Encyclopedia of Islam

Medina

  

469  J

---

calendar

, 1 

a

.

h

. (anno hijri, or the year of the 

Hijra). It became the administrative center and 

capital of the growing Islamic empire in its initial 

period of expansion from the central province of 

Hijaz bordering the western coast of Arabia to 

encompass the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Syria, 

Iraq, and Iran by the end of the Rashidun Caliph-

ate, 632–661. By the death of the fourth 

caliph

, 

a

li

 

ibn

 a

bi

 t

alib

 (r. 656–661 

c

.

e

.), cousin and son-

in-law of Muhammad, the capital would move to 

d

amascUs

 under the U

mayyad

 c

aliphate

, and later 

to b

aghdad

 under the a

bbasid

 c

aliphate

.

Medina’s history during the lifetime of m

Uham

-

mad

 (ca. 570–632) is witnessed in part in the 

q

Uran

 as well as other contemporaneous sources, 

the  maghazi texts (which discuss Muhammad’s 

battles), the 

hadith

 (narratives of the Prophet’s 

sUnna

, or customary words and deeds), and later 

hagiographical materials such as Muhammad ibn 

Ishaq’s  al-Sira al-Nabawiyya, or 

biography

 of the 

Prophet. All of these texts mark the history of 

Muhammad’s settlement in Medina, the growth 

of the first umma, and its spread to unite the Ara-

bian tribes through battle and through treaty (and 

often diplomatic marriage between Muhammad 

and the daughter of another tribe). A history of 

intertribal conflict and warfare with the Jewish 

and pagan tribes of Medina, such as the Banu 

Aws and Banu Khazraj and their clients the Banu 

Nadir, Banu Qurayza, and Banu Qaynuqa, cre-

ated a need for a strong and effective arbitrator 

and mediator, an opening Muhammad accepted 

in order to establish the Muslim community and 

Islam as a social and political as well as spiritual 

reality. According to the Sira of i

bn

  i

shaq

, the 

Muslims and Jewish tribes of Medina signed an 

agreement, the “Constitution of Medina,” which 

bound them to peaceful coexistence.

Medina’s importance after its brief period as the 

political capital was primarily as a religious center 

in Islam, originating one of the four branches of 

Islamic law, namely, the Medinan school (madh-

hab) of m

alik

 

ibn

 a

nas

 (ca. 715–796), and as the 

burial place of Muhammad, a number of the 

ahl

al

-

bayt

 (“People of the House” of the Prophet), 

and early companions. These places became sites 

of pilgrimage in their own right, especially for 

Muslims who were visiting Mecca for the 

umra

and the 

haJJ

. Thus all Sunni Muslims visit the 

Prophet’s tomb and home 

mosqUe

 in Medina when 

doing pilgrimage and Shii Muslims visit it for 

that reason and to visit the gravesites of several 

of the i

mams

. Medina is the second holiest city in 

Islam, second only to Mecca, due to its intimate 

connection with the Prophet and the foundation 

of the umma. The Prophet’s mosque is in the east-

ern section of the city and a green dome tops the 

mausoleum. The mosque of the Prophet has been 

successively enlarged from its dimensions as his 

house and 

prayer

 place to an enormous complex 

with multiple 

minarets

 encompassing his tomb 

and permitting the approach of the enormous 

number of annual pilgrims who visit the site par-

ticularly during Ramadan and the annual hajj.

See also  a

nsar

; 

cities

;  c

ompanions

 

oF

 

the

p

rophet

; e

migrants

; J

Udaism

 

and

 i

slam

; 

ziyara

.

Kathleen M. O’Connor