Talk:Mecca

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Mecca was a Geography and places good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
May 28, 2008	Peer review	Reviewed
September 6, 2020	Good article nominee	Not listed

Current status: Former good article nominee

Untitled

Please add new talk threads at the bottom of this page. mecca is a province. Mecca is not a city a capital and a province.

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

ClockTower Makkah.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:21, 1 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Etymology

Until Herbertrogers67 changed it on 16 May, the Etymology section read:

As with many Arabic words, its etymology is obscure.^[1]

HR67's version reads

Mecca originally meant “skull-crusher”, and Bakkah originally meant “eye-gouger.” The Arabs were known to give their prized cities terrifying names to ward off evil spirits and would-be invaders.^[2]^[1]

(note Versteegh citation has not been removed).

These sources can't both be right. Are there more sources to show a consensus of expert opinion? --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 19:08, 18 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The 'obscure' statement needs restoring, and the novel one contextualized and better supported. Iskandar323 (talk) 19:34, 18 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The same context/support is needed for the similar line that's been inserted at Medina. Iskandar323 (talk) 19:38, 18 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I found an additional reference that supports the statement. I’ll add it to the section. Herbertrogers67 (talk) 02:12, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I've restored the original version, and done the same at Medina. The newly cited author, Mohamad Jebara, as far as I can tell, is an imam and a visual artist (according to his publisher), not an academic historian, linguist, or Semiticist. I'm also concerned that nearly all Herbertrogers67's edits have been about this particular book or involve adding citations and mentions of this book across dozens of articles, which makes me suspect a WP:COI. R Prazeres (talk) 20:50, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I’m new to wikipedia and was helping on an article about a book that I recently read. How is that a conflict of interest? There was a note about having the article connect to others on the site and that’s what I tried to do. I connected the articles with similar topics to the page and added some content and references, as was my understanding of what Wikipedia requires. If I’m missing something, I’d appreciate it if you can explain it me. Thanks! Herbertrogers67 (talk) 23:49, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ ^a ^b Versteegh, Kees (2008). C.H.M. Versteegh; Kees Versteegh (eds.). Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Volume 4 (Illustrated ed.). Brill. p. 513. ISBN 978-90-04-14476-7.
^ Jebara, Mohamad (2021). Muhammad the World-Changer: An Intimate Portrait. New York: St. Martin’s Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1250239648.

Semi-protected edit request on 3 September 2023

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Correct name is Makkah not Mecca 185.12.164.3 (talk) 08:19, 3 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 11:05, 3 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This question has been raised before and the answer is still the same. The name used in English is "Mecca", so per policy WP:Common name, that is what we use in the English language Wikipedia. --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 21:51, 3 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Misleading research - Recent research suggests that Mecca was a small town and its population at the time of Muhammad has been estimated to be around 550.

Having read the abstract, this claim seems misleading given it is a statistics based study - not an archeological one. PolyCreator (talk) 18:33, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There are quite a few potential balance issues in the History section of this article, with a lot of weighting towards hagarist historians.

regarding the specific claim, I think we should report it as something a scholar has said, but not necessarily (as it currently is) like it reflects consensus in the sources. Yr Enw (talk) 19:26, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request

It should be semi-protected. holiest sight of the second largest religion, Islam Nurusa101 (talk) 01:24, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[Versteeghp513-1] Versteegh, Kees (2008). C.H.M. Versteegh; Kees Versteegh (eds.). Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Volume 4 (Illustrated ed.). Brill. p. 513. ISBN 978-90-04-14476-7.

[2] Jebara, Mohamad (2021). Muhammad the World-Changer: An Intimate Portrait. New York: St. Martin’s Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1250239648.

[1]

[2]