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MEDINA

Encyclopaedia of Ismailism by Mumtaz Ali Tajddin

Medina, one of the major settlements of the Hijaz and some 350 km to the north of Mecca, was in pre-Islamic times commonly called Yathrib (the Iathrippa of the Greek geographers). The town is named in the Koran (33:13) where the Medinan Muslims are addressed as "people of Yathrib" (ahl yathrib). This name was also in vogue in pre-Islamic poetry and in the Constitution of Medina. The term medina means the town in Arabic, appears as the designation for Yathrib in 9:101, 120; 63:8 and quite possibly in 33:60; in other instances, however, the noun al-medina (pl. al-meda'in) is not used as a proper noun but refers to other cities (7:123, 12:30, 15:67). The origin of the name Medina for the settlement of Yathrib is uncertain, though it seems more likely that it derives from the Aramaic term for town, city or settlement (madita) that it is an abbreviated form of the Arabic epithet "the town of the Prophet" (medinat al-nabi). The town was given many honorific epithets, which were reckoned as names as well. The most prominent among these is al-tayba (the perfumed or healthy). In modern age, the name of Medina is commonly extended to al-medina al-munawwara (Medina the illuminated), whereas in former centuries one often spoke of al-medina al-sharif (the noble city). During the Prophet's period, the people in Medina essentially living off of their agricultural production, and local dates were among the most cherished products. The hot climate, however, is described as unhealthy and the vast lava-fields outside the town diminished the size of the arable land. Although a number of markets existed there, Medina cannot be regarded as a commercial town like for example, Mecca. The settlement itself was a loose grouping of living quarter or zones, interspersed with groupings of palm groves and fields, with the individual living quarters often fortified by strongholds (atam). Medina extended over a large area and thus covered a wider but less densely populated area than does the modern town. The population of pre-Islamic Medina consisted of pagan Arab and Jewish clans with only a marginal presence of other monotheists. The two Arab super-clans known as Aws and Khazraj constituted the most important pagan faction in Medina, who immigrated in pre-Islamic times from Yamen to Medina. When the Prophet came to Medina in 622 A.D., the town was divided between the various pagan and Jewish clans. The clans of Aws and Khazraj became the Muslims and were henceforth known as the Prophet's helper (ansar). The decade following the Prophets' move from Mecca to Medina is commonly dubbed the "Medinan period"- a creation of the true Islamic state. For Islam, Medina was the place where almost all decisive elements of the Islamic creed took definite shape. The longer Medinan suras of the Koran have been deeply influenced in the formation of Muslim life. Many details of ritual, such as fasting, prayers, pilgrimage and the direction of prayer were introduced during the Prophet's Medinan years. The Prophet's presence in Medina also conferred a unique sacredness on the town and the later legal authority Malik bin Anas (d. 179/796) would not mount a donkey in the town because he would not allow its hooves to trample upon the soil that contained the Prophet's sepulcher.


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