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Medina
(pronounced
/mɛˈdiːnə/;
Arabic:
المدينة
المنورة IPA: [ælmæˈdiːnæ
lmuˈnɑw.wɑrɑ]
or المدينة
[ælmæˈdiːnæ];
also transliterated into
English
as Madinah; officially al-Madīnah
al-Munawwarah) is a city in
the
Hejaz
region of western
Saudi Arabia,
and serves as the capital of the
Al Madinah Province.
It is the second holiest city in
Islam,
and the burial place of the
Prophet Muhammad.
It is historically significant for being Muhammad's home
after the
Hijrah.
Medina
currently has a population of more than 1,300,000 people
(2006). It was originally known as
Yathrib, an oasis city dating as far back as the
6th century BCE. It was later inhabited by Jewish refugees
who fled the aftermath of the war with the Romans in the 2nd
century CE. Later the city's name was changed to
Madīnat(u)
'n-Nabiy (مدينة
"city of the prophet") or
Al-Madīnat(u) 'l-Munawwarah
("the enlightened city" or "the radiant city"), while the
short form Madīnah simply
means "city." Medina is celebrated for containing the mosque
of the Prophet Muhammad, and so ranks as the second holiest
city of Islam, after
Mecca
(Makkah). The Prophet Muhammad was buried in Medina. The
first two caliphs were buried next to him Medina is 210
miles
(338
kilometres
north of Mecca and about 120 mi (193 km) from the
Red Sea
coast. It is situated in the most fertile part of all the
Hejaz territory, the streams of
the vicinity tending to converge in this locality. An
immense
plain
extends to the south; in every direction the view is bounded
by hills and mountains.
The city
forms an oval, surrounded by a strong wall, 30 to 40
feet
(9 to 12
metres)
high, that dates from the 12th
century C.E., and is flanked with towers, while on a rock,
stands a castle. Of its four gates, the
Bab-al-Salam, or
Egyptian
gate, is remarkable for its beauty. Beyond the walls of the
city, west and south are suburbs consisting of low houses,
yards, gardens and plantations. These suburbs have also
walls and gates.
Al-Masjid
al-Nabawi
(Mosque
of The Prophet) stands at the east of the city and resembles
the mosque at Mecca on a smaller scale. Its
courtyard
is almost 500 ft (152 m) in length,
the
dome
is high with three picturesque
minarets.
The tomb of Muhammad, who died and was buried here in 632
C.E., is enclosed with a screen of iron filigree, at the
south side of which the
hajji
goes through his devotions, with the assurance that one
prayer here is as good as a thousand elsewhere.
The
tombs of
Hazrat Bibi Fatimah Zehra
(Muhammad's
daughter) and
Abu
Bakr
(first
caliph
and the father of Muhammad's wife,
Aisha),
and of
Umar
(Umar ibn Al-Khattab),
the second caliph, are also here. The
mosque
dates back to the time of Muhammad, but has been twice
burned and reconstructed.
Medina's
importance as a religious site derives from the presence of
the 'Tomb of the Prophet Muhammad' inside 'Al-Masjid(u)
'n-Nabawiy'
or 'The Mosque of The Prophet'. The mosque was built on a
site adjacent to Muhammad's home, and as
Muslims
believe[citation
needed]
that
prophets
must be buried at the very same place they leave this mortal
world, the Prophet Muhammad was thus buried in his house.
The tomb later became part of the mosque when it was
expanded by the
Umayyad
Caliph
Al-Walid I.
The first mosque of Islam is also located in Medina and is
known as Masjid
Qubaʼ (the
Quba
Mosque). It was
destroyed by lightning, probably about 850 C.E., and the
graves were almost forgotten. In 892 the place was cleared
up, the tombs located and a fine mosque
built, which was destroyed by fire in 1257 C.E. and
almost immediately rebuilt. It was restored by
Qaitbay,
the
Egyptian ruler,
in 1487.
Like
Mecca, the city of Medina only permits Muslims to enter,
although the
haram
(area closed to non-Muslims) of Medina is much smaller than
that of Mecca, with the result that many facilities on the
outskirts of Medina are open to non-Muslims, whereas in
Mecca the area closed to non-Muslims extends well beyond the
limits of the built-up area. Both cities' numerous mosques
are the destination for large numbers of Muslims on their
Hajj
(annual pilgrimage). Hundreds of thousands of Muslims come
to Medina annually to visit the 'Tomb of Prophet' and to
worship at mosques in a unified celebration. Muslims believe
that praying once in the Mosque of the Prophet is equal to
praying at least 1000 times in any other mosque.
Pre-Jewish
times
The
first mention of the city dates to the 6th century BCE. It
appears in Assyrian texts (namely, the
Nabonidus
Chronicle) as "Iatribu".
In the time of
Ptolemy
the
oasis
was known as Lathrippa.The first
people to settle the oasis of Medina were the tribe of
Banu
Matraweel and Banu
Hauf who trace their lineage to
Shem the son of Noah. They were the first ones to plant
trees and crops in the city.When the Yemenite tribes
Banu Aus and
Banu
Khazraj arrived there were approximately 70 Arab
tribes and 20 Jewish tribes in Medina.
Jewish
tribes
Jews
arrived in the city in the 2nd century CE in the wake of the
Jewish-Roman wars. There were three prominent
Jewish
tribes
which had inhabited the city till the 7th century CE: the
Banu
Qaynuqa,
the
Banu
Qurayza,
and
Banu
Nadir
Ibn
Khordadbeh
later reported that during the
Persian Empire's
domination in Hejaz, the
Banu
Qurayza served as
tax collectors
for the
shah
The
Aus and
Khazraj
The
situation changed after the arrival from
Yemen
of two
Arab
tribes named
Banu
Aus (Banu
Aws) and
Banu
Khazraj.
At first, these tribes were clients of the Jews, but later
they revolted and became independent. Toward the end of the
5th century, the Jews lost
control of the city to Banu Aus
and Banu
Khazraj. The
Jewish Encyclopedia
states that they did so "By calling in outside assistance
and treacherously massacring at a banquet the principal
Jews" Banu Aus and
Banu
Khazraj finally gained the upper hand at Medina.
Most
modern historians accept the claim of the Muslim sources
that after the revolt, the Jewish tribes became clients of
the Aus and the Khazraj.According
to
William Montgomery Watt,
the clientship of the Jewish
tribes is not borne out by the historical accounts of the
period prior to 627, and maintained that the Jews retained a
measure of political independence
Ibn
Ishaq
tells of a conflict between the last Yemenite king of the
Himyarite
Kingdom
and the residents of Yathrib.
When the king was passing by the oasis, the residents killed
his son, and the Yemenite ruler threatened to exterminate
the people and cut down the
palms.
According to ibn Ishaq, he was
stopped from doing so by two
rabbis
from the Banu
Qurayza, who implored the king
to spare the oasis because it was the place "to which a
prophet of the
Quraysh
would migrate in time to come, and it would be his home and
resting-place". The Yemenite king thus did not destroy the
town and converted to
Judaism.
He took the rabbis with him, and in Mecca, they reportedly
recognized the
Kaaba
as a temple built by
Abraham
and advised the king "to do what the people of Mecca did: to
circumambulate the temple, to venerate and
honour it, to shave his head and
to behave with all humility until he had left its
precincts." On approaching Yemen, tells ibn
Ishaq, the rabbis demonstrated
to the local people a miracle by coming out of a fire
unscathed and the Yemenites accepted Judaism.
Civic strife
Eventually the Banu Aus and the
Banu
Khazraj became hostile to each other and by the time
of the Prophet Muhammad's
Hijra
(migration) to Medina, they had been fighting for 120 years
and were the sworn enemies of each other. The
Banu Nadir and the
Banu
Qurayza were allied with the Aus, while the
Banu
Qaynuqa sided with the Khazraj.
They fought a total of four wars.
Their
last and bloodiest battle was the
Battle of
Bu'ath
that was fought a few years before the arrival of Muhammad.
The outcome of the battle was inconclusive, and the feud
continued.
Abd-Allah
ibn Ubayy,
one Khazraj chief, had refused
to take part in the battle, which earned him a reputation
for equity and peacefulness. Until the arrival of Muhammad,
he was the most respected inhabitant of
Yathrib.
Muhammad's (saww)arrival
In 622,
Muhammad and the
Muhajirun
left Mecca and arrived at Yathrib,
an event that would transform the religious and political
landscape completely; the longstanding enmity between the
Aus and Khazraj tribes was
dampened as many of the two tribes embraced Islam. Muhammad,
linked to the Khazraj through
his great grandmother, was soon made one of the chiefs and
united the Muslim converts of Yathrib
under the name "Ansar"
(the Patrons). After Muhammad's arrival, the city gradually
came to be known as Medina (literally "city" in
Arabic). Some consider this name as a derivative from the
Aramaic
word Medinta, which the
Jewish inhabitants would have used for the city.
According to Ibn Ishaq, the
Muslims and Jews of the area signed an agreement, the
Constitution of Medina,
which committed Jewish and Muslim tribes to mutual
cooperation. The nature of this document as recorded by Ibn
Ishaq and transmitted by
ibn
Hisham
is the subject of dispute among modern historians many of
whom maintain that this "treaty" is possibly a collage of
agreements, oral rather than written, of different dates,
and that it is not clear when they were made or with whom.
The Battle of
Badr
Obeida
was given the honour of "he who
shot the first arrow for Islam" as Abu
Sufyan ibn Harb altered
course to flee the attack. In retaliation for this attack
Abu Sufyan ibn
Harb requested an armed force
from Mecca .
Throughout the winter and spring of 623 other raiding
parties were sent by Muhammad from Medina.
Muhammad's agreement with the Jewish tribes soon broke down,
as the Jews would not accept Muhammad's claims to
prophethood or his growing
influence. After his victory at Badr,
Muhammad besieged and conquered the tribe of the
Banu
Qaynuqa,
that had been involved in a tribal feud and adamantly
refused to convert to Islam or keep peace with the Muslims.
Because of the intercession of Abd-Allah
ibn Ubayy and because it was the
first incident with the tribes, Muhammad spared the tribe's
lives and expelled them from the city.
The Battle
of Uhud
In 625,
Abu Sufyan ibn
Harb once again led a
Meccan force against Medina.
Muhammad marched out to meet the force but before reaching
the battle, about one third of the troops under
Abd-Allah ibn
Ubayy withdrew. Nevertheless the
Muslims marched forth into battle and originally were
somewhat successful in pushing the
Meccans back. However, a strategic hill was lost
which allowed the Meccans to
come from behind the Muslims so they suffered defeat in the
Battle of Uhud. However, the Meccans
did not capitalize on their victory by invading Medina and
so returned to Mecca.
Meanwhile, conflict with the Jews arose again: one of the
Banu Nadir's chiefs, the poet
Ka'b
ibn al-Ashraf, was
killed for breaching the Constitution of Medina and after
the battle of Uhud, Muhammad accused the tribe of treachery
and plotting against his life and expelled them from the
city after a short fight.
The Battle of the Trench
n
627, Abu Sufyan ibn
Harb once more led
Meccan forces against Medina.
Because the people of Medina had dug a trench to further
protect the city, this event became known as the Battle of
the Trench. After a protracted siege and various skirmishes,
the Meccans withdrew again.
During the siege, Abu Sufyan ibn
Harb had contacted the remaining
Jewish tribe of Banu
Qurayza and formed an agreement
with them, to attack the defenders from behind the lines. It
was however discovered by the Muslims and thwarted. This was
in breach of the Constitution of Medina and after the
Meccan withdrawal, Muhammad
immediately marched against the Qurayza
and laid siege to their strongholds. The Jews eventually
surrendered. Some members of the Banu
Aus now interceded on behalf of their old allies and
Muhammad agreed to the appointment of one of their chiefs,
Sa'd
ibn Mua'dh,
as judge. Sa'ad judged that all
male members of the tribe were killed and the women and
children taken prisoner. This action was conceived of as a
defensive measure to ensure that the Muslim community could
be confident of its continued survival in Medina. The
historian Robert Mantran argues
that from this point of view it was successful - from this
point on, the Muslims were no longer primarily concerned
with survival but with expansion and conquest.
Capital City
In the
ten years following the
Hijra,
Medina formed the base from which Muhammad attacked and was
attacked and it was from here that he
marched on Mecca,
becoming its ruler without battle. Even when Islamic rule
was established, Medina remained for some years the most
important city of Islam and the capital of the
Caliphate.
Medieval
Medina
Under
the first four Caliphs, known as the
Rashidun
(The Rightly Guided Caliphs), the
Islamic empire
expanded rapidly and came to include historical
centres of
civilisation such as
Jerusalem
and
Damascus,
and
Mesopotamia.
After the death of
Ali,
the fourth caliph, the seat of the Caliph was first
transferred to Damascus and later to
Baghdad.
Medina's importance dwindled and it became more a place of
religious importance than of political power. After the
fragmentation of the Caliphate the city became subject to
various rulers, including the
Mamluks
in the 13th century and finally, since 1517, the
Ottoman Turks.
In 1256
Medina was threatened by
lava
flow from the last eruption of
Harrat
Rahat.
Modern
Medina:
n
the beginning of 20th century during
World War I
Medina witnessed one of the longest sieges in history.
Medina was a city of Ottoman Empire. Local rule was in the
hands of the
Hashemite
clan as
Sharifs
or
Emirs
of Mecca.
Fakhri
Pasha was the
Ottoman
governor of Medina.
Ali bin Hussein,
the
Sharif
of Mecca and leader
of the Hashemite clan, revolted against the caliph and sided
with
Great Britain.
The city of Medina was besieged by his forces and
Fakhri Pasha tenaciously held on
during the
Siege of Medina
from 1916 but on
10 January
1919
he was forced to surrender. After the First World War, the
Hashemite
Sayyid
Hussein bin Ali was
proclaimed King of an independent Hejaz,
but in 1924 he was defeated by
Ibn
Saud,
who integrated Medina and Hejaz
into his kingdom of
Saudi Arabia.
The
Medina Knowledge Economic City
project, a city focused on knowledge-based industries, has
been planned and is expected to boost development and
increase the number of jobs in Medina. |
