Medina

Medina, EL- (Arabic for 'The City'), or, more fully, Medinat en-Nebi ('City of the Prophet'), or Medinat Rasuli-elah ('City of the Apostle of God'), because it was there that Mohammed took refuge after his Hegira or Flight from Mecca in 622, and there that he lived till his death. Formerly called Yathzib, and mentioned by Ptolemy as Iathrippa, the holiest city of the Mohammedan world after Mecca, and the second capital of the Hedjâz in western Arabia, it is situated about 270 miles N. of Mecca, and 132 N. by E. of the port of Yanbu' on the Red Sea, and contains about 16,000 inhabitants (Burton), chiefly engaged in agriculture. It consists of three principal parts—a town, a fort, and suburbs of about the same extent as the town itself, from which they are separated by a wide space (the Munakha). It is about half the size of Mecca, and forms an irregular oval within a walled enclosure, 35 to 40 feet high, flanked by thirty towers, and enclosing the castle where the Turkish garrison is lodged—a fortification which renders it the chief stronghold of the Hedjâz. Two of its four gates are massive buildings with double towers. The streets are narrow but partly paved. The houses are flat-roofed and double-storied, and are built of stone, brick, and palm-wood. The principal building is the Prophet's Mosque El-Haram ('the Sacred'), supposed to be erected on the spot where Mohammed died, and to enclose his tomb. It is of smaller dimensions than that of Mecca, being a parallelogram, 420 feet long and 340 feet broad, with a spacious central area, surrounded by a peristyle with numerous rows of pillars. The present building is, however, only the last of many reconstructions, of which the best was that of Kait Bey, the Mameluke sultan, in 1481, whose dome and pulpit still stand. The Mausoleum, or Hujrah, is an irregular doorless chamber, 50 to 55 feet in extent, situated in the south-east corner of the building. It is surmounted by a large gilt crescent above the 'Green Dome,' springing from a series of globes, and hedged in with a closely-latticed brass railing, in which are small apertures for prayer. The interior is hung with costly curtains embroidered with large gold letters, stating that behind them lie the bodies of the Prophet of God and of the first two califs—which curtains, changed whenever worn out, or when a new sultan ascends the throne, cover a square edifice of black marble, in the midst of which is Mohammed's tomb. Its exact place is indicated by a long pearly rosary—still seen in 1855—suspended from the curtain. The Prophet's body is believed to lie undecayed at full length on the right side, with the right palm supporting the right cheek, the face directed towards Mecca. Close behind him is placed, in the same position, Abubekr, and behind him Omar; and Fâtimeh's house is represented by a modern erection hard by. There seems no reason to doubt that the Prophet was buried in the space (originally Ayeshah's hut) now enclosed in the mosque; nor is it likely that the grave was ever rifled. That his coffin, said to be covered with a marble slab, and cased with silver (no European has ever seen it), rests suspended in the air is of course an idle Christian fable. Of the treasures which this sanctuary once contained, little now remains. It is a meritorious act to perform the pilgrimage to Medina, though there is no fixed season for it. As in Mecca, a great number of ecclesiastical officials are attached in some capacity or other to the Great Mosque; and not only they, but many of the towns-people live to a great extent on the pilgrims' alms and custom. There are few other noteworthy spots in Medina, save the minor mosques of Abu-bekr, 'Ali, 'Omar, Bilal, &c. Thirty Medressehs, or public endowed schools, represent what learning there is left in the city, once famed for its scholars and theologians. In the 7th century Medina was the capital of Islam; but since then it has passed under the rule of emirs, sherifs, Turkish pashas, and Wahabis, though the internal government of the city is still Arabian.