YYV5 C1 God Damn Religion Dr Patricia Crones Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam excerpt p. 145 146

Patricia Crone, in her Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, adds a practical reason that is too often overlooked. Mecca was a barren place, and barren places do not make natural halts. This is especially true when there are famously green environments close by. Why should caravans have made a steep descent into the barren valley of Mecca when they could have stopped at Taif Mecca may have had a modest well and humble sanctuary, but Taif not only had vastly superior ones, they had a ready food supply, too. Furthermore, Dr. Crone reports, there was no commodity available in Arabia that could be transported such a distance, through such an inhospitable environment, and still be sold at a profit large enough to support the growth of a city in a peripheral site bereft of natural resources. As the most credible researcher on the subject, Professor Crone points out, Some Muslims maintain it was famous for camel herding; yet thats not possible in a barren environment. Jay Smith augmented her findings