Medina

Medina, city in western Saudi Arabia, located in the Al Ḩijāz (Hejaz) region. Called Madinah al-munawwara (“Medina the Radiant”) in Arabic, the city is second to Mecca in spiritual importance among Muslims. The Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, emigrated from Mecca to Medina in 622. The emigration, known as the Hegira (hijrah in Arabic), marks the first year of the Islamic calendar. Medina was the seat of the first four caliphs, or rulers (literally, “successors” in Arabic) of Islam, who expanded the lands under Islamic rule through conversion and conquest after the death of Muhammad in 632. The city’s most important religious site is the Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad. The mosque contains Muhammad’s tomb as well as the tombs of other important figures from the early years of Islam.

Although the Umayyad dynasty moved the seat of the Islamic caliphate to Damascus (in what is now Syria) in 661, Medina continued to be an important city in Al Ḩijāz. Better endowed with natural resources than nearby Mecca, Medina boasted large date palm plantations and other cultivations. Stonemasons through the ages used the abundant local volcanic basalt to build the city’s characteristic dark edifices.

Medina came under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. During the first decades of the 19th century, the city was plundered by puritanical Islamic forces known as Wahhabis before being recaptured by an Egyptian army fighting on behalf of the Ottomans. In 1908 Medina became the southern terminus of the Al Ḩijāz Railway, built by the Ottomans to help control the region. The railroad linked Medina and Mecca with Damascus. During World War I (1914-1918) the Ottoman garrison in Medina withstood a siege of several years by the forces of Husein ibn Ali, the leader of the British-backed Arab revolt against the Ottomans. In 1925 Medina fell to the forces of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud and the city was incorporated into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Population (1992) 608,300.