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,
ali ibn abi talib (r. 656–661 c.e.), cousin and son-
in-law of Muhammad, the capital would move to
damascUs under the Umayyad caliphate, and later
to baghdad under the abbasid caliphate.
Medina’s history during the lifetime of mUham-
mad (ca. 570–632) is witnessed in part in the
qUran 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 ibn ishaq, 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 malik ibn anas (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 imams. 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 ansar; cities; companions oF the
prophet; emigrants; JUdaism and islam; ziyara.
Kathleen M. O’ConnorFurther reading: Yasin Dutton, Malik ibn Anas, and
Muhammad ibn Muhammad Ra’i, Original Islam: Malik
and the Madhhab of Madina (New York: Routledge,
2007); Emel Esin and Haluk Doganbey, Mecca the
Blessed, Madinah the Radiant (New York: Crown Pub-
lishers, 1963); Muhammad ibn Ishaq, The Life of
Muhammad: A Translation of Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah.
Translated by Alfred Guillaume (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1967); Michael Lecker, Muslims, Jews and
Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina (Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1995); Michael Lekker, “Muhammad at Medina,
a Geographical Approach.” Jerusalem Studies in Ara-
bic 6 (1985): 29–62; Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Ali K.
Nomachi, Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant: The
Holiest Cities of Islam (New York: Aperture Foundation,
1997); H. Rahman, “The Conflicts between the Prophet
and the Opposition in Medina,” Der Islam 62 (1985):
260–297; Muhammad ibn Saad, The Women of Madina
(London: TaHa, 1995); Muhammad ibn Saad, The Men
of Madina (London: TaHa, 1997); W. MontgomeryK 470 Medina