Qiblas:
There is indeed Petra for a whole lot, but for some, that direction corresponds with "south". Although usually these Qiblas are not pointing directly south which is easy enough to do if South was intended.
General South was intended. These Arabs are not the sailors of Gibson
But other early mosques (eg in Negev) point to South-East but not enough for Mecca to ahve been intended.
General South was intended, like the Temple. There was no Mecca.
And then of course the Aila early mosque pointing to Mount Sinai. Mecca cannot have been intended since visually the builders could see from Aila that Mecca was the other direction. No complicated calculations needed, just their own eyes.
General South was intended, like the Temple. There was no Mecca. Mount Sinai was maybe the direction intended for the Temple. I said MAYBE.
So my problem here in connection with 2:127 and the ideological building on the Temple Mount is that there seems to be an ideological direction for the Qibla.
Copying the Temple one, nothing else.
We have no evidence of this proto-Islam being propagated into the masses,
Yes.
no evidence of Quranic verses being wide spread
Yes.
, no evidence of public recitations trying to convert people
Yes.
But yet, the conquerors leave archaeological traces that they were directed by a well defined ideology.
Yes the Quranic texts the LEADERS owns.
An ideology that even prevented them to merge with the upper class with which they collaborated intensely to rule the lands.
It was not the "ideology" which " even prevented them to merge with the upper class with which they collaborated intensely to rule the lands". What then? Check history. (yawn...)
From there my suggestion of a secret society (or illuminati, is that what you mean by them Altara?)
You have to ground
your suggestion with (grounded) sources or a reasoning based on them.
We know that societies like that were quite popular in Judaism. We still have today Alawites and Druze that have their origins in such societies. Could explain a lot.
You have to ground
your suggestion with (grounded) before Islam sources or a reasoning based on them.