the city at the time of Abraham
(Ibrahim in Islamic tradition)

What Is Mecca? Geography and Official Status

Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah (Arabic: مكة المكرمة‎, romanized: Makkat al-Mukarramah, lit. Makkah the Noble' Hejazi pronunciation: and commonly shortened to Makkah Arabic: مكة, romanized: Makkah Hejazi pronunciation: It is the administrative center of Mecca Province in Saudi Arabia. It is also the holiest city in Islam. It is 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its last recorded population was 1,578,722 in 2015.
Its also estimated metro population in 2020 is 2.042 million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Pilgrims more than triple this number every year during the Ḥajj pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Hijri month of Dhul-Ḥijjah. 
Mecca is reputedly the birthplace of prophet Muhammad. The Hira cave atop the Jabal al-Nur ("Mountain of Light") is just outside the city and where Muslims believe the Quran was first revealed to Muhammad. E-aalim is an online educational platform and institute. E-aalim teaches the holy Quran, Arabic and Islamic studies online.

Hajj is an obligation upon all financially and physically able Muslims.

The Great Mosque of Mecca, known as the Masjid al-Haram, is home to the Ka'bah,
Muslims believe it was built by Abraham and Ishmael. It is the Islam's holiest sites and the direction of prayer for all Muslims (qibla). Muslim rulers from in and around the region long tried to take the city and keep it under their control, and thus, much like most of the Hejaz region,
the city has seen several regime changes. The city was, finally conquered during the Saudi conquest of Hejaz by Ibn Saud and his allies in 1925. Since then, Mecca has seen a tremendous expansion in size and infrastructure, with newer, modern buildings such as the Abraj Al Bait, the world's fourth-tallest building and third-largest by floor area, towering over the Great Mosque.
The Saudi government has also carried out the removal of several historical structures
and archaeological sites, such as the Ajyad Fortress. Non-Muslims are, strictly prohibited
from entering the city.

Muslims from around the world visit the city:

Not only for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, but also as Muslim tourists to visit local landmarks such as the 'Aisha Mosque (Masjid 'Aisha) and also the sites visited by pilgrims in the Hajj and 'Umrah.
Also Mecca is now home to two of the most expensive buildings in the world,
the Masjid al-Haram, valued at 100 billion US dollars, and the Abraj al-Bait complex, valued at 15 billion US dollars.  Under the Saudi government, Mecca is, governed by the Mecca Regional Municipality, a municipal council of 14 locally elected members headed by the mayor
(called Amin in Arabic) appointed by the Saudi government. As of May 2015, the mayor of the city is Osama bin Fadhel Al-Barr. The City of Mecca amanah, which constitutes Mecca and the surrounding region, is the capital of the Mecca Province, which includes the neighboring cities of Jeddah and Ta'if, even though Jeddah is, considerably larger in population compared to Mecca.
and also The Provincial Governor of the province from 16 May 2007 is Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud. The online tutors and teachers at E-aalim are dedicated, efficient and experienced Arabic native speaker al-Azhar graduates.

Makkah al-Mukarramah and Mecca

In south Arabic, the language in use in the southern province of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of prophet Muhammad . This is, presumed to have been, the origin of the current form of the name. "Makkah" is, the official transliteration used by the Saudi government and is closer to
the Arabic pronunciation. The government adopted Makkah as the official spelling in the 1980s,
but is, not universally known or used worldwide. The full official name is, Makkah al-Mukarramah
(Arabic:, romanized: Makkat al-Mukarramah, lit. 'Makkah the Honored'). "Makkah" is used to refer to the city in the Quran in Surah Al-Fath, verse 24. The word "Mecca" in English has come to be, used to refer to any place that draws large numbers of people, and because of this some English-speaking Muslims have come to regard the use of this spelling for the city as offensive.
Nonetheless, Mecca is the familiar form of the English transliteration
for the Arabic name of the city.  So The historic consensus in academic scholarship has long been that "Macoraba", the place mentioned in Arabia Felix by Claudius Ptolemy, is Mecca.
More recent study has questioned this association.
Many etymologies have been, proposed: the traditional one is that it is, derived from the Old South Arabian root M-K-R-B which means "temple", learn Quran online

What Is Mecca? History Through the Ages

Prehistory In 2010, Mecca and the surrounding area became an important site
for paleontology with respect to primate evolution, with the discovery of a Saadanius fossil.
Saadanius is, considered to be a primate closely related to the common ancestor
of the Old World monkeys and apes. Also The fossil habitat, near what is now the Red Sea in western Saudi Arabia, was a damp forest area between 28 million and 29 million years ago.
Paleontologists involved in the research hope to find further fossils in the area
Early history (up to 6th century CE) The early history of Mecca is still largely disputed,
as there are no unambiguous references to it in ancient literature prior to the rise of Islam.
The first unambiguous reference to Mecca in external literature occurs in 741 CE,
in the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle, though here the author wrongly places it in Mesopotamia rather than the Hejaz. Many scholars believe Ptolemy's "Macoraba" refers to Mecca. However, some historians continue to dispute this identification. The online learners and students at E-aalim are kid, adult, male and female non-native Arabic speaker Muslims worldwide, especially those living in the USA and European countries.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus writes about Arabia

In the 1st century BCE in his work Bibliotheca historica, describing a holy shrine:
"And a temple has been, set up there, which is, very holy and exceedingly revered
by all Arabians". He claims there have been, made this could be, a reference to the Ka'bah in Mecca. However, the geographic location Diodorus describes is located in northwest Arabia, around the area of Leuke Kome, within the former Nabataean Kingdom and the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. Ptolemy lists the names of 50 cities in Arabia, one going by the name of Macoraba. There has been speculation since 1646 that this could be a reference to Mecca,
but some scholars see no compelling explanation to link the two names.
Bowersock favors the identity of the former, with his theory being that "Macoraba"
is, the word "Makkah" followed by the aggrandizing Aramaic adjective rabb (great).
The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus also enumerated many cities
of Western Arabia, most of which can be, identified. Also According to Bowersock, he did mention Mecca as "Geapolis" or "Hierapolis", the latter one meaning "holy city", referring to the sanctuary of the Kaaba, well known already in pagan times. E-aalim have their own online courses of Islamic studies. The E-aalim online studies courses include Quran Tafseer and Tajweed, Fiqh, Seerah, Hadith, Ebadat and Muslim Adab, Etiquette. Join the E-aalim online courses of Islamic studies and learn more about Islam and the Islamic faith.

Patricia Crone, from the Revisionist school of Islamic studies on the other hand, writes

that "the plain truth is that the name Macoraba has nothing to do with that of Mecca
if Ptolemy mentions Mecca at all, he calls it Moka, a town in Arabia Petraea Recently, researchers using enhanced mathematical models to reconstruct ancient maps and also translate their locations into modern coordinates have been able to confirm that Mecca and Ptolemy’s Macoraba are in the same location, while Moka is, safely identified as the fortress of Machaerus on the eastern side of the Dead Sea.  Procopius' statement that the Ma'ad tribe possessed the coast of western Arabia between the Ghassanids and the Himyarites of the south confirms
the Arabic sources tradition that associates Quraysh as a branch of the Ma'add and Muhammad as a direct descendant of Ma'ad ibn Adnan. Historians including Patricia Crone and Tom Holland have cast doubt on the claim So that Mecca was a major historical trading outpost. However, other scholars such as Glen W. Bowersock disagree and assert that Mecca was a major trading outpost. 
Crone later on disregarded some of her theories as shown in her later work. She also argues that Meccan trade relied on skins, hides, manufactured leather goods, clarified butter, Hijazi woollens, and camels. She suggests that most of these goods were, destined for the Roman army, which is, known to have required colossal quantities of leather and hides for its equipment. 

Go deeper than the debate

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