Do the Ottoman Turks impact Mecca's origins?

If Mecca is the oldest city because (according to the Standard Islamic Narrative), it is where Adam and Eve were thrown down to, and where Abraham lived, then there should be lots of evidence for it historically.

But we can't find anything written about it at all anywhere until 741 AD (which is a good 100 years after Muhammad supposedly died), in a document known as "The ‘Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius Continuatio Byzantia Arabica".

This is what that document says: “Habdelmele [Abd al Malik], assuming the apex of his kingdom, ruled for 20 years. In the first year of his rule, he directed all the experience and virtue of the mind of his army against Habdella [Abdullah al Zubair] (whom his father had attacked so many times in various wars) all the way finally to Macca - as they consider it, the home of Abraham, which lies in the desert between Ur of the Chaldeans [magicians*] and Carra the city of Mesopotamia”.

So, we find the first reference to the city Mecca in this document, referring to Mecca situated between the city of Ur (Abraham's city) and the city of Carra, in Mesopotamia (the land between the two rivers, which are the Tigris and the Euphrates).

But that places Mecca just south of Ur, which in the 8th century was located in what is known as southern Turkey today, hundreds of miles too far north.

Some may point out that Ur is in southern Iraq today, but that wasn't the case in the 8th century, because the Iraqi Ur was first discovered by J.E. Taylor in 1853.

So, prior to that time everyone assumed Ur was near Edessa, just south of it, and between Edessa and Harran (the town of Abraham’s brother), thus locating the original 741 Mecca in that locale.

What's more, when you look at that 741 AD Mecca it is directly north of the present day Mecca.

A 697 AD an inscription was created near Ṭāʾif (located just south east of present day Mecca) which referred to the building called ‘Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām’ (commonly known as the ‘Ka’aba’?), being built at that time. This is the late 7th century, and is close to the place that later became known as Mecca (Hejaz), but it wasn’t yet called Mecca in this inscription.

So, what artifacts have been found in present day Mecca to support its ancient historicity? This was a question asked by Dan Gibson to a group of Saudi Arabian archaeologists a number of years ago, since with all the amazing building projects surrounding the Ka'aba there must have been many artifacts discovered when digging the foundations for those large skyscrapers.

They responded that the oldest artifact they have been able to find was an old Ottoman Fort, built after 1299 AD, which is over 600 years after Muhammad was supposed to have lived there! Nothing earlier had been found, suggesting that the history of Mecca may have more to do with the Ottoman Turks than what we have been told previously.

What the Turks had to do with Mecca is too early to say, but what these discoveries do tell us is that once again it looks like the historical evidence we are discovering confronts the Standard Islamic Narrative for the authenticity and credibility of Mecca historically.

© Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2022
(62,340) Music: "Justice and Fame" by Rafael Krux, from filmmusic-io