MEDINA, or rather (the city), or MEDINA r RASUL ALLAH (the city of the apostle of God), a town of Arabia, about 82o m. by rail S.S.E. of Damascus, the refuge of Mohammed on his emigration from Mecca, and a renowned place of Muslim pilgrimage, consecrated by the possession of his tomb. The name Medina goes back to the Koran (sur. xxxiii. 6o) ; the old name was Yathrib, the Lathrippa of Ptolemy and Iathrippa of Stephanus Byzantius.
Medina stands in a mountain basin on the uptilted western edge of the ancient plateau mass of Arabia. To the west the land falls abruptly to the Red sea coastlands, while southward the plain extends unbroken to the horizon. The most important mountain groups surrounding Medina are Jebel Ohod, the scene of the famous battle (see MOHAMMED), Jebel Thowr, Jebel `Ayr and Jebel Sala. A number of torrent courses descend from the mountains, and converge in the neighbourhood of the town, to unite farther west at a place called Zaghaba, whence they descend to the sea through the "mountains of the Tehama"—the rough country between Medina and its port, Yanbua. The con vergence of torrent-courses in the neighbourhood of Medina makes it one of the best-watered spots in northern Arabia. The city lies close to one of the great volcanic centres of the peninsula, which was in violent eruption as late as A.D. 1266. Volcanic ac tivity has tended to confine the underground water, which can be reached at any point of the oasis by sinking deep wells. Nearly all the houses in Medina have their own wells, and good drinking water is supplied to the city from a spring near the village of Kuba, 4 m. to the south. The volcanic soil, although impaired in some places by salt, has given a tradition of fertility to the city from the days of the Prophet. Thus situated, Medina was originally a city of agriculturists, unlike Mecca, which is a city of merchants. The latter was a haram, or sanctuary, before the time of Mohammed, but Medina became a sanctuary only at the Prophet's command.
We first hear of the oasis held by Jews, among whom emigrants from Yemen afterwards settled. From the time of the emigration of Mohammed (A.D. 622 ) till the Omayyads removed the seat of empire from Medina to Damascus, the town became prominent as the capital of the new power that so rapidly changed the fate of the East. Its fall was not less rapid and complete, and since the battle of Harra and the sack of the city in 683 it has never regained political importance. (See CALIPHATE.) Mohammed in vested the country round Medina with an inviolable character like that of the haram round Mecca ; but this provision has never been observed with strictness. After the fall of the caliphs, who maintained a governor in Medina, the native amirs enjoyed a fluctuating measure of independence, interrupted by the aggres sions of the sherifs of Mecca, or by an intermittent Egyptian protectorate. The Turks, after the conquest of Egypt, held Medina for a time with a firmer hand ; but their rule grew weak, and was almost nominal long before the Wahhabis first took the city in 1804. A Turko-Egyptian force re-took it in 1812, and the Turks remained in effective control until the revival of the Wahhabi movement under the Ibn Saud, from 1912 onwards, increased their difficulties. Turkish rule ceased during the World
War, and El Husain, the Hashimite king of the Hijaz, revolted against them. He later came into conflict with Ibn Saud. Medina was in the hands of the Hashimite Government up to 1924, when it was besieged for 15 months and ultimately fell to Ibn Saud (q.v.).
The city proper is surrounded by a high, strong wall, with towers and nine gates forming an irregular oval running to a kind of angle at the north-west, where stands a fort built by the Turkish Sultan Selim in A.D. 1532. A second wall, less massive than the inner one, extends from near the Baki5, cemetery, where 10,000 of the Prophet's companions are said to be buried, to the fort at the north-west end. The space between the outer and inner walls is occupied by various suburbs of the city, and is also a resting place for the desert caravans. The oldest quarter of the city is at the eastern end, that is between the great mosque and Bab el Bakia. This is a region of small houses and tortuous streets. The glory of Medina, and the only important building, is the mosque of the Prophet, in the eastern part of the city, a spacious enclosed court between 400 and 500 ft. in length from north to south, and two-thirds as much in breadth. The minarets and the lofty dome above the sacred graves are imposing features; but the circuit is hemmed in by houses or narrow lanes, and is not remarkable, except for the principal gate (Bab es-Salam) at the southern end of the west front, facing the sacred graves, which is richly inlaid with marbles and fine tiles, and adorned with golden inscriptions. This gate leads into a deep portico, with ten rows of pillars, running along the southern wall. Near the farther end of the portico, but not adjoining the walls, is a sort of door less house or chamber hung with rich curtains, which is sup posed to contain the graves of Mohammed, Abu Nekr and Omar. To the north of this is a smaller chamber of the same kind, draped in black, which is said to represent the tomb of Fatima. Both are enclosed with an iron railing, so closely interwoven with brass wire-work that a glimpse of the so-called tombs can only be got through certain apertures, where intercessory prayer is addressed to the Prophet, and pious salutations are paid to the other saints. The portico in front of the railing is paved with marble, and in the eastern part with mosaic, laid with rich carpets ; the southern wall is clothed with marble, pierced with windows of good stained glass, and the great railing has a striking aspect; but an air of tawdriness is imparted by the painting of the columns, especially in the space between the tomb and the pulpit, which has received, in accordance with a tradition of the Prophet, the name of the Garden (rondo), and is decorated with barbaric attempts to carry out this idea in colour. The throng of visitors passing along the south wall from the Bab es-Salam to salute the tombs, is separated from the Garden by an iron railing. Within the court are the well of the Prophet, and some palm trees said to have been planted by Fatima.