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Question: Were the names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" available on maps accessible to Joseph Smith?
Revision as of 18:43, 29 November 2018 by RogerNicholson (talk | contribs) (→The name "Meroni" on the Comoros island of Anjouan)
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Question: Were the names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" available on maps accessible to Joseph Smith?
The Comoro archipelago consists of the islands of Grande Comore (Great Comoro), Anjouan (also known as Johanna), Mohilla (Mohely), and Mayotte (Mayotta). They are located at the head of the Mozambique Channel off the coast of Africa. The current capitol, shown on modern maps, is the city of Moroni.
This claim, like many efforts to explain away the Book of Mormon, commits the logical fallacy of the Appeal to probability. This fallacy argues that because something is even remotely possible, it must be true.
When the facts are examined, the possibility of Joseph seeing Comoros and Moroni recedes; the idea becomes unworkable. The following gazetteers from Joseph's era were consulted:
| Title | Relevant Contents |
| Mucullock's Universal Gazateer, 2 vols (1843-4) |
2257 pages of double columned miniscule print, with no reference to Comoros Islands or Moroni. |
| Morris' Universal Gazateer (1821) | 831 pages, no mention of Comoros or Moroni |
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Brookes Gazateer
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There is no evidence that Joseph saw these maps, or any other, but if he had they would have provided little help.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that any source would have contained the name of "Moroni." That settlement did not become the capital city until 1876 (32 years after Joseph's death and 47 years after the publication of the Book of Mormon), when Sultan Sa'id Ali settled there. At that time it was only a small settlement. Even a century later, in 1958, its population was only 6500.
The name "Meroni" on the Comoros island of Anjouan
As previously noted, it is unlikely that any map of the Comoro Archiplego available to Joseph Smith would have contained the name of "Moroni." The capitol city of Moroni was unlikely to have been present on early maps of the Comoros Islands in the 1700's. However, the name "Meroni" actually did appear in a different location on one of the other Comoros Islands on maps dated to 1748, 1752 and 1755. The following 1748 map of the island of Anjouan (also known as Nzwani) has been noted by critics to contain the name "Meroni" or "Merone".[1]
The following map of Anjouan, dated to 1748, also contains the name "Merone."
It is unlikely that Joseph would have seen this, since the name "Comoro" on maps always appears to be associated with the main island "Grande Comore", while the settlement of "Meroni" on Anjoun is too small to appear on such maps showing all four islands. For example, the following 1749 maps of the Comoros clearly labels the main island as "Comore," but the scale of the island of Anjouan obscures the names of any settlements there. In order for Joseph to obtain the name "Meroni" or "Merone" from Anjouan, he would have been required to consult the Anjouan map directly make this connection, since it lists the name "Comore" at the top.
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