How old is Mecca? (and other follow up questions)

How old is Mecca?

When was the city first built?

Is there any historical or archaeological evidence that can give us a definitive answer?

Did Abraham and Ishmael first purify the Ka’ba, build Mecca, and institute the Hajj as it seems to say in 2:125-127?

Did Abraham really instruct his sons to follow the command to perform the Hajj?

Did they say that they would?

Then why does the Bible show absolutely no record of any of them performing the Hajj?

Why didn’t Moses include the Hajj when he instituted the Torah for all of Israel to follow?

If Allah promises He will not allow people to stray from a rightly guided practice (9:115) then why did worship at the Ka’ba become so idolatrous?

Why were there other Ka’bas of similar age, size, and style in many other cities around the Arabian peninsula?

Did Abraham live around 2000 BCE?

Did Solomon?

Did Solomon really build Solomon’s Temple?

If there are more than a thousand years between the two then why do two different universally accepted Hadiths both say the Ka’ba was built 40 years before Solomon’s Temple?

If Solomon is a prophet according to the Quran, why would he build a different Temple in Jerusalem rather than instructing the people he rules to perform the Hajj?

Had Allah rejected worship at the now idolatrous Ka’ba in favor of this new Temple?

Is that why Muhammad first had his followers when praying to face towards Jerusalem?

Why do some of the earliest of Mosques not face towards Jerusalem or Mecca but rather toward Petra?

 

How old is Mecca?

Was it really the “Mother of all Cities” (6:92, 42:7)?

When Nabonidus, king of Babylon, lists the six most important oasis towns in the Arabian Desert, why does Medina make the list but not Mecca?

If Mecca was a trading city then why do none of the known ancient spice trade routes run through it?

If it wasn’t a trading city, then why and how did it even exist before being the religious center for Islam?

Why is there no mention of it in any of the numerous maps, histories, or travelogues written on the Arabian peninsula prior to the seventh century CE?

Why Mecca not once mentioned in an uncontested document prior to 740 CE (over 100 years after Muhammad’s death)?

Why does Mecca not exist on a single map dated prior to around 900 CE?

 

If the Quran is true then why does all of history, archaeology, ancient cartography, ancient religious practices, and basic ancient geographic facts all point to the fact that Mecca could not have existed prior to around 400 CE at the earliest and possibly as much as 150 years after this?

If the Quran is true, then why is there absolutely no evidence anywhere that it was a significant city until well after the death of Muhammad?

But if the Quran is not true…