Medina
Medina (/mɛˈdiːnə/; Arabic: اَلْمَدِينَة اَلْمَنَوَّرَة, officially
al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, "the radiant city", or اَلْمَدِينَة
al-Madīnah, also officially transliterated as
Madinah by the Saudi Government and in modern Islamic literature generally), is a modern city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and the capital of Al Madinah Province. An alternative name is
Madinat Al-Nabi ("The City of the Prophet", i.e., Muhammad). The Arabic word
madinah simply means "city." Before the advent of Islam, the city was known as
Yathrib but was personally renamed by Muhammad. The burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, it is the second holiest city in Islam after Mecca. Medina is critically significant in Islamic History as Muhammad's final religious base after the
Hijrah and the location of his death in 632 AD/11 AH. Medina was the power base of Islam in its first century, being where the early Muslim community (
ummah) developed, first under Muhammad's leadership and then under the first four caliphs of Islam: Abu Bakr, `Omar, `Othman and `Ali.