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Map of Barbaria - Mercator–Cloppenburgh, Atlas Minor, Amsterdam, 1630
1 Zoom in on the map⇄It challenges · a placeThat Bakkah is Mecca.
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The claim
Bakkah was at Baca, on the coast between Oran and Alger.
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It challenges · a place
That Bakkah is Mecca.
✓ Confirmed by JustKong
Reading west to east: Oran, Mostagan, Zerseli, Baca, Alger. Inland: Bachest, then Tremisen.
Three things make the label significant.
It is precise. Baca is not floated vaguely over the interior. It sits on the coast, at the correct place, between correctly placed neighbours.
It carries the consonants of Bakkah. Strip the vowels, as Arabic writing does, and Baca is B-K, the root of ﺑﻜﺔ. The Spanish soldier-historian Mármol records that the Arabs called this town Bersac, another form built on B and K.
It belongs to a window of time. The name appears on the map family of c. 1607 to 1630 and then gives way to other spellings.
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