Mecca and Eden: Ritual, Relics, and Territory in Islam [Hardcover]

Nineteenth-century philologist and Biblical critic William Robertson Smith famously concluded that the sacred status of holy places derives not from their intrinsic nature but from their social character. Building upon this insight,Mecca and Edenuses Islamic exegetical and legal texts to analyze the rituals and objects associated with the sanctuary at Mecca. 

Integrating Islamic examples into the comparative study of religion, Brannon Wheeler shows how the treatment of rituals, relics, and territory is related to the more general mythological depiction of the origins of Islamic civilization. Along the way, Wheeler considers the contrast between Mecca and Eden in Muslim rituals, the dispersal and collection of relics of the prophet Muhammad, their relationship to the sanctuary at Mecca, and long tombs associated with the gigantic size of certain prophets mentioned in the Quran. 

Mecca and Edensucceeds, as few books have done, in making Islamic sources available to the broader study of religion.

Brannon Wheeleris director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and Visiting Distinguished Professor of History and Politics at the United States Naval Academy.

Acknowledgments
Notes on Conventions
Introduction
            Ritual and Social Order
            Ritual, Relics, and the Meccan Sanctuary
            Chapter Outline
1. Treasure of the Ka'bah
            1 Temple Implements and Treasure of the Ka?bah
            2 Swords and the Origins of Islam
            Conclusions Swords and the Origins of Civilization
2. Utopia and Civilizationlã¥