Islam's second holiest city — the City of the Prophet, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, where the Hijra ended and a faith was consolidated
Medina (Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah — the Radiant City) is Islam's second holiest city, the city to which the Prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca in 622 AD (the Hijra, which marks Year 1 of the Islamic calendar) and where he built the first mosque, led the early Muslim community, and was buried. The Prophet's Mosque (Al-Masjid an-Nabawi), built on the site of Muhammad's home, is the second-largest mosque in the world and contains his tomb under the green dome — one of the most visited sites on earth, with millions of pilgrims annually. Medina is accessible to non-Muslims in its outer city (unli…
Yathrib (pre-Islamic name for the oasis) was a prosperous agricultural settlement known for date palms, and the invitation from its Arab and Jewish tribes to Muhammad to mediate their conflicts led to the Hijra and the transformation of Yathrib into Medina — the political and religious capital of early Islam. The first Islamic state was organised here: the Constitution of Medina established inter-tribal and inter-religious governance, and the major early battles (Badr, Uhud, Khandaq) that shaped the Ummah's survival all occurred in the surrounding terrain. The Hejaz Railway (1900–1908), built…