Contrasting Theory and Research Regarding Early Islamic Qiblas

Even though many scholars have recognized that early qiblas, the direction of Islamic prayers towards their holy city, often did not appear to face Mecca geographically, Dan Gibson’s research more specifically identified Petra as the first holy city of Islam for many decades after the founding of Islam, even as late as when Islam had spread from Spain to India. Recent statistical research has supported Gibson’s theory, but his theory continues to have many critics, most notably David King, who support Mecca as the first, only, and ever holy city of Islam and who argue that early mosques often “faced” the Ka’ba in ways different than our modern sense of global geographical azimuths. If his critics own the “thesis” and Gibson the “anti-thesis”, a synthesis may be possible whereby Gibson’s theory better explains the qiblas of very early mosques while his critics’ theories better explain the qiblas of later mosques, with some overlap of both theories.