Scholars
Mecca
Mecca, Mother of Towns — it holds the Kaaba, God's House, toward which prayers turn in every land, and from which the Islamic call went out. Before Islam it was the Hijaz's trade hub, known for the winter and summer caravans, and for Zamzam, the well that has not dried since Abraham's days. From the Mount of Light above it the revelation first came down; from it the Prophet migrated to Yathrib; to it he returned a conqueror in 630. Today millions come for the Hajj in Dhu al-Hijja and for umrah through the year, and its precinct stays Muslims-only. A city joining geography, history and the heart in one spot. And it is today as it ever was: the ummah Few cities hold so much in so little ground: a house, a well, a cave, and the memory of twenty-three years that remade the world.'s heart the days beat toward, the mother of cities toward which every call to prayer gazes.