Every year new research on the early history of Islam comes out. It is very exciting!
Here is a video about one researcher, Dan Gibson, who argues that the original birthplace of Islam was in fact Petra (in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), and that the city known as Mecca today in Saudi Arabia didn't even exist at the beginning of the Islamic calendar (begins in 622 AD).
Here is a trailer, though the entire movie, The Sacred City, is at Amazon:
If you really into the topic of Islamic origins, I also note that Gibson has a newly published book, Early Islamic Qiblas. I understand that the book develops in much greater detail the argument in the movie.
