Editing Mecca (section)

== Etymology ==
Mecca has been referred to by many names. As with many Arabic words, its [[etymology]] is obscure.<ref name="Versteeghp513">{{cite book|author=Versteegh, Kees|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWQOAQAAMAAJ|title=Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Volume 4|publisher=Brill|year=2008|isbn=978-90-04-14476-7|editor1=C.H.M. Versteegh|edition=Illustrated|page=513|editor2=Kees Versteegh}}</ref> Widely believed to be a synonym for {{transliteration|ar|Makkah}}, it is said to be more specifically the early name for the valley located therein, while Muslim scholars generally use it to refer to the sacred area of the city that immediately surrounds and includes the [[Kaaba|Ka'bah]].<ref name="autogenerated1">{{qref|3|96|b=y}}</ref><ref name="Petersonp22">{{cite book|author=Peterson, Daniel C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zpbEj0xA_sC&pg=PA47|title=Muhammad, prophet of God|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8028-0754-0|pages=22–25}}</ref>

==={{transliteration|ar|Bakkah}}===
{{main|Bakkah}}

The Quran refers to the city as [[Bakkah|{{transliteration|ar|Bakkah}}]] in [[Surah]] [[Al Imran]] (3), verse 96: "Indeed the first [[Place of worship|House [of worship]]], established for mankind was that at Bakkah". This is said to have been the name of the city at the time of [[Abraham in Islam|Ibrahim]] and it is also transliterated as {{transliteration|ar|Baca, Baka, Bakah, Bakka, Becca}} and {{transliteration|ar|Bekka}}, among others.<ref name="Kipferp342">{{cite book|author=Kipfer, Barbara Ann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XneTstDbcC0C&pg=PA342|title=Encyclopedic dictionary of archaeology|publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]]|year=2000|isbn=978-0-306-46158-3|edition=Illustrated|page=342}}</ref><ref name="Glassep302">{{cite book|author1=Glassé, Cyril|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=focLrox-frUC&pg=PA302|title=The new encyclopedia of Islam|author2=Smith, Huston|publisher=[[Rowman Altamira]]|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7591-0190-6|edition=Revised, illustrated|page=302|name-list-style=amp}}</ref><ref name="Phippsp85">{{cite book|author=Phipps, William E.|url=https://archive.org/details/muhammadjesuscom0000phip|title=Muhammad and Jesus: a comparison of the prophets and their teachings|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]]|year=1999|isbn=978-0-8264-1207-2|edition=Illustrated|page=[https://archive.org/details/muhammadjesuscom0000phip/page/85 85]|url-access=registration}}</ref> It was a name for the city in the ancient world.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Carrasco |first1=David |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |last2=Warmind |first2=Morten |last3=Hawley |first3=John Stratton |last4=Reynolds |first4=Frank |last5=Giarardot |first5=Norman |last6=Neusner |first6=Jacob |last7=Pelikan |first7=Jaroslav |last8=Campo |first8=Juan |last9=Penner |first9=Hans |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |editor=[[Wendy Doniger]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-87779-044-0 |page=703 |language=en |author-link=David Carrasco |author-link4=Frank Reynolds (academic) |author-link6=Jacob Neusner |author-link7=Jaroslav Pelikan}}</ref>

==={{transliteration|ar|Makkah, Makkah al-Mukarramah}} and ''Mecca''===

{{transliteration|ar|Makkah}} is the official transliteration used by the Saudi government and is closer to the Arabic pronunciation.<ref name="Hamp76">{{cite book|author1=Ham, Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PddTr1X7hEgC&pg=PA76|title=Saudi Arabia|author2=Brekhus Shams, Martha|author3=Madden, Andrew|publisher=[[Lonely Planet]]|year=2004|isbn=978-1-74059-667-1|edition=illustrated|name-list-style=amp}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Long|first=David E.|url=https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00long|title=Culture and Customs of Saudi Arabia|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-313-32021-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00long/page/14 14]|url-access=registration}}</ref> The government adopted {{transliteration|ar|Makkah}} as the official spelling in the 1980s, but it is not universally known or used worldwide.<ref name="Hamp76" /> The full official name is {{transliteration|ar|Makkah al-Mukarramah}} ({{Langx|ar|مكة المكرمة||lit=Makkah the Honored}}).<ref name="Hamp76" /> {{transliteration|ar|Makkah}} is used to refer to the city in the Quran in [[Surah]] [[Al-Fath]] (48), verse 24.<ref name="Versteeghp513" /><ref name="Hittip6">{{cite book|author=Philip Khûri Hitti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9niSNOCIoL8C&pg=PA25|title=Capital cities of Arab Islam|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=1973|isbn=978-0-8166-0663-4|edition=Illustrated|page=6}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Hamp76" /> Nonetheless, ''Mecca'' is the familiar form of the English transliteration for the Arabic name of the city.

Macoraba, another ancient city name [[Claudius Ptolemy]] says was within [[Arabia Felix]], was also claimed to be Mecca.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Maacah, Maacah, Macoraba|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:alphabetic+letter=M:entry+group=1:entry=macoraba-geo|access-date=13 May 2020|website=perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> Some studies have questioned this association.<ref name="Morris">{{Cite journal|last=Morris|first=Ian D.|date=2018|title=Mecca and Macoraba|url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:22167/|journal=Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā|language=en-US|volume=26|page=3|doi=10.17613/zcdp-c225|issn=1068-1051}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Morris" />

===Other names===
Another name used for Mecca in the Quran is at 6:92 where it is called {{transliteration|ar|Umm al-Qurā}}<ref>{{qref|6|92|b=y}}</ref> ({{lang|ar|{{Script|Arab|أُمّ ٱلْقُرَى}}}}, meaning "Mother of all Settlements").<ref name="Hittip6" /> The city has been called several other names in both the Quran and {{transliteration|ar|[[Hadith|ahadith]]}}. Another name used historically for Mecca is {{transliteration|ar|[[Tihamah|Tihāmah]]}}.<ref>AlSahib, AlMuheet fi Allughah, p. 303</ref> According to an Islamic suggestion, another name for Mecca, {{transliteration|ar|Fārān}}, is synonymous with the [[Desert of Paran]] mentioned in the [[Old Testament]] at [[Vayeira|Genesis 21]]:21.<ref name="Khanp74">{{cite book|author=Sayyid Aḥmad Khān|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NeoOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA75|title=A series of essays on the life of Muhammad: and subjects subsidiary thereto|publisher=Trübner & co.|year=1870|location=London|pages=74–76}}</ref> Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the [[Tihamah|Tihamah coastal plain]] and the site where Ishmael settled was Mecca.<ref name="Khanp74" /> [[Yaqut al-Hamawi]], the 12th-century Syrian geographer, wrote that {{transliteration|ar|Fārān}} was "an arabized Hebrew word, one of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah."<ref name="Firestonep65">{{cite book|author=Firestone, Reuven|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O69zjVnjL10C&pg=PA205|title=Title Journeys in holy lands: the evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael legends in Islamic exegesis|publisher=SUNY Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0-7914-0331-0|pages=65, 205}}</ref>