The
Romans Explore Western and Southern Arabia
By Dr. Rafat Amari
The Roman Expedition into western and southern Arabia accurately
described the villages which were built in the area of central western Arabia,
but a city called Mecca
was never mentioned.
In the year
30 B.C., Egypt
became a Roman province. The Romans then wanted to control the Arabian regions
along the Red Sea, especially south of the
city called Leuce Kome on the shore of the Arabian Red Sea. From there, through
the central western shore, were places where savage tribes were acting as
pirates and threatening sea navigation. The Romans also wanted to control Yemen and, subsequently, the spice trade coming
from India through Yemen.
Rome trusted
the military campaign to Gallus, the governor of Egypt. He was unsuccessful, but his
campaign provides more historical accuracy for us. Gallus departed from the
Egyptian shore of the Red Sea with 10,000
Roman soldiers, 1,000 Nabataean soldiers, and some other Roman allies in the
region. The Nabataeans were ruled by the Roman Empire
at that time, so they promised to help the Romans in this expedition as
soldiers and guides. The Nabataeans were
ideal as guides because part of northern Arabia along the Red
Sea was under the Nabataean domain. Strabo, the famous geographer
and historian, took part in the expedition and wrote about it in his 16th
book. This gives to the expedition a special value in terms of geography; it is
a highly-documented expedition, and not a narration of any kind.
The expedition had special importance for a
geographer, because it was not the journey of a traveler who might have missed
cities deeper inland. It was a military expedition, intended to control all the
villages and cities which might threaten Roman trade within this strip of
land. The Romans were very thorough and
would not have missed a city. The Roman Expedition went through the strip of
land which geographers used to explore along the Red Sea,
which I defined previously as extending from the shore to at least 100 miles
inland. The Romans wanted to subdue every village because of the continuing
piracy which originated from central western Arabia.
Therefore, no city or village was left alone in this military expedition.
The expedition arrived at Leuce Come, which
means the “white village.” This village was part of the Nabataean territory at
the time of the expedition. Strabo
attested to the flourishing of the land route through this village to Petra, and from there to Egypt
and Syria.
This village is placed in the today map of Arabia
at El Haura, 25 7 N., 37 13 E.[1][1]
Leuce Come is about 280 miles from the place where Mecca was later built. To the south of this
village lay the central western part of Arabia along the Red
Sea, which was uninhabited in 103 B.C. But now, because the land
route along the Red Sea had started to
flourish, there had been a few villages built since 103 B.C., which Gallus
occupied. These villages are mentioned in the narration of Strabo, who was an
eyewitness to this important expedition.
After Leuce Come, Gallus marched to the
south, through Nabataean-controlled lands. Strabo describes the nature of the
region with these words:
Gallus moved his army from Leuce Come and
marched through regions where water had to be carried by camels.
Gallus
marched until he reached the desert assigned to Aretas, his kinsman, by King
Obodas of Nabataean. We assume that Gallus was marching toward the village of Egra about 1,100 Greek stadia from Leuce
Come (about 137 miles). Strabo described
this part under Aretas, as follows:
It afforded only zea, a kind of coarse grain, a
few palm trees and butter instead of oil.[1][2]
It is a
description of a deserted tract of land with few stations on the caravan route coming
from the south. These stations are mainly Nabataean stations to protect and
control the trade passing through this area.
Then Strabo described the next segment of
the central-western Arabian campaign with these words:
The next country which Gallus traversed belongs
to nomads and most of it was truly desert; and it was called Ararene, and he
spent fifty days arriving at the city of Negrani.
That was
a city of Najran on the border of Yemen about 385 miles south of Mecca,
and about 125 miles from the shore of the Red Sea. We understand from
the description of Strabo that the central western tract of Arabia along the Red Sea during the time of the expedition had few changes
since the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. This region was
described by previous geographers as uninhabited in its northern part, and
inhabited by Bedouins in its southern part, until reaching the more-civilized
people near Yemen. At least three of the stations which the
Nabataeans had built on the caravan road became small villages, which were
mentioned in this expedition. The situation was likely similar to that of the 2nd
and 3rd centuries B.C.
Gallus wanted to subdue the
region to protect the trade from the piracy coming from this area. His plan was
to occupy all the cities found in this dangerous tract, but he did not find any
city until he reached Najran. This demonstrates that Mecca was not yet built in those times – that
is, around 23 B.C. Gallus occupied Najran, then Asca
(within Yemeni territory). Going south, he occupied a city called Athrula, then
advanced toward Marsiaba (probably Ma'rib, the capital of Saba).
He assaulted and besieged the city for six days, but desisted for want of
water. He lost
only seven soldiers in war against the Arabians of Najran and in the battles south
of it. Most of the losses in his army came from lack of water and supplies, and
disease.
If Mecca
had existed at the time of the Roman Expedition, it would have been impossible
to be missed by a weary army which needed a city in which to rest and replenish
supplies.
The
hardships of Gallus’ army were because of the huge distances, which existed
between the small few villages in this tract of central Arabia where Mecca was built in later
times. This caused many soldiers to die from a lack of water and supplies. The
Romans accused Syllaeus of not helping them as a guide because he chose paths
between the villages and cities that were longer than they should have been.
This did not affect the plan of passing through all the villages which existed
in the area, since the villages and cities were known by all contemporaries to
the expedition, and confirmed by the inhabitants. In other words, each village
or city knew the name of the next city or village which Gallus needed to visit
on the way to Najran and the other cities of Yemen.
Since subduing all of central western
Arabia was an important goal for the expedition, Gallus would not have missed a
city like Mecca,
if it had existed then.
Another thing to consider is that after
Gallus failed to occupy the Yemeni city of Marsiaba, he replaced Syllaeus as a
guide, and instead depended on native experts to return to Negrana and then to
the Nabataean village of Leuce Come. Consequently, he made the return trip more
quickly, passing through the few villages which were built on the caravan road
where Mecca was
eventually built. Strabo mentioned them by name, but never mentioned Mecca.[1][3]Ultimately,
Gallus withdrew from the war. The huge distances between the villages, which
were built on this central Arabian tract, created a logistical travel problem
for an army of more than 11,000. Gallus
lost thousands of his soldiers because of lack of water and supplies.
The
Roman historian, Dio Cassius, described the failure of the expedition in his
book, The History of Rome. Here’s what he wrote:
At
first Aelius Gallus encountered no one, yet he did not proceed without
difficulty; for the desert, the sun, and the water (which had some peculiar
nature) all caused his men great distress, so that the larger part of the army
perished.[1][4]
This
advances our argument. If Mecca
had existed as a city, it would have been Gallus’ main goal to control it. No
cities are described by any of the historians, except for the few villages I
mentioned previously which were built on the caravan road. If Mecca had existed, it would have been an
important place to rest, to replenish supplies and to prepare a person to
traverse the rest of this terrible tract toward Najran and the other Yemeni
cities. No one who planned to occupy a desert would abandon its main city. But
that desert had no city in existence like Mecca;
that is why the expedition had its hardships and problems with supplies.
What this ultimately shows us is that the
claims of Islam which state that Mecca
was a city that flourished during the time of Abraham, are unsubstantiated and
false. All the records of the historians of the time show that Mecca was not in existence until the 4th
century A.D., certainly not in the time of Abraham. If Islam is wrong on this
key assertion, how can we trust it in other assertions?