Introduction

The Great Pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca is an obligatory passage for Muslims who must perform it at least once in their lives. During the pilgrimage, pilgrims carry out various rituals: circumambulation around the Ka’ba, walking back and forth between Safā and Marwa, stoning Satan, etc. Despite their importance, however, most of these rites are not mentioned in the Quran. Certainly, it references a pilgrimage to the "House" sacred place, but the information provided in the Quranic text does not align well with the Meccan pilgrimage as it unfolds today. In this article, we will support a hypothesis that challenges the traditional narrative, suggesting that the pilgrimage of early Islam took place in the Jerusalem area rather than in Mecca. This emerges from a meticulous examination of the few passages of the Quran related to the pilgrimage. We will also show that the pilgrimage to Mecca was invented at a later time, after the death of the Prophet.

The "House" Sacred in the Quran

The Ka’ba and the Temple of Jerusalem

The Ka’ba, located in Mecca, is the most important sanctuary in Islam. Paradoxically, its mention in the Quran is very marginal, appearing only twice (5:95; 5:97). Moreover, these passages provide no details about its location or the rituals to be performed there (for example, the Quran makes no mention of the Black Stone). From a historical-critical perspective, nothing obliges us to identify the Ka’ba mentioned in the text with the temple in Mecca. Remember that in Arabic, ka’ba is a common noun meaning “cube”. Consequently, the term could refer to any cubical-shaped sanctuary, which was not uncommon at the time. Indeed, many pre-Islamic Cubic temples, sometimes called Ka’ba, existed in Arabia and surrounding regions. 1 It should be noted that the Temple of Jerusalem is described in the Bible as a cube (1 Kings 6:20), and it is plausible that the reference in the Quran points to the temple in Jerusalem, not to the Meccan sanctuary. However, the question remains difficult to settle definitively, and further research is needed. Nonetheless, several clues within the Quranic text clearly point to a Judeo-Palestinian context rather than a Meccan one.

The Valley of Baka

Let’s start with the following verse: “The first House (Bayt) established for mankind is indeed the one at Bakka; it is blessed and serves as a guidance for all worlds” (3:96). The first question is, what specific place is the author referring to when mentioning Bakka? Muslim exegesists suggest that Bakka may be an alternate name for Mecca. In that case, “the first House” would refer to the Ka’ba, which Islamic mythology presents as humanity’s first sanctuary. But this interpretation rests on very little tangible evidence, mainly the superficial similarity between the names Bakka and Makkah. As Peter Webb, an expert on pre-Islamic Arabia, notes, “Although the names resemble each other, they are clearly different, and the exegetical efforts during the Islamic period to equate Mecca with Bakka are unconvincing.” 3 It is worth noting that the Temple in Jerusalem is described in the Bible as a cube (1 Kings 6:20), and it is plausible that the referenced place in the Quran is the same temple, rather than the Meccan Ka’ba. The hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that in Arabic, ka’ba is a common noun meaning “cube”.

The word “Bakka” appears only once in the Quran, in connection with a prayer and pilgrimage location; meanwhile, “Baka” appears only once in the Bible, in a psalm about pilgrimage. In both texts, they are mentioned precisely in the same context, which suggests they may refer to the same place—Jerusalem. The verse mentions “the first house” (Bayt al-Maqdis) which, in Islamic tradition, refers to the Ka’ba, but it may more naturally allude to the Temple of Jerusalem, called in Hebrew

Bēt haMīqdaš

. Further, another verse states: “And I have established some of my descendants in an arid valley near Your Sacred House” (14:37). The valley of Baka mentioned in Psalm 84 is known for its dryness and sterility, aligning well with this description. Historian Stephen Shoemaker argues that “the Sacred House of the Quran was located in the same place that Jewish pilgrims visited in Psalm 84.” It might be the Temple in Jerusalem or a pilgrimage site at Hebron, close to the famous valley of Baka, frequented by Arabs before Islam. The Greek historian Sozomen (died 450 AD) recounts:

This place, called today Terebinth, neighbors the city of Hebron, about fifteen stades south. It is said, truthfully, that at the same time as the angels sent against Sodom, the Son of God appeared there to Abraham, predicting the birth of his son. Even today, a splendid celebration occurs there annually in summer, involving locals, Palestinians, Phoenicians, and Arabs.

Mecca or Jerusalem?

Several verses from Surah 2 strongly support this hypothesis. In verse 125, God’s voice declares that “We made the House (bayt) a place of return and security for mankind. And take the place of Abraham as a prayer site.” According to Islamic tradition, the “station” (al-maqâm) of Abraham refers to the spot near the Ka’ba where he is said to have stood—legend says his footprints are still visible on the ground. However, this makes more sense in the context of the Bible, where Jerusalem is called the “station” (Deut. 12:5), in Hebrew ha-māqôm. The terms al-maqâm and ha-māqôm are close enough to suggest they both refer to the same place—Jerusalem. This possibility is reinforced by verse 126, where Abraham prays: “My Lord! Make this city secure, and provide its people with fruits—those who believe in Allah and the Last Day.” It is unlikely that this “city” refers to Mecca, which did not exist at Abraham’s time. Additionally, the verse speaks of “fruits,” which would be impossible to cultivate in Mecca, but perfectly fits Jerusalem.

Verse 127 states: “Abraham and Ishmael raised the foundations of the House.” Again, “the House” is widely understood in Islamic tradition as the Ka’ba, rebuilt by Abraham and his son. But there’s no specific mention of its location. A more convincing theory is that the Quran refers to a temple in Palestine, not Mecca. According to the Bible, Abraham built an altar at Hebron (Gen. 13:18), where the famous temple visited by Arabs before Islam stood. Another verse states he built an altar in Jerusalem (Gen. 22:2), at the site where the later Jerusalem Temple was established (2 Chronicles 3:1). The Quran’s reference here likely points to this biblical story.

13 An objection could be that in the Quran, Abraham builds the temple with his son’s help, a detail not mentioned in the Bible. However, Joseph Witztum has shown that in Syriac sources, Abraham built the altar in Jerusalem with his son Isaac14. In one of his homilies, Syriac theologian Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) even mentions the “House” (baytā) built by Abraham and his son, which closely resembles the Quranic verse. 15. Of course, in Eastern Christian traditions, Isaac is the one who helps his father build the House, not Ishmael. However, this detail does not undermine our hypothesis: at the time, many considered Ishmael an ancestor of the Arabs, so the Quran—addressed to Arabs—may have intentionally replaced Isaac with his brother Ishmael.

Safā and Marwa

The hypothesis that the original Islamic pilgrimage took place in Jerusalem is decisively supported by the following verse: “Indeed, Safā and Marwa are among the signs of Allah. So whoever makes the pilgrimage to the House or performs Umrah does not commit sin if he follows the traditions here and there” (2:158). According to Islamic tradition, this verse belongs to one of the obligatory rites of the pilgrimage to Mecca. Pilgrims are required to run seven times between Safā and Marwa, two small hills near the Ka’ba. Today, these hills are no longer as they once were—they have been enclosed within a large building, and heavily weathered by centuries of millions of footsteps: “Shaved and abraded over centuries by the relentless trampling of countless pilgrims, Safā and Marwa are no longer truly hills, but just slight mounds barely elevated above the ground.” 17

The improbable story of Islamic tradition

The origin of this ritual stems from a legend in which Abraham travels through the Hijaz desert with his wife Sarah and his concubine Hagar. Hagar gives birth to Ishmael, which causes Sarah’s jealousy. An inevitable domestic scene ensues, and Abraham decides to abandon Hagar and his child in the desert. The mother climbs to the top of Safā to search for water for her son. Failing that, she ascends Marwa, but in vain. She repeats the walk between Safā and Marwa seven times. From this family drama, the ritual of sa’y arises, during which Muslim pilgrims imitate Hagar’s walk. This peculiar story clashes with the Quranic verse, which makes no mention of the characters or the number “seven” in the walk, nor does the Quran specify these hills to be in Mecca. As Shoemaker notes, “there is no proof within the Quran or any earlier sources that al-Safā and al-Marwa are the names of two small rocky sites in Mecca.” 18 The earliest source to identify al-Safā and al-Marwa with the two Meccan hills is actually an inscription from 783, more than a century and a half after the Prophet's death.

The Two Sacred Mountains of Jerusalem

However, these sites were well known in Jerusalem. Flavius Josephus recounts that during his visit, Alexander the Great “marched to a place called Sapha (σκοπός); this word, translated into Greek, means ‘observatory’ because from there one could see Jerusalem and the Temple.” The term Sapha/σκοπός indeed means “to watch, spy” and refers to Mount Scopus, “one of the highest points in Jerusalem,” 20. During the Jewish–Roman war in the first century, Roman authorities used this strategic vantage point to command their operations. In Hebrew, the name of this mountain is Har ha ṣ - Ṣ ōfīm, “the mountain of sentinels.” The Quranic term

Safā

is the transcription into Arabic. As for Marwa, it corresponds to Mount Moriah (in Hebrew:

Har ham-Mōriyyā, often called the Mount of the Temple, because it is at this site that the Jerusalem Temple was built, according to the Bible: “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah...” (2 Chronicles 3:1). In other words, the Quranic verse most likely originally referred to Mount Scopus and Mount Moriah, both located in Jerusalem. The “run” mentioned in the Quran would have taken place in ancient Islam between these two mountains. 23 Moreover, such a “race” is well attested in the region before Islam. Archaeologist Rivka Gonen mentions an ancient document indicating that pilgrims first went to Mount Scopus then to Mount Moriah, which was part of a route. The route involved traversing from Mount Scopus to Mount Moriah in that specific order, consistent with the Quranic instructions (al-Safā → al-Marwa). 24 That is, Jewish pilgrims would follow the route from Mount Scopus to Mount Moriah, exactly matching the Quranic directions (al-Safā → al-Marwa).

The Invention of the Pilgrimage to Mecca

So far, we have seen that the Quranic references to the “House” are more consistent with a Palestinian, particularly Jerusalem, setting than with Meccan origins. All passages related to Mecca and the Ka’ba, according to Islamic tradition, could just as well—or even more so—refer to Jerusalem and its temple. Similarly, the “race” between Safā and Marwa can be interpreted as a reference to a pre-Islamic pilgrimage between Mount Scopus and Mount Moriah, rather than a ritual of walking back and forth between two small hills in Mecca, which was introduced later. The hypothesis that early Islam’s pilgrimage took place in Jerusalem rather than in Mecca is also supported by many external testimonies noting that proto-Muslims sought actively to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. For example, the Armenian Chronicle attributed to Bishop Sébéos states that the Jews “made an alliance with the Arabs for some time and conceived a plan to rebuild Solomon’s Temple.” 25. This provides the likely background for the Quranic passages analyzed here. These passages, originally referring to Jerusalem, have been later reinterpreted by Islamic tradition as related to Mecca. This is not surprising, given the ambiguous character of the Quran. The passages concerning pilgrimage and the “House” are sufficiently vague to be interpreted in very different ways. Here, we see a re-localization of the sacred geography of the Quran (and Islam in general), shifting from Jerusalem to Mecca. This phenomenon fits into a myth of origins that seeks to elevate Mecca as a great holy city capable of rivaling Jerusalem. The current hypothesis assumes that Muslim exegetes “translated” or “replaced” the original meaning of several Quranic passages with a different, more familiar context. However, this might be too “big a step” to be entirely credible—at least in theory. Nevertheless, this objection can be countered by an example well documented in Islamic sources: the verse “Who is more unjust than he who prevents [people] from the mosques of Allah, and seeks to destroy them?” (2:114). This verse should be read in conjunction with the next (8:34): “Why would Allah not punish them? Those who prevent others from approaching the sacred mosque, and are its enemies.” It is important to note that the word masjid— often wrongly translated as “mosque”—comes from the root sajada, meaning “to prostrate.” It designates a place of prayer—temple, church, synagogue, etc.—not specifically a mosque. Again, the difficulty is the uncertain geographic context since the Quran provides no clear clues to locate the referenced temple definitively. The dominant Islamic interpretation sees it as condemning the polytheists of Mecca who prevented Muslims from approaching the Ka’ba (or the Great Mosque of Mecca). Yet, alternative interpretations within Islamic sources are possible, which we will revisit shortly.

As with previous passages, verse 8:34 can also refer to a Palestinian context. In the early 7th century, Jerusalem was under Byzantine control, which implemented strict policies preventing Jews and heretical Christians from performing pilgrimages there. Considering this, the Quranic verse may be a reproach to Byzantine authorities for barring believers from access to the Temple.

The verse 2:114, condemning “those who strive to destroy [the temples],” is hard not to see as a reference to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by the Romans, whose Byzantine successors regarded themselves as its heirs. Many early Muslim commentators also understood this verse as referring to Jerusalem. Historian Suleiman Bashir noted that several exegeses interpret this verse as a rebuke for “preventing Muslims from access to Jerusalem’s temple.” The earliest commentaries situate this passage in a Palestinian context, and only later was it associated with Mecca. This is a classic example of how Islamic tradition has “relocated” a Quranic verse’s original context.

The Invention of the Pilgrimage to Mecca

We have seen that the Quran mentions a pilgrimage that would take place in the Jerusalem region. Later, as everyone knows, this pilgrimage was relocated to Mecca, which had become the primary holy city of Islam. The remaining question is when this change occurred. It is clear that before Islam, there was no pilgrimage to Mecca. The widespread idea that a pilgrimage was annually celebrated there, attracting polytheists from Arabia, is unfounded today. 29 What did exist was a pilgrimage in a small area about twenty kilometers from Mecca, called Arafat, where pagan rituals were still held. This detour to Arafat remains a key part of the pilgrimage, as Muslims go there for prayer on the ninth day of Dhu al-Hijjah. A German historian, Julius Wellhausen, demonstrated that Mecca and Ka’ba rituals were only brought into the pilgrimage at a later date, probably during the lifetime of the Prophet. 30 However, recent studies have shown that this attachment happened well after Muhammad’s death, as demonstrated by an analysis of Islamic texts. Going back several centuries, Islam was torn by the second fitna conflict between the Umayyads in Syria and the dissident Caliph Ibn al-Zubayr, who controlled Mecca and Medina. Al-Hajjaj, the caliph’s right-hand man under ‘Abd al-Malik, was sent to besiege Mecca. Al-Tabari (d. 923) recounts:

This year [= 692], al-Hajjaj led the pilgrimage (hajj) with people while Ibn al-Zubayr was besieged. He did not circumambulate the House [= Kaaba] nor go there. He remained ritually pure, despite being armed, and avoided women and perfume until Ibn al-Zubayr was killed. Ibn al-Zubayr sacrificed camels in Mecca on the Day of Sacrifice but did not perform the pilgrimage that year, nor did his companions, because he did not go to Arafat.

From this, it appears that during this period, the Islamic pilgrimage was primarily about going to Arafat and had little, if any, connection to the Ka’ba or Mecca. As Gerald Hawting notes, “The fact that Hajj did not involve the rituals at the Ka’ba in the year Ibn al-Zubayr was killed is explicitly stated, and it does not easily support the idea that the Prophet himself established a connection between Hajj and the Ka’ba. The reports, on the other hand, are consistent with the view that “Hajj is at Arafat,” raising questions about the status of the Ka’ba and its relationship with Hajj in the period between the Prophet’s death and the end of the

fitna

.

Conclusion

The various analyses conducted in this article lead us to radically reconsider the history of early Islam, especially the origins of the pilgrimage. First, it appears clear, from the Quranic text itself, that the original pilgrimage took place in the Jerusalem region, not in Mecca. This is decisively supported by ancient sources referencing proto-Muslim activity around the Temple in Jerusalem. It was only at a later stage in Islamic development that the sacred geography of the Quran was shifted toward Mecca. This “relocation” occurred after the Prophet’s death, roughly in the early 8th century. For a time, there was a period when the pilgrimage to Mecca did not exist. The original community described in the Quran was clearly centered around Jerusalem. That is where the “House” mentioned in the Quran is located. Later, the pilgrimage to Mecca was invented, incorporating pagan rituals. Islamic historiography also created a legend making Abraham the initiator of the Meccan pilgrimage—probably in order to provide a biblical and monotheistic origin for practices that were actually pagan. We will revisit these questions in more detail in upcoming episodes.