I was wrong! All the trade went via Africa, not Arabia!

One of our viewers, lyth Mashni, had a comment which caught me by surprise. He wrote “you are just saying whats on the Wikipedia page on Jeddah which isn't very accurate, to say the least.  For one, the earliest Thamudic script is from the 8th century BC, that's well into the Iron age. So neither you nor the person who wrote the article on wiki know what the stone age is. And the thing about the oldest mashrabiyya being pre-islamic, the wiki article just pulled that out of thin air. It's legitimate to question the traditional narrative, but don't just replace it with your own B...S....” He was quite right, as we went back to the Wikipedia article we found that they had just lifted their material from a tourist article from the Municipality of Jeddah, along with another article written by Saudi Arabia's ministry of Hajj, both of whom quoted legends taken from very late 12th - 16th century Islamic Traditional accounts, much too late to be of any value. Dr Pat Andrews helped me unlock what really happened with Jeddah and the trade up the eastern Arabian coast of the Red Sea, using much more recent historical studies carried out by Dr G.R. Hawting, who suggested that not only were the stories about Alexander the Great worshipping at Mecca, but the suggestion that Jeddah was created by Uthman were both fictitious. Two scholars, Dawn L. Gilley and Ian Worthington, in 2010 wrote about 3 expeditions around Arabia sent by Alexander the Great who lived in the 4th century BC. The first was led by Archias to the island of Bahrain, the second led by Androsthenes to the Gulf of Oman, and a third led by Hieron of Soli around the peninsula of Arabia, and up the Red Sea as far as Egypt. This third expedition finally had to turn around because "There were no inhabitants, cities, or harbors to give anchorage for his fleet", proving that the Arabian Red Sea coastline had nothing of substance during the 4th century BC. In the 2nd century BC Agatharchides of Cnidus traveled down the Arabian coast of the Red Sea but found no port anywhere near Jeddah, nor anything of substance until the Yemen. In the 1st century AD a work entitled 'The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea' mentions the same general area, and specifically refers to the trading town of Mocha (in modern Yemen), but says nothing about the area near Jeddah. The reason there was no trade on the Arabian side of the Red Sea was finally solved by a 2013 study by Chiara Zazzaro, who refers to three main deep channels in the Red Sea which made it possible for navigation. The central channel is the deepest, suitable for navigation by large modern ships. The two lateral and Western channels [close to the African shore] are parallel and can take small and medium ships." The first century sailors’ manual, the 'Periplus Maris Erythraei', gives particular emphasis to the description of the coastal landscape and of landmarks which served for orientation to sailing boats.’ 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 north-west coast of the Red Sea there are 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. The Eritrean coast south of Massawa is characterized by several protected bays that make for good anchorages.’ When one looks at a map of the Red Sea they can find 5 major ports on the African side, all near the 2 water channels referred to above. They include Assab (in present day Eritrea), first referred to in 246 BC, so long before the time of Islam. The 2nd was Adulis (in present day Eritrea), first referred to in 79 AD. The 3rd was Suakin (in present day the Sudan), first referred to in 170 AD. The 4th was Berenice (in present day Egypt), first referred to in 275 BC. The 5th was Safaga (in present day Egypt), first referred to in 282 BC. These five are all spread out within a days sailing distance of each other, all with fresh water, and all on the Western coast of the Red Sea, thus all in Africa. They are all first referenced after the time of Alexander the Great's expeditions, yet long before the creation of Islam in the 7th - 8th centuries AD. The opposite Eastern coast of the Red Sea was uninhabitable, and devoid of water to accommodate sailing ships, unlike the Western African Coast of the Red Sea. That is why the Arabian coast in the area of Jeddah, and further inland, including Mecca, are not referred to in any historical or trading documents, proving why the traders never chose the more inhospitable Arabian coast, since they had all they needed in Africa. Yet, without Jeddah, or Mecca, what then happens to the Qur'an, and Islam, which are dependent on both? © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2021 (46,090) Music: 'happy child', by Aleksound, from Filmmusic-io