How old is Mecca?

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- moi
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How old is Mecca?
OP - May 17, 2015, 06:04 PM

Quote
The pilgrims who try to arrive about midnight, pitch their tents on a plain or table-land outside the city, and with loud cries of "Here am I!" impatiently await the dawn. Many are the thanks to Allah, and mutual congratulations that their eyes are about to rest upon the edifice towards which every Mohammedan from his earliest days turns in prayer, and which long before the birth of Christianity was revered by the patriarchs of the East.

http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Guide/guide.htm

It sounds like a certain meteorite was very well known for a very long time!

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
- gal_from_usa
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How old is Mecca?
Reply #1 - May 17, 2015, 08:29 PM

Considering how prevalent the worship of the sun and other celestial bodies was, as well as the prevalence of the belief that all celestial bodies were layered around the earth in some number of concentric spheres, it's easy to see why things that fall from the sky were valued: the gods are up there, and they sent down this thing, either accidentally or purposefully, perhaps as an omen of something. It sounds silly to us, having grown up knowing that the sun and stars are not, in fact, orbiting us. But to the ancient peoples, growing up knowing that the sun and stars were all placed by the gods for some specific purpose, if not themselves gods, and their belief that shooting stars really are stars falling from heaven, sent by the gods or perhaps themselves a divine being being cast to earth, it's easy to see why they would revere them.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have a sonic screwdriver, a tricorder, and a Type 2 phaser.
- moi
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How old is Mecca?
Reply #2 - May 17, 2015, 08:53 PM

There are more stories than I realised!

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mistic/meteorites_religion.htm

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Throughout the ages, meteorites were venerated as sacred objects by different cultures and ancient civilizations.

The spectacular fall of a meteorite, accompanied by light and sound phenomena, such as falling stars, smoke, thunder, and sonic booms, has always kindled the human imagination, evoking fear and awe in everyone who witnesses such an event.

For obvious reasons, the remnants of these incidents, the actual meteorites, were often kept as sacred stones or objects of power.

They were worshiped, and used in their respective religious ceremonies

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
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