Editing Medina (section)

====Battle of the Trench====
{{Main|Battle of the Trench}}
[[File:Madina trip 104.jpg|thumb|Three of the [[The Seven Mosques|Seven Mosques]] at the site of the [[Battle of the Trench]] were combined into the modern Masjid al-Fath, here pictured with Jabal Sal'aa in the background and a shop selling local goods in the foreground.]]
In 627, [[Abu Sufyan ibn Harb|Abu Sufyan]] led another force toward Medina. Knowing of his intentions, Muhammad asked for proposals for defending the northern flank of the city, as the east and west were protected by volcanic rocks and the south was covered with [[Arecaceae|palm trees]]. [[Salman the Persian|Salman al-Farsi]], a [[Sasanian Empire|Persian]] [[Sahabi]] who was familiar with Sasanian war tactics recommended digging a trench to protect the city and Muhammad accepted it. The subsequent siege came to be known as the Battle of the Trench and the Battle of the Confederates. After a month-long siege and various skirmishes, the Meccans withdrew again due to the harsh winter.

During the siege, Abu Sufyan contacted the Jewish tribe of [[Banu Qurayza]] and formed an agreement with them, to attack the Muslim defenders and effectively encircle the defenders. It was however discovered by the Muslims and thwarted. This was in breach of the [[Constitution of Medina]] and after the Meccan withdrawal, Muhammad immediately marched against the Qurayza and laid siege to their strongholds. The Jewish forces eventually surrendered. Some members of the Aws negotiated on behalf of their old allies and Muhammad agreed to appoint one of their chiefs who had converted to Islam, [[Sa'd ibn Mua'dh|Sa'd ibn Mu'adh]], as judge. Sa'ad judged that all male members of the tribe should be killed and the women and children enslaved.<ref name="Oxford University Press">{{citation |author=Ibn Ishaq |title=The Life of Muhammad (Sirat Rasul Allah) |pages=461–464 |year=1955 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-636033-1 |translator=A. Guillaume}}</ref><ref name="WattProphetStatesman">Watt, ''Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman'', p. 172-173</ref> This action was conceived of as a defensive measure to ensure that the Muslim community could be confident of its continued survival in Medina. The French historian Robert Mantran proposes that from this point of view it was successful—from this point on, the Muslims were no longer primarily concerned with survival but with expansion and conquest.<ref name="mantran">Robert Mantran, ''L'expansion musulmane'' Presses Universitaires de France 1995, p. 86.</ref>

In the ten years following the [[hijra (Islam)|hijra]], Medina formed the base from which Muhammad and the Muslim army attacked and were attacked, and it was from here that he [[Conquest of Mecca|marched on Mecca]], entering it without battle in 630. Despite Muhammad's tribal connection to Mecca, the growing importance of Mecca in Islam, the significance of the [[Kaaba|Ka'bah]] as the center of the Islamic world, as the direction of prayer ([[Qibla]]), and in the Islamic pilgrimage ([[Hajj]]), Muhammad returned to Medina, which remained for some years the most important city of Islam and the base of operations of the early [[Rashidun Caliphate]].<ref name=":5" />

The city is presumed to have been renamed ''Madinat al-Nabi'' ("City of the Prophet" in [[Arabic]]) in honor of Muhammad's prophethood and the city being the site of his [[Burial site|burial]]. Alternatively, Lucien Gubbay suggests the name Medina could also have been a derivative from the [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] word ''Medinta'', which the Jewish inhabitants could have used for the city.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Jews of Arabia |url=http://www.dangoor.com/71page33.html |work=dangoor.com |access-date=25 August 2007 |archive-date=10 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810123722/http://www.dangoor.com/71page33.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Under the first three caliphs [[Abu Bakr]], [[Umar]], and [[Uthman]], Medina was the capital of a rapidly increasing Muslim Empire. During the reign of [[Uthman|'Uthman ibn al-Affan]], the third caliph, a party of Arabs from Egypt, disgruntled at some of his political decisions, attacked Medina in 656 and assassinated him in his own home. [[Ali]], the fourth caliph, changed the capital of the caliphate from Medina to [[Kufa]] in [[Iraq]] for being in a more strategic location. Since then, Medina's importance dwindled, becoming more a place of religious importance than of political power. Medina witnessed little to no economic growth during and after Ali's reign.<ref name=":5" /> [[File:Green dome, Masjid e Nabawi, Medina, KSA.jpg|thumb|The [[Green Dome]] was built in 1297 over Muhammad's ''rawdhah'' (residence) and [[Burial|site of burial]].]]