Who wants “more or less”, when you can have “EXACT" - Qibla Controversy EP.7

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 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 closer to Petra than Mecca, so there is no reason to say “more or less” as King says, they are specifically facing Petra.

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 Petra, than Mecca. Why didn’t King do this in his research?

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.

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 mosques in India (i.e. the Cherman Juma Mosque in Kerala – 629 AD) are facing directly towards Petra, not Mecca.

Likewise, Gibson clearly showed that all the mosques in Northern Africa are 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.

Naturally, the mosques in Yemen and E. Africa are facing north, because both Petra and Mecca are north of these countries.

The Grand Mosque in Sana’a, Yemen (705 AD) is only .36% from Petra, but 8.8% from Mecca, so it is clearly facing closer to Petra then Mecca.

There are no early East African mosques before the 9th century, and those would have all been facing Mecca, because they are built too late to have faced any other direction.

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, because these 7 theories just don’t 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.
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