{muh-dee'-nuh}

Medina (Arabic: Al-Madinah), the second holiest city in Islam (after Mecca) and site of the tomb of Muhammad, is located in Hejaz region, western Saudi Arabia. It is about 485 km (300 mi) north of Mecca by coastal highway, 1,320 km (820 mi) south of Damascus by railroad, and 193 km (120 mi) northeast of the Red Sea. The population is 198,196 (1986 est.). All residents are Arabic-speaking Muslims. The city lies 625 m (2,050 ft) above sea level, on the western edge of a large lava field along the eastern slope of the Hejaz mountain range.

Medina is noted for its pottery and date palms and has recently developed a date-packing industry. Other agricultural produce includes fruit, grapes, vegetables, and cereal grains. The old walled city is surrounded by the pilgrim camping ground (Al Manakh) and the An Bariya Quarter, the former commercial district in which the Turks located the railroad station. Islamic University (1961) has about 1,000 students. Numerous historical sites include the tomb of Aaron as well as that of Muhammad; the Mosque of Quba, the first mosque in Islamic history; the Mosque of the Two Quiblahs, commemorating Muhammad's changing of the direction to be faced while praying from toward Jerusalem to toward Mecca; and the Prophet's Mosque, which Muhammad helped to build. Medina is often visited by Muslim pilgrims en route to Mecca. Non-Muslims are forbidden access to all pilgrimage sites.

The first settlers of Medina were Jews expelled from Palestine by the Romans in AD 135. Muhammad arrived from Mecca in 622, and, although he first treated the Jews with indulgence, he soon drove them out of Hejaz and made Medina the administrative capital of his Islamic state, a position it maintained until 661. After 661 the Umayyads, Egyptians, and Turks controlled the city at various times until 1916, when the independent Arab kingdom of Hejaz was formed. In 1932, Hejaz became part of Saudi Arabia.

Ira Sheskin

Medina

medina