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Makoraba, Mochorba & Maka Revisited: A Geo-Linguistic Perspective
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Makoraba, Mochorba & Maka Revisited:
A Geo-Linguistic1 Perspective
Heba M.I.M. Aboul-Enein
“Our Lord, I have settled some of my offspring in a barren valley near Your Holy House; our Lord,
in order that they establish the prayer. Make the hearts of people yearn towards them, and provide
them with fruits, in order that they are thankful.”
(Holy Quran: Ibrahim, 14: 37,
Qaribullah Trans.)2
1
The term is used broadly to signify a study investigating both the geographical and linguistic aspects.
2
Prophet Ibrahim/Abraham’s supplication after he left his wife Hagar and his son Ismail/ Ishmael in Makkah.
0
Draft Version, Feb. 2022
Abstract
A number of scholars proposed that Makoraba, the toponym mentioned in Ptolemy’s
Geographia, is Sacred Makkah. In the researcher’s book, Glimpses into the Pre-Islamic
Archaeological History of Blessed Makkah and Arabia, in the chapter on Makoraba and
elsewhere, this designation was considered, relying on authentic geophysical studies.
Examining the calculated distances, landmarks, and distortions in Ptolemy’s work
corroborates that this town is Sacred Makkah. This study complements the previous
investigation; it reviews other researches that demonstrate that several locations on Ptolemy’s
maps are miscalculated. Such studies aid in the identification of Makoraba as Makkah. The
study also examines Pliny’s Mochorba to inspect whether it is the very same Makoraba of
Ptolemy or not. The placenames Maka; Maketa, Makatu, Maga, and similar forms are
examined as well in Assyrian, Egyptian, and classical works, to explore their relevance to
Sacred Makkah. But above all, the paper offers phonological and morphological analyses of
the toponyms Makoraba and Mochorba or ‘Makkah’ and ‘Rabbah’, an Arabic word for a huge
house, or Ka‘ba. The results show that both Makoraba and Mochorba refer to sacred Makkah,
and that the kingdom of Maka or Makan extended from the Arabian/Persian Gulf till the Red
Sea, as verified in ancient inscriptions and classical texts.
1
Makoraba, Mochorba, and Maka
Revisited:
A Geo-Linguistic Perspective
Introduction
Some ancient geographers, such as Ptolemy, made errors in geographical
dimensions and coordinates. This paper refers to few geophysical studies which
consolidate the stance that the errors and distortions in Ptolemy’s work could be
responsible for the mistaken location of Sacred Makkah or ‘Makoraba’ on
Ptolemaic maps. However, since some of these issues were tackled in several
parts of the researcher’s book on Makkah, this study will enhance such studies by
conducting phonological and morphological analyses3 of the toponyms
‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’ in Arabic, Latin, and Greek contexts4.
In the first part of the paper, the argument against the two place names
‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’ as designations of Sacred Makkah is presented.
Next, the two toponyms, in addition to ‘Maketa’; ‘Makatu’, ‘Maka’, ‘Maga’, and
parallel forms, are examined in Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions, as well as in
the works of classical geographers, while displaying some of the criticisms
directed against few of these works. Thereafter, in the second part, a review of
relevant Greek, Latin, and Arabic phonological and morphological rules is
offered, followed by an analysis of the toponyms of ‘Makoraba’; ‘Mochorba’,
Moca, Mukoi, and similar ones. Furthermore, different Arabic forms are proposed
for the word ‘raba’, to investigate which one was used in the compounds under
examination.
Part I
1. Makkah is neither Makoraba nor Mochorba!!
Some scholars contended that the toponym Makoraba doesn’t stand for
Makkah, among who is Morris (2018)5. He investigated varied forms suggested
3
Dr Shefayet Chowdhury inquired about the linguistic study of these toponyms. In the researcher’s book on
Makkah and Arabia, Glimpses into the Pre-Islamic Archaeological History of Blessed Makkah and Arabia,
hereafter, Glimpses, the author proposed that Makoraba is composed of Makkah and Rabba/h, an ancient Arabic
word for a huge house or sanctuary. However, the output wasn’t examined phonologically or morphologically.
4
The researcher essayed, as much as possible, to simplify linguistic concepts and analysis for the common
reader.
5
The author truly appreciates Dr Shefayet Chowdhury’s forwarding of this article.
2
for the etymology of Makoraba by different scholars, and inferred that Makoraba
isn’t Makkah.
Morris (2018) referred to Bochart who recognized Mecca as Ptolemy’s
Macoraba, , Mecca rabba or “great Mecca”, which is the initial
documented occurrence of Macoraba. He contended that if Macoraba is an Arabic
derivation, it should have been “Makkah al-rabbah”. However, the adjective
‘rabb(ah)’, i.e., “great,” exists only in the Northwestern cluster of Semitic
languages, like Aramaic, Hebrew and Phoenician. Furthermore, “mkt rbh cannot
be Arabic, because the adjective Rabb(ah) doesn’t exist in Arabic”. He added that
had “Makkah rabbah” been the Hebrew source for Macoraba, it would have been
acknowledged as credible (Morris, 2018, pp.12,13). Following is an excerpt from
Bochart (1651), citing the toponym:
(p.242, d)6
In addition, Morris (2018) highlighted that Bowersock didn’t explain that

Rabbath-Moab is a construct, different from Makkah rabbah. Moreover, despite
the fact that he confessed that an Arabic equivalent would aid in his illustration,
his solution, “noble Mecca,” is both late and a semantic step
removed. Nor did he consider Bukharin’s objection to reading Greek
kappa as Semitic kāf. (p.38)
Morris explained that, according to Bukharin, “Semitic kāf is relatively unlikely
to be rendered as Greek kappa”. Furthermore, Glaser proposed ‘Macoraba’ to be
‘Mochorba’, a port cited in Pliny, which may be Jeddah. Nonetheless, the last
contention doesn’t hold, since, as Morris claimed, Pliny’s ‘Mochorba’7 lies to the
southeast of Arabia, near Oman8 (Morris, 2018, pp.29, 38, 40). Every one of these
claims will be answered in the present study.
2.Ptolemy’s Geographia:
2.1. His Sources
In the present era of Google Earth and GPS satellites, some scholars would
simply reject Ptolemy’s text, for “‘How could anyone have thought Scotland
6
See the appendix for the whole quote.
7
Pliny mentioned this port in his Natural History (NH), Book 6, sections 149.
8
If this is true, it proves the proposition of the researcher in her book on Makkah that Oman was the main
Makkan [Magan/Makan] outlet on the Arabian/Persian Gulf. However, another proposition is offered for
Mochorba in this study.
3
pointed east!?’”. Nonetheless, we should bear in mind that Ptolemy’s sole
instruments were “tradition, word-of-mouth descriptions”, and his quite
infrequent astronomical explanations. Therefore, we can justly esteem the quality
of his maps9 (Mintz, 2011, p.242).
Primarily, we should identify the sources of Ptolemy’s Geography. In The
Geography [150 CE], there are nearly 8000 placenames of sites across the ancient
World. These include names of “cities, villages, capes, bays, river mouths,
mountains, lakes, legionary camps and islands” (Görsch, 2019, pp.2, 7).
Ptolemy’s chief suppliers of reports and data were, beyond a shadow of a doubt,
“topographical descriptions, such as those passed down by Mela, Strabo and
Pliny” (Defaux, 2017, p.410). Moreover, Ptolemy was possibly relying
profoundly on “documentary sources, e.g., unpublished -material of merchants,
soldiers, functionaries, and diplomats”. Nonetheless, analogies with
supplementary Greek and Roman resources may occasionally be misinforming
(Geus, 2021, pp.37-38).
Ptolemy’s sources also comprise the geographical information from

Marinus of Tyre, along with “astronomical calculations, itineraries, logbooks,
trip logs and reports from merchants”, where the bulk of the data on the maps
derives from accounts from mariners and merchants. He essayed to make this
information fit into his mathematical and geometrical notions. To a certain
degree, there is inexact information such as “distances and geographical
positions. Itineraries are earmarked navigation aids and they are not made for
reflecting the physical reality” (Görsch, 2019, pp.2, 7). Analogously, Kadmon
(1997) averred that Ptolemy exploited geographical data provided to him from
other sources. The reliability of these sources or informants is to be evaluated
from his data in Geographia, and the reconstructed maps. We have no information
on Ptolemy’s informants; however, given the output, they seem to be acceptable
(p.132).
2.2. Studies of the Errors in Geographia

Of the actual problems that Ptolemy encountered were foreign toponymy
and ethnonymy which were undoubtedly the cause of certain muddles and wrong
interpretations that arose in the course of “the transmission history of the
Geography – from Ptolemy’s sources to the extant Greek manuscripts”.
Moreover, there are several errors in the toponyms and ethnonyms that could be
9
I agree with Mintz (2011) in that the criticism directed to Ptolemy, Pliny, and other ancient geographers doesn’t,
in any respect, demean or belittle their great efforts. Given their limited means and capacities, in a world without
internet; GIS, or Google services, their works which represent their sincere efforts were quite illuminating to others
throughout the centuries. Despite their inconsistencies, they left us a wealth and treasure of knowledge which still
guide us in the field of geography. Had it not been for them, we wouldn’t have known about the western views of
the world, and specifically, of Arabia and Makkah.
4
a proof of “an inaccuracy on the part of Ptolemy himself” (Defaux, 2017, pp.142,
146). In addition, Geus (2021) pointed out that Ptolemy’s towns are at times
duplicated on his maps. This particularly applies to his puzzling portrayal of
Armenia (geogr. 5.13) that made a contemporary academic term it “a ‘parody’ of
his work and method”.
Geus further explicated that, for instance, because “the deviation factor”
changes considerably in Armenia, it is pointless to view the Ptolemaic map while
detecting Armenian toponyms. The coordinates of ancient locations may be right
in a specific case; but may vary many times, possibly “hundreds of kilometres”
in other cases. Instances in other parts of Ptolemy’s Geography, in which towns
have been ‘shifted’ to different areas and regions, can be undoubtedly revealed.
Therefore, Toponyms should primarily be appraised on “linguistic or
toponomastic” bases (Geus, 2021, pp.21, 37). However, the researcher believes
that toponyms should be investigated from both linguistic and geographical
aspects.
In his work on Cartography and toponymy, Ptolemy relied on an incorrect
“too small” Earth circumference of Poseidonius and Marinus; rather than the
more precise ones by Eratosthenes. Furthermore, deciding the longitude was far
less accurate than that of the latitude, and we can recognize this once we
examine a Ptolemaic map (Kadmon,1997, pp.132, 134, 141). Accordingly, when
Ptolemy was altering “the distances into coordinates”, he fell into a major error,
computing the latitudes and longitudes by relying on a smaller circumference of
the Earth’s sphere; thus, such precise distances were altered principally in “the
east-west direction”. Furthermore, every site has “an individual aberration
factor”, governed by “the reference point, i.e. the point from which the distances
to the locations were measured”. This specific yet grave error is the reason for the
whole ‘chaos’ noticeable on “the local level, e.g., the misplacement of cities and
regions or the generation of doublets” (Geus, 2021, pp.21, 37).
To further reveal Ptolemaic discrepancies, Görsch (2019) compared Arabia
Felix in the Venetian edition of Ptolemy’s Geography with other maps like Tabula
nova, and reached similar results to those of other geologists. He stated that
Ptolemy’s representation of the circumference of the earth “(in latitude) is too
small and Ptolemy’s length of the oecumene (in longitude) is too long”. For this
reason, Columbus might have assumed that his expedition to east Asia or Japan
would be accomplished quicker than it actually occurred.
Furthermore,
Ptolemy’s parallels (latitudes) are nearly right, but the meridians
(longitudes) are wrong, because the Zero meridian (Ferro Meridian)
was based on the most western position of the oecumene, running
5
through El Hierro (Ferro), the most western of the Canary Islands.
This specific distinction can be easily calculated with the current
Zero meridian (Greenwich meridian) resulting in a difference of
nearly 18° in longitude. In contrast, Ptolemy’s circumference of the
earth is too small, while the length of the oecumene is too long, 180°
instead of nearly 120° [Stückelberger and Mittenhuber 2009].
Such aspects created vast ‘distortions’; accordingly, this is the cause that many
successive researchers have been exploring various places quite a number of
times in vain (Görsch, 2019, pp.2-3).
Görsch (2019) also revealed that the forms of the peninsula vary from one
map to the other, along with the coastlines and the positions of the islands.
Variances in “the shape and orientation of the peninsula, the Red Sea and the
Persian Gulf” are noticeable. Görsch utilized diverse map forms; yet with
approximately equal coordinates. Whereas “the Ptolemaic map shape is trapezoid
the Tabula nova is rectangular”, the meridians are equivalent; yet “the parallels
are dissimilar to a little extent”. The coordinates of the sites vary from one another
on the map; but the text of the Geografia [Ptolemaios et al. 1561] catalogues “the
prior coordinates from Ptolemy”. These conform with coordinates from the
Tabula Asiae VI; yet not with the ones from Arabia Felice Nuova Tavola, which
substantiates the view that “the author of the text and the author of the map” were
not the same. Moreover, errors in the inscription were not uncommon.
Görsch (2019) maintained that the inner parts of the Arabian Peninsula
were not familiar; because of the intricacies in progressing across the territory10.
Thus, there are problems in the 6th map of Asia; the locations are not easily
detected, and this applies for towns; mountains, rivers, and also shorelines. He
added that physically mountains are mainly stable in their locations; yet a number
of them were not quite familiar to Europeans in ancient times, and in the 15th or
16th century. Concerning towns, they can be devastated and demolished or can be
reconstructed in another area. Moreover, rivers can alter their passages. Ptolemy
cited numerous river estuaries, which might have altered their sites a number of
times in 1300 or 1800 years. By paralleling the place names from the existing
Ptolemy version with the place names in the Tabula nova from Venice, merely
six confirmed “control points and one unassured point (Gezem) are available for
georeferencing”, as evident in the following tables (pp.4,7).
10
The researcher doesn’t agree with this claim, as revealed in Glimpses.
6
Parts of the tables of Görsch (2019, pp.8, 9)
Consequently, it is quite clear that the Tabula nova suits much accurately
in “the background map than the Ptolemaic map”; for instance, regarding the form
of the [Arabian/]Persian Gulf or the position and appearance of the Red Sea.
Furthermore, Görsch (2019) underlined that the locations of Qalhat, Tiwi and
Daghmar in the eastern part of the peninsula appear to be represented as Calat,
Tibi and Dagmar “in the right sequence but on the wrong coastline”, as apparent
on his comparative maps. He also inquired about the cause of their portrayal quite
distantly in the southern part of the Tabula nova.
(Görsch, 2019, p.13)
Görsch (2019) also highlighted, regarding the toponyms, that they might
have been transliterated from “an itinerary or travel report”. Accordingly, this
case demonstrates in what way it is problematic to “justify locations and distances
between places on the basis of place names”. Consequently, he inferred that
creating or setting the association between “a Ptolemaic map or an early modern
map implicates a high degree of potential for error on a global level” (pp.11,
14).
Finally, Abshire et al. (2020) reached the following inference, relying on
“familiar and available GIS tools, such as Esri ArcGIS, QGIS, and Google Earth”.
The ancient city center of Jeddah is currently recognized as Al-Balad; therefore,
we can securely recognize Ptolemy’s Badeo as current Jeddah. This recognition
is compatible with that of the Baitios River estuary positioned “just north from
7
Badeo, and with those of Mecca (Macoraba) and Medina (Lathrippa)” (pp.12, 16).
This is also true for Carn, the current Carn Al-Manazil, which is shown on
Ptolemaic maps near to Macoraba, in a similar position to its present one.
Therefore, even with Ptolemy’s maps showing Makoraba in a mistaken location,
the studies investigating the discrepancies in the Ptolemaic procedures lead to the
deduction that Macoraba is Makkah.
2.3. On the Language of Ptolemy’s Geographia

Ptolemy had to tackle “problems of translation, transcription, and
transliteration”. The text of Geographia was composed in Greek, while the
original maps of Ptolemy were missing; existing maps were reconstructions in the
Renaissance (Kadmon, 1997, pp.123, 131). The interpretation of Ptolemy’s
Geography from Greek into Latin was in 1406 (Görsch, 2019, p.2). This piece of
information is vital in conducting the phonological and morphological analyses
of the toponyms under study, as would be revealed in part II.
Kadmon (1997) elucidated that Ptolemy appears to have been proficient in
the “conversion of geographical names, too. If the original name conveyed to
him was in a script other than Greek, it had to be transliterated”, a process
which may be termed “hellenization [sic.] or perhaps grecization”. Yet, in a
variety of instances, this was not sufficient. In addition, he copied a number of
toponyms from other sources, “travellers and other informants. But even for these
he had to verify the Greek spelling”. Later these names were subject to change
in their translation to Latin (Kadmon, pp.137, 139-140).
A great deal of the errors detected in Ptolemy’s work is due to four factors:
“the informants who supplied Ptolemy with the names; Ptolemy himself, the
translators; and perhaps even more, the copyist of the work”. One of the
discrepancies is due to the irregularity in citing placenames in the world map and
regional maps, e.g., ‘Byzantium’ in the regional map and ‘Konstantinoupolis’ in
the world map, which may be due to the error of the copyist in the Middle Ages.
Furthermore, the toponym ‘Alba Fucens’ in Italy, or ‘white coloring’ in Latin,
was rendered as ‘Alpha Bucens’, a meaningless phrase, which may be due to his
inefficiency in Latin, as it is claimed (Kadmon, 1997, p.136, 137).
Likewise, MacAdam (2002) highlighted that, in Geographia, there are two
allusions to a mountain in the Arabic desert (Geog. 5.14.6 & 5.14.20). It is
rendered in different shapes in the Greek MSS as “Alsadamos, Alsalamos,
A(l)salmanos, and even Oualsadamos” (pp.51-52). Kadmon (1997) detected
another erroneous toponym, i.e., ‘Suatutanda’ in Germany, which Ptolemy has
as ‘Siatutanda’ (p.137). Thus, all of these factors led to altering some toponyms
from their original forms to different forms in his work.
8
In sum, these sections show that a number of locations were faulty on
Ptolemy’s map, due to errors in the Earth’s circumference, in addition to
inaccuracies in the longitude, along with toponomastic and linguistic issues.
Moreover, the toponyms could have been altered considerably from their actual
designations.
3.Pliny on Arabia:
3.1. Criticism of Pliny’s Style and Techniques
Natural History was finalized in 77 CE (Britannica: Natural History,
2019a). Pliny didn’t write in Greek; yet made use of several Greek sources. He
“latinized Greek words” without much change (Healy, 1999, pp.90, 390). In
spite of its valuableness, Pliny’s book presented certain difficulties, since
“generations of copyists misunderstood and amended Pliny’s technical and often
obscure Latin” (Pliny the Elder). Pinkster (2005) studied the language of Pliny
and detected the discrepancies in its formation. He signalled that Pliny the Elder
is not easy to read, “if you think you know Latin, try Pliny”. However, the general
arrangement of his substance is quite meticulous.
His style is characterized by “Zero-anaphora”11, along with additional
devices that are familiar in the works of “other “technical”” writers till currently,
which are nominalizations; the extensive usage of adjectives, and present
participles. In his broad effort to offer data quite compressed and distinct as he
could, he utilized “small building blocks”, situated them jointly into quite lengthy
sentences, and didn’t mark the semantic relations between such blocks; thus, the
reader has to comprehend them by himself. Moreover, he made use of certain
““odd” features [that] relate to the subject matter” (Pinkster, 2005, pp.243-244,
254). These techniques and several others render a text hard to process,
specifically, by modern readers.
Ray (2003) underlined that, by paralleling the depictions of Arabia in the
works of Pliny, Strabo and Ptolemy, it is apparent that “the three accounts were
produced by men who had never (as far as we know) set foot in any portion of
Arabia”. Ptolemy’s aim was to “review carefully and correct errors in the
geographical works of his older contemporary Marinus of Tyre” (Ray, 2003,
p.172). In a similar vein, Miles (1878) elucidated that Pliny’s inventory of Arabic
regions is adequately numerous, yet “the state of confusion it is in is almost
chaotic”. This is attributed to
11
Employing “a grammatical substitute (such as a pronoun or a pro-verb)” to allude to a previous word, or
cluster of words (Anaphora).
9
his want of method, and partly to his ignorance of the
configuration of Arabia; for, notwithstanding his indefatigable
industry, he copied towns too indiscriminately, and perhaps, too
hastily, to admit of the names being arranged in proper order,
and it is not surprising that his account should be not only full of
repetitions, but also of misplacements of whole passages. The state
of Arabia being thus obscure, does not render it very inviting to
commentators.
Miles (1878) further attributed Pliny’s portrayal of Arabia to “the dire confusion
in Pliny’s mind regarding the configuration of this part of Arabia” (pp.159,
169).
3.2. Pliny’s Depiction of the Region of Mochorba

Pliny in (6.32.2) portrayed the area under discussion as follows:
On leaving Petra we come to the Omani, who dwell as far as
Charax, with their once famous cities which were built by
Semiramis, Besannisa and Soractia by name; at the present day they
are wildernesses...
Then, Pliny in (6.32.3) complemented his description of the above region,
proceeding to Mochorba, as evident in the next quote, where the bolded sites
would be identified in the coming subsection.
According to Juba the voyage beyond on that side has not been
explored, because of the rocks - Juba omits to mention Batrasavave,
the town of the Omani, and the town of Omana which previous
writers have made out to be a famous port of Carmania, and also
Homna and Attana, towns said by our traders to be now the most
frequented ports in the Persian Gulf, After the Dog's River,
according to Juba, there is a mountain looking as if it had been
burnt; the Epimaranitae tribes, then the Ichthyophagi, an
uninhabited island, the Bathyxni tribes, the Eblythaean Mountains,
the island of Omoemus, Port Mochorba, the islands of Etaxalos and
Inchobrichae, the Cadaei tribe; [150] a number of islands without
names, and the well-known islands of Isura and Rhinnea, and the
adjacent island on which there are some stone pillars bearing
inscriptions written in an unknown alphabet; Port Coboea, the
unhabited Bragae islands, the Taludaei tribe, the Dabanegoris
district, Mount Orsa with its harbour, Duatas Bay, a number of
islands, Mount Tricoryphos, the Chardaleon district, the Solonades
10
and Cachinna, also islands belonging to the Ichthyophagi. Then
Clari, the Mamaean coast with its gold-mines, the Canauna
district, the Apitami and Casani tribes, Devade Island, the spring
Coralis, the Carphati, the islands of Alaea and Amnamethus, the
Darae tribe; [151] Chelonitis Island and a number of islands of
the Ichthyophagi, the uninhabited Odanda, Basa, a number of
islands belonging to the Sabaeans.(Pliny, Book VI)
We realize from the text that he started with Omani, then described the
related town of Omana that Juba skipped from his description. As can be
discerned, Omani is referenced right after Petra. However, Omani’s position is
problematic, since it is represented on the maps as an extending area. The
distances on old maps may be proportional, though. The description of Pliny
presented Omani near Petra; yet Pliny mentioned Omana on the other side of the
Peninsula. However, they may have been associated.
Bukhairn (2012) remarked that the zone of Omani extended from “the
extreme North-West Arabia (Petra) to the extreme North-East Arabia
(Characene)”. As for the town of Omane, it was erroneously situated by some
authors in Carmania. The association of the ethnic term “‘umān to the South
Mesopotamia” could be identified as well in the report given by Lucian about the
king Charax, the sovereign of the frankincense country of Oman (pp.179-80). As
for Wilford (1922), he suggested that Ubar is “Omanum Emporium on
Ptolemaic maps” throughout the mountains on the threshold of the Empty
Quarter; thus, “the nexus for the trans-desert trade” (n.p.). Hence, the
geographical view of ‘Omane’ is vague (A. Enein, 2021, 807-808).
It appears that we have a portrayal of the very same present-day Amman
and Oman. Omani is probably the town of Amman named after the
‘Ammuniyyuun, or ancient Philadelphia. Haase (2013) suggested that the excerpt
on Omani may possibly refer to “the tribe of the Biblical Ammonites and the city
Amman (‫ )ع ّمان‬in contemporary Jordan”, whereas Pliny in his Natural History (6,
32, 148-149) (149) signified by the other city of Omana, current Oman. In chapter
32 on Arabia, 145, Pliny reveals that Omani is a tribe (pp.39,40).
Ali (2001) promulgated that Philadelphia was the name of the capital of
Bani ‘ammuun. Amman was called previously the city of “Rabbat-Ammon”,
capital of the kingdom of Ammon, which flourished between 13th and 16th C. BCE
(pp.530, 532). Thus, the name Omani may have been used concurrently with
Philadelphia, as apparent from Pliny’s script, or it was used at that era instead of
the other by some writers. We have, therefore, a description that started with the
western part of Arabia, as we shall see in the following discussion and
identification of sites.
11
According to MacAdam, the significant town of Charax was for Pliny the
boundary between northwestern and southwestern Arabia, and from this part, he
started depicting the areas, tribes, and communities of Eudaemon from
Tylos/Bahrain on the northeastern coastline till ‘Aqaba on the northwestern
littoral. It is as if he envisioned a line from Charax to ‘Aqaba that is dividing
between the “two Arabias” (MacAdam, 2017, p.292). Moreover, Al-Roubi (n.d.)
stressed that Pliny was portraying the Arabian Gulf, then he stated that would
depict “the coast from Charax to Gerhha to Ommanna to the other coasts on
the Persian Gulf (Chapter six, paragraph 149)”. Thereafter, he described Southern
Arabia, Hadhrami and Sheba frankincense (p.19).
3.2.1. Identification of Some Sites

a. On the Western Coast
Concerning the mountain described as “looking as if it had been burnt”,
it is the historic well-known Jabal-Maqla. According to Fritz (2013), it is situated
about 5.5. miles SSE of the peak of Jabal al-Lawz. As for its burnt appearance,
“the black rock is very ancient Precambrian volcanic basalt” (n.p.). The
Eblythaean Mountains is the Ubla mountain series in the governorate of Mahd
Al-Thahab, in Saudi Arabia. As clarified by Qasaas (2002), the series extends till
the north in wadi Al-Shu‘bah, and the height of the series is approximately 1200
m. (n.p.). Al-Bilaadiy (2010) stated that these mountains have wells and water
resources in their vicinity (pp.40-41). If we consider the name ‘Ebly’/’Ubla’, it is
the name of the mountain, with possibly the Arabic suffixes or Arabic /tiy-yiin/
for the nisbe and mas. plural attached to ‘Ubla’ to refer either to the mountains in
plural or to the residents of the mountain and its vicinity, i.e., Ublatiy (nisbe, mas.
sing.), and Ublatiyyiin/uun (mas. pl.).
Extension of the mountain series of Ubla/ Ebli/Abli, Google maps
Al-Roubi (n.d.) affirmed that Mochorbae haven is very likely the Al-
Shu‘ayba port, quite near to the current harbor of Jeddah (p.19). Dabanigoris
was examined in Glimpses, and the researcher inferred that it denoted: ‘THa/Da-
Bani-Goris’, “this is the region of Bani Quraysh”, possibly pronounced as such
by the locals to informants. Chardaleon district is, according to Potts, R.
Talbert, Sean Gillies, Tom Elliott, and Jeffrey Becker (2019a, 2019b), “an area
12
around al-Lith SAU”, or the governorate of Al-Layth in Saudi Arabia, and
Canauna is “a region located on the western coast of Arabia” (n.p.).
Casani tribes, as elucidated by Schiettecatte & Arbach (2016), could be
Ghassān, cited in Ptolemy (Geogr. VI.7.6) as “Kassanitôn chôras between
Kinaidokolpitôn chôras on the Red Sea coast, north of the Farasān islands, and
Elisarôn choras on the Red Sea coast of Yemen”. They could be also linked to
“the gentes Casani mentioned by Pliny” in this region. Analogously, Al-Hamdānī
situated Ghassān in the Yemeni Tihāma; “not far from the location of Ptolemy’s
Kassanitôn and Pliny’s Casani” (p.17).
al-Lith/Al-Layth, Saudi Arabia

Google Maps
The “Mamaean coast with its gold-mines” is probably an area in the

western coast where ancient gold mines were uncovered, as corroborated by
archaeological and mining findings12. The name likely came from ‘Maean’ like
‘Banizumaeans’. Ma- in -maean is feasibly the definite article al-, where the area
near Najran and Yemen is famous for converting the /l/ of the definite article ‘-
al’ into /-am/, a linguistic phenomenon known as Al-TāmTāmaaniyyah ‫الطمطمانية‬.
Hilal (1999) clarified that, in the language of Himyar, they say for ‘air’ or ‘Al-
hawaa’ ‘am-hawaa’’; ‘am-qāmH’ ‘wheat, and ‘am-‘inab’ for ‘grapes’. This
phenomenon is attested in Tayy’, Al-Azd, and Yemen (pp.134, 135). So, it is
likely that the informants conveyed this form of ‘Maean’ or ‘Al-Maean’ as ‘Am-
Maean’, metathesized as ‘Ma-maean’. Moreover, Ali (2001) mentioned that some
Maneaens used to live in upper Hijaz and what is now Jordan in addition to their
homes in Yemen (p.295).
Smith (1854) positioned Banizomenes, a maritime tribe of the western
littoral of Arabia, “towards the north of the Red Sea, situated next to the country
of the Nabataei”, while Diodorus (3.43) depicted their coast as near to a most
famed temple13 (n.p.). However, as discussed in A. Enein (2021), Retsö (2003a)
compared between three reports of this part of Arabia by Diodorus, Strabo and
Photius. He illustrated that Diodorus situated these peoples in Asir, while Photius
placed “Land of Bythemaneoi and the Batmizomaneȋs” or the Debai in a
12
See Glimpses for the whole description of such areas.
13
Al-Ka‘ba, as clarified in the researcher’s book, since Diodorus located it after both the region of the Nabateans
and the consequent region, which is the area of sacred Makkah.
13
mountainous region, and Strabo in Tihamah (p.750). It is natural that these tribes
were mobile, after better resources, or were driven out because of wars.
If we parallel these designations of Banizomenes, Bythemaneoi and the
Batmizomaneȋs, we find compound nouns with /menes/, /maneoi/, and /maean/,
all possibly in reference to Maeanaens, with the initial part /bani/ or ‘sons of’;
/byth/ and /bat/ or bayt/ ‘house of’. As for the mines, since the mines are located
in some parts of the western littoral of the Red Sea, it is possible that a number of
Manaeans resided beside them and controlled their production. We know that the
Maeneans lived further south; yet were in control of trade routes, and they
remained as such for an extended period of time, while their end point is precisely
yet unknown14.
In sum, the identifications prove that Pliny was predominantly portraying
the western coast of Arabia. However, he may have chosen to identify some sites
on the other eastern coast synchronously like the case for Omani and Omana. This
is in line with the remarks of some writers such as Miles who suspected that Pliny
described the placenames in “proper order”.
b. On the Southwestern Coast and the Eastern Coast

Pliny ended part [151] by a description of the Sabaeans whose locations
were known and fixed in that section of Yemen, then continued in 152 as follows:
…The rivers Thanar and Amnum, the Doric Islands, the Daulotos
and Dora springs, the islands of Pteros, Labatanis, Coboris and
Sambrachate with the town of the same name on the mainland. Many
islands to the southward, the largest of which is Camari, the river
Musecros, Port Laupas; the Sabaeans, a tribe of Scenitae, owning
many islands and a trading-station at Acila which is a port of
embarkation for India; [152] the district of Amithoscatta, Damnia,
the Greater and Lesser Mizi, Drymatina, the Macae; a cape in their
territory points towards Carmania, 50 miles away…. (Attalus:
Pliny, Book VI)
Island of Camari/Kamaran in Yemen
14
See Glimpses for the history and possible locations of the Maenaens.
14
Some of the locations in 151 and 152 are pinpointed as follows. Camari or
Kamaran island is a large island, located in Yemen, as can be observed on the
above map. Regarding Acila, Bukharin (2012) noted that Acila is a locality cited
in Strabo following Artemidorus Ephesius (XVI. 4. 4), and he named it “a «cap»”.
It could be the island al-‘Aql, referenced by al-Ḥarrānī. It is where Bab Al-
Mandab is traversed, or the present-day island of Halba Dessert (pp.188, 189).
Toral-Niehoff (2006) referred to Acila, Ocilia of Pliny as “Ὄκηλις/Ókēlis,
Ptol. Geog. 6,7,7; Peripl. m. r. 25”. It is a small port on the Arabian littoral of Bāb
al-Mandab. To him, it is possibly the present port of Al-Sheikh Saīd (n.p.) Glaser
and Sprenger also identified it as such (Muujaz Daa’irat, 1998, Vol.20, p. 6386).
Hatke (2021) agreed that Okēlis is the current Šayḫ Saʿīd in Ḫawr Ġurayra,
depicted in the Periplus as an “Arab village” (Ἀράβων κώμη) (p.18). In all cases,
it is an island or port on Bab Al-Mandab.
The arrows show the direction followed by Pliny in depicting Arabia,

from Petra to Medina to Jeddah to Al-Laith to Yemen, Oman, then UAE
coast
As can see be perceived, [151] describes the western region from Petra,
Omani, and the mountains in Mahd Al-Thahab till the Sabaeans, passing by the
port of Mochorba or Jeddah/ Shu‘ayybah, and Al-Layth, as apparent from the
identifications. This area is known to have a number of islands, though we can’t
guarantee that these islands existed at that time, but possibly others too15.
Thereafter, in [152], Pliny moved to another area of the eastern coast. The district
of Amithoscatta appears to be Muscat in Oman, Haase (2013) also agreed that it
is Muscat (p.40), and Forster (1844, Vol. II, p.234) as well. We notice then that
15
See more on this area under Charmutha port in Glimpses.
15
Pliny moved from Muscat, possibly along the shore to the Naumachaei and Macae
that are tackled in the coming section.
It is to be deduced then that Pliny was most likely portraying the western
region of Arabia, with its known towns and residents: Ammonites; Bani Quraysh,
Ma-maeans, Ghassan, and Sabaeans.
4.Macae/ Makai/ Maka/ Maga/ Mage/ Myk(e)/ Myci/

Mak(k)an/ Magan/ Maganna/ Makatu/ Maketa
Introduction
The possibility of both an eastern and a western Maka/Maketa is addressed
in this section. The proposition of Oman & UAE and their vicinities as exists of
the trade routes of the kingdom or affiliation of Makan or Sacred Makkah on the
Arabian/Persian Gulf was suggested in Glimpses. The area of Oman was equally
a principal inlet for the eastern trade coming from India and the Persians. As such,
the designation of Maketa suits its function; it delimits the goods coming from
Makkah; just as Jeddah16 or Shu‘ayba, and its vicinity performed a similar role on
the Red Sea.
The researcher also set to prove that the Western Makan/Magan trade is the
very same Puntite trade, or that of sacred Makkah, as attested by the passages of
trade routes, and ancient Egyptians’ portrayals of the borders of Punt17. Cooper
(2015), in his investigation of Egyptian texts, revealed that Punt ranged up till
“the extremity of Egyptian geographic knowledge to the southeast” (p.260).
Therefore, this substantiates the proposal of the researcher that Makan extended
from eastern Arabia till western Arabia, from coast to coast, including Sacred
Makkah. This section further explores these suggestions, and validates them by
additional proofs.
4.1. The Forms of the Toponym

Hansman (1973) clarified that, in Old Akkadian, ‘Magan’ could be
rendered “Makan with g and ki”. In the Babylonian account of the Bihistun
trilingual inscriptions, it was presented as Ma-ak, and in Old Persian, Maka (p.
557). Moreover, Potts (1999) indicated that ever since the twenty fourth century
BCE up till the second century CE, we have “Sum. Magan, Akk. Makkan, OP.
Maka, El. (Elamite) Makkash” (p.40) (A. Enein, 2021, p.774). The area was
16
Jeddah is a very ancient site, as verified by archaeological finds, which is discussed in the researcher’s book
Glimpses.
17
See the chapter on Punt in Glimpses.
16
named ‘Mâkâ’ in Aryan Old Persian, and in Median, it was termed ‘Mâkâ’. As
for Oman, it was the early Iranian state of Mazun; in Pahlavi it was termed Mazun
as well, and the Sasanide king Ardašîr was denominated ‘Mazûnšahr’ or ‘king of
Mazun’ to denote contemporary Oman (Haase, 2013, p.15). You can observe the
different forms, with double /kk/ or merely single /k/. Other forms are further
presented throughout this section.
4.2. Varied Locations:

a. Western Locations:
I. Magan and Meluhha between the 3rd and 1st m. in Assyrian Records
Communications and commercial ties between Assyria, Magan, and
Meluhha seem to have been through the period from ca. 2600–1800 BCE, and
their early attestation in relation to Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic period.
Then, the reference to it appears to have stopped till it surfaces in an inscription
of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BCE). From thence, there is
no allusion to it for 500 years, when it remerges “in the annals of Sargon II (721–
705 BCE), in an inscription of Sennacherib (704–681 bc)”, and in later
documents. Such records reveal that Magan was linked to Egypt, and Meluḫḫa to
Sudan and Ethiopia. This use appears to be from the era of the letters written by
Rib-Addi, ruler of Egypt at Gubla or Byblos, to “Amenophis III (1411–1375
BCE) and to Amenophis IV (1375–1358 BCE), as discussed by Hansman 1973.
A few scholars, among who is Gelb deemed such obvious attestations relevant
also to earlier eras (Levitt, 2015, p.136.136).
Gelb (1970) indicated that, in current years, it has been commonly
supposed that, in the later epochs, starting from approximately the mid of the
second millennium BCE, Makkan and Meluhha were Egypt and Nubia
correspondingly. As for the largely preferred site, in the older eras, from
approximately the mid of the third millennium BCE, is eastern Mesopotamia in
the region of the Persian Gulf and ‘beyond’. He deduced from varied sources
about the position of Makkan and Meluhha that:
Makkan is the southern shore of the Persian Gulf and of the
Arabian Sea; it dénotés [sic.] Arabia, extending east of ancient
Sumer up to and including Oman.
Meluhha is the northern shore of the Persian Gulf and of the
Arabian Sea; it dénotés Iran and India, extending east of ancient
Elam and Ansan up to and including the Indus Valley.
The records citing Meluhha show that it was located not quite distant from
Mesopotamia, and to the north of the Persian Gulf (Gelb, 1970, pp.2, 5, 6).
17
The proofs, which include indications of proximity, in addition to types of
stones like the lapis lazuli; flora like the sissoo-tree, and the black people of
Meluhha, matching the Aithiopes of classical eras, position Meluhha between Iran
and Afghanistan. Conversely, a setting of Meluhha in Arabia, to the south of the
Persian Gulf is not corroborated by proofs. Regarding Makkan, the proofs of the
victories of Sargonic kings verify the proximity of Makkan to Mesopotamia.
Substantiations such as mining in Oman relate Makkan to Oman in addition to
the clear-cut proofs of their referencing in classical sources18, situating the Makai
people principally on the Oman Peninsula, opposite to Carmania (Gelb, 1970,
p.6).
Contrary to a setting of Makkan and Meluhha in the region of the
[Arabian/]Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea in the early eras of Mesopotamian
history, the position of “these two lands in Egypt and Nubia beginning in the
middle of the second millennium B.C. has long been a matter of général
knowledge”. It is clear then that there was “a shift in the location of Makkan and
Meluhha [that] must have taken place between the earlier and later times”. He
further inquired about the location of the famed mountains of Egypt which could
be recognized as the mountains of Makkan of the Mesopotamian records (Gelb,
1970, pp.7,8).
Correspondingly, Kramer (1963) averred that the majority of cuneiformists
concur that, in the 1st millennium BCE, Magan and Meluhha referred generally to
Egypt and Ethiopia. At the time of Sargon the Great, Gudea, and the third
Dynasty of Ur, this association was not possible, since this would entail that the
ships went to eastern Africa, which appears quite implausible. This was
conducive to a theory of “shift in toponomy” which entails that, in the 3rd and 2nd
millenniums, Magan and Melluha were the areas at the borders of the eastern and
south-eastern Arabian littorals; yet were shifted later to Egypt and Ethiopia.
However, given the salient proofs, Egypt and Ethiopia were as such ever since
the 3rd millennium till the 1st (Kramer, 1963, p.276).
In a similar vein, Mäkelä (2002) highlighted that, in numerous Ur III
records for a time span of 45 years (2062-2028), there is allusion to “a Meluhha-
village” in the province of Lagash, “whose people may have been acculturated
people from Meluhha”. It is likely that the traders of Meluhha had “a wide-
ranging contact network in the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian sea region”.
After residing in areas like southern Mesopotamia and Bahrain, the Meluhhans
took non-native names and traditions; yet keeping their native ways like utilizing
“a stamp seal”. One such seals that goes back to the late third or quarter of the 3 rd
millennium BCE was detected at a Harappan community at Lothal in India, which
was possibly linked with the naval commerce of the Arabian Gulf (pp.11, 17).
18
See an upcoming section for this issue.
18
Thus, what Gelb mentioned above about a proximal Meluhha may have indicated
this area, named after the original Meluhha.
More Assyrian Textual Proofs for a Western Direction

Texts from the third dynasty of Ur reference products from Magan and
Meluhha as “copper, ivory, carnelian and onions”. In the post-Sumerian eras, we
detect Meluhha cited a number of times as a dwelling of “black men”, which
resulted logically to the association of Meluhha with Ethiopia. Of the records that
attest to such a recognition are the Epic of Gilgamesh; “the Curse of the Agade”
poem, among other texts. In the poem, the Meluhhaites are depicted as “the men
of the black land” which directly corresponds with “the black Meluhhaites” in 1st
millennium documents. This shows that the land portrayed by the writer of the
poem at ca. 2000 BCE corresponds with the 1st millennium Meluhha; hence, there
was “no toponymic shift” (Kramer, 1963, pp.276-277, 278).
Likewise, in Glimpses, the researcher proposed that the famous market in
Makkah, which is Maganna, is part of Makan (A. Enein, 2021, pp.930-931). As
you can see in the next snapshots from the dictionary of Cooper (1876) and
Michaux-Colombot (2011), Maganna was conquered by Sargon the Akkadian.
This corroborates the researcher’s proposition that it was a division of Makan and
near Egypt, or in a western location, and part of the Sargonic expedition. Its
association with Egypt may entail that it was under Egyptian kings at that point
in time. We have the same form of the toponym during both the time of Sargon I,
and in the 1st millennium in Ashurbanipal and Esarhaddon inscriptions.
(Cooper, 1876, p.310)
(Michaux-Colombot, 2011, Appendix, p.24)
This further affirms that Makan; or rather Maganna, in Sacred Makkah, was to
the west of Assyria, and was possibly a central part of the kingdom of Makan,
and it likely derived its name from it, or from Makkah, since we have different
forms.
19
Michaux-Colombot (2011) asserted that, after commerce stopped, Magan
was still mentioned in Assyrian records “as a westward geographical direction”.
Henceforth, heading towards Egypt, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal described the
locations they proceeded to conquer. Esarhaddon related that “in my tenth
campaign Ashur made me take the direction towards Magan [and Meluḫḫa] (litt.
‘turn my face towards’: ú-šá-as-bi-ta pa-na-u-a a-na [Má]-kan)”. As for
Ashurbanipal, he said that “in my first campaign towards Magan and Meluḫḫa, I
directed my march (litt. ‘towards Magan and Meluḫḫa, I took the straight road:
ana kur Má-kan ù kur Meluḫḫa uš-te-eš-še-ra ḫar-ra-nu)” (pp.7-8). From the
annals of Esarhaddon:
“558… I advanced ………… Marduk, the great lord, came to
my aid, ……. He kept my troops alive; for 27 days, ……..
which is on the border of Egypt [toward] Magan (Arabia?)
… (Luckenbill, 1968, p.220)
In the “Annals of Assurbanipal”, translated by George Smith, Records,
Vol. I, (1909, p.59, footnote), we learn that
51 In my first expedition to Makan'
52 and Milukha' I went. Tirhakah king of Egypt and
Ethiopia,
53 of whom, Esarhaddon king of Assyria, the father my
begetter, his overthrow had accomplished;
54 and had taken possession of his country; he Tirhakah,
55 the power of Assur, Ishtar, and the great gods my lords
56 despised, and trusted to his own might.
Hence, it is also linked to Egypt, and the translator assumed it to be Egypt:
“Makan supposed to be Egypt”, in the footnote to Makan (A. Enein, 2021, p.783).
II. Maga and Makatu in Ancient Egyptian

Michaux-Colombot (2011) revealed that Egyptians always recruited or
were apprehensive of a Maga populace, obviously portrayed as Asiatic. They are
mentioned in the Egyptian inscriptions of Ahmose who arrested two Maga from
the vessel of ‘A’ata, or Hyksos, and inscriptions from the era of Haremhab and
Nebamon [the next snapshots] that uncover that Maga workers are Asiatic.
Moreover, he explained that, throughout the 2nd to 1st millenniums, Egyptians
knew very well their “neighbour Maga” that appears to be the “Maga tribe of
Sinai” (pp.14, 18, 19).
However, the author relates Maga to Sacred Makkah, or Maka, which has
Asiatic peoples, who were, as it seems, subjugated by Egyptians in a number of
cases; like the Battle of Mkty. For this reason, they were associated with Egypt,
20
and Egypt with Maganna in the Sargonic and Assyrian records, as stated in the
previous subsection. Accordingly, the Assyrian designation ‘Maga’ is cited also
in Ancient Egyptian, as we can see in the following snapshot:
(Budge, 1920, Vol. I, p.289)
Moreover, in the coming inscriptions, from URK, referenced by Michaux-

Colombot (2011), we detect ‘the Maga’ as recruits in the Egyptian army, or as
fighters in the subsequent snapshots from Vygus (2018).
The original text from (Urk IV, 1593, p.245)
The original text from (Urk, 6,5)
(Michaux-Colombot, 2011, Appendix, p.25)
In the ensuing snapshot from Vygus (2018, p.941), we detect mg3 as

referring to a fighter or Nubian. The question mark entails that its meanings or its
associations are not conclusive. They appear to match the meanings proposed by
Michaux-Colombot, that they signify a fighter from Maga, and it seems that they
were their enemies or they had enmity of some sort, like their signification
suggests. Later, they were to pay law taxes to the Persians, which entails that they
may have helped them, similar to other Arabs to invade Egypt, as explained by
some writers. Their previous enmity may be also due to several wars, among
which is the battle of Mkty/ Mykty, faulty linked with Megiddo19.
19
See Glimpses, the chapter on Mkty.
21
In the following snapshot from Schweitzer (2019), we notice the name
Myk or Myka alluding to a “region and people near Nubia”. Thus, it was most
likely Sacred Makkah, as can be marked on the map, where upper Nubia is below
the Nubian Lake and lower Nubia above it. We observe that Makkah is exactly at
the opposite side of Nubia. The Egyptians possibly went from there by ships20 to
Makkah or Abha21 which is further south from Makkah.
(Schweitzer, 2019, p.2467)
Google maps
Approximate location of Upper and Lower Nubia,
written by the researcher in green
Török (2015) referred to expeditions sent against “Mḫšrḫrt (?), the M3-y-
k3 (?) and the Madd (Medja) nomads” residing to the east of the Nile, and
occupying like their forefathers in the preceding centuries the region of Kawa.
The quantities of gold and cattle taken after such expeditions are “astonishing”
(p.393). ‘M3-y-k3’ probably refers to Makkah, or tribes, migrant from Makkah,
being to the east of the Nile, and there are considerable quantities of gold in
Hijaz22 as well. In the author’s book, reference was made to the Medja or
MaTHHij who lived in both Africa and the region to the south of Makkah and
north of Yemen. Thus, this possibly serves as another link to these ethnicities.
20
Building boats and ships to use them for seafaring to Arabia is attested in Egyptian inscriptions, and, similarly,
using ships to go to Abyssinia is discussed in Glimpses.
21
See Glimpses for more on Abha as possibly part of Punt.
22
See Glimpses for mining and gold in Hijaz and Makkah.
22
It is to be observed too that “M’katu” is the name of “a boundary god” to
the Egyptians (Budge, 1920, Vol. I., p.289), which further supports ‘Maga’ or
Makatu’s propinquity to the borders of Egypt (A. Enein, 2021, pp.783, 799). The
association to a god is not even confirmed by Budge, given the use of the question
mark; however, it is linked to a point at the borders of Egypt.
(Budge, 1920, Vol. I, pp.289, 330)
Holy Makkah, as an Arabic noun, has different forms, depending on its

grammatical case, i.e., nominative, accusative, and genitive, consecutively as:
‘Makatu’; ‘Makata’, ‘Makati’, and its pausal form is ‘Makkah/Makka’. Hence,
Maka or Myka are also relevant, according to the language or variant in which
these forms were produced. ‘Myka’/mayka/, which seems to be the pausal form
of ‘Makati’ or ‘Maykati’, was also the form cited in some classical works as
Asiatic ‘Myci’ or ‘Mycians’, discussed in the coming section. Moreover, the very
same name of western ‘Makatu’, ‘Makkah’ in the Arabic nominative, and the
eastern ‘Makata’, in the accusative, show that they may refer to the same entity,
one location was at the border of Egypt, another indication of a western ‘Maka’;
and a second one on the eastern coast.
In the researcher’s book, she referred to the actual form of Megiddo; rather
‘Mkty’ or ‘Mykty’, /makati/ and /maykati/, in the genitive case, precisely
mentioned as such in the annals of Thotmouse III. In Breasted’s Records, the
toponym is rendered as:
420. … That [wretched] enemy, [ the chief] of Kadesh (Ḳdšw), has
come and entered into Megiddo (My-k-ty); he [is there] at this
moment (Vol. II, p.180).
Thus, it appears that they were really enemies of ancient Egyptians, possibly at
some points in their history. Furthermore, as we have seen earlier, they were
designated as Asians and at their boundaries; which also point to Sacred Makkah.
III. West Arabian Macae; Myka, and Myci in Herodotus

In Herodotus, Book III, we have a form similar to ‘Myka, i.e., ‘Myci’ or
‘Mycians’:
[93] … The Sagartians, Sarangians, Thamanaeans, Utians, and
Mycians, together with the inhabitants of the islands in the
23
Erythraean sea, where the king sends those whom he banishes,
furnished altogether a tribute of six hundred talents. This was the
fourteenth satrapy. The Sacans and Caspians gave two hundred and
fifty talents. This was the fifteenth satrapy. The Parthians,
Chorasmians, Sogdians, and Arians, gave three hundred. This was
the sixteenth satrapy. (Herodotus, 2013, p. 219)
‘
The relevant part of the Greek text is as follows:
[2] ἀπὸ δὲ Σαγαρτίων καὶ Σαραγγέων καὶ Θαμαναίων καὶ Οὐτίων κ
αὶ Μύκων...23
The names of the residents are ‘Mukoi’, ‘Μύκων’24, mas. pl. nouns, in the
nominative and genitive, according to The Digital Dictionary Archive (Kaikki:
Mukoi).
Moreover, in Book VII:
[68] The Utians, the Mycians, and the Paricanians were all
equipped like the Pactyans. They had for leaders, Arsamenes, the son
of Darius, who commanded the Utians and Mycians; and
Siromitres, the son of Oeobazus, who commanded the Paricanians.
(Herodotus, 2013, p.455)
‘Myci’ is claimed to be a Persian tribe (Kaikki: Mukoi), or the Mycians.
Nonetheless, they aren’t Persian tribes, they are most likely the tribes of sacred
Makkah, east of Nubia, as attested in Egyptian inscriptions. The analogous forms
of ‘Myci’ and ‘Myk/a’ in Greek and in Egyptian are also validated by the
following information:
IPA: /mý.koi̯ /, /ˈmy.ky/, /ˈmi.ci/, /mý.koi̯ / (note: 5ᵗʰ BCE Attic),
/ˈmy.ky/ (note: 1ˢᵗ CE Egyptian), /ˈmy.ky/ (note: 4ᵗʰ CE Koine).
(Kaikki: Mukoi)
Being located near the Sabaeans further affirms their setting.
Hansman (1973) clarified that the inhabitants of Maka, namely, “ethnic
Maciya”, mentioned as “Mykoi in Greek”25, are referenced by Herodotus as well
as the Outioi, related to the Old Persian ‘Yutiya’, as constituting a satrapy or
principality under Darius. Such a satrapy is “the Maka of the inscriptions”
(p.557). Michaux-Colombot (2011) explained that Herodotus’ two occurrences
23
Herodotus, The Histories, book 3, chapter 93 (tufts.edu)
24
Check the last subsection at the end of the paper for more on Mukon and Mukoi.
25
“Myci” in other versions (3.93): “The fourteenth province was made up of the Sagartii, Sarangeis, Thamanaei,
Utii, Myci” Herodotus, The Histories, Book 3, chapter 93 (tufts.edu), and “Mycans”
https://topostext.org/work/22
24
of these names linked “the Mukoi [Mycians] with the Outie” (III, 93), and located
‘Outie’ or ‘Autai’ [Utian] tribes in Sinai, as Agatharchide reported. He added
that they are assembled in a satrapy, among “the Thamanaen, Sagaratian and
Sarangean and Erythrea Thalassa islands”, to which the Persians dispatched
“‘relegated’ people”. The ‘Mukoi’ and ‘Outie’ joined forces collectively in
Xerces’s troops, under the auspices of Arsamenes, son of Darius I.
Since ‘Mukoi’ is paralleled with ‘Macae’ or ‘Maketa’ in Oman, this satrapy
is considered ‘eastern’ without supplementary evidence. However, given that
Erythrea Thalassa surrounds the entire area of Arabia, we can have broader
interpretations. “Thamanaen, Sagaratian and Sarangean” may be “western
Hedjaz Thamudenoi and Saracenoi”, and Mukoi may be “Ptolemy’s
Munychiatis” (Michaux-Colombot, 2011, p.14). In a similar vein, Casson (1989)
explicated that, for Greek and Roman geographers, the Erythraean Sea signified
the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Persian/[Arabian] Gulf (p.9) (A. Enein,
p.799).
Furthermore, Khorikyan (2019) highlighted that the setting of the Utii and
Myci was the subject of several assumptions in the historical discipline. Such a
controversy was caused by the data provided by Hecataeus of Miletus: “…from
the Myci up to the Araxes river”. This report simply displays the southern
boundary of Asia, viz., “from the Myci dwelling on the coast of the Red Sea up
to the north-Araxes river, which could be either the Amu-Darya or Indus” (pp.76,
78). Hence, the Myci were inhabitants of the region of the Red Sea littoral,
Makkah being about 70 km from the Red Sea coast.
Accordingly, as demonstrated in classical texts as well, the ‘Myci’ or
‘Mukoi’ resided near the Sabaeans. We have, then, in ancient texts what supports
an extended area of ‘Maka’, from the eastern Arabian coast on the
Arabian/Persian Gulf till the Red Sea/ Arabian Gulf, or at least eastern and
western locations. In addition, they are referenced in Egyptian, Assyrian, and
classical texts as both near the Sabaeans, and on the Red Sea, which further
substantiate their location in Sacred Makkah. This further corroborates the
proposal of an outspread ‘Maka/ Makata/Makan’, and this is probably the cause
of the confusion concerning the position of Maka in Classical and other ancient
texts, and the theory of toponymic shift as well.
Such a situation can be explained in the light of metonymy, a linguistic
principle, whereby the part stands for the whole; thus, eastern Maka stands for
Makkah. We have a parallel situation in Egypt, where some Egyptians,
particularly from other governorates, say ‘we’re going to Egypt’ instead of
‘Cairo’. Another case is that of using ‘Washington’ or ‘the White House’ to stand
for the USA as a whole. Comparably, eastern ‘Maka’ used to represent the
kingdom of ‘Makan’ or sacred ‘Makkah’, to the inhabitants of Assyria and India.
25
IV. Libyan Macae in Classical Works and Egyptian Inscriptions
In Herodutus’ Histories, he also referred to peoples called the Macae,
claimed to be in Libya. The form of the word is the very same used for the eastern
‘Macae’ in Oman:
[175] These border the Nasamonians on the south: westward along
the sea-shore their neighbours are the Macea, who, by letting the
locks about the crown of their head grow long, while they clip them
close everywhere else, make their hair resemble a crest. In war these
people use the skins of ostriches for shields. The river Cinyps rises
among them from the height called "the Hill of the Graces," and runs
from thence through their country to the sea. The Hill of the Graces
is thickly covered with wood, and is thus very unlike the rest of
Libya, which is bare. It is distant two hundred furlongs from the sea.
[176] Adjoining the Macae are the Gindanes, whose women wear
on their legs anklets of leather. Each lover that a woman has gives
[sic.] her one; and she who can show the most is the best esteemed,
as she appears to have been loved by the greatest number of men.
(Herodutus, Book IV)
We note here that the ethnonym was written as both: Macea and Macae, /makiya/
and /makai/; if it is not a typo. /makiya/ or rather /makkiyyah/ is still used as nisbe
of Makkah.
As explained in Perseus Encyclopedia: “Nasamonians [is] a Libyan tribe
beside Mount Atlas”. Likewise, we learn from Pliny’s NH (5.5.2):
After the Nasamones we come to the dwellings of the Asbystae and
the Macae, and beyond them, at eleven days' journey to the west of
the Greater Syrtis. (Topostexts)
We know more about the ‘Macae’ from other classical writers such as Diodorus,
who depicted them as a Libyan tribe as well.
3.49.1 … the Libyans who dwell near Egypt and the country
which borders upon them. The parts about Cyrene and
the Syrtes as well as the interior of the mainland in these regions are
inhabited by four tribes of Libyans; of these the Nasamones, as
they are called, dwell in the parts to the south, the Auschisae in those
to the west, the Marmaridae occupy the narrow strip
between Egypt and Cyrene and come down to the coast, and
the Macae, who are more numerous than their fellow Libyans, dwell
in the regions about the Syrtis. (Diodorus Siculus, Library, 1-7)
26
17.50.2 … The land, which is sacred to the god, is occupied on the
south and west by Ethiopians, and on the north by the Libyans, a
nomadic people, and the so called Nasamonians who reach on into
the interior. (Topostexts: Diodorus Siculus, Library, 8-40)
Thus, the Libyans bordered Egypt and the country adjacent to it.
Again, in Punica, they are referenced in Libya, inhabiting an area adjacent
to the river Cinyps:
2.38 … the Macae who dwell by the river Cinyps, and
the Cyrenians whom the cruel sun scorches… (Silius Italicus,
Punica)
3.254…The Ethiopians came, a race whom the Nile knows well …
Together with them came the burnt-up Nubae, whose bodies show
the fierce heat of their sun …Then first the Macae, from the
river Cinyps, learned how to pitch tents in their camp
in Phoenician fashion — shaggy bearded men, whose backs are
covered with the bristling hide of a wild goat, and the weapon they
carry is a curved javelin… (Silius Italicus, Punica)
Moreover, from Pseudo Scylax, Periplous:

109 After Hesperides is a large gulf named Syrtis, reckoning
roughly 5000 stades. Here the width
from Hesperides to Neapolis sailing across is three days and nights.
The Nasamones live around here, a Libyan nation, as far as the
inmost part on the left. Next to them are the Makai, a Libyan
nation, besides Syrtis until the mouth of Syrtis… In the deepest part
of Syrtis are the altars of the Philainoi, a port, the grove of Ammon.
From here are the Makai who live by Syrtis and winter on the sea,
penning in their flocks; then leaving the water in summer they drive
their flocks up into the interior with them. (Pseudo Scylax,
Periplous)
We observe here that they are called ‘Makai’ with the same form too; hence, they
share the two common forms of ‘Macae’ and ‘Makai’, and their locations are in
current Libya, near Syrtis.
However, the ancient term of Libya denoted other boundaries than the
present one. In Glimpses, A. Enein (2021) clarified that the designation ‘Libya’
had a far broader and more inclusive meanings that the current term of Libya. The
papers of the symposium on Libya Antiqua in 1984 all advocated that the writers
before the Arabic era employed the term ‘Libya’ to indicate a collection of
27
regions. This designation regularly alluded to a significant portion of the African
zone, as recognized at that epoch (Libya Antiqua, Summary,1986, p.256).
Therefore, the term ‘Libya’ was subject in later ages to narrowing, a linguistic
phenomenon whereby the term loses part of its prior widened signification (A.
Enein, 2021, p.675).
Herodotus consolidated this issue of the location of Libya further, as
evident in the following quote:
16. If then our judgment of this be right, the Ionians are in error
concerning Egypt; but if their opinion be right, then it is plain that
they and the rest of the Greeks cannot reckon truly, when they divide
the whole earth into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya; they must
add to these yet a fourth part, the Delta of Egypt, if it belong neither
to Asia nor to Libya; for by their showing the Nile is not the river
that separates Asia and Libya; the Nile divides at the extreme angle
of this Delta, so that this land must be between Asia and Libya.
(Book II: chapters 16, p.293)
This entails that the delta was thought to be the separating line between Asia and
Libya. Furthermore, Herodotus stated that “65. Though Egypt has Libya on its
borders, it is not a country of many animals” (Book II: chapters 65, p.353). He
added that
42 I wonder, then, at those who have mapped out and divided the
world into Libya, Asia, and Europe; for the difference between
them is great, seeing that in length Europe stretches along both the
others together, and it appears to me to be beyond all comparison
broader. For Libya shows clearly that it is encompassed by sea,
save only where it borders on Asia; and this was proved first (as
far as we know) by Necos king of Egypt. (Book IV, p.239)
Consequently, this shows that Libya was somewhat employed in the present sense
of Africa, and that it lay on both sides of Egypt (A. Enein, p. 676).
Additionally, in Glimpses, the author referred to Trost (2012), who
mentioned that the toponyms B3š (Bash) and B3kt (Baket) were cited in the
painted relief from the pyramid temple Sahures (about 2471-2458 BCE), the 2nd
king of the 5th Dynasty. About 1000 years later, they emerged in the lists of the
18th Dynasty, of Thutmosis III, in Amun temple at Karnak, denoting southern
inhabitants (pp.185-186) (A. Enein, 2021, p.668). Similarly, Cooney (2015)
highlighted that three groups were represented in Sahure’s temple. In the temple
figure, the three sets of people are specified as “Basher, Baket and [lost]”. They
28
are “individuals from the territories of Baket26 and Basher”, the latter is often
associated with Libya (pp.59, 313).
Cooper (2015) also referred to a fragmented text which has “ḥ3.ty-Tḥn.w
‘mayor of Libya’” (p.131). Hence, it is regularly cited as Libya. As for García
(2015), he identified Tehenw as: “Thnw territories of Basher and Baket”, and that
such a region was quite affluent, with plentiful water supplies and cattle, and its
residents were antagonistic. Tehenu was also famous for its resin and timber
(p.78, 101). This parallels the Maga enemy of Egyptians or Myke that had
abundant amounts of gold and cattle, and were located to the east of the Nile, cited
above.
As stated earlier, both Makkah and Bakkah are names of Sacred Makkah,
and they were used anciently. The region around the sanctuary had several lush
valleys and pastures, ancient vine culture was in Taif, and Hijaz is rich in pure
gold too, as clarified in Glimpses. This also calls for a reconsideration of the
grouping of these ethnicities. While the Libyans or B3sh, and people of Baket
were situated jointly in Egyptian inscriptions; the Libyans and the Makkians, or
the Makai were also grouped in Egyptian inscriptions and classical works in
adjacent regions.
This may support the suggestion that both Baket and Myka are the same,
i.e., Sacred Makkah. Moreover, in Glimpses, there is an allusion in Egyptian
inscriptions to Baket to which ships were sent from Saww, possibly Mersa
Gawasis, or returned to it, as studied by Bard and Fattovich (2018), in the texts of
Ankhow in Mersa Gawasis (A. Enein, 2021, pp.667-668). Thus, this Baket likely
lies near the Red Sea shore in Asia, the same situation of Bakkah/Makkah.
Likewise, the Sargonic records show that he went to the direction of Egypt, then
to Maganna, which is a famous market town in Sacred Makkah, and so did
Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, as verified in their inscriptions.
It seems that this kingdom ranged from eastern till western Arabia, and
probably also to Africa, or in current Libya; if the Libyan ‘Macae’ refers to the
same kingdom as well. Or it is probable that some tribes from Makkah may have
emigrated to this part. In Glimpses, the researcher referred to Zeidan (1922)
mentioning a wide immigration of the sons of Ishmael from Makkah to various
parts of the world, among which is Egypt (A. Enein, 2021, p.282). However, the
topic of Libyan ‘Macae’, B3sh and Baket requires further research, in addition to
archaeological proofs.
26
Check Glimpses for more on this issue.
29
b. Maka’s Eastern Location in Classical Works
Hasse (2013) emphasized that, lately, the general opinion, in specialized
circles, became that, in both the third and second millennia BCE, Magan/Makkan
was on both sides of “the Arab/Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman”, as noted by
Potts (1986). Afterwards, in the early Achaemenid era, East and West Maka were
combined with “a satrapal capital at Pura (=Puru), today known as Bamp r”, as
stressed by Stein (1943), de Cardi (1970), and Cook (1985).
Therefore, Maka encompassed the Hingol, the boundary of the Oriets
(Arrian Indica 25:3); and on the southern frontier of the desert of Carmania
(Strabo xv:9), the northern boundary to the east toward the Hamun sea, as Jacobs
(1994) noted (Hasse, 2013, p.18). Likewise, Potts (2000) illustrated that current
UAE, or the coastal area lying between Sharjah and Ras Musandam, was called
by several names throughout the ages. To the Sumerians, it was also a
subdivision of Magan, signifying current UAE and Oman. For the early Greeks
and Romans, the region was a segment of Macae; and to the Akkadians of
Mesopotamia, it was part of the territory of Makkan (p.13) (A. Enein, 2021,
p.786).
Pliny addressed this promontory on the Arabian eastern coast, named by
Nearchus ‘Maketa’ . He noticed it while navigating “along the
opposite side”. It is cited in Strabo also as ; Mela called it
Mage, and Pliny, Makae, a populace of Arabs, and promontory of ,
now identified as Cape Mussendom (Miles, 1878, p.166). The name ‘Mage’
even parallels ‘Mak(k)i’, an attribute of Sacred Makkah, and ‘Maga’ in Ancient
Egyptians. Moreover, as can be observed, Miles’ version of Pliny has the names
with both ‘k’ and ‘ch’. Therefore, Pliny represented the name as Naumachaei
(Vol. II) and Makae (Vol. VI), as evident also in the next English translation, and
in the Latin versions as well:
The promontory of the Naumachaei, over against Carmania, is
distant from it fifty miles. (Topostexts: Pliny)
Insulae multae. Emporium eorum Acila, ex quo in Indiam navigatur.
Regio, Amithoscuta: Damnia. Mizi maiores et minores. Drimati.
Naumachaeorum promontorium contra Carmaniam est. Distat
quinquaginta mill. (Pliny, 1831, Vol. II, p.696)
…emporium eorum acila, ex quo in indiam navigatur, regio amitho
scatta, damnia, mizi maiores et minores, drymatina, macae; horum
promunturium contra carmaniam distat… (Perseus: Pliny, Vol.
VI)
30
inde promunturium Carmaniae est, ex quo in adversam oram ad
gentem arabiae Macas traiectus distat [l] p.; insulae tres, quarum
oracta tantum habitatur aquosa, a continente (Pliny, 1933, Liber VI,
xxvi , 98)
The names ‘Macae’ and ‘Naumachaei’ are tackled shortly, under linguistic
analysis.
Equally, Smith (1854) clarified that MA´CETA (Μάκετα) is a promontory
in Arabia, at the entry of the Persian[/Arabian] Gulf, facing the promontory of
Harmozon in Carmania, as stated in Strab. Xv. It is positioned on the coast of the
Macae, and is, thus, named by Strabo (xvi.) “a promontory of the Macae”. He
referred to Forster’s identification of these two ports by Pliny and Ptolemy as
identical (n.p.). It was designated by Ptolemy (6.7.12) as “τὸ Ἀσαβῶν ἄκρον”
(Smith, 1854, n.p.). The relevant parts from Ptolemy are: “the so-
called Melana mountains of the Asabans, midpoint on the sea at .93°00'. 22°20';
Promontory of the Asabans .92°30'. 23°20'”, and “6.7.14 Of the Persian gulf; in
the widely extended gulfs of the Ichthyophagi, in which are the Makai”
(topostexts: Geography).
Forster (1844) elucidated that “Cape Mussendom, again, is Ptolemy’s
Asaborum Promontorium; and his Macae, a tribe adjoining it, a palpable
contraction of the Naumachaei of Pliny”. He further claimed that the Macae are
“the Jowaser”, a maritime tribe (Forster, Vol. II, pp.224-225). According to
etymonline.com, ‘nau-‘, ‘naus’ in Greek mean ‘ship’; in Latin ‘naufraga’ is
‘shipwreck’ (worldofdictionary.com). Hence, ‘Naumachaei’ may signify the
Machaei who work on ships, i.e., sailors. Thus, all of these designations signify
Magan/Makan, or Mage.
Accordingly, it is obvious that the “Naumachaeorum promontorium” of
Pliny (6.32) is the same as the present Cape Musseldom, where Strabo located the
Macae (Smith, 1854, n.p.). Strabo specified that
16.3.2 The Persian Gulf has the name also of the Sea
of Persia. Eratosthenes speaks of it in this manner: They say that the
mouth is so narrow, that from Harmozi, the promontory
of Carmania, may be seen the promontory at Mace, in Arabia.
From the mouth, the coast on the right hand is circular, and at first
inclines a little from Carmania towards the east, then to the north,
and afterwards to the west as far as Teredon and the mouth of
the Euphrates.
16.3.4 On sailing further, there are other islands, Tyre and Aradus
…These islands are distant from Teredon ten days' sail, and from the
promontory at the mouth of the gulf at Macae one day's sail.
31
16.3.5 Nearchus and Orthagoras relate, that an island Ogyris lies to
the south, in the open sea, at the distance of 2000 stadia
from Carmania. In this island is shown the sepulchre of Erythras, a
large mound, planted with wild palms. (Topostext: Strabo)
Moreover, there are here two forms of the toponym: ‘Mace’ and ‘Macae’.
Ammianus Marcellinus [330-395 CE (Britannica, 2021a)] (1862) depicted
this site as:
It is a region of great extent both in length and breadth, entirely
surrounding on all sides the famous Persian Gulf with its many
islands. The mouth of this gulf is so narrow, that from Harmozon,
the promontory of Carmania, the opposite headland, which the
natives call Maces, is easily seen. (BK- XXIII, CH. VI, pp.331-332)
The name here has a ‘s’ finally; if it is not the classical ending -es. It was possibly
a /t/ initially, i.e., ‘Maket/a’, then it was altered into a /s/, a common interchange
in Arabic dialects, and also in Semitic languages. Al-Zu‘biy (2008) highlighted
that the phenomenon of the interchange between the /s/ and /t/ is known as Al-
Watm, exercised in Yemen, e.g., /an-naas/ or ‘people’ becomes /an-naat/ (pp.80-
81; Hilal, 1999, p.129). The name ‘Makkesh’, another form of this placename,
involves another alternation too, from /s/ to /sh/, very common in Semitic
languages, and in ancient Arabic dialects (Al-Zu‘biy, 2008, 152-153; Hilal, 1999,
p.266).
Stephanus of Byzantium [6th C. CE] (1849) acknowledged in Ethnica that
“Makai: Μάκαι, ἔθνος μεταξὺ Καρμανίας καὶ Ἀραβίας”. Hence, he positioned it
in or adjacent to Carmania, in Arabia (n.p.). In addition, Nearchus [(died possibly
at 312 BC (Britannica, 2019b)] went to an anchor, claimed to be the current
Mussendon, whose old name is ‘Makæ’, and ‘Maketa’, along with Asabo,
the cape itself is the termination of a very high and broken island ",
partaking of the nature of a craggy ridge on the continent of Arabia,
called the Black Mountains by Ptolemy. with their adjunct " Asabo,
express the Black Mountains of the fouth"; for towards this point
they lie in respect to the Arabians, who conferred the title upon them.
Several small and rugged islets lie off this cape, called the Coins,
from forming the angle of the straights, as I imagine, and the whole
presents a frightful appearance, if the delineation of Ressende in the
British Museum may be credited. (Vincent, 1797, p.292-293)
In the Periplus, it is stated that people familiarized with those areas verified
that the cape is in Arabia, and was named Maketa, from where cinnamon and
other produces were traded to the Assyrian:
32
Karmania is better wooded and produces better fruit than the
country either of the Ikhthyophagi or the Oreitai. It is also more
grassy, and better supplied with water. They anchor next at Badis,
an inhabited place in Karmania, where grew cultivated trees of many
different kinds, with the exception of the olive, and where also the
soil favoured the growth of the vine and of corn. Weighing thence
they ran 800 stadia, and came to an anchor off a barren coast,
whence they descried a headland projecting far out into the sea, its
nearest extremity being to appearance about a day's sail distant.
Persons acquainted with those regions asserted that this cape
belonged to Arabia, and was called Maketa, whence cinnamon
and other products were exported to the Assyrians. And from this
coast where the fleet was now anchored, and from the headland
which they saw projecting into the sea right opposite, the gulf in my
opinion (which is also that of Nearkhos) extends up into the interior,
and is probably the Red Sea. When this headland was now in view
Onesikritos, the chief pilot, proposed that they should proceed to
explore it, and by so shaping their course, escape the distressing
passage up the gulf; but Nearkhos opposed this proposal. (The
commerce and Navigation, 1879, pp.200-201)
After 800 stadia from Karmania, [148 kms (convertunits.com;
hextobinary.com)], they reached Maketa, which is a market for spice, as well.
Isn’t it strange that this also reflects the same mercantile situation in Sacred
Makkah!! The mention of the Red Sea in this passage is quite confusing.
Nonetheless, in the Anabasis of Alexander, we learn that “he had discovered that
the Persian Sea, which was called the Red Sea, is really a gulf of the Great Sea”
(Arrien, 1961, Ch. XVI, p.400). However, an alternative explanation could be that
the Badis cited above is Badio on the Red Sea/Arabian Gulf.
From what preceded, we can safely say that both eastern and western
locations were attested in ancient texts dating from the 3 rd m. till the 1st m BCE.
However, due to their proximity, Oman and its vicinity were much more preferred
by the Assyrians and Indians, to save time and expenses. These points were the
site from where they could purchase western trade, without any travelling
hazards, through the desert or sea, which is also validated by ancient trade routes.
Nonetheless, for some reason, possibly political or environmental27, trade revived
also in the western part in the 1st millennium.
This doesn’t entail that commerce to the eastern part totally stopped; for
commercial contacts with the eastern Maketa still persisted in the 1st millennium
BCE. In addition, the Makatu/ Mage/ Maka neighbor of Egypt that is depicted as
27
Check the chapter on Makan in the Researcher’s book Glimpses.
33
Asiatic supports a western location, as well as the Libyan one in classical sources.
This may corroborate an extended kingdom of the Makkians, which stretched
from Oman and its vicinity till the Red Sea, or even to Libya, which is further
consolidated in the coming subsection.
4.3. The Thirty-TwoCities of Makan

Podany (2010) revealed that Magan, when attacked by the Akkadian king
Sargon, comprised: “the Magan cities, thirty-two of them, assembled for war”
(p.47). Paine (2014) reinstated the same piece of information as: “coalition of
thirty-two Magan cities” (n.p.). Similarly, Potts (2001) demonstrated that the
Akkadian emperor Manishtusu fought at least 32 “lords of Magan” (p.40). (A.
Enein, 2021, p.779). King (1994) cited the inscription of Manishtusu at the British
Museum; the text was uncovered in Susa, and reconstructed as:
[Of the kings] of cities on this side(?) of the sea thirty-two collected
for battle, and I conquered them, and their cities [I captured].
King qualified that it is hard to decide with confidence the area where these cities
were located. He proposed to make the reference of “the sea” to the [Arabian]/
Persian Gulf (footnote, no.2, p.211). Thus, he wasn’t certain which sea was
indicated in the text.
Maka or Makan was, therefore, an extended empire or coalition of different
states; not merely present Oman or UAE and their vicinity. According to Gelb
(1970), in a restricted sense, Makkan may have signified “smaller political units”,
for example, the regions of current Kuwait in the western part, or to Oman in the
eastern one, an issue which is contingent upon “the political configuration of the
times”. Correspondingly, Meluhha may once have represented “some political
units centered around classical Persis in the west or the Indus Valley in the east”
(p.7), or as we have seen Nubia or Ethiopia.
5.Conclusive Remarks to Part I

A number of geophysical and toponomastic studies investigated the text of
Ptolemy, and the results reveal that some locations were displaced, owing to his
errors in representing the Earth’s circumference, as well as inaccuracies in the
longitude, including other issues. Such mistakes led to misrepresentations of
towns on his maps, among which is Sacred Makkah or ‘Makoraba’. Furthermore,
a few toponyms were changed significantly from their authentic names. As for
Pliny’s text, examining selected sites in the part under investigation shows that
he was most probably depicting the western region, with its acknowledged towns
and inhabitants, i.e., the Ammonites; Bani Quraysh, the Maeans, Ghassan tribe,
and the Sabaeans.
34
In addition, inspecting the parallel toponyms of Makka/ Maka/ Myka/
Myk(e)/ Myci/ Macae/ Makai/ Maga/ Mage/ Magan/ Maganna/ Makatu/ Maketa,
and the other forms unveils the fact that the kingdom of Magan extended across
Arabia, from the eastern till the western coast. Moreover, the toponyms of
Maketu/Makata, which represent ‘Makkah’ in the Arabic nominative and
accusative, were utilized for the eastern and western cities. Eastern ‘Maketa’ was
also revealed to be a market of spice, like the western sacred one. This validates
the proposal of the researcher in her book Glimpses that the designation of ‘Maka’
on the eastern coast of Arabia shows that the merchandizes which came from the
western ‘Makka’ could be obtained from this specific port of eastern Makan/
Maka, which represents a metonymic relation, or part whole relationship.
This proposal is further confirmed by the passages of trade routes which
transported goods to this region, either through camels or through vessels. The
proposition is authenticated also by the inscriptions naming ancient ‘Maganna’
market in Sacred Makkah, which is adjacent to Egypt, and which was conquered
by Sargon the Akkadian, and his son Naram Sin, as well as later by Ashurbanipal
and Esarhaddon. Additionally, ‘Maganna’ was mentioned as part of Egypt, which
may entail Egypt’s dominance over it, in several eras, and it was sought by the
Assyrians as well, as revealed from their persistent campaigns to it. Moreover,
Egyptian inscriptions alluded to ‘B3sh’ and ‘Baket’ as neighbouring dwellers.
Correspondingly, the ‘Makai’ are located in Libya in classical works.
Therefore, there has never been a toponymic-shift from east to west; rather,
the trade was more concentrated on the closest site to the Assyrians and Indians.
Furthermore, it appears that ‘Punt’ signified the same area of Makan, as shown
from the Egyptian texts portraying the margins of Punt to the farthest point
southeast. As a result, we can justifiably say that the mercantile net, called by the
Egyptians ‘Punt’, and by the Assyrians ‘Makan’, denoted sizeable sections of the
Arabian Peninsula, and conceivably Africa or Libya also, a topic which requires
more research.
Having highlighted some of the aspects of ‘Macoraba’, ‘Mochorba’, and
‘Maka’ in Ptolemy; Pliny, and other geographers; sailors, historians, in addition
to Assyrian and Egyptian records, we come to the second part, on the linguistic
investigation of the toponyms ‘Macoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’.
Part II
Introduction
Before conducting the analysis, an idea is given about selected Greek and
Latin phonological and morphological rules. Such topics furnish a suitable
background for examining the toponyms in Arabic, Latin, and Greek contexts,
35
since the researcher offers a reconstruction of the toponyms according to both
Greek and Arabic compounding rules. However, it is worthy of note that the
author poses varied possibilities for the reconstruction of such place names, since
there are no clear-cut data of these toponyms’ etymology or formation.
1.A Bird’s View of Greek

Overview
The Greek language is recognized as an Indo-European language; it has an
extended and complex history. Archeological findings reveal that Greek is the
earliest uninterruptedly articulated language at approximately 3000 BCE28. It is
also the earliest documented language with records that go back to 1600 BCE, as
attested in the Linear B tablets, uncovered in Crete. Of Crete’s most significant
populaces were the Mycenaeans, who conversed in an initial form of Greek. They
subjugated Crete and the non-Greek Minoan, which is corroborated by Linear B
texts. Thus, Greek tribes resided in “the mainland of Greece”, and ultimately
dominated the islands (Beals, 2010, pp.2- 6).
Greek flourished shortly before the year 2000 BCE, in an area of northern
Greece (Adrados, 2005, p.17). It is roughly divided into these main stages29:
Pre-Homeric (up to 1000 B.C.)
The Classical Era (1000 B.C to 330 B.C.)
The Koine, Era (330 B.C. to 330 CE) (Beals, 2010, pp.2- 8).
Koine means ‘common language’, and Koine Greek is the Greek of the New
Testament. It was basically the Greek of Athens, then it spread all through
Alexander the Great’s empire (Lehmann and Slocum, 2021).
1.1. Some Phonological Considerations

Koinē Greek had sixteen consonants, as shown in the following table. The
consonants of Koinē Greek vary merely marginally from those of Attic Greek30.
A hint on the sounds under discussion is given, most significantly, the consonants
κ, q, and χ, and the vowels  /a/, and the omicron or /o/, which concern us in our
discussion of ‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’. These sounds are investigated in both
28
There are different theories on this issue.
29
This is a very general introduction to Greek, and these stages are the ones of relevance to the current study.
Reference is also made to later stages throughout this study.
30
Attic is an Ancient Greek dialect; it was the tongue of ancient Athens. During the 5th century BCE, Attic
developed to be the most prominent of the Greek dialects, and was embraced subsequently as the regular
language used by the Macedonian kings (Britannica, 2016: Attic Greek).
36
Greek and Latin, being the languages in which the toponyms were represented in
the works of Ptolemy and Pliny.
Consonants of Koinē Greek (Butts, 2013, p.87)
1.1.1. ‘k’, ‘χ’ & ‘q’ in Greek and Latin

The Greek κ “was a voiceless unaspirated velar stop” in both Attic Greek
and the Koine Greek of the Roman and Byzantine eras, whereas Greek χ was “an
aspirated voiceless velar stop /kh/ in Attic Greek”. In the Roman era, it became
“a voiceless velar fricative /x/”, the conventional articulation in the Byzantine era
(Butts, 2013, pp.97, 120). In Latin, c substituted original k in the primary
alphabet, and in subsequent eras sometimes c re-emerges in inscriptions before
different vowels. Hence, there is “the form Caelius interchanging
with Kaelius, Cerus with Kerus, and decembres with dekembres”, displaying
that c and k were equal in sound (Peck, 2009, p.9).
Greek Alphabet and its Latin equivalent

(Spelling of Greek names, n.d.)
Moreover, Greek χ was produced in Latin as ch; yet sounded like k

(Hoffman, 2007, pp.10, 12). Likewise, Patwell (n.d.) stated that the Romans
rendered kappa k with c; chi as ch, not kh; hence, “character, not kharakter” (p.1).
However, as we shall, exceptions exit in these representations.
(Part of the table of Grensted and Bradley, 1985, pp.2,3)
Initially, Latin had no aspirates, then when the Romans started to borrow Greek
words with χ, they used c with a h sound to represent it. At approximately 100
37
BCE, they used the ch form “with increasing frequency”. Consequently, we detect
the aspirates utilized in particular authentic Latin lexical items such as ‘pulcher’
from ‘pulcer’; ‘Gracchus’ from ‘Graccus’31 (Bennett, 1907, pp.27-28).
Concerning Q, it stood for the ancient Greek “sharp guttural mute Q koppa”
(Peck, 2009, pp.9-10, 14). The Etruscans embraced “K” and “Q” from archaic
Greek “K” and transferred them to Latin. However, they could not distinguish
between them in articulation, as in Semitic. Then, unlike classical Greek, “Q” was
lost in Latin (Shabath, 1973, p.28). The next table presents the Greek consonants
under consideration, and their Latin equivalents, with few examples:
Part of the table of Greek sounds and their Latin equivalents

(The Greek Alphabet & Pronunciation, pp.2,3)
1.1.2. Representation of Greek and Semitic /k/

In this subsection, we review some correspondences of the /k/ in Semitic
languages; because we don’t know for certain from which Semitic language were
the elements of the two toponyms under investigation borrowed. Naturally,
Arabic is the most probable language; but this doesn’t exclude the possibility of
another Semitic source.
Semitic languages produced Greek “k τ χ θ” as “q ṭ k t”, even though there
existed certain “exceptions”. In Phoenician-Punic, Greek ‘k’ was nearly
constantly rendered as Semitic ‘k’ not ‘q’, distinct from Latin ‘k’, which was
constantly transcribed as ‘q’ (Bausi, 2017). Kantor (2017) catalogued the different
Greek transcription conventions that were employed throughout the Hellenistic,
Roman, and Byzantine eras in the ancient Near East for the following languages,
in the next tables (p.172).
(Kantor, 2017, pp. 130, 173)
31
See the section on Mochorba for more on this point.
38
Greek κ was characteristically rendered in Syriac by the emphatic velar
stop q, which is the most usual rendering in Post-Biblical Hebrew, and in diverse
dialects of Jewish Aramaic. Moreover, Greek χ characteristically corresponded to
Syriac k, which was recognized as “a voiceless velar stop or a voiceless velar
fricative”. At times, Greek χ corresponded to “the emphatic velar stop q” (Butts,
2013, p.97, footnote 51, pp.97, 120). The following table reveals that Syriac /k/
was, in rare cases, represented by Greek /k/:
Part of the table of Greek sounds and their Syriac equivalents

(Butts, 2013, p.124)
As can be seen in the above tables, exceptions in the rendering of /k/, though
infrequent, occurred.
Moreover, according to Muss-Arnolt (1892), , q and k, in the
following Semitic languages, were transcribed by  in earlier Greek:
(Muss-Arnolt, 1892, p.48).
Hence, Arabic words with /k/, like those of Hebrew, could have been rendered by
Greek  as  from Hebrew měḵōnāh, māḵōn, and Arabic /makaan/.
It follows that, in ancient Greek, Semitic /k/ was at times rendered as /k/.
In addition, though it was commonly represented later as Greek χ, exceptions in
the transcription of Semitic /k/ existed in Koinē Greek. This is further discussed
in the coming sections.
39
1.1.2.1. Representation of Some Arabic Sounds in Greek
Regarding Arabic sounds, Al-Jallad studied different texts, and reached the
following results. In examining Greek transcription and transliteration of
Southern Levant Papyri in the Roman and Byzantine eras, Al-Jallad (2017) noted
that “the reflex of *q = [k’] is consistently represented with ϰ, indicating that the
sound was voiceless” (p.137). Furthermore, in Al-Jallad’s investigation of the
Pslam Fragment, he clarified that all the texts he investigated “spell the reflex of
*q with kappa” in both pre-Islamic and early-Islamic eras, indicating [q], if not
[ќ].
This is also valid for the Psalm Fragment, e.g., “ό [qads-oh] “his
holiness” (v.54) and  [?anqalebū] “they rebelled” (v.57)” (Al-Jallad,
2020, p.18). Moreover, inspecting Arabic toponyms in the Greek text of 17, Al-
Jallad (2013) observed that, in the whole examined corpus, the Arabic *q is
“represented with kappa, as in   ‘oqq “bitter water”, except for two instances,
shown with the Gamma (p.26).
(Al-Jallad, 2013, p.26)
Additionally, Al-Jallad (2017) highlighted that it was customary in Greek

transcription, in the Roman Near East, to deploy the aspirated χ  θ to signify
“the plain Semitic voiceless stops *k, *p, and *t in all positions, and by the use
of the unaspirated stops ϰ, τ for the Semitic emphatic *q and *ṭ”. He clarified
that “the nearly consistent transcription of Old Arabic [t] and [k] with θ and χ”
powerfully indicates that such sounds persisted as aspirated stops in Greek and
were possibly aspirated in the Arabic dialects too (pp.114, 117).
(Part of the table of Al-Jallad, 2013, p.27)
1.1.3. Selected Semitic Loans with /k/ in Greek Texts

Van der Poel (2019) avowed that the intercultural contacts between the
Semites, particularly, the Phoenicians and the populace of Ugarit and
Mediterranean citizens were quite common, either through trade or occupation.
Thus, words were frequently reciprocally transferred and incorporated into “a
40
foreign lexicon”, which is also true for Ancient Greek. Even though the precise
number is unidentified, the Greek lexicon comprises apparently hundreds of
Semitic loans. Nevertheless, deciding the donor language is quite problematic.
van der Poel investigated 14 loanwords in Greek to inspect the interchange
of some consonants and vowels. Regarding the substitution of vowels from /  to
/o/, he detected their occurrence as follows:
(van der Poel, 2019, p.23)
Moreover, few of the words he examined with a /k/ are cited along these lines:
κάννα “reed, Arundo donax, reed-fence, -mat”
Initial detection: 14th-13th century BC (Mycenean)
Greek forms: “κάννα [f.], Myc. ko-no-ni-pi /konōni-phi/ (instr. pl), Ion.
κάννη”.
He explained that the Semitic origin of the word κάννα has been approved from
1867 on by numerous researchers, while “the Semitic emphatic velar q [kʼ] lost
its emphatic element and was regularly substituted into Greek κ” (van der Poel,
2019, pp.10, 11, 12). In Lisaan Al-‘Arab, there are two relevant words: ‫ األ َ ِكنَّة‬/al-
ِ , /al-qinniinah/, ‘bottle or
akinnah/32 or covers, with a /k/, and ‫القنِينَةُ ِوعاءٌ يتخذ من َخيْ ُزران‬
flask’, with /q/. The one with a /k/ seems to be more relevant to the Greek word.
Another word is:
κημός “muzzle, plaited lid of the balloting urn, fyke for fishing,
cover for nose and mouth”
Initial detection: 6th-5th century BC (Aeschylus)
Greek forms: κημός [m.], Dor. κᾱμός
Semitic forms include: “Akk. kamu 'to bind'; Arab. kamma 'to cover, to hide, to
apply a muzzle'”. Thus, κημός and its Semitic equivalents are associated, even
though it is uncertain which language borrowed from the other. Moreover, “a Pre-
Greek intermediate stage is possible, but not necessary” (van der Poel, 2019,
pp.16, 24). The Arabic form is detected in Lisaan Al-‘Arab as /kammam/ with
similar meanings, and with a /k/ (n.p.). van der Poel (2019) inferred from the
examined cases that, concerning the exchange of κ/χ, “the Semitic donor
languages show no variation in their consonants”. Hence, within a Pre-Greek
stage, exchange of χ/κ is detected. He concluded that
32
Transcriptions and translations of Arabic lexicons are offered by the researcher; unless otherwise shown.
41
Semitic /k/, /g/ (and <ḥ>) were substituted in Greek as both κ
and χ. So, this variation cannot have emerged before the borrowing
from Semitic and developed via Pre-Greek.
He summarized these aspects as follows (pp.22, 23, 24):
“Summary of Pre-Greek phonological features”
(van der Poel, 2019, p.23)
Another word is which is:
(Muss-Arnolt, 1892, p.52)
Though several scholars affirmed its Semitic origin, Beekes (2004) doubted a
Semitic origin of this word. He advocated that “the analysis of the word Kabeiroi
as Pre-Greek *Kab-ar’- makes its connection with Semitic Kabir impossible”
(p.475). Another word is the Babylonian kimahhu, which is in Jewish Aramaic
kwk < [kiwah]. It was rendered in Greek as (Lepiniski, 1997, p.552).
A further valuable document is the Synoptic Gospels, studied by Botello
(2007). It is generally dated by using the time of destruction of Jerusalem by the
Romans in 70 CE as the temporal point, according to which the era of Synoptic
Gospels is established. Nonetheless, Botello suggested a different view, “that the
best starting point is the date of the Book of Acts of the Apostles, which can be
placed at 62 CE”, while Luke's Gospel is older and Mark's Gospel even prior to
this. There are also different time ranges: “Acts in the second century CE, most
often between 100 to 130 CE”, “around the 80's” or “around the late 50's to early
60's” (Botello, 2007, pp.4, 5-6).
Bivin and Tilton (2014/2019) underlined that canonical Gospels were
written in Greek, and there are signals that they were derived from non-Greek
resources. This is plausible; because Yeshua’s instructions were possibly in
Hebrew, and, in line with initial church practices, the primary register of Yeshua
was recorded in Hebrew. Of the evidence that the Synoptic Gospels sprang from
a Hebrew Life of Yeshua are several “foreign words that were transliterated
into Greek from either Hebrew or Aramaic (it is often impossible to distinguish
Hebrew from Aramaic in Greek transliteration)”.
42
Bivin and Tilton grouped all the transliterated words in the Synoptic
Gospels, excluding personal designations and placenames. Nonetheless,
transliterated words are rather hard to elucidate; as there were parallels in Greek
like ῥακά [raka, “empty head”]; σίκερα [sikera, “beer”]). Some of the words that
they investigated are:
κόρος (koros) = ‫( כֹּ ר‬cor, a measure of quantity); ‫כֹורא‬
ָ (Aram. cora,
a measure of quantity) Luke 16:7 (Bivin and Tilton, 2014/2019).
In Lisaan Al-‘Arab, “‫[ ”والك َْور الزيادة‬/kawr/] means ‘increase’. “‫ نعوذ باهلل من‬:‫وقولهم‬
‫ ال َح ْور النقصان والرجوع‬:‫ قيل‬،‫”ال َح ْو ِربعد الك َْو ِر‬, or ‘Arabs say /Hawr/ and /Kawr/, increase
and decrease’ (n.p.) Thus, the Arabic word has a /k/ sound as well. Another word
examined by Bivin and Tilton (2014/2019) is:
ῥακά (raka) = ‫( ֵריקָ ה‬rekah, “empty head”); ‫( ֵריקָ א‬Aram. reka, “empty
head”) Matt. 5:22 (n.p.).
In Lisaan Al-‘Arab, “‫ نقص وضعف‬: َّ‫وارتَك‬
ْ ‫”ركَّ عقله ورأيه‬
َ [/rakka ‘aqluhu: naquSā wa
Dā‘uf/], or his mind became feeble and weak. Therefore, some Semitic words
with /k/ sound were borrowed into Greek with their /k/, and were not changed
into another sound at the era of Ptolemy33. The Arabic and Aramaic words show
that they had original /k/ sound. Nonetheless, they may have been ancient
borrowings.
Concerning Biblical interpretations, according to Vollandt (2016),
Aquila’s (Sinope, first century CE) translation is commonly
described as a mirror translation that adheres much more closely to
the Hebrew than the Septuagint, using a peculiar calque language.
Word-order and etymological derivations in the Hebrew are
usually imitated in the Greek; Hebrew words are rendered
throughout by the same equivalent. Theodotion (possibly Epheus,
second century CE) preferred transliteration of Hebrew biblical
names and realia to their translation into Greek. (p.61)
This may be possibly one of the reasons for preserving an Arabic sound /k/
in ‘Makkah’, being of a specific religious stand. Therefore, the sound /k/ in
‘Makoraba’ is both plausible and possible, though rare. Nevertheless, as the
writers cited in this section noted, we can’t know decisively the time of
borrowing, i.e., these could have been borrowed earlier than Pliny or Ptolemy’s
time into Greek; yet their borrowing at their periods, with their original /k/ sound,
is also probable.
33
He lived from100 till 170 CE (Jones, 2021).
43
This is further consolidated in an upcoming subsection, in relation to
geminated consonants. But before considering these sounds, a hint is given on
syllabification in Greek, since we have two cases of compounding, and the name
Makkah has a double /k/. Therefore, the rules for dividing words into syllables in
Greek are quite relevant to our cases.
1.1.4. Syllabification in Greek and Latin

There are several rules in Biblical Greek for the division of words into
syllables or syllabification, some of which are cited as follows. Principally, Greek
words are syllabified in a way comparable to English. The major rule is that there
is merely one vowel or diphthong in every syllable. As for consonant clusters; for
those that can’t be articulated, they are split, the initial consonant is grouped with
the previous vowel. A consonant cluster that can be produced jointly is
assembled with the subsequent vowel. Compound words are separated from
their point of juncture, while double consonants should be split (Mounce,
2019, pp. ix, x).
Likewise, the Chicago Manual of Style ([Chi], 9.130) specified that in
ancient Greek “if a consonant is doubled, or if a mute is followed by its
corresponding aspirate, divide after the first consonant”. In Latin, “in the case
of two or more consonants, divide before the last consonant except in the
combinations: mute”, for instance, Ch, ph, etc. (Haralambous, 1992, pp.459, 467).
Thus, the division of Mak-kah is possible after the first consonant to be Mak; if it
was not originally rendered into Greek as Maka only, which is tackled under
gemination, and also later in the analysis.
However, Bennett (1907) warned that in the finest Latin inscriptions, the
proofs show amazing divergence from the conventional rule which advocates
“joining as many consonants as possible with the following vowel”. In roughly
80 percent of the entire cases, where words are split at the end of a line, one of
the consonants is linked with the previous vowel, which shows plainly a
methodical contradiction with the rules of grammar. Proofs of such violations are
similarly detected in instances “by ancient writers on Latin prosody”, dividing
syllables against the rules of grammar; yet rather following certain “phonetic
considerations” (Bennett, 1907, pp.32-33). Therefore, the division of *Makχ, a
possible Greek reconstruction of ‘Makkah’, could have faintly produced; because
the inconsistencies of writers varied forms like Mak. or *Maχ. This is further
explored in the coming subsections.
44
1.1.5. (De)Gemination of /kk/ or /kχ/:
1.1.5.1.in Greek
Given that Macoraba and Mochorba stand for Sacred Makkah, this
subsection examines their loss of geminated /k/. Even though varied possibilities
would be discussed for these toponyms throughout this part; yet the probability
of degemination should be considered as well. As clarified by Hasan (2014), the
word ‘Makkah’ could have been derived from several similar roots like: ‘makk’,
‘maqq’, ‘bakk’, ‘baqq’, among others. He also alluded to the Hebrew root
‘makhkh’ /maxx/, which has a meaning similar to ‘makk’ (n.p.). All of these roots
and some of their dialectal variants also have geminate consonants.
Al-Jallad (2020) highlighted that gemination is commonly signified by “the
doubling of the consonant” in Greek. He also clarified that the “non-
representation of geminate and word-final glides is common to the pre-Islamic
Graeco-Arabica”. Accordingly, it possibly should not be employed to contend
for “the simplification of geminates”. This phenomenon is perhaps ascribable to
“the Greek writing system”. However, the issue of word-final geminates is far
more intricate to elucidate. Al-Jallad attributed it likely to the fact that “word-
final position caused degemination or that the acoustic difference between word-
final and word-medial geminates” impelled the copyist to render “the latter as
single consonants” (p.10). Furthermore, Hermann (1923) assigned degemination
to an era prior to Koine Greek (Vessella, 2018, p.112).
Hoffman (2004) accentuated that when “an ancient scheme of
pronunciation” agrees with a regular linguistic model, we have conclusive
evidence that we have rightly recognized “the ancient pattern”. However, when
he studied the Masoretic texts34 in relation to Greek LXX35, he detected several
inconsistencies. He concluded that LXX or Septuagint does not correspond to the
“Masoretic stop/fricative alternations among the consonants: k/x, p/f, b/v, etc.”.
Hoffman clarified that the Masoretic articulations do not appear to be affirmed by
the Greek pronunciation.
Nevertheless, he conceded that “we must not assume that the Masoretes
were wrong and the Greeks were right, but we also must not assume the opposite”.
For example, the name Rebecca is quite problematic . The
LXX cites it as rebekka, the Masoretic, Rivkah, the first with three syllables, the
second two. Furthermore, “the koof mysteriously appears doubled in the Greek”.
34
The writing of the texts started in the 6th century CE and was completed in the 10th century (Britannica:
Masoretic text, 2013).
35
LXX is the Septuagint. The first five books of the Septuagint were interpreted in the mid of the 3 rd
century BCE, and the remainder of the Old Testament in the 2 nd century BCE (Britannica: Septuagint, 2020).
45
Masoretic usually marks doubling by certain diacritics36 which were not used;
hence, they didn’t agree on this name, unfortunate for the Masoretes.
Hoffman further indicated that the answer is that /k/ sound in Rebecca
belongs to a set of “emphatic sounds” of which is the koof. It is possible that such
sounds were represented as doubled, and they altered the pattern of a word form
in Greek. Hebrew koof in Keturah is represented with Greek /x/, and the first koof
in Hebrew is not transliterated as /k/ in Greek; but as /x/ (χ), contrary to Keturah,
which was represented with /k/. Hoffman reiterated that “[o]nce again, we see
some confusion between stops and fricatives, but here the confusion involves not
the Hebrew letter kaf but the Hebrew letter Koof”.
Consistent with the Masoretes, “one difference between these two letters is
that the former [kaf] alternates with /x/ but the latter [koof] does not. The LXX
does not confirm this distinction”. The Greek rendered Cain in LXX as , so
if koof in Cain remained as /k/ in Greek, why was not this executed in Keturah.
Hence, “there is little reason to think that the Masoretic understanding of the stop/
fricative alternations (such as /k/ vs. /x/) was correct”. Consequently, we find
“confusion about the stop/fricative distinction” in general (Hoffman, 2004, pp.96,
97, 98, 101, 105).
Similarly, Murtonen (1990) averred that, typically, /k/ is represented in
Greek as χ; but at times, specifically, in word final position, but also in other
positions,
as it seems, without fixed rules perhaps apart from occasional
influence of Grassmann’s law37, k occurs instead; when geminated
kχ occurs in most LXX transcriptions dating apparently from
earlier periods; in later ones, including the 2nd col. Of Origen
Hexapla, χχ is found instead. /g/, again, is usually rendered by γ,
doubled when geminated; in word final, k is sometimes found
instead. The Lat transcriptions correspond to these, ch and
occasionally c standing for a short /k/, cch and also chch for a
geminated one; g for a short /g/, doubled when geminated.
Murtonen also clarified that the transcription of geminates is quite informative,
namely, kχ =cch can merely have initiated at a period “when Hbr /k/ was still
occlusive at least when geminated, and should the var. kk be genuine, it would
again take us back to the period before its aspiration as well” (p.44).
36
In Hebrew, doubling is shown by a dot called dagesh as in “ ” (Webster, 2009, p.3); in Arabic, it is
marked by the shaddah or ّّ, e.g., ‫ كلَّم‬/kallama/, ‘or he talked to …’
37
“Grassmann’s Law” illustrates “the dissimilatory loss of aspiration in one of two non-adjacent aspirated
consonants”, for instance, “Proto-Gk. *hékhō > Gk. ékhō ‘I have’” (Vine, 2013).
46
It is to be inferred that the Greek scribes were not always consistent in their
representation or transcription of the Semitic /k/ sound in LXX and other texts,
which should be, according to Greek rules, represented as /χ/. However, in a
number of cases, it was represented as /k/; Latin ‘c’ or ‘ch’. More information on
Latin degemination is offered in the coming subsection.
1.1.5.2. in Latin
Latin geminated consonants are not transcribed at word final position; e.g.,
far for *farr. However, it is likely that geminated consonants were pronounced in
such words as farr. Furthermore, “groups of two consonants at the end of a word
are simplified”, like in cor from cord; mel from melt. (Bennett, 1907, p.118).
Additionally, Vessella (2018) indicated that “early Greek loanwords in Latin”
regularly experienced fundamental remodeling, occasionally including
“simplification of original geminates”, for instance, Acilles, and Accheruns, or
“gemination of simple consonants”.
Regarding loans of Republican eras38, they usually conserved Greek
geminates. This may be due to “learned borrowing, based on knowledge of the
Greek orthography”, and possibly on far precise articulation of Greek that
conserved gemination. In case it was in the 2nd century CE, degemination was
effected in certain dialects of Greek, and possibly was “even well established”.
In that case, the lexicographers were directing “their prescriptions” to diverse
readers or viewers, comprising speakers who were employing geminates
habitually, and speakers who should acquire them (Vessella, 2018, pp.112, 113).
Degeminated spelling in Latin inscriptions from the varied parts of the
Roman Empire has been verified by various prominent scholars. Tantimonaco
(2020) inferred from the study of topographical proofs of the Imperial age 39 that
degemination was “a real phonetic trend”. Romance philologists deemed
degemination commonly as a rather delayed phenomenon. According to Kiss,
who examined inscriptions from the 2nd century CE on, late Latin witnessed a
vast propensity for consonantal degemination that caused lenition, so as to
maintain “phonological oppositions in the system, by avoiding confusions
between simple and degeminated plosives”.
Tantimonaco further unveiled that the reduction of equally degemination
and duplication may be, accordingly, relatively associated with the various
alterations that influenced the vocalic system of Latin in the course of time. These
undoubtedly made their way following the regional partitioning, and the
38
Roman Republic (509–27 BCE): the ancient government was positioned in Rome, it started in 509 BCE, at the
time when the Romans substituted “their monarchy with elected magistrates”. It persisted till 27 BCE, when
the Roman Empire was founded (Britannica: Roman Republic, 2021b).
39
from 27 BC till 476 CE (Britannica: Roman Empire, 2021c)
47
consequent additional stages of ‘regionalization’ of the Empire that ensued at the
close of the 3rd century CE, under the emperor Diocletian (pp.165, 166, 171,
176). Consequently, degemination occurred in Greek words represented or
borrowed into Latin for simplification.
For more demonstration, the coming subsection tackles the name of Baca/
Bacca/ Bakka, whose structure is similar to Makka.
1.1.5.3. The Case for Bacca/Bacchus/ ἀχѕ40
Citing similar cases to ‘Makkah’ may aid in the reconstruction of the
toponyms under investigation. ‘Bacca’ or ‘Baca’41 is another toponym relevant to
Makkah, and similar to its structure; hence, it is examined in this section. When
addressing comparable cases, Bennett (1907) observed that “the aspirates
gain[ed] a foothold in certain genuine Latin words” such as “Gracchus (after
Bacchus= ἀχѕ), originally Graccus”, etc. (p.28). ἀχѕ is useful in this
context; it is in Latin “Bacchus”, which comprises ‘cch’ and the Latin ending for
the masculine sing.
As stated in Mythopedia, the Greek word Bakkhos came from bakkheia, a
Greek word for “the frenzied, ecstatic state that the god produced in people”.
However, “Bacchus” could be also associated with the Latin bacca, “a berry” or
“the fruit of a tree or shrub”, probably grapes, used mainly in wine (Bacchus,
Mythopedia). The Latin word “bacca” has another form ‘baca’; it came from “a
Proto-Indo-European source, although the exact root is unclear” (WordSense
Dic.). In The Arabic Bible Dictionary, Buka tree is a tree which is near Makkah,
also in Raphaelites’ valley, 2 Sam: 5, 22-24, and other Biblical verses (Buka tree).
In Lisan Al-‘Arab, there are two forms: ‫البَكَى‬, ‫( البُكَى‬n.p.), /al-baka/, and /al-buka/,
with single /k/.
Bacchus or Βάκχος is
termed “Διόνυσος Βάκχειος and ὁ Βάκχειος in Hdt.” (Liddell & Scott, 1889).
‘Βάκχος , ὁ’, Bacchus, was a designation of Dionysus, “first
in S.OT211 [Sophocles] (lyr.), cf. E.Hipp.560 [Euripides](lyr.),
al., Limen.19, Theoc.Ep.18.3 [Euripodes], etc.” (Liddell & Scott, 1940). He is the
“Greek god of wine and revelry”; Latin Bacchus, from Greek Bakkhos, or it
probably came from “an Asian language. Perhaps originally a Thracian fertility
god” (etymoline: bacchus).
40
See the appendix for a screenshot of the ancient inscription on Maqam Ibrahim near Al-Ka‘ba, recorded by a
writer in the 3rd century Ah/ 9th C. CE.
41
See the researcher’s paper: “The Ancient Inscription of Bakkah”.
48
The name ‘ἀχѕ’ was posited in Archaeological History of Makkah to
be derived from Bacca /Bakkah/, Sacred Makkah. ‘Bacca’ is an Arabic feminine
noun, and it is associated with the plant ‘Baka’ that is native to this area. If we
examine Bacchus= ἀχѕ, we find that the Greek designation has doubled ‘kk’,
in which the first is rendered as /k/; the second /kh/ or χ. Bennett (1907) explained
this phenomenon as follows: at the time when the mutes, i.e., “(//, dd; pp; cc, gg)”
became double, there were two discrete consonant pronunciations; unlike English
where we produce one only (p.31); hence, /k/ and /x/.
Herodotus lived in the 5th century BCE (c.484 BCE - c.420 BCE)
(Britannica: Herodotus, 2019c). In his Histories, Book III, about the deities
worshipped by the Arabs, we have mention of Bakkhos as one of the gods of
Arabs “Bacchus they call in their language Orotal, and Urania, Alilat” (n.p.). This
makes his association with Makkah more solid; because of the name ‘Bacca’,
ethnicity, and religious association. Moreover, he was referenced by Arrian
(1814), [1st -2nd CE] as one of the Arabian gods (p.198). The name is, therefore,
attested in ancient records, in Herodotus’ time; Alexander’s time (4th c. BCE), and
later on.
However, the name is much older than Herodotus. Bakkhos/ Dionysus is
first corroborated in the Linear B tablets from Pylos and Crete from about 1250
BCE (Henrichs, 2019, p.383). Since Bacchus is referenced in Linear B tablet
which is dated to 13th century BCE, this implies that his worship is corroborated
in the Mycenaean era. He is represented as being from “foreign origins” in the
myths of his worship (Britannica: Dionysus, 2021d). Thus, the word persisted in
this form ‘Bakkos’ before the Pre-Homeric era, which, as clarified by Beals
(2010) above, was till 1000 BCE.
Bennett (1907) divulged that some Latin words display “shortening of an
accented vowel, with compensatory doubling of the following consonant” like
“cuppa… bacca…bucca…”. Several of such words are usually recorded with
their early forms, with one consonant merely; unlike the Augustan era42 which
has writings with two consonants (p.102). Given the variant forms of ‘bacca’ and
‘baca’ in Arabic and Greek, and what Al-Jallad remarked about the representation
of Arabic geminates in Greek; one /k/ in Makoraba would be quite plausible, i.e.,
makka > maka > mak. We’ve already seen the different forms of ‘Maka’ with
single /k/ in the first part. Concerning its writing, the name could have been
produced earlier with one /k/, i.e., ‘Maka/o’ as in “baca”, or was used in both
forms, i.e., with either single or double /k/, as we shall see in the subsection on
the analysis.
42
from 43 BCE – 18 CE (Britannica: Augustan Age).
49
In addition, this may account for the different shapes of ‘Makoraba’ and
*Moχorba/ Mochorba, if the form was represented with χ, then was later rendered
as ‘Mochorba’ in Latin, where the ‘ch’ may stand for the χ. It seems that one
writer may have preferred using merely the /k/ as in Makoraba; the other the /χ/,
since Latin writers were not always consistent in their writing, as clarified earlier
by Bennett, and in the subsection under syllabification. Since Pliny resorted to
Greek sources, it is possible that he detected the Greek transliterated name
*Moxorba, and rendered it as discussed above. However, there are additional
strong suggestions that recommend other solutions, and these are presented in the
coming subsections.
1.1.6. /k/ for the /q/ in Makoraba

From the above sections, it is plausible that the Arabic /k/ could have been
represented as Greek /k/. Another possibility is that of the /q/, which was rendered
in Greek as /k/. Thus, we should examine variants with /q/; i.e., the forms /al-
maq(q)ah/ and /al-muq(q)ah/43. If the informants recorded a variant of Makkah as
pronounced by a local as /maqqah/, then the use of Greek /k/ is quite suitable in
/Makoraba/, or Arabic /q/ > Greek /k/. In Glimpses, the author argued that
Ma(u)qa is the very same Makkah, given its same Dionysiac symbols such as the
vine and the bull’s head, and other proofs as well44.
Lipinski (1997) underlined that the phenomenon of the exchange of /k/ and
/q/ is detected between Semitic languages in: “Semitic roots, such as ḍḥk, śḥq,
and ṣḥq, "to laugh", or qtl, kṭl, and qṭl, "to kill"” (p.105). Moreover, the variation
between /k/ and /q/ is widely attested in ancient Arabic dialects. According to Al-
Zu‘biy (2008), /q/ and /k/ were used interchangeably in ancient Arabic dialects:
/q/ in Qays, Tamiim and Asad, and /k/ in Quraysh. A companion of prophet
Mohamed ‫ﷺ‬, Ibn Mas‘uud (RA‘A), even recited a Quranic word with a /q/, while it
was revealed and recited with a /k/, i.e., /qushiTāt/ and /kushiTāt/45 (pp.63, 64).
Al-‘Ubayidy (2010) attributed this phenomenon to tribal variations; where
Bedouins prefer /q/ which suits their harsh and hard ways of life. However, he
added that Asad tribe changes /q/ into /g/ which also suits their Bedouin ways
(pp.231, 260).
Similarly, Youssef (2021) expounded that there are four main reflexes /q
? k g/. It is often accepted that /q ? k/ are used by sedentary people, whereas the
voiced /g/ is used by Bedouin. Nevertheless, there are “exceptions; for instance,
both in North Africa and the Levant we encounter urban dialects with /g/, and in
reality, every geographical region has a distinct pattern of variation” (p.4).
43
See the chapter on Al-Muqa in Glimpses.
44
Check the chapter on Al-Muqa in Glimpses.
45
The Holy Qur’an, Chapter of Al-Takwiir, 81: 11
50
Therefore, the original form of Makoraba could have been either /makkah/ or
/maqqah/+ /rabbah/, the initial syllable of /mak/ or /maq/ was rendered in Greek
as /mak/, as we shall see in the section of morphological analysis.
1.1.7. *M
Ptolemy wrote in Greek; Pliny in Latin, and Ptolemy used Pliny as one of
his sources. Hence, it is possible that Ptolemy corrected the form of Mochorba to
be rightly Makoraba, with a /k/, if he utilized this form from Pliny, or the two
forms were used simultaneously. When referencing the names, Pliny was merely
stating what he learned from informants who may have not been accurate, or
recounting generally without being specific in their depiction. This is true for his
situation, and most of the Greek or Latin geographers that Pliny or Ptolemy cited.
Pliny may have consulted Greek sources, though, for this name as well.
Pliny rendered this toponym in Latin as “portus Mochorbae”46. The change
of vowels is very common in the Arabic context, in languages in general, and
when transliterating a word into other languages. For instance, how do westerners
pronounce and write ‘Makkah’ anciently and currently? They produce it as
‘Mecca’ /mekkah/ or /mikkah/. In their pronunciation, they have changed the
vowel from /a/ to /e/ or /i/. Furthermore, the variation of vowels is widely attested
in old Arabic dialects, ‫ ابدال حروف العلة‬/’ibdaal Huruuf al-‘illah/, or the interchange
of vowels. However, we should also consider Greek and Latin vowels.
It is possible that another phonetic change occurred, if the original form
was ‘Makkah’, then the vowel changed from /a/ > /o/, under the influence of the
bilabial /m/, and also in the environment of the following linking /o/, i.e., in
‘Makorab’, which is further tackled under morphological analysis. /o/ is a
rounded vowel, uttered from the lips like /m/, while /a/ isn’t; thus /a/ is changed
into the rounded /o/, to ease pronunciation, /a/ > /o/, i.e., /mak/ > /mok/. Earlier
we saw that this change, from // > /o/, is quite common in Greek.
In a similar vein, Al-Jallad (2013) noted that “perhaps under the influence
of a neighboring labial consonant: the kinship designation  = Qowābel
from *Qawābil, and μ, if  ‘arom “heaps of grain” from *‘aram” (p.25). This
corresponds perfectly with our case, since the environment of /a/ has a bilabial
/m/ plus a rounded vowel /o/ in ‘cho’.
46
The Latin form of this toponym is taken from “Teubner edition of the text as established by Karl Mayhoff,
1875-1906”. Retrieved from LacusCurtius • Pliny the Elder's Natural History — Book 6 (uchicago.edu)
51
1.1.8. The Final Say:
Arabic and Semitic Placenames with /k/ in Ptolemy and Pliny’s Works:
k > k, and ch ≈ c
Makoraba (73°20'. 22°00') (Geographia, 6.7.32) isn’t the only Arabic or
Semitic toponym with ‘k’ that was transliterated with Greek ‘k’ in Geographia.
There are some other Greek names that maintained their original ‘k’, such as
Cabubathra mons (Καβούβαθρα ὄρος). According to Smith (1854), it is a
mountain that lies on the southwestern coastline of Arabia, cited by Ptolemy (6.7.
§ § 8, 12) as the western edge of the nation of the Homeritae. At this point, there
is approximately Jebel Kurruz in Capt. Haines's chart (Smith, 1854). However,
these names seem so varied to be considered as an acceptable case in this context,
to the researcher’s knowledge.
Another name is karmal, Ptolemy’s “Karmelos mountain. 66°25'. 32°55'”
(Geographia, 5.15.5). The Latin Carmel, Carmēlus, is from
Greek Kármēlos, from Hebrew karmel “garden, orchard” (Dictionary.com).
According to Britannica, it is an ancient name that goes back to “biblical times”.
It came from the Hebrew word “kerem47 (“vineyard” or “orchard”), and attests to
the mountain’s fertility even in ancient times” (Mount Carmel). Thus, we have a
case similar to Makoraba: Hebrew k > Greek k in the same corpus.
Moreover, as we have seen earlier, in the Latin versions, Pliny mentioned
in (6.32.3):
We next come to the region of Amithoscutta. Damnia, the Greater
and the Lesser Mizi, and the Drimati. The promontory of the
Naumachaei, over against Carmania, is distant from it fifty miles.
(Topostexts)
and in 6.32.3, “the port of Mochorbe” (Topostexts), and in another version of
Pliny:
the Macae; a cape in their territory points towards Carmania, 50
miles away…. (Attalus: Pliny, Book VI)
He rendered these sites and peoples as: ‘Macae’; ‘Macas’, ‘Machaei’;
‘Naumachaei’, with ‘c’ and ‘ch’, as we have seen also in the Latin versions on
pages 30, 31.
47
In Arabic, ‫( ال َكرْ م شجرة العنب‬Baheth.info: Lisaan Al- ‘Arab), /karm/ or vine.
52
‘Machaei’ is represented in other Classical works with the k and c:
‘Maketa’ and ‘Macaei’; in Nearchus, a Greek officer who died in the 4th BCE, it
is , and in Strabo, a Greek historian from, 1st c. BCE till 1st CE, it is
; in Strabo, Mace, in Ptolemy, Makai, and in the Periplus
Maketa . Moreover, in Pliny’s work itself (5.5.2), he referred to the Libyan
48
‘Macae’, discussed above, in the following manner “… the dwellings of

the Asbystae and the Macae” (Topostexts: Pliny). This shows that he probably
used ‘ch’ and ‘c’ interchangeably for the /k/ sound, which makes the exchange
between Ptolemy’s Makoraba, or a possible *Mocorba, and Pliny’s Mochorba
probable. This phenomenon may be due to what Bennett (1907) explained, that
the aspirates were even used in “certain genuine Latin words”, as the cases of
“pulcher, originally pulcer; Gracchus (after Bacchus = χs), originally
Graccus”49 (Bennett, 1907, pp.27-28).
It is enough at this point to state that the transliteration of Arabic or Semitic
/k/ with Greek /k/ from the time of Ptolemy or a bit earlier, though rare, was not
impossible, as shown by the examples. Moreover, there are cases of early
borrowings with Semitic /k/ from ancient Greek or Pre-Greek. Additionally, the
toponym may have been ‘Ma(u)q(q)ah’, with a /q/, which makes a Greek /k/ valid.
Thus, these likelihoods should be considered when handling similar cases.
Furthermore, as revealed from his use of Machaei, with ‘ch’ instead of ‘k’ or ‘c’
like other classical writers, that Pliny may have erred here, or the /x/ sound was
used interchangeably with the /k/ for these toponyms, or as Bennett pointed out
about aspirates. A final possibility relates to errors by the scribes. In all cases, this
affirms that Pliny’s NH used both ‘c’ and ‘ch’ to signify ‘k’ in Machaei and
possibly Mochorba, as corroborated by the representations of other classical
writers of ‘Makai’ or ‘Macaei’.
The next section offers an idea about Greek and Latin morphological rules
of relevance to the current study, since the author proposes that Makoraba and
Mochorba are both compounds formed of /makkah/+ /rābbah/.
2.Selected Morphological Rules

2.1. Greek and Latin Endings
The expression ‘morpho-gender’ denotes a morphological form or a noun
in a specific case and number, employed in a particular gender, for instance,
Greek “Masculine -ος (- os), Feminine -ον (- on), Feminine -η (- ē), etc.” (Coker,
2009, p.43). In translating Greek into Latin texts, the Greek endings were
regularly altered to the parallel Latin ones. Most significantly are ‘-os’ of “Greek
48
See the earlier section on Maka.
49
See the section on Mochorba at the end of the paper
53
nouns and adjectives of the o-declension” into Latin ‘-us’, and ‘-ov’ of the neuter
in the same declension into the equivalent Latin ‘-um’ (Hoffman, 2007, p.11).
(Nicolson & Brooks, 1974, p.165)
(Smith, 2016, p.16)
Grensted and Bradley (1985) enumerated some specification for the

Latinization of geographical names in later eras, which could serve as major
guidelines in this topic. One of these procedures is: for a word of non-classical
source, a Latin ending should be employed. For example, kob > Kobus; Okapi >
Okapia (Grensted and Bradley, 1985, pp.8,9). In AG [Ancient Greek], the gender
of some inanimate nouns “winds, months and river” is Masculine (Coker, 2009,
p.37). Thus, there is the Arabian river ‘Baitos’ (mas. sing. noun), which likely
came from /bait/ in reference to the river of the Makkan House or Sanctuary or
/bayt/; hence, Bait+os > Baitos [Gr.] > Baitus [Lat.]. Concerning ‘Makoraba’ and
‘Mochorba’, they are feminine nouns, as they carry the feminine endings in both
Greek and Latin. The original Arabic names ‘Makkah’ and ‘rabbah’ are feminine
as well, and they carry Arabic feminine endings. The following table shows Latin
endings relevant to our cases.
54
2.2. Forming Compounds in Greek and Arabic
Conventionally, compounds in ancient Greek exhibit every single standard
characteristic of compounds that is verified in diverse languages. More
specifically, they are made from “bare words…, bare stems …, and stems and
words” (Kakarikos, 2015, p.250). Ancient Greek language was remarkably
abundant in compounds, specifically, in the languages of scientific fields. Such
compounds may conjoin varied categories: “noun + noun, adjective + noun, noun
+ verb, etc”. Instances include dermatology, democracy, or pyromania (Smith,
2016, p.26). Nominal coordinative compounds were a common trait of AG that
had “appositive N+N compounds”, like klausí-gelo:s or “laughter mingled with
tears” and iatrό-mantis or “healer and diviner”. The process of forming N+N
compounds was quite ‘productive’ in Greek (Manolessou, & Angela, 2015,
p.2057).
There is a profusion of compound words in Ancient Greek of different
kinds that surfaced through several vastly “productive compounding processes”
that regularly modified the compound’s inner structure. Such modifications
involve deletion of the last vowel of the initial compound and “the lengthening
of the initial vowel of the second”. Every compound has an inner arrangement
delimited by:
(i) the type of the elements involved in the formation;
(ii) the role and the position of the head constituent which is
responsible for the definition of the morphological properties of the
new form; and
(iii) the status of the linking element occurring between the
constituents of the construction. (Kakarikos, 2015, pp.248, 249).
Huitink and Beek (2020) also enlisted some rules for constructing Greek
compounds. Generally, a compound involves “morphological simplification”.
When words are formed into compounds, suffixation may be lost in them.
Compounds are essentially “subordinated vs coordinated compounds”. In the
first, “one component [is] syntactically dependent on the other”, whereas in the
coordinated, there is “no dependency relation - δυώδεκα = “two-ten””. Ancient
Greek compounds were either endocentric, namely, “one component (the head of
the compound) determines the semantic category - κουροτρόφος = a type of
τροφός (right-headed)”.
As for exocentric (or headless) compounds, “none of the components
determines the semantic category - ἔφαλος = an entity located at the sea (left-
oriented)”. Ancient Greek was predominately right- oriented (Huitink & Beek,
55
2020, pp.3,4,5,6; Video: min. 6). Instances of Right-headed endocentric
determinatives include:
ἀκρόπολις ‘upper town’ [A N]
οἰνόπεδον ‘vineyard’ [N N]
πόδαργος ‘swift-footed’ [N A]
(Huitink & Beek, 2020, p.8)
Tribulato (2015) qualified stating that even though Ancient Greek was a
predominantly right-headed compound system, it had some left-headed
compounds (Tribulato, 2015, p.46).
Conversely, compounding in Arabic is largely left-headed (Altakhaineh,
2016b, p. II). In translating ancient Greek texts, Arabs rendered modified forms
such as the following to suit Arabic structure:
(Pormann, 2018, p.240)
Concerning the Greek linking element or vowel in compounds, Patwell

(n.d.) clarified that, in Latin and Greek, we should employ “combining forms of
substantives (i.e., nouns and adjectives including past participles) that are often
considerably different from the lexical forms”. If the initial substantive in a Greek
compound terminates with “-a (but not -ma) or -ē”, it is nearly always modified
to -o-, for instance:
(Patwell, n.d., p.4)
Likewise, Smith (2016) accentuated that a distinctive aspect of Greek compounds

is “the CONNECTING VOWEL omicron (ο = English o)”, which is the
standard form utilized in Greek. It is used for the purpose of ‘euphony’, i.e., to
allow for an easy phonetic shift from one base to the other.
Nonetheless, the linking vowel is not needed when the second base starts
with a vowel, for example, in the word hierarchy, i.e., hier-archy, or “sacred rule”.
Moreover, there are certain words in which the last vowel of the initial word-base
is preserved; for instance, agoraphobia: agora-phobia, or “fear of the market-
place”; the ultimate ‘-e’ (epsilon) in ‘tēle’ in compounds such as “tele-phone (“far
voice”), telepathy (“far feeling”)”, and the Greek-Latin mix tele-vision “sight
from afar” (Smith, 2016, p.26). However, the most usual linking vowel is o
(Borror, 1988, p. 1). Thus, in Greek compounds, the linking ‘-o-’ is employed as
56
an alternative for the ultimate vowel of a stem, while in Latin compounds ‘-i-’ is
the connecting vowel (Nicolson & Brooks, 1974, p.176). Hence, the change of
vowel /a/ into /o/, i.e., Maka into Mako and Mocho, is possible, and governed by
Greek rules. This also supports that Moch-o-rba of Pliny is a Greek compound;
like Mak-o-raba.
To recap, the head of a Greek compound mainly exists to the right, then
the linking element regularly replaces the weaker vowel. This is in addition to
the phonological propensity of the language to conserve the syllable structure
following the deletion of the weakest vowel, viz., the vowel of the initial
compound element. Thus, the linking vowel is the segment indicating the
compound inner boundaries. Accordingly, morphology ensures the linking of
the two compound elements, while conserving, through the intrusion of the
linking vowel, “their boundaries in the most transparent way possible”. As for
phonology, it “resolves the hiatus”, generated within the compound boundaries.
At the same time, it maintains “the status of the linking vowel”, though it is
phonologically altered; thus, ensuring the identification of the compound
elements (Kakarikos, 2015, pp. 251, p.253, p.255, 259).
The following tables summarize and exemplify the most salient rules for
compounding in Greek. Some of these morphological and syllabification rules
were deployed in forming our compounds, as discussed in the section of the
analysis.
57
2.2.1. The Genitive and The Construct State in Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek
A Construct State is generally considered as a syntactic noun phrase
comprising no less than two nominal elements that are in a genitive relation
(Sedarous, 2016, p.11). Languages like Arabic and Hebrew have two techniques
for representing an adnominal genitive relation. The first is the absolute, whether
it is “determinate or not”, and the second is the construct state, which is employed
to signify “the morphological condition of the noun heading the construction”
(Longobardi, 2001, p.282). Contrariwise, Greek doesn’t have a construct state as
Hebrew (Choueiri, 2016, p.11), and Arabic; rather, it has a genitive case. Thus, the
genitive construction [in Greek] corresponds to the Arabic construct state (Al-Hawi, &
Karpava, 2021, n.p.).
Concerning Hebrew, it doesn’t have a word that matches the preposition
“of” in English, and, in the Biblical Era, it didn’t any longer have a genitive case
ending like Greek; hence, it employed the construct state to represent these
associations or relations between nouns. The final words “bread” and “David” in
the next instances are termed the absolute, i.e., they don’t alter their shape; hence
they have “absolute form”.
(Walker-Jones, 2003, p.75).
Köstenberger (2021) noted that the Greek genitive case has a remarkable
use, which is shown in “the Semitic-style genitive, patterned after the Hebrew
construct state”. Here two connected nouns are linked jointly in such a respect
that the second “modifies the first in a genitival manner”. For instance, in 1
Peter 1:14, there is an allusion to “children of obedience”, which is elucidated as
58
mirroring “Semitic style” (p.482). Another example from Hebrew is “the grace of
God”, which is rendered into Greek. Even though the construct state did not exist
in Koine Greek, the two nouns individually have “the relation of being, the one
dependent in the construct and the other in the absolute state”.Thus, ‘Grace’ is not
an independent unit; rather it is dependent on ‘God’; accordingly, the phrase “the
grace of God” is nearly “a circumlocution for the term “the gracious God’”
(McIntyre, 2004, p.283-284).
As clarified by Shmidman (2019), the association between Greek
compound words and the Hebrew construct form is mirrored and stressed in the
Septuagint50 that “often renders two-word Hebrew constructs as single
compound words”. The standard grammar of the Greek compound word makes
the initial element nearly constantly as “a modifier of the second constituent”,
irrespective of a word being endocentric or exocentric. Elizur observed that
standard Hebrew grammar prescribes that the modifier should be placed in the
second position in endocentric construct forms.
However, there exists a small set of examples in the Bible, where the
order is reversed. Shmidman clarified that in Hebrew endocentric compounds,
the second element modifies the initial one. In the example, or sacred
garment, the second modifies the first . According to the
writer, such differences between Greek and Hebrew affected Jewish grammar to
the extent that poets in the Byzantine era would create a Hebrew endocentric
construct form, simulating the Greek one, i.e., with the modifier placed initially,
just like in a Greek compound word (pp.184, 187, 191).
2.2.1.1. The Arabic Construct State

The greatest number of Arabic compounds is in the Construct State.
Normally, the syntactic classes of the constituents or elements of the compounds
are: N+N or Adj+N. In Arabic, the construct state, or Al-IDaafah, is delineated as
a structure that is generally comprised of two nouns or an adjective and a noun.
The first part “can be nominative, accusative or genitive”, depending on the role
of the entire construct in the sentence, while the other part is constantly genitive.
Another significant feature of the Construct State is that the initial part is regularly
indefinite; as for the second, it can be definite or indefinite (Altakhaineh, 2016a,
footnote 1, p.277).
In Arabic, (in)definiteness is indicated merely on the final constituent of
the Construct State. This signifies that the head isn’t marked for (in)definiteness
50
The first five books of the Septuagint were interpreted in the mid of the 3 rd century BCE, and the remainder of
the Old Testament in the 2nd century (Britannica: Septuagint, 2020).
59
and “that the (in)definiteness status of the last member of the specifier provides
the syntactic definiteness of the whole Construct State”. In Arabic, definiteness is
marked by the article /-el/[-al]51, e.g., definite as in “kitab el-Talib”, “book def-
student”, or “the student’s book”, and indefinite as: “kitab Talib” “book student”,
or “a student’s book” (Sedarous, 2016, p.11, p.12), and “‘aruus l-bahr”, “Bride
the-sea”, or “the mermaids, the sea bride” (Altakhaineh, 2016a, p.278), i.e.,
‘mermaid def-sea’.
The last two sections presented selected pertinent rules for forming
compounds in Greek, and, specifically, the use of the construct state and its
interpretation or representation from Semitic languages like Hebrew and Arabic
into Greek. This furnishes a suitable background for the analysis of Makoraba and
Mochorba.
2.3. Investigating the Toponyms ‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’

The researcher proposes that ‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’ are originally
Arabic compounds in the construct state, which were borrowed into Greek. We
have seen that the Semitic construct was represented in Greek as a distinct
compound. The first element of our compounds is ‘Maka’, and the second is
‘raba’, which could be one of varied ancient Arabic forms. Some of these forms
are discussed as follows.
2.3.1. An Arabic Origin for ‘Raba’: Rabwa(h)– Rabaa(h )-Rabb –
Rabba(h)
Arabic words usually lose the definite article /-al/, and suffixes, when they
are borrowed into other languages; except in certain cases, for example,
‘Alcohol’, ‘Makat-u’, and ‘Makat-a’. Suffixes which are likely to be lost include
case endings for the nominative, accusative, and genitive like /-u/, /-a/ or /-i/,
along with other suffixes like the feminine /-t/ or /-h/. According to Hasan (1977),
one of the feminine suffixes in Arabic is ‘taa’ at-ta’niith’, or the feminine suffix
/-t/. It is termed by some syntacticians ‘haa’ at-ta’niith’, feminine /-h/, because
the /-t/ changes into /-h/ when pausing (p.590, footnote no.3, p. 590). These two
forms are utilized in our candidates; for instance, Ar-rabaatu and Ar-rabaah.
1.Rabwatu/Rabaatu
In Lisan Al-‘Arab52, v. ‘yarba’’53 means ‘to protect from enemies’
َ ‫ ;”يَ ْربَأ ُ أَهلَه أَي يَحْ فَظهم من‬and v. ‘rāba’ refers to ‘an increase in amounts of
“‫عد ّ ِوهم‬
51
/-el/ in colloquial Egyptian; /-al/ in classical
52
As is the case generally with lexicons, these Arabic lexicons group ancient Arabic words, as attested in the
Hadiths of Prophet Mohamed; Bedouin variants, poetry, wise sayings, etc.
53
Transliteration, transcription, and translation are presented by the researcher in this and the following sections
between ‘’, [], or //; unless otherwise noted.
60
money’ “‫وارتَفَع‬
ْ ‫”ربا المال إِذا زاد‬. َ Moreover, the forms ‘rāba’at’, ‘rābaa’an’; ‘rāba’,
‘yarbu’, ‘rubuwwan’, and ‘ribaa’an’ signify ‘to increase, ascend, and grow’
ْ ‫ زك‬:‫وربَأَت األَرض َرباء‬
“‫َت‬ َ ‫ت‬ ْ َ‫ونما“;”وارتَفَع‬
ْ ‫ زاد‬:‫”ربا الشيء يَ ْربُو ُربُ ّوا ورباء‬.
َ Likewise, in Al-
Qamuus Al-MuHiit , ‘rāba rubuwwan’ mean, as a verb ‘raba’ ‘to elevate’, or
54
for ‘rubuwwan’, nouns such as “elevation; exaltedness; height; highness;

loftiness55” and ‘ribaa’un’ ‘to increase and grow’ “ ،‫ ونَ َما‬،َ‫ زاد‬:‫ ورباء‬،‫ كعل ّ ٍّو‬،‫َربَا ُربُ ًّوا‬
‫َب‬
َ ‫”وارت‬.
ْ In Maqayiis Al-Lughah, ‘rāba ar-rāābiyah yarbuuha’ means ‘to be atop
of it’ “‫ إذا عالها‬،‫الرابيةَ يَربُوها‬
ّ ‫”وربَا‬.
In Lisaan Al-‘Arab, ‘ar-rābw’; ‘ar-rābwah, ‘ar-rubwah’, ‘ar-ribwah’; ‘ar-
rābaawah’, ‘ar-rubaawah’, ‘ar-ribaawah’, ‘ar-rāābiyah’, ‘ar-rābaatu’, all
indicate ‘an elevation from the earth’s surface or a hill’
:ُ‫الرباة‬
َّ ‫والرابِيَة و‬
َّ ‫باوة‬
َ ‫والر‬
ّ ِ ‫والرباوة‬
ُّ ‫والرباوة‬
َّ ‫والربْوة‬
ّ ِ ‫والرب َْوة‬
ُّ ‫والرب َْوة‬
َّ ‫الربْو‬َّ ”
(Baheth.info) “‫ورب‬َ ‫ك ُّل ما ْارتَفَ َع من األَرض‬
Some of these meanings are relevant to Makkah, as they mean ‘elevation;
protection, exaltedness, and sublimity’. Therefore, they have meanings or
elements of meaning related to the several names of Makkah56.
As narrated by Mujahid, when Prophet Ibrahim came to the spot of the
sanctuary, as ordered by God, ‘the House was like a red dry clay or adobe hill’
“‫”البيت يومئذ ربوة حمراء مدرة‬, /al-bayt yawma’ithin rābwah Hamrāā’ madarāh/, with
the Amalekites abiding around Makkah (Ibn Al-Diyaa’, n.d., Vol. I, p.7).
Therefore, this meaning seems to be relevant to Makkah, or Al-Ka‘ba; hence to
our compounds. Two of these forms are chosen for the analysis, since they seem
to represent the second element ‘raba’, which are: ‘rabwah’ and ‘rabaah’,
examined in the subsection of the analysis.
2.Al-Rabb- Rabbah
From Mukhtaar Al-Sihaah Lexicon:
“‫ب كل شيء مالكه‬ َ “‫ع َّز و َج َّل‬
َّ ‫”ر‬, َ ‫َّللا‬ ْ ‫ ال ي‬:‫بالالم‬
ِ َّ ‫طلَق ِلغَي ِْر‬ ِ ، ُّ‫”الرب‬.
َّ [/al-rābb-a]/, ‫الرب‬
َّ [/al-rābb-
u/] is the God of everything; the term means the owner. Al-Rābb is a designation
for ‘Allah or God only’ (Baheth.info). It is cited in the famous Islamic
supplication:
‫رضيت باهلل ربّا‬
rāDiitu bi-llaahi rābba
54
All of the cited Arabic lexicons are from Baheth.info, a website for ancient Arabic lexicons.
55
The translation is taken from Almaany Dictionary: ‫ قاموس عربي انجليزي‬.‫ترجمة و معنى علو باإلنجليزي في قاموس المعاني‬
1 ‫( الكل مصطلحات صفحة‬almaany.com)
56
Check Glimpses for more on the designations of Sacred Makkah.
61
accept-I with-Allah God
I accept Allah as God
Therefore, this term of excellence ‘rābb-a/u’ could be a suitable candidate as well.
Moreover, as stated in Glimpses, according to Al-Qamuus Al-MuHiit for
Al-Fayruuz-Abaadi, (died in 817 Hijri/ 9th century AH/ 15th century CE), ‘rābbu’
[mas.] also means ‘patron or stepfather’, whereas ‘Rābb-ah’ [fem.] means either
‘goddess Allaat’ in a Hadith/ saying of Prophet Mohamed ‫ﷺ‬, or ‘a gigantic
house’, “‫ والدَّار الض َّْخ َمة‬،َ‫عر َوة‬
ْ ‫ الالت في حديث‬:‫”والربَّة‬.
َّ These meanings are quite suitable
for the context of Makkah; so, the name may refer to the goddess ‘Allaat’, or the
great house of Makkah (A. Enein, 2021, Vol. II, p.438). The name ‘Rbt’ occurred
associated with goddesses in other Semitic languages like ‘Rabbat-Ammon’, and
as evident in the next excerpt too:
(Tomback, 2019, p.301)
However, as attested in ancient Arabic lexicons, the Arabic noun ‘rabbah’ has
different meanings, associated with a sanctuary too; thus, it is polysemous, or the
name has these multiple meanings originally. Nonetheless, it could be a case of
semantic broadening.
As clarified by Akidah (2013), broadening refers to the process whereby
the sense of a word develops to be “more general or more inclusive than its
historically earlier form”. It is further identified as “generalization, widening or
extension”, in which the word enlarges its scope of senses, in due course. For
example, in English, the term ‘horn’ initially denoted “a protrusion on the heads
of certain animals”; yet its meaning broadened to incorporate “musical
instrument’, then ‘drinking vessel of a shape like a horn’” (p.9). Accordingly, the
62
word ‘rābbat’ may have been initially a reference to a goddess, then the allusion
changed to include a sanctuary or Ka‘ba, as well, or to indicate the deity of the
sanctuary.
Therefore, ‘rabbat’ possibly refers to the Makkan sanctuary, the Sacred
House or “Al-Bayt Al-Harāām”, and we have evidence that validates this view.
The word rābbah in Lisaan Al-Arab Lexicon for Ibn Manthuur [died 711 Hijri]
has the meanings of ‘a statue or an idol; ‘Allaat’, or gigantic house’ also:
“ُ‫َّار الض َّْخ َمة‬
ُ ‫ والد‬،َ‫ والالتُ في حديث ع ُْر َوة‬،‫ ل َم ْذحج‬57‫ لُ ْعبَة‬:‫”والربَّة‬
َّ
(Baheth.info: Al-Qamuus Al-Muhiit)
/ar-rābbatu: lu‘bah li-maTHaHij wa-llaat fi Hadiith ‘urwah wa-d-daaru-D-
Dāxmah/
In or َ‫ث ع ْر َوة‬
ِ ‫حدي‬, the Hadith or saying of ‘Urwah Ibn Mas‘uud58 (RAA), a
companion of prophet Mohamed ‫ﷺ‬, the word occurs as follows. When Ibn
Mas‘uud embraced Islam, he returned to his people, and went straight home, so
his people criticized him for not going to Ar-rabbati, Allaat, or the rock
worshipped by Thaqiif, the people of Taif. In another Hadith, the delegation of
Taif had a house called Ar-rābbah, to compete with Al-Ka‘ba, or the Makkan
Sanctuary, then they pulled it down, when they embraced Islam. Moreover, Ar-
rābbah is a designation for a Ka‘ba59 in Najran for MaTHaHij and Banu Al-
Harth Ibn Ka‘b; it was worshipped by the people. Additionally, /daarun rābbatun/
means ‘gigantic’, as attested in the poetry60 of the companion of Prophet
Mohamed ‫ﷺ‬, Hasaan Ibn Thabit (RAA) (Baheth.info: Lisaan Al-‘Arab).
Furthermore, in Lisaan Al-‘Arab Lexicon, we have ‫بيت هللا‬, /baytu-llāāh/, or
the placename “Beit-El”, “The Sacred House” (n.p.), which is the house of
Makkah, or the one in Al-Quds/ Jerusalem, which supports this proposal of a
gigantic house, i.e., the Grand House of Makkah. The Hebrew form is
, as recorded by Muss-Arnolt (1892, p.52).
Another relevant name of Al-Ka’ba in Makkah is ‘Al-Baytu-l-‘Atiiq’, or ‘the
Ancient House’. Thus, whether ‘rabbah’ is a case of broadening or not, it is clear
that it had the meaning of a sanctuary or Ka‘ba, and probably too, at certain eras,
in relation to a goddess, as its Semitic sisters, ‘Allaat’ being one of the ancient
57
‫( واللُّ ْعبة ال ِتّ ْمثال‬Baheth.info: Lisaan Al-‘Arab Lexicon), /al-lu‘bah at-timthaal/ or ‘al-lu‘bah’ means a
statue.
58
The hadith is mentioned in Ibn Al-Athiir’s Al-Nihaayah fi Ghariib Al-Hadith wa-l-Athar. See the appendix for
the Arabic text.
59
There were a number of Ka‘bas in Arabia, in imitation of the sacred ka‘ba in Makkah.
60
See the Appendix for the Arabic text.
63
deities in Makkah. The four candidates ‘rabba/ rabbu/ rabwat/ rabaa’ are further
analyzed in the following subsections.
2.3.2. Possibilities For the Construction of ‘Makoraba’

There are different propositions for the construction of the toponym
‘Makoraba’, some of which are presented as follows. The first is that the Arabic
construct ‘Rabbat Makkah’ was used like the parallel ones used for Najran and
Taif, as verified historically in the above lexicons; in Hadiths, and also in ‘Rbt-
Moab’ or ‘Rabbat Ammon’. The informants of Ptolemy, sailors or merchants may
have produced it as ‘Makoraba’, a matter which is linked to their learning, or it
was commonly used as such in their circles or communities.
The second is that they reported one of the names ‘rabbat/ rabbu/ rabwat/
rabaat - Makka’ to Ptolemy who produced the compound according to Greek
compounding principles61. We have seen earlier that he was well-versed in the
transliteration of foreign names into Greek, and altering words following Greek
grammar and morphology. This analysis finds support in the name of ‘Bait-os’
River, which was possibly named after the House or sanctuary of Makkah;
because it runs adjacent to it62, as observed earlier, and in A. Enein (2021). Hence,
Arabic toponyms or at least some of them were transliterated into Greek, and were
subjected to Greek rules.
A third possibility is that he learned the toponym from earlier Greek
sources, which is the plausible proposal, being cited also in Pliny in a different
form ‘Mochorba’. Ptolemy or another unknown writer likely modified it to be in
this form. Earlier, the researcher stated that Pliny used ‘ch’ and ‘c’
interchangeably for the ‘k’ sound, or probably ‘ch’ for ‘x’. Nonetheless, Ptolemy
reverted to the original Semitic ‘k’ in Makkah, to be represented as ‘Makoraba’,
a view which is corroborated by the varied forms of ‘Maka, Myke, Makai’, etc.,
and by the Hebrew ‘Karmel’.
2.3.3. Morphological Analysis of ‘Makoraba’

2.3.3.1. Mak+ o + Raba
Varied potentials for the formation of Makoraba are discussed in this
subsection. ‘Makoraba’ is a Greek compound, as Geographia was introduced
primarily in Greek. Accordingly, it was, most likely, formed according to the
Greek rules for making compounds, as supported by the following analysis.
61
See the coming subsection.
62
See more on the location of Baitos in the researcher’s book on Makkah.
64
‘Makoraba’ was referenced primarily in a foreign context, and was not cited in
Arabic texts, till the work was translated later on, to the knowledge of the
researcher. Moreover, due to the scarcity of references, we have no proper
knowledge of its formation or borrowing.
Originally, the Arabic words ‘Makkah’ and ‘rabbat/h’ naturally followed
Arabic word order, i.e., rabbat Makka/h [Ar. pronunciation]. We saw previously
that most Arabic compounds are left-headed, whereas Greek, largely right-
headed; hence, the construct was transposed or reordered to be *Mak(k)a
Rab(b)a. This process was effected in the Septuagint, in the 3rd century BCE, and
in the 2nd CE, which regularly combined two-word Hebrew construct as merely
one compound, as discussed earlier.
Analysis:
The two words were or rather the construct was subjected to varied
processes. Moreover, as is usual in the formation of Greek compounds (N+N), a
vowel or the omicron “o” was inserted as a connecting vowel to ease articulation.
A proposed analysis for this compound would be as follows, taking into
consideration what Al-Jallad highlighted about the representation of Arabic
geminates, and that the Greek forms of ‘Maka’ like ‘Myka’/ ‘Myci’ have a single
/k/, as examined above.
1.Rabbat Makkah
Rabbat Makkah [Ar.] Maka raba [Gr.]
Maka/h + raba/t =
1.a. Mak[[a]h del.] + raba[t del.]=
/ah/ or /h/ →∅63
/t/ → ∅
Mak[∅]+raba[∅]=
Mak + raba
Maka +raba[∅]=
Or Maka + raba
63
null
65
In this step, we have elision of the second syllable of Mak(k)a(h), quite
common in ancient Greek compounding, in case the word still had its
double consonants, since the division of syllables is made between the
geminate consonant, i.e., /mak/ and /kah/. Otherwise, it would be /ma/ and
/ka(h)/, or if the final /a/ was elided in ‘Maka’, we would have a
monosyllabic word or one syllable word, viz., /mak/, following the rule of
one vowel per syllable.
Elision of the final part is also known as back clipping, whereby the
last part of the word is deleted, and the first retained. According to Jamet
(2009), in certain instances in compounds, it would sound awkward to
leave the full form in its original place, e.g., *gymnasium shoes, instead of
gym shoes (p.20). Comparably, Mak(k)ah+o+rab(b)a is difficult to
pronounce; hence the simplification. However, the /a/ in ‘Maka’ may have
been preserved, given the above similar forms. Moreover, another loss of
the final feminine suffix /-h/ or /-t/ likely occurred in ‘raba’, in accordance
with Greek rules for final suffixes. In all cases, [-(k)ah] is deleted, or
modified, as in the coming step.
In the second step, there is an insertion of /o/, or alternation from //
to the omicron /o/ at word boundaries (#), between ‘Mak/a’ and ‘Raba’, as
dictated by Greek rules:
2.a. Mak + o + raba
∅→ o (V) / ____#____
2.b. Maka + o+ raba
 (V) → o (V) / ____#____
Thus, in this stage, there is an insertion rule of the connecting ‘o’ between
word boundaries, or an alternation from // > /o/. The second appears more
feasible, due to its recurrency in Greek, and because of the form ‘Maka’.
This is further consolidated in the last subsection on ‘Mukoi’.
2. Rabb + Makkah
A different reconstruction would be to consider /rābb/, or ‘God’, instead of
‘Rabbat’. This may be a credible reconstruction as ‫ َرب مكة‬or rabba Makkah, which
would be reordered following Greek conventions to be Maka raba, and the above
steps of elision and alteration to, or insertion of /o/ would be followed.
66
3. Rabwat + Makkah
Regarding ‘rabwa-tu’, the earlier steps of elision and alteration to, or
insertion of /o/ would be observed, in addition to the loss of /w/ and the final
feminine marker, to be eventually ‘Makoraba’.
4. Rabaat + Makkah
‫الرباة‬
َّ /ar-rābaa-tu/, or /rābaa/ without the definite article and the case
endings is also possible. It would follow the above steps; yet with an additional
elision of the final /a/, or shortening of madd /aa/. However, the researcher
supports the first proposition, because ‘rabbah’ meant Ka‘ba anciently, as
attested in the early Arabic excerpts provided from the above lexicons; the Hadith
of prophet Mohamed ‫ﷺ‬, and similar cases in Semitic languages. Ultimately, this
reconstruction appears to be the one responsible for producing this compound.
2.3.4. Mochorbae
2.3.4.1. Analysis of The Toponym Mochorbae
It appears that Mochorba’s analysis is analogous to that of Makoraba. The
two names have similar syllable structures; except for the ultimate syllables,
where ‘Makoraba’ has four syllables; ‘Mochorba’, three only:
CV/CV/CV/CV
Ma/ko/ra/ba
Mo/cho/rba
*Mo/cho/ra/ba
*Mo/cho/r∅/ba
Mo/cho/rba
or Mo/chor/ba
Syllabification of ‘Mochorba’ would be made according to Greek syllabification
rules, and acceptable sequences of consonants clusters.
It is possible that Mo/cho/rba was the actual syllabification of the word,
because, according to the rule, if the consonant cluster can be produced jointly, it
goes with the following vowel. It seems that the final part is the same ‘raba’, a
sanctuary, but in ‘Mochorba’, the vowel /a/ in /ra/ was elided, possibly to ease
67
pronunciation; hence, the syllable of /ra/ was lost. Accordingly, it would be
logical to make the syllable as such, i.e., /rba/.
In sum, we have seen above that Pliny alternated between ‘ch’ and ‘c’ for
rendering Semitic /k/, and most of the cities or islands depicted in the same section
were on the western coast or part of Arabia. ‘Mochorba’ is, then, the sanctuary of
Makkah.
2.3.4.2. Maka, *Mocho, and Mukoi

Herodotus mentioned the relevant forms of the name as ‘Mukoi’ and
‘Mukon’, “Μύκων”. In his dictionary, Bailly (1935) referred to these people as:
(Bailly,1935, p.1304)
“The Mukoi, ων (oi), the Mykes, people of Persia in Herodotus”. However, they
are not Persians, as Bailly claimed; they are the Asian Makkians, as explained
earlier. In The Digital Dictionary Archive, the words under investigation are
further catalogued and classified as follows:
Head templates: {{grc-noun|Μῠ́κοι|Μῠ́κων|m-p|first}} Μῠ́κοι
(Múkoi) m pl (genitive Μῠ́κων); first declension
Head templates: {{grc-noun|Μῠ́κοι|Μῠ́κων|m-p|first}} Μῠ́κοι
(Múkoi) m pl (genitive Μῠ́κων); first declension
Inflection templates: {{grc-decl|Μῠ́κος|ου|form=M-P}}
Forms: Μῠ́κοι [canonical, masculine, plural], Múkoi [romanization],
Μῠ́κων [genitive], Attic declension-2 [table-tags], Second
declension [class], οἱ Μῠ́κοι [nominative, plural], τῶν Μῠ́κων
[genitive, plural], τοῖς Μῠ́κοις [dative, plural], τοὺς Μῠ́κους
[accusative, plural], Μῠ́κοι [plural, vocative] (Kaikki: Mukoi, n.p.).
The possible pronunciations of some of these forms, according to
the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are:
"ipa": "/mý.koi̯ /"
"ipa": "/ˈmy.ky/"
"ipa": "/ˈmi.ci/". (Kaikki: Mukoi, n.p.).
‘Miki’ sounds like the Nisbe of Makkah, Mik(k)i, or Mak(k)i, which is still used
up till now as an attribute of Makkah, or as a title of a family.
68
Herodotus was much earlier than the cited classical writers who recorded
the forms as: ‘Macae’; ‘Makai’, ‘Maka’, etc., including Ptolemy who presented
it as Mako-raba. Thus, this designation most likely refers to the same place,
Sacred Makkah, or Mako/ Maco, and possibly the metathesized Moca too,
because they were all used in Greek, as would be clarified shortly. It is also
probable that this was its common form, before it was compounded with ‘raba’,
or they were used concurrently. We have seen that, in Greek rules, we split
compounds from their points of juncture; therefore, Mako/ *Moko/ *Muko’ could
be the original forms or the clipped forms of the compound.
Concerning Μῠ́κων, Barth (2016) examined ‘-ων’ suffix; she elucidated
that in the classical era, and subsequently, “the stem formant acts as a simple
productive suffix that derives place-nouns from noun bases”. There is a
considerable sum of terms in ancient Greek that terminates with the nominative -
ων (p.1); hence ‘Μύκων’, ‘Mukon’. As for the noun ‘Mukoi’, it appears to belong
to the Attic Greek second declension nouns, as classed in the above dictionary.
Major & Laughy (n.d.) expounded that this declension comprises both masculine
and feminine nouns; yet the nouns are regularly masculine, and have endings
comparable to “the masculine definite article”. The limited feminine nouns that
belong to this declension have precisely equal endings to the masculine; yet can
be distinguished by the use of the article that shows their gender.
The majority of the noun stems in the second declension terminate with
‘-ο’. In this situation, like in the first declension, the vowel stem unites with “the
SECOND DECLENSION case endings in a stable, consistent way, so you
actually learn the stem vowel and the personal ending together as one
combined case ending”. The endings for the nominative are:
Singular Plural
-ος -οι
Plural examples include: “αἱ νῆσοι” ‘islands’, “οἱ λόγοι” ‘words’, etc. (Major &
Laughy, n.p.). Moreover, some of the meanings of the οι-suffix display the
subsequent basic meanings in the οι-stem morphological class: “intimacy,
affection and contempt”, among other meanings (Monzó, 2019, p.187). This may
reflect the Greeks’ opinion of the Mykians, either of friendliness or otherwise.
If we analyze the noun ‘Mukoi’, the underlying form is conceivably
*Muko, Mako [Gr.2nd declension n.]; yet also *Muk, Myk or Maka, or possibly
Muqa, as the change in vowels is a widespread phenomenon. If it is ‘Mako/
Maco’, then, there is a change in the vowel from original /a/ in ‘Maka’ into /o/,
under influence from its environment, or the epenthetic vowel, the omicron /o/.
This finds support in what was pointed out in Glimpses, as follows. Godfrey
Higgins (1927) indicated that “Maco or Moca Raba by Ptolemy, or Moca the
69
great or illustrious, … [is] the city of Mohamed”. Hence, he paralleled the two
placenames, linking them to Sacred Makkah.
Tomlins (1844) also stated that “Moca, a city taken notice of by a medal of
Antoninus Pius as governed by its own laws” (p.853). Similarly, Wells (1817) in
Sacred Geography emphasized that
[t]he Bramins in the western parts of India insist that Mocsha- st’han
is the present town of Mecca. The word Mocsha is always
pronounced in the vulgar dialects, either Moca or Mucta; and the
author of the Dubistan says, its ancient name was Maca…Guy Palin
mentions a medal of Antoninus Pius with this legend, ‘‘MOK.IEP.
ACT. ATTO” which he very properly translates Moca sacra,
inviolabilis, suis utens legibus. “Moca the holy, the inviolable,
and using her own laws...” (p.223) (A. Enein, pp.432-33).
We observe the variant forms of the vowels in this quote, the forms with /o/, /a/,
and /u/, and the change of the second /k/ into /sh/. Furthermore, Makkah was
always described in Arabic chronicles by these epithets: ‘Makkah, the holy or the
sacred’, in addition to “the inviolable”, or “Al-Bayt Al-Haram”. Again, ‘raba’ or
‘great’ is relevant to some of the previously discussed forms, which signify
‘exalted, elevated or sublime’. In addition, the depiction ‘great’ describes the
worldwide recognition of this town as glorious; holy, and grand.
So, for ‘Mukoi’, we return to ‘Mako’ or any of the other proposed forms
with certain vowel change, then the Greeks took the first part ‘Mako’, and added
the ending -oi, which could be reduced to merely -i, if the word had a final / o/.
The name may have been used anciently in its simple form only, viz, ‘Mako’,
‘Moka’ or ‘*Muko’, and the ones which are attested in inscriptions ‘Maka’;
‘Myci’, ‘Myke’ or ‘Myka’, etc. Once more, in the absence of hard evidence
concerning the era of the adjoining or combining of ‘raba’ to ‘Mako’, we can only
hypothesize about the original forms and the linguistic processes they underwent.
3.Conclusive Remarks to Part II

From the examination of studies of similar cases, the transliteration of
Arabic or Semitic /k/ with Greek /k/ from the era of Ptolemy or quite earlier,
though infrequent, was detected. In Geographia, Ptolemy wrote the Hebrew
‘Karmal’ as it is, preserving its original /k/. Furthermore, there are examples of
ancient borrowings with Semitic /k/ from early Greek or Pre-Greek. Analogously,
both toponyms, ‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’, appear to maintain the original
Arabic /k/; because they are most likely ancient borrowings, as verified from other
classical sources, and from the case of ‘Bakkah’. Accordingly, these possibilities
should be considered when tackling comparable instances.
70
Moreover, unlike several classical writers, Pliny cited ‘Machaei’ and
‘Macae’ with both ‘ch’ and ‘c’. It may have been an error on the part of Pliny or
the scribes, or relevant to what Bennett explicated about aspirates. In all cases, it
appears that Pliny’s NH used both ‘c’ and ‘ch’ to signify ‘k’ in ‘Machaei’, which
is corroborated by the representations of other classical writers of ‘Makai’ or
‘Macaei’ with ‘c’ and ‘k’, and possibly also ‘Mochorba’, when juxtaposed with
Makoraba. Alternatively, ‘Machaei’ and ‘Macae’ as well as ‘Mochorba’ and
‘Makoraba’ could be very illuminating cases of the interchange of κ and χ, c and
ch, in transliterating consonants in Arabic words. As the writers cited in this work
remarked, such cases of the exchange between κ and χ in transliterating Semitic
/k/ in Pliny and Ptolemy’s eras existed, as attested in the referenced instances.
In addition, it is revealed from the morphological analysis that the
toponyms of ‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’ are Greek compounds, and follow
Greek compounding rules. This is shown specifically in the use of the omicron
on word boundaries, and other Greek rules which enabled the identification of the
original parts of the compounds. Regarding ‘Mako’, the first element in our
compounds, this name may have been used separately in its form as ‘*Moko’ or
‘*Muko’, in addition to the forms cited in inscriptions, namely, ‘Maka’ or ‘Myka’,
or ‘Myke’, or it may have been used concurrently with the compounded forms
‘Makoraba’ or ‘Mochorba’. Concerning the second element in our compounds,
‘raba’, it appears to be one of the Arabic forms: ‘rābaa/h’, ‘rābwa/h’, ‘rābba’, and
rābba/h’. ‘Rabba/h’ seems to be the one used in these compounds, since it has the
meaning of a sanctuary or Ka‘ba anciently, as evident in Arabic lexicons; in the
Hadith of prophet Mohamed ‫ﷺ‬, and analogous instances in Semitic languages.
71
Conclusion
At times, analyzing a native compound in a foreign context is quite
difficult, due to issues of dialectal variations; misperception, mispronunciation,
in addition to the modifications effected by the receptor language. For instance,
when the placename ‘Makkah’ was transferred to a foreign language, and was
subjected to its phonological and morphological rules, its original form was
blurred. This is true for our cases of ‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’ which occurred
in foreign texts; not Arabic ones. Borrowing into Greek affected the original
Arabic structure to suit the morphological structure of the recipient language.
Therefore, in similar cases, it is beneficial to rely on both the linguistic and
geophysical studies to reveal the status of the toponym.
In the first part, the study examined these toponyms from geographical
perspectives. The researcher cited few geophysical studies that corroborate the
fact that the errors in coordinates, distortion, and Ptolemy’s faulty earth
circumference impacted the proper positioning of several locations on his maps,
among which is ‘Makoraba’. In addition, there are varied duplicates and errors in
recording toponyms. Some of these mistakes contributed to the mistaken identity
of ‘Makoraba’, and its faulty location. Furthermore, examining the neighboring
sites of ‘Mochorba’ of Pliny affirms that it is the very same toponym, with minor
changes from ‘Makoraba’.
The study also revealed that there were more than a city or location by the
same designation or similar ones: Makka/ Maka/ Macae/ Maga/ Mage/, and other
similar forms. Moreover, Makatu/ Maketa, or Sacred Makkah in the Arabic
nominative and accusative cases, were employed to denote the same towns, i.e.,
eastern and western Maka. In addition, the prominent commercial activities of
both towns or regions in classical and Arabic sources seem to unite them in
respect of goods and eras; i.e., both were markets of spice from the 3rd m. BCE.
This substantiates the proposal of the researcher in her book Glimpses that the
toponym ‘Maka’, on the eastern coast of Arabia, signals that the produces which
arrived from the western Makkah could be procured from this entrepot of eastern
Makan/Maka. At the same time, eastern Maka received Indian goods and
commodities from other areas to be handed to merchants or intermediaries for the
western region, as verified by the courses of ancient trade land and maritime
routes.
The puzzling identical eastern and western names are most likely the
outcome of propinquity or representation; because Oman lies much nearer to
Assyria than western Makkah, and it represents it in its commerce. A similar case
is present in Egypt, where regional residents from all over Egypt say about
72
travelling to ‘Cairo’, the capital of Egypt: “we’re going to Egypt” for ‘Cairo’,
because of its centrality. Commercial exchanges; therefore, were better conducted
in the nearest spot to Assyria, i.e., Oman and its vicinity. This situation continued
for millennia until possibly a new incentive motivated them to go to the source
directly, though not ignoring the proximal eastern center altogether.
What further validate this view are the inscriptions naming ancient
Maganna in Sacred Makkah as part of Makan. Maganna lies near Egypt, and was
affiliated to it, or even termed as part of it. It was persistently conquered in
different periods by Sargon the Akkadian and his son Naramsin, and subsequently
by Ashurbanipal and Esarhaddon. Egyptian inscriptions also mention a proximal
area, to the east of Nubia, as ‘Mage’ or ‘Myka’, and it appears that it had gold
mines, since the despoils taken from there by Egyptian campaigns reveal
considerable gold amounts. Likewise, Myka, or Myci, and Mukoi are referenced
in Greek sources as lying adjacent to the Red Sea. Moreover, there is the famous
Mykty or Mkty, falsely associated with Megiddo, which was conquered by
Thutmose III64.
Additionally, as explained in Glimpses, Cooper (2015), in his investigation
of Egyptian texts, revealed that Punt ranged till the margins or end of Egyptian
geographic awareness, to the southeast, a situation which persisted up till the
Graeco-Roman era. This was consolidated by other proofs on the part of the
researcher in her book. Therefore, we can assert that the mercantile net,
designated by ancient Egyptians mainly as Punt, and by the Assyrians as Makan
or Maka indicated sizeable segments of the Arabian Peninsula, and conceivably
Africa or Libya too; yet supplementary studies are required in this respect.
In the second part of the study, the researcher proposed that the names
‘Makoraba’ and ‘Mochorba’ are Arabic compounds in the construct state that
were borrowed into Greek. The elements of the compounds are possibly
composed of Rabb/ rabbat/ rabwat/ rabaah +Makkah ‫ربة مكة‬, following Arabic
word order and pronunciation. However, it seems that rabbah is the suitable
candidate, since /rabbah/ is an Arabic name for House, Ka‘ba, or sanctuary. This
name occurred in the Hadiths of prophet Mohamed ‫ ﷺ‬as such, and also in
reference to Allaat; hence, it is parallel to its Semitic sisters. Furthermore, the
formation of these compounds exhibits the usual characteristic procedures
followed in Greek compounding, effecting a number of processes such as
clipping; elision, insertion of the omicron or epenthesis, or alternation of the stem
vowel. Therefore, the second syllable of Mak(k)ah was likely elided, and the
omicron added between the two parts or // altered into the omicron /o/.
64
See the chapter on Mkty/Megiddo in Glimpses.
73
In addition, the Semitic /k/, which is usually rendered in Greek with a ‘χ’,
and in Latin as ‘ch’, was represented as /k/ in some ancient cases or in texts from
the eras of Ptolemy and Pliny, as investigated in this study. Thus, ‘Makoraba’ is
not the only instance that retained its original /k/, either in biblical sources or in
Geographia. There is also ‘Karmelos’, or ‘Karmal’ mountains, which conserved
its Hebrew /k/. Accordingly, the name could have been formulated by Ptolemy or
was reminiscent from an earlier era, which is the more feasible view.
As for Pliny, it appears that he used ‘ch’ for ‘c’ or ‘k’, as in ‘Macae’ and
‘Naumachaei’. By considering the other forms of ‘Makai’ by classical writers, we
detect the prevalent use of the /k/ sound, which shows that it was rendered mainly
as a /k/, and that Pliny could have used ‘ch’ instead of ‘c’ for Semitic ‘k’, which
is a conceivable option, according to Bennett’s rule. Alternatively, ‘Machaei’ and
‘Mochorba’ could be very enlightening illustration of the exchanging use of ‘c’
or ‘k’ and ch or ‘x’ in transliterating Arabic ‘k’. Instances of the interchange of
/k/ and /x/, though rare, existed in the Synoptic Gospels which was approximately
in 70 CE, in the same era of Pliny, and in Ptolemy’s era, which was a bit later
(100-170 CE).
Therefore, given the other forms of ‘Maka’, ‘Myke’, ‘Mukoi’, in addition
to ‘Moca’, ‘Maco’, and Pliny’s substitution between ‘c’ and ‘ch’ for representing
‘k’, Ptolemy’s representation or referencing of the name from earlier sources with
the /k/ is more credible. In sum, both the toponyms of ‘Makoraba’ and
‘Mochroba’, as evident from geographical and linguistic evidence, represent
sacred Makkah. These were the foreign pronunciations of this toponym in both
Greek and Latin.
74
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‫‪Appendix‬‬
‫‪1-Lisan Al- ‘Arab on Al-Rabbah‬‬
‫‪ -1‬لسان العرب ابن منظور األنصاري (ت‪ 711 .‬هـ)‪:‬‬
‫قبل أَن‬
‫ومه ُد ُخولَه‪َ ،‬‬ ‫وعاد إِىل قومه‪َ ،‬دخل منزله‪ ،‬فأَن َكر قَ ُ‬ ‫َسلَم َ‬ ‫اّلل عنه‪ :‬ل َّـما أ ْ‬
‫ويف حديث عروةَ بن مسعود‪ ،‬رضي ه‬
‫ِ‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫‪.‬أيْتِ َي الربَّةَ‪ ،‬يعين الالَّ َ‬
‫بلطائف‬ ‫ت‪ ،‬وهي الصخرةُ اليت كانت تَـ ْعبُدها ثَق ٌ‬
‫ـيف‬
‫َسلَ ُموا َه َد َمه ال ُـمغِـريةُ‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫‪.‬ويف حديث وفْ ِد ثَِق ٍ‬
‫اّلل تعاىل‪ ،‬فلما أ ْ‬
‫ت ه‬ ‫الربَّةَ‪ ،‬يُضاهئُو َن به بـَْي َ‬ ‫س ُّمونه َّ‬ ‫ت يُ َ‬
‫ـيف‪ :‬كان هلم بَ ْي ٌ‬ ‫َ‬
‫ِ‬ ‫ِ ِ‬
‫الناس‬
‫ـحرث بن َك ْعب‪ ،‬يـُ َعظهمها ُ‬ ‫‪.‬والربَّةُ َك ْعبَةٌ كانت بنَ ْجرا َن ل َـم ْذحج وبين ال َ‬
‫َّ‬
‫كل دار َربَّة‪َ ،‬خ ْزَرِج يَّة‬‫ض ْخمةٌ؛ قال حسان بن اثبت‪ :‬ويف ِ‬ ‫ودار َربَّةٌ‪َ :‬‬
‫ٌ‬
‫‪2- Hadith ‘urwa on Ar-Rabbah‬‬
‫أربابا ل َها –ومنه حديث عروة َ بن مسعود [ ل َّما أسْلم‬ ‫‪{ 352 -‬ربب} ‪ :‬و َج ْعلُهم ْ‬
‫الر َّبةَ ] يعني الالَّتَ وهي‬
‫ي َّ‬‫منزلَه فأن َكر قو ُمه د ُخولَه قبل أن يأ ِت َ‬
‫وعاد إلى قَ ْومه دخَل ِ‬
‫بالطائف ‪ -‬ومنه حديث َو ْفد ثقيف ‪.‬المصدر ‪:‬النهاية في‬ ‫َّ‬ ‫صخرة ُ التي كانت تعبُدُها ثَ ِق ٌ‬
‫يف‬ ‫ال َّ‬
‫غريب الحديث واألثر‬
‫الدرر السنية ‪ -‬غريب الحديث)‪(dorar.net‬‬
‫‪3- Bochart (1651) on Macoraba:‬‬
‫)‪(p.242‬‬
‫‪89‬‬
‫‪Draft Version, Feb. 2022‬‬
4). The Inscription of Makkah on the Stone of Maqam Ibrahim
Photo of the inscription at the bottom of the stone of Maqam Ibrahim (Al-Fakihiy, Vol. I., p.76)
1 ‫ ج‬- ‫( أخبار مكة في قديم الدهر وحديثه‬archive.org)
https://ia600201.us.archive.org/30/items/waq10151/01_10151.pdf
90
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Makoraba, Mochorba & Maka Revisited: A Geo-Linguistic Perspective

Preprint · February 2022

Heba M.I.M. Aboul-Enein

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Heba M.I.M. Aboul-Enein

In addition, Morris (2018) highlighted that Bowersock didn’t explain that

Ptolemy’s sources also comprise the geographical information from

2.2. Studies of the Errors in Geographia

(Görsch, 2019, p.13)

2.3. On the Language of Ptolemy’s Geographia

3.2. Pliny’s Depiction of the Region of Mochorba

3.2.1. Identification of Some Sites

Extension of the mountain series of Ubla/ Ebli/Abli, Google maps

al-Lith/Al-Layth, Saudi Arabia

The “Mamaean coast with its gold-mines” is probably an area in the

b. On the Southwestern Coast and the Eastern Coast

Island of Camari/Kamaran in Yemen

The arrows show the direction followed by Pliny in depicting Arabia,

4.Macae/ Makai/ Maka/ Maga/ Mage/ Myk(e)/ Myci/

4.1. The Forms of the Toponym

4.2. Varied Locations:

More Assyrian Textual Proofs for a Western Direction

(Cooper, 1876, p.310)

(Michaux-Colombot, 2011, Appendix, p.24)

II. Maga and Makatu in Ancient Egyptian

(Budge, 1920, Vol. I, p.289)

Moreover, in the coming inscriptions, from URK, referenced by Michaux-

The original text from (Urk IV, 1593, p.245)

The original text from (Urk, 6,5)

(Michaux-Colombot, 2011, Appendix, p.25)

In the ensuing snapshot from Vygus (2018, p.941), we detect mg3 as

(Schweitzer, 2019, p.2467)

(Budge, 1920, Vol. I, pp.289, 330)

Holy Makkah, as an Arabic noun, has different forms, depending on its

III. West Arabian Macae; Myka, and Myci in Herodotus

Moreover, from Pseudo Scylax, Periplous:

4.3. The Thirty-TwoCities of Makan

5.Conclusive Remarks to Part I

1.A Bird’s View of Greek

1.1. Some Phonological Considerations

Consonants of Koinē Greek (Butts, 2013, p.87)

1.1.1. ‘k’, ‘χ’ & ‘q’ in Greek and Latin

Greek Alphabet and its Latin equivalent

Moreover, Greek χ was produced in Latin as ch; yet sounded like k

(Part of the table of Grensted and Bradley, 1985, pp.2,3)

Part of the table of Greek sounds and their Latin equivalents

1.1.2. Representation of Greek and Semitic /k/

(Kantor, 2017, pp. 130, 173)

Part of the table of Greek sounds and their Syriac equivalents

(Muss-Arnolt, 1892, p.48).

(Al-Jallad, 2013, p.26)

Additionally, Al-Jallad (2017) highlighted that it was customary in Greek

(Part of the table of Al-Jallad, 2013, p.27)

1.1.3. Selected Semitic Loans with /k/ in Greek Texts

(van der Poel, 2019, p.23)

(van der Poel, 2019, p.23)

Another word is which is:

(Muss-Arnolt, 1892, p.52)

1.1.4. Syllabification in Greek and Latin

1.1.6. /k/ for the /q/ in Makoraba

‘Macae’, discussed above, in the following manner “… the dwellings of