Places in the Quran
الأماكن في القرآن
Cities, lands, mountains and houses of worship: 22 named places with 51 mentions. The Sacred Mosque leads with 15, and three surahs carry a place name: Sabaʾ, al-Aḥqāf and al-Ṭūr.
Including related themes: 120 verses across 40 surahs (shown in the chart below).
All figures are computed from the Quranic Arabic Corpus ontology and the Quran 360 theme index.
Take the lesson →Across the 114 surahs
Each bar is a surah; its height is how many verses of this study it contains. Tap a bar to open the surah.
The Quran names relatively few places, and many of them only once. The QAC ontology lists 8 cities (12 mentions), 3 historic lands (7), 5 mountains (6) and 6 places of worship (26): 22 places, 51 mentions. The ontology also counts 11 general uses of “mosque”, which this study does not add to the total. With our theme tags on the Sacred Mosque, mosques, Mount Sinai, the blessed land and towns, the study covers 120 verses in 40 surahs.
The most mentioned place is al-Masjid al-Ḥarām: 15 mentions in 15 verses across 7 surahs. Makkah is named once by that name (48:24) and once as Bakkah (3:96); Ibn Kathir explains “this city” (90:1) as Makkah. Madīnah is named 5 times and once by its older name, Yathrib (33:13).
Mountains mark turning points in the stories: Nūḥ's ark came to rest on al-Jūdī (11:44), Mūsā was called at al-Ṭūr (19:52), and al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are among the symbols of Allah (2:158).
Key facts
22 named places, 51 mentions: 8 cities (12), 3 lands (7), 5 mountains (6) and 6 places of worship (26).
Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām is the most mentioned place: 15 mentions in 15 verses across 7 surahs.
Makkah is named once (48:24) and Bakkah once (3:96); Madīnah 5 times and Yathrib once (33:13).
Monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques are all named in one verse (22:40).
The word ṭūr (mount) occurs 10 times in 8 surahs.
Ibn Kathir explains “this city” in 90:1 as Makkah.
Surahs named after these
Makkah and the Sacred Mosque
“The first House set up for people is the one at Bakkah, blessed and a guidance for the worlds” (3:96). Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl raised its foundations (2:127). The qibla was turned towards al-Masjid al-Ḥarām (2:144), and the Kaʿba is named in 5:95 and 5:97. The Night Journey began from al-Masjid al-Ḥarām and went to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, “whose surroundings We have blessed” (17:1).
Houses where Allah's name is remembered
One verse names four kinds of houses of worship: “Had Allah not repelled some people by others, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques, in which Allah's name is much remembered, would have been destroyed” (22:40). Monasteries, churches and synagogues appear in the ontology only in this verse.
Mountains of the stories
The ontology's five mountains each appear once or twice: al-Jūdī, where the ark rested (11:44); Ṭūr Sīnāʾ, where the olive grows (23:20), and Ṭūr Sīnīn, sworn by in 95:2; al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah (2:158); and ʿArafāt (2:198). The word ṭūr (mount) occurs 10 times, often for the mountain raised over the Children of Israel when they took the covenant (2:63; 2:93). Surah al-Ṭūr opens with an oath by it (52:1); the ontology does not tag that verse, but our theme index does, after Ibn Kathir.
Lands and cities of the past
Miṣr (Egypt) is named 4 times (10:87; 12:21; 12:99; 43:51). Sabaʾ had two gardens and a broken dam (34:15-16), and its queen is met in Surah al-Naml (27:22). Al-Aḥqāf, “the curved sand dunes”, was where Hūd warned ʿĀd (46:21). Babylon is the scene of Hārūt and Mārūt (2:102). On “Iram of the pillars” (89:7) the commentators differ whether it was a tribe or a city; Ibn Kathir takes it as the tribe of ʿĀd and rejects legends of a fabulous city. Two battles are named by place: Badr (3:123) and Ḥunayn (9:25).
Every concept (27)
Themes
For reflection and discussion
Many of these places are now visited by pilgrims and travellers. If you could visit one place named in the Quran, which would it be, and which verse would you recite there?