The Importance of Geography in Analyzing the Historical Events of the Holy Quran Case Study: Geographical Location of Midian of Shu'ayb

The narrow vision of the Qur'an scholars and commentators, and the overemphasis on the "time" factor at the cost of "place" factor as the context of historical events, have stirred controversy over the spatial characteristics of historical events in the Holy Quran. A case in point is Midian of Shu'ayb the location and geographical coordinates of which have been the subject of dispute by scholars and commentators. Accordingly, some sources and interpretations have contended that Midian of Shu'ayb was an urban area on the east coast of the Red Sea while others have introduced it as a vast area that stretches from the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula to areas in the southeast of the Sinai Peninsula. The purpose of this paper is to underline the necessity of exploiting spatial information in analyzing and interpreting the historical events of the Holy Quran through the analysis of written sources and documents as well as geographical maps, atlases and satellite imagery. The results reveal that exploiting the views of scholars in underscoring the importance of the structural link between history and geography and relying on the crucial position of research can provide a more accurate analysis and interpretation of the historical events in the Holy Quran.