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To some extent, her views would change, as is evident in Patricia Crone’s Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Written in 1987, she argued that the importance of the pre-Islamic Meccan trade suggested within the Quran and Hadith had been grossly exaggerated. She discovered, as I have also learned and shared, that Mecca was never part of any of the major ancient trade routes. In fact, as we found when pursuing the legacy of Tub’a ‘Ab Kariba As’ad, the Himyarite leader among the Sabeans, based upon what was claimed in the 50th surah regarding Tubba’s alleged destruction, by the 7th century CE, the preferred mode of transport was aboard ships. Therefore, Dr. Crone suggested, “While Muhammad never traveled much beyond the Hijaz, internal evidence in the Quran, such as its description of his opponents as ‘olive growers,’ might indicate that the events surrounding Muhammed took place nearer the Mediterranean than in Mecca” As a result, her Meccan Trade was considered a devastating critique of the Islamic acco
