Who wants "more or less" when you can have "EXACT"?

We now continue with the remaining 3 theories posited by King concerning why he thinks the earliest Qiblas were misdirected. Theory 5: In Jordan and Syria they built facing "more or less" due south, which faces close to Mecca. Response: Naturally the mosques in Jordan and Syria are facing "more or less" due south, because both Petra and Mecca are south of these two countries. Yet, when you look at the Qiblas and test Mecca against Petra, all of them are much closer to Petra than Mecca, so there is no reason to say “more or less” as King says, they are specifically facing Petra. Why go with "more or less" when we already have "exact"? To underline this fact, in his 2017 book “Early Islamic Qiblas” Gibson purposely introduced 4 blue dials (or compasses) for each of the mosques he researched, with each dial representing 4 places (i.e. the mosque itself, Petra, Mecca, and Jerusalem). These showed the reader just how close or far the Qibla faced each of these 3 cities, proving just how much closer the earliest mosques were facing towards Petra, than Mecca. Why didn’t King do this in his research? Obviously, not having gone there himself, nor attempted to find their exact locations, he was satisfied with "more or less". Furthermore, all the other Mosques which are not north of these two cities (i.e. East and West) also face Petra, and not Mecca, so from every direction these mosques were succinctly facing Petra; that is, at least up to 706 AD. How does King account for them? Well, he simply doesn't, as he wasn't aware of their directions. Theory 6: In India they faced due west, and in Northern Africa they faced due east. Response: Either King hasn’t looked carefully at Gibson’s research, or he purposely chooses to disregard it. Gibson showed clearly that the one mosque in India from this time period, the Cherman Juma Mosque in Kerala (built in 629 AD) is facing directly towards Petra, not Mecca. Likewise, Gibson clearly showed that all the mosques in Northern Africa were facing due south, paralleling a line between Petra and Mecca, and not east. What’s more, King has already noted that the Cordoba mosque in Spain, which follows those in No. Africa was facing directly south, so why does he contradict himself here? Theory 7: In Yemen and in Eastern Africa, the Qiblas faced "more or less" due north. Response: Once again, either King hasn’t looked carefully at Gibson’s research, or he purposely chooses to disregard it, or since he doesn't really know himself, he's satisfied with "more or less". Naturally, the mosques in Yemen and E. Africa are facing “more or less” north, because both Petra and Mecca are north of these countries. But that misses Gibson’s point; their directions are much closer to Petra than Mecca, something King would never know, unless he had read and understood Gibson's research on the subject. For instance, the Grand Mosque in Sana’a, Yemen (built in 705 AD) is only .36% from Petra, but a whopping 8.8% from Mecca. So, it is clearly facing much closer to Petra then Mecca. To say it is "more or less" facing Mecca is simply dishonest. Concerning the mosques in East Africa; there are no early East African mosques before the 9th century, and those would have naturally been facing Mecca, because they were built too late to have faced any other direction. So, this statement becomes nonsensical, and once again misses the point. It’s obvious that King either hasn’t read Gibson’s book, or if he did, possibly did not understand it well. Or maybe he just refuses to accept any of Gibson’s findings, out of spite. What is clear is that none of his 7 theories stand up to scrutiny. It could be that King, realizing that Gibson was destroying much of his life’s work, decided that going on the offensive was the best tactic for him to use. He is approaching retirement and doesn’t have the time nor the energy to rewrite everything he has written to date; so his only recourse was simply to try to find other excuses for why so many of these early mosques weren’t facing the correct direction; and so, came up with these 7, inadequate as they are. You need to decide who you are going to believe. Are you content with "more or less" as a response, or would you rather have "exact"? It's your choice. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2020 (27,250)