Rock inscription - the first mention of al masjid al haram - 78 AH / 697-698 CE
-
This may have been mentioned before but I will post it anyways
An Inscription Mentioning The building/Rebuilding Of Al-Masjid Al-Ḥarām
78 AH / 697-698 CEI found it interesting the inscription reads building but it is commonly understood as rebuilding/remodelling.
https//www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/haram1
Quotes from explanatory text
This is the earliest dated documentary text to mention al-Masjid al-Ḥarām and it is also the earliest dated popular rock inscription to mention Prophet Muḥammad.Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān started the reconstruction of al-Masjid al-Ḥarām in the year 75 AH after it sustained damage by the catapults of al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf during his siege (and eventual death) of ʿAbdullāh b. al-Zubayr (d. 73 AH / 692 CE).
The events of the second civil war are attested in a contemporary Syriac Christian source, John bar Penkaye, written c. 687 CE, where there is mention of the ‘sanctuary’ (i.e., al-Masjid al-Ḥarām) where some of the fighting occurred. Another contemporary Syriac Christian source, Letters of Jacob of Edessa, written sometime between 684 and 708 CE, further identifies the Muslim direction of prayer toward the Ka’ba, noting it was not the same direction to which the Jews faced in prayer, namely Jerusalem. See, M. P. Penn, When Christian First Met Muslims A Sourcebook Of The Earliest Syriac Writings On Islam, 2015, University of California Press (USA), p. 98 & pp. 172-173.
Above might help someone piece together the puzzle. I found the above when I was looking for evidence for the mention of the alleged most or one of the most famous tribes/clans of Arabia the Quraysh. Seems there is little to no evidence of early mention of them.
