Medina

Overview

Medina is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia and one of the principal holy cities of Islam, alongside Mecca. Known before Islam as Yathrib, it was an oasis inhabited by Arab and Jewish communities. In 622, Mohammed and his followers migrated there from Mecca in the Hijra, the event from which the Islamic calendar begins. During the final decade of his life, Medina became the center of Mohammed’s religious community, political authority and military campaigns. The Prophet’s Mosque remains central to the city’s religious standing. Medina also has a history extending beyond Mohammed’s lifetime, including its earlier Jewish communities, its place within Saudi Arabia and the experiences of its Shi'a minority. [1][2][9]

The Hijra changed the scale and character of Mohammed’s movement. In Mecca, he had preached for approximately thirteen years; in Medina, he led a community with institutions, rules for resolving disputes and armed forces. The Charter, also called the constitution of Medina, addressed relations among his followers and other inhabitants, including Jewish tribes. The Center for the Study of Political Islam interprets the migration as the beginning of a political order, rather than a change of residence alone. Its account emphasizes Mohammed’s authority as arbiter, while the city’s subsequent history also includes alliances, warfare and the expulsion or destruction of its principal Jewish communities. [2][3][14]

Geography

Medina developed in a fertile oasis in the western Arabian region of Hejaz. Its date groves, wells and cultivable land supported settled communities in a landscape where dependable water and agriculture mattered greatly. Jewish tribes occupied distinct parts of the oasis: Banu Nadir cultivated land west of the city, Banu Qurayza lived toward its southeast, and Banu Qaynuqa were associated with the central market. Other groups lived in and around the settlement. This pattern made Medina more than a single compact town; its inhabitants were connected through markets, cultivated plots, strongholds and tribal agreements. [1]

The oasis lay within a wider network of settlements and routes linking Arabian communities. Khaybar, another important Jewish agricultural settlement, stood to Medina’s north. Its fortified villages and farms became closely connected to Medina’s history when members of Banu Nadir settled there after their expulsion. The area’s geography also shaped warfare. During the Battle of the Trench, Mohammed’s forces dug a defensive trench across vulnerable approaches to Medina, using the terrain to impede an allied army advancing on the city. [1][5]

Ancient and biblical history

Yathrib’s pre-Islamic history was shaped by Jewish settlement and later Arab migration. Jewish Virtual Library’s Encyclopedia Judaica account describes Medina, together with Tayma and Khaybar, as a leading Jewish center in ancient Arabia. Traditions place the arrival of Jews in the region at several much earlier moments associated with biblical or later Jewish history. Those traditions do not establish a single date of settlement. By the early centuries of the Common Era, however, Jewish tribes formed a substantial part of the oasis’s population. Their agriculture, wells, fortified residences and commercial activity were established features of local life. [1][2]

Jewish communities in Yathrib were not one political bloc. Banu Nadir, Banu Qurayza and Banu Qaynuqa were among the major tribes, while smaller groups lived in other parts of the oasis. Arab migration altered the balance of power over time. The Aws and Khazraj, two major Arab tribes, became influential and developed alliances with Jewish groups. Conflict between Aws and Khazraj, and among their respective allies, marked the period before Mohammed’s arrival. The resulting network of rivalries and agreements helps explain why the constitution of Medina addressed multiple communities and why later conflicts followed different courses for different tribes. [1][2][4]

The city’s Jewish past is significant in the history of Judaism in Arabia. Jewish inhabitants cultivated dates, participated in trade and maintained local institutions long before the Hijra. Estimates of their number before Mohammed’s arrival vary, but the Encyclopedia Judaica account describes them as a major part of Yathrib’s population. Their history cannot be reduced to the conflicts of the 620s: those conflicts took place within an older society whose Jewish and Arab inhabitants had lived alongside one another, formed alliances and fought local wars. [1][2]

Jewish history

Mohammed’s arrival in 622 introduced a new political authority into Yathrib. The constitution of Medina set out obligations among the emigrants from Mecca, their supporters in Medina and other participating groups. It gave Mohammed a central role in deciding disputes affecting the new community. His mosque served worship and communal organization; accounts of the Medinan period also associate it with legal and political decisions. The charter is therefore an important part of the city’s early Islamic history, though it did not end existing tribal divisions or prevent the conflicts that followed. [2][3][14]

Relations between Mohammed and Medina’s Jewish tribes deteriorated over the following years. The three principal communities met distinct outcomes. Banu Qaynuqa were besieged and expelled; their property was taken. Banu Nadir were likewise forced to leave Medina, losing their orchards and strongholds. Some members of Banu Nadir moved to Khaybar, where they had existing ties and property. Accounts differ on the precise dates assigned to these episodes, but agree that both expulsions preceded the destruction of Banu Qurayza as a major community in Medina. [1][3][4][5]

The fate of Banu Qurayza followed the Battle of the Trench in 627. After the allied force withdrew from Medina, Mohammed’s forces besieged the tribe. Islamic narrative accounts describe Sa'd bin Mu'adh judging that its fighting men should be killed and its women and children taken captive; Mohammed accepted that judgment. Historical accounts report the execution of the men and the enslavement of women and children. Numerical estimates differ, so a precise death toll should not be treated as settled. The result was the end of Banu Qurayza as an independent Jewish community in the city. [1][3][6]

Medina’s conflicts with Jewish communities extended beyond the oasis. After the treaty of Hudaybiya, Mohammed led a campaign against Khaybar, whose fortified agricultural settlements included former Medina residents. The settlement imposed after Khaybar’s defeat allowed Jewish farmers to remain for a time under terms requiring them to surrender a substantial share of their produce. Khaybar thus belongs to Medina’s history both as a destination for expelled inhabitants and as the site of a subsequent campaign directed from Mohammed’s Medinan base. [2][5]

The events of Medina and Khaybar have also acquired a later life in educational and political rhetoric. Research on textbooks in several state curricula identifies Mohammed’s conflicts with Medina’s Jews as a recurring setting for anti-Jewish teaching. Such lessons can turn specific seventh-century conflicts into claims about Jews as a people. An Anti-Defamation League study of Hezbollah schools describes textbooks that select accounts of the Battle of the Trench and Khaybar, portray Jews as persistently treacherous and extend that accusation to Jews in the present. One lesson uses the story of Shas bin Qays and rival Medinan tribes to present hostility as an enduring Jewish trait. That use of Medina’s history promotes Jew hatred and hostility toward Israel; it does not describe the full range of interactions among the city’s early communities. [7][8]

Modern history

Medina’s standing as a holy city has remained central to its place in Saudi Arabia. The Prophet’s Mosque is among Islam’s most important religious sites, and the city receives visitors drawn by its association with Mohammed’s life and burial. Saudi religious administration gives the mosques of Medina and Mecca particular prominence. That standing places Medina within national religious policy as well as within the history of pilgrimage and devotion. Its present population includes communities whose religious traditions differ from the Sunni institutions that dominate official religious life. [9]

Shi'a communities in the Medina area include the Ashraf, who trace descent from Mohammed, and the Nakhawala. A religious freedom report estimated approximately 150,000 Shi'a in the area, including about 50,000 Nakhawala. Members of the Nakhawala community reported restrictions on religious practice and discrimination affecting education and employment. Some said the surname alNakhly disclosed their minority identity and exposed them to unequal treatment. The report also found no prominent Nakhawala representatives in Saudi bodies such as the Majlis al-Shura or the Human Rights Commission. These accounts describe documented conditions in the period covered by the report; they are not a current population count. [9]

Religious regulation in Medina has also affected residents outside its historic communities. In 2007, four Saudi government departments investigated the death of a Bangladeshi laborer after religious police arrested him for washing cars during prayer time. The governor of Medina reportedly ordered the inquiry. The case illustrates the reach of religious enforcement in daily life at that time, while the investigation itself should not be confused with a finding about the cause of death. [9]

Medina also appears in regional political and religious debates because of its symbolic importance. A Washington Institute account describes how the Islamic Republic of Iran has used pilgrimage-related missions in Mecca and, in some cases, Medina to advance its religious and political influence. In Saudi Arabia, sermons at the Prophet’s Mosque can reach audiences far beyond the city. The Anti-Defamation League documented sermons there in 2021 that used hostile language about Jews in connection with events in Jerusalem. Such episodes concern the words and actions of identifiable clerics and institutions; they do not define Medina’s residents as a whole. [10][11]

Security

Military events around Medina were decisive during Mohammed’s lifetime. His followers raided caravans associated with Mecca, and the Battle of Badr in 624 became their first major victory. Fighting continued in subsequent years. After defeat at Badr, Abu Sufyan led a force near Medina, burned date palms and killed two Muslims before withdrawing. At Uhud, Meccan cavalry struck Mohammed’s forces after Muslim archers left their assigned positions. These episodes show how the city functioned as a base for campaigns and as a place that its inhabitants had to defend. [3][14]

The most prominent defense of Medina was the Battle of the Trench, also called the Battle of the Ditch or Battle of the Parties. Facing a larger allied force, Mohammed’s followers dug a trench around vulnerable approaches on a Persian adviser’s suggestion. The work took approximately eight days. The obstacle prevented the attackers from making a straightforward advance, while cold and rainy conditions and shortages of food and fodder weakened their camp. Abu Sufyan ultimately withdrew the Quraysh. The battle was a turning point in the struggle between Mohammed’s Medinan community and its Meccan opponents and preceded the final confrontation with Banu Qurayza. [3][7]

Medina’s religious prominence has also made it a target in modern security incidents. On 4 July 2016, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt near the Prophet’s Mosque after guards approached him in a parking area. Four security guards were killed and five others wounded. The attack occurred amid bombings elsewhere in Saudi Arabia on the final day of Ramadan. Saudi security sources attributed the series to Islamic State operatives, although Islamic State had not claimed responsibility when the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported on it. The attack’s location gave it significance beyond its immediate casualties: it struck near one of Islam’s most revered sites. [12]

Saudi security authorities have also investigated jihadist networks invoking the prestige of Mecca and Medina. In 2015, an Interior Ministry spokesman announced the detention of suspects, many described as Islamic State operatives, and identified a group named Jund Bilad al-Haramain. Its name referred to the land of the two holy places, Mecca and Medina. The authorities said the arrests disrupted planned attacks. These modern organizations operated in a different political setting from seventh-century Medina; their use of the holy cities’ names reflects the cities’ enduring symbolic weight. [13]

Present day

Medina remains both a living Saudi city and a place of exceptional importance to Muslims. Its significance rests on the Hijra, Mohammed’s leadership there, the Prophet’s Mosque and the city’s role in the formation of the first Islamic community. The Hijra is remembered as a migration, but its consequences included the establishment of communal institutions, political authority and an armed movement. Describing those developments together gives a fuller account of the Medinan period than treating it solely as a story of refuge or solely as a sequence of battles. [2][3][14]

The city’s history also encompasses people who did not belong to Mohammed’s followers. Its Jewish inhabitants had built an established oasis society before 622, and the expulsions, killings and enslavement of the following years remain essential to an account of Medina’s past. Its Ashraf and Nakhawala Shi'a communities likewise form part of the city’s modern religious landscape. Accounts that erase these communities, or use the early conflicts to assign collective guilt to Jews today, distort Medina’s history. The city is best understood through its connected histories: an Arabian oasis, an early center of Islamic governance and warfare, a major holy city, and a home to communities whose experiences have differed under successive authorities. [1][7][9]