City site

Medina lies 2,050 feet (625 meters) abovesea level on a fertileoasis. It is bounded on the east by an extensivelava field, part of which dates from avolcanic eruption in 1207ce. On the other three sides, the city is enclosed by arid hills belonging to the Hejaz mountain range. The highest of these hills is Mount Uḥud, which rises to more than 2,000 feet (600 meters) above theoasis.

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In the city center is theProphet’s Mosque, which Muhammad himself helped to build. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter this sacred area of the city but may still glimpse a good view from outside the area. Additions and improvements to the mosque complex were undertaken by a succession ofcaliphs, and the chamber of the Prophet’s wives was merged in the extension during the time of the Umayyadcaliphal-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. Fire twice damaged the mosque, first in 1256 and again in 1481, and its rebuilding was variously undertaken by devout rulers of several Islamic countries. SultanSelim II (1566–74) decorated the interior of the mosque withmosaics overlaid with gold. SultanMahmud II built the dome in 1817 and in 1839 painted it green, this being the accepted color of Islam. SultanAbdülmecid I initiated a project for the virtual reconstruction of the mosque in 1848 and completed it in 1860. This was the last renovation before the modern expansion planned byKing Abdulaziz in 1948 and executed byKing Saud in 1953–55. The mosque now includes a new northern court with its surrounding colonnades, all in the same style as the 19th-century building but of concrete instead of stone from the neighboring hills. Theqafaṣ (cage), to which female worshippers were formerly restricted, has been dismantled, while, apart from minor repairs, the southern (main) part of the mosque has remained intact. Itcomprises the three ornamental iron structures representing the houses of the Prophet and containing respectively (according to general consensus) the tomb of the Prophet himself under the great green dome, those of the first two caliphs,Abū Bakr andʿUmar, and that of the Prophet’s daughterFāṭimah. A specially adorned section of the pillared southern colonnade represents thepalm grove (al-Rawḍah) in which the first simple mosque was built.

In Ottoman times there was a small military landing ground at Sultanah, to the south near the garrison’s barracks, but the area is now occupied by the king’s palace and its extensive satellites. There too are the ruins of the tomb ofʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, the celebrated conqueror for early Islam ofPalestine andEgypt. The tomb ofAaron is located on the highest point of Mount Uḥud.

Other religious features of the oasis include the mosque of Qubāʾ, the first in Islamic history, from which the Prophet was vouchsafed a view of Mecca; the Mosque of the TwoQiblahs,commemorating the change of the prayer direction fromJerusalem to Mecca, at al-Rimāḥ; the tomb of Ḥamza, uncle of the Prophet and of his companions who fell in the Battle of Uḥud (625), in which the Prophet was wounded; and the cave in the flank of Uḥud in which the Prophet took refuge on that occasion. Other mosquescommemorate where he donned his armor for that battle; where he rested on the way thither, and where he unfurled his standard for theBattle of the Ditch (Al-Khandaq); and the ditch itself, dug around Medina by Muhammad, in which the rubble of the great fire during the reign (1839–61) of SultanAbdülmecid I was dumped. All these spots are the object of pious visitation by all Muslims visiting Medina and, like the Prophet’s Mosque, they are forbidden to non-Muslims. In addition the city is also the site of the Islamic University of Madinah, established in 1961.

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The modernization of Medina has not been so rapid as that ofJeddah,Riyadh, and other Saudi towns. Building development has involved the complete dismantlement of the old city wall and the merging of that historic area with the now built-up pilgrim camping ground (al-Manakh) and the Anbariyyah quarter, beyond the Abu Jidaʿtorrent bed, which was formerly the commercial quarter and in which the Turks established the railway station and terminal yards. The foundations of the old city wall were found to be lower than the surface of accumulated silt and rubble, but no attempt has been made to examine the excavations from the archaeological point of view. Nor has any archaeological work been done on the ruined sites of the old settlements, the largest of which was Yathrib (the Lathrippa or Iathrippa of Ptolemy and Stephanus Byzantius), which gave its name to the whole oasis until Islamic times. There are also several interesting mounds (ʿitm), besides the village of Al-Quraidha, which would certainly produce historicaldata of interest. The Islamic cemetery of al-Baqīʿ (Baqīʿ al-Gharqad) was shorn of all the domes and ornamentation of the tombs of the saints at the time of the Saudi conquest of 1925; simple concrete graves in place of the old monuments and a circuit wall have been installed.

Agriculture

Tosupplement the income derived from accommodating pilgrims, Medina has an economy based on the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, and cereals. The city is especially well known for its date palms, the fruits of which are processed and packaged for export at a plant built in 1953.

Mechanical pumps for irrigation, in use since Ottoman times early in the 20th century, have virtually replaced the old draw wells. Drinking water is supplied by an aqueduct from a spring at the southern end of the oasis. In addition to the plentiful supply of subsoil water at no great depth, a number of important wadis meet in thevicinity of Medina and bring down torrents of water during the winter rains. Of these the most notable are the Wadi al-ʿAqīq from the western mountains and a wadi coming down from the Al-Tāʾif area to the south.

Industry

Although Medina was known in early Islamic times for metalworking, jewelry, and armory, those industries were never large-scale, and most activity was connected withagricultural technology until the mid-20th century. Principal activities came to include automobile repair,brick and tile making, carpentry, and metalworking.

Transportation

From 1908 to 1916 Medina was connected withDamascus by the Hejaz railway, destroyed duringWorld War I. Reconstruction of this railroad is studied periodically but has never taken place. A railway has been built, however, between Medina and Jeddah. Asphalt roads link the city with Jeddah,Mecca, and Yanbuʿ (Medina’s port on the Red Sea), and another road extends north through the Hejaz and connects the city toJordan. Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International Airport serves passengers flying to and from the city.