Title: Meccan trade and the rise of Islam /
Authors: Crone, Patricia, 1945-2015.
Publisher: Princeton University Press,
Year: 1987
Subjects: Islam History; Mecca (Saudi Arabia) Commerce History.; Arabian Peninsula Commerce History.
Abstract: "Patricia Crone reassesses one of the most widely accepted dogmas in contemporary accounts of the beginnings of Islam, the supposition that Mecca was a trading center thriving on the export of aromatic spices to the Mediterranean. Pointing out that the conventional opinion is based on classical accounts of the trade between south Arabia and the Mediterranean some 600 years earlier than the age of Muhammad, Dr. Crone argues that the land route described in these records was short-lived and that the Muslim sources make no mention of such goods. In addition to changing our view of the role of trade, the author reexamines the evidence for the religious status of pre-Islamic Mecca and seeks to elucidate the nature of the sources on which we should reconstruct our picture of the birth of the new religion in Arabia."
Contents: The Classical spice trade -- The "Meccan spice trade" -- What did the Meccans export? -- Where were the Meccans active? -- What Meccan trade was not -- What Meccan trade may have been -- The sanctuary and Meccan trade -- The sources -- The rise of Islam.