Medina

'The Luminous City', Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [al.maˈdiːna al.mʊˈnawːara]) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (المدينة, al-Madina) and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (يَثْرِب), is the capital of Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia.[17] Early Muslim chronicler Ibn Ishaq tells of an ancient conflict between the last Yemenite king of the Himyarite Kingdom[20] and the residents of Yathrib.According to Ibn Ishaq, he was stopped from doing so by two rabbis from the Banu Qurayza tribe, 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."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.[25][5] In the year 625, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, a senior chieftain of Mecca who later converted to Islam, led a Meccan force against Medina.Knowing of his intentions, Muhammad asked for proposals for defending the northern flank of the city, as the east and west were protected by volcanic rocks and the south was covered with palm trees.Salman al-Farsi, a Persian Sahabi who was familiar with Sasanian war tactics recommended digging a trench to protect the city and Muhammad accepted it.Some members of the Aws negotiated on behalf of their old allies and Muhammad agreed to appoint one of their chiefs who had converted to Islam, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, as judge.Alternatively, Lucien Gubbay suggests the name Medina could also have been a derivative from the Aramaic word Medinta, which the Jewish inhabitants could have used for the city.During the reign of 'Uthman ibn al-Affan, the third caliph, a party of Arabs from Egypt, disgruntled at some of his political decisions, attacked Medina in 656 and assassinated him in his own home.Following a period of unrest during the Second Fitna in 679, Husayn ibn 'Ali was martyred at Karbala and Yazid assumed unchecked control for the next three years.From 1151 onwards, Medina paid allegiance to the Zengids, and the Emir Nuruddin Zengi took care of the roads used by pilgrims and funded the fixing of the water sources and streets.Zengi was succeeded by Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, who supported Qasim ibn Muhanna, the Sharif of Medina, and greatly funded the growth of the city while slashing taxes paid by the pilgrims.[5] After the fall of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, to the Mongols, the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo took over the Egyptian governorate and effectively gained control of Medina.As the Ottomans' hold over their domains broke loose, the Madanis pledged alliance to Saud bin Abdulaziz, founder of the First Saudi state in 1805, who quickly took over the city.[5] Four days later, Husayn held Medina in a bitter 3-year siege, during which the people faced food shortages, widespread disease and mass emigration.In anticipation of the plunder and destruction to follow, Fakhri Pasha secretly dispatched the Sacred Relics of Muhammad to the Ottoman capital, Istanbul.Nowadays, the city mostly only holds religious significance and as such, just like Mecca, has given rise to a number of hotels surrounding the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, which unlike the Masjid Al-Ḥarām, is equipped with an underground parking.As a consequence, under Saudi rule, Medina has suffered from considerable destruction of its physical heritage including the loss of many buildings over a thousand years old.[9][38] Critics have described this as "Saudi vandalism" and claim that 300 historic sites linked to Muhammad, his family or companions have been lost in Medina and Mecca over the last 50 years.The soil surrounding Medina consists of mostly basalt, while the hills, especially noticeable to the south of the city, are volcanic ash which dates to the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era.[42] The mosque was initially just an open space for prayer with a raised and covered minbar (pulpit) built within seven months and was located beside Muhammad's rawdhah (residence, although the word literally means garden) to its side along with the houses of his wives.According to a hadith, Sahl ibn Hunayf reported that Muhammad said, "Whoever purifies himself in his house, then comes to the mosque of Quba' and prays in it, he will have a reward like the Umrah pilgrimage.[47] Being a destination of Muslims from around the world, Medina witnesses illegal immigration after performing Hajj or Umrah, despite the strict rules the government has enforced.Sunnis of different schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali) constitute the majority, while there is a significant Shia minority in and around Medina, such as the Nakhawila.Similar to that of Mecca, Medina exhibits a cross-cultural environment, a city where people of many nationalities and cultures live together and interact with each other on a daily basis.The Dar Al Madinah Museum opened in 2011 and it uncovers the history of Medina specializing in the architectural and urban heritage of the city.As of February 2020, before the implementation of social distancing measures and curfews, it held more than 13 group and solo art galleries, along with weekly workshops and discussions.[57] Other projects launched by the MMDA Cultural Wing include the Madinah Forum of Live Sculpture held at Quba Square, with 16 sculptors from 11 countries.The newly established bus system includes 10 lines connecting different regions of the city to Masjid an-Nabawi and the downtown area, and serves around 20,000 passengers on a daily basis.