Everything about Medina totally explained
Medina ( or المدينة ; also translated 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
Muhammad. It was also the place where Muhammad and his followers left after attacks against them in
Mecca, now known as the
Hijrah.
Overview
Medina currently has a population of more than 1,300,000 people (2006). It was originally known as
Yathrib which was founded by Jewish refugees who fled the aftermath of the war with the Romans, but later the city's name was changed to Madīnat al-Nabī (مدينة ﺍﻟﻨﺒﻲ "city of the prophet") or
Al Madīnah al Munawwarah ("the enlightened city" or "the radiant city"), while the short form
Madīnah simply means "city". Medina is celebrated for containing the mosque of Muhammad, and so ranks as the second holiest city of Islam, after
Mecca (Makkah).
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, for all of which he pays, but is consoled with the assurance that one prayer here's as good as a thousand elsewhere.
The tombs of
Fatimah (Muhammad's daughter) and
Abu Bakr (first
caliph and the father of Muhammad's wife,
Aisha), and of
Umar (Umar ibn Khattab), the second caliph, are also here. The
mosque dates back to the time of Muhammad, but has been twice burned and reconstructed.
Ibn Khordadbeh later reported that during the
Persian Empire's domination in Hejaz, the Banu Qurayza served as
tax collectors for the
shah.
Banu Aus and Banu 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. According to
William Montgomery Watt, the clientship of the Jewish tribes isn't borne out by the historical accounts of the period prior to 627, and maintained that the Jews retained a measure of political independence. 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 didn't 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'd 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 Muhammad's
Hijra (withdrawal) to Medina, they'd 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.
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 isn't clear when they were made or with whom.
The Battle of Badr
In January of 623 Muhammad dispatched
Ubaydah ibn al-Harith (Obeida), the son of Muhammad's uncle
Harith ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, to attack an enemy caravan (belonging to the persecutors of the first Muslims) passing along the
Syria-to-Mecca trade route. As the caravan (led by
Abu Sufyan ibn Harb) was watering in the valley of
Rabigh, Muhammad's men fired volleys of arrows from a distance but didn't inflict any damage. 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 who came and engaged in the
Battle of Badr, at which was killed.
Throughout the winter and spring of 623 other raiding parties were sent by Muhammad from Medina but, while troublesome, were not particularly effective or destructive. 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
In 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Medina'.
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