Editing Medina (section)

===Modern history===

====Sharifate of Mecca and Saudi conquest====
The Sharif of Mecca, [[Sharif Husayn|Husayn ibn Ali]], first attacked Medina on 6 June 1916, in the middle of [[World War I]].<ref name=":5" /> Four days later, Husayn held Medina in a bitter 3-year siege, during which the people faced food shortages, widespread disease and mass [[emigration]].<ref name=":5" /> [[Fakhri Pasha]], governor of Medina, tenaciously held on during the [[Siege of Medina]] from 10 June 1916 and refused to surrender and held on another 72 days after the [[Armistice of Moudros]], until he was arrested by his own men and the city was taken over by the Sharifate on 10 January 1919.<ref name=":5" /><ref>Peters, Francis (1994). ''Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land''. PP376-377. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-03267-X}}</ref> Husayn largely won the war due to his alliance with the [[British Empire|British]]. In anticipation of the plunder and destruction to follow, Fakhri Pasha secretly dispatched the [[Relics of Muhammad|Sacred Relics of Muhammad]] to the Ottoman capital, [[Istanbul]].<ref>Mohmed Reda Bhacker (1992). ''Trade and Empire in Muscat and Zanzibar: Roots of British Domination''. Routledge Chapman & Hall. P63: Following the plunder of Medina in 1810 'when the Prophet's tomb was opened and its jewels and relics sold and distributed among the Wahhabi soldiery'. P122: the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II was at last moved to act against such outrage.</ref> As of 1920, the [[British people|British]] described Medina as "much more self-supporting than Mecca."<ref name="Prothero103">{{cite book |last=Prothero |first=G.W. |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11767/view/1/103/ |title=Arabia |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |year=1920 |location=London |page=103 |access-date=12 September 2013 |archive-date=22 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622165406/https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11767/view/1/103/ |url-status=live}}</ref> After the Great War, the Sharif of Mecca, [[Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca|Sayyid Hussein bin Ali]] was proclaimed King of an independent [[Kingdom of Hejaz|Hejaz]]. Soon after, the people of Medina secretly entered an agreement with [[Ibn Saud]] in 1924, and his son, Prince [[Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud|Mohammed bin Abdulaziz]] conquered Medina as part of the [[Saudi conquest of Hejaz]] on 5 December 1925 which gave way to the whole of the [[Hejaz]] being incorporated into the modern [[Saudi Arabia|Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]].<ref name=":5" />

====Under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia====
The [[Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]] focused more on the expansion of the city and the demolition of former sites that according to them violated [[Fiqh|Islamic principles]] and [[Sharia|Islamic law]] such as the [[Demolition of al-Baqi|tombs at al-Baqi]]. Nowadays, the city mostly only holds religious significance and as such, just like Mecca, has given rise to a number of hotels surrounding the [[Al-Masjid an-Nabawi]], which unlike the [[Al-Masjid Al-Ḥarām|Masjid Al-Ḥarām]], is equipped with an underground parking. The old city's walls have been destroyed and replaced with the three [[ring road]]s that encircle Medina today, named in order of length, King Faisal Road, King Abdullah Road and King Khalid Road. Medina's ring roads generally see less traffic overall compared to the four ring roads of Mecca.

An international airport, named the [[Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Airport|Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport]], now serves the city and is located on Highway 340, known locally as the Old Qassim Road. The city now sits at the crossroads of two major Saudi Arabian highways, Highway 60, known as the Qassim–Medina Highway, and Highway 15 which connects the city to [[Mecca]] in the south and onward and [[Tabuk, Saudi Arabia|Tabuk]] in the north and onward, known as the Al Hijrah Highway or Al Hijrah Road, after Muhammad's journey. [[File:Medina from ISS 2017.jpg|thumb|Medina from [[International Space Station]], 2017. Note that North is to the right.]]The old Ottoman railway system was shut down after their departure from the region and the old railway station has now been converted into a [[museum]]. The city has recently seen another connection and mode of transport between it and Mecca, the [[Haramain high-speed railway]] line connects the two cities via [[King Abdullah Economic City]] near [[Rabigh]], [[King Abdulaziz International Airport]] and the city of [[Jeddah]] in under 3 hours.

Though the city's sacred core of the old city is off limits to non-Muslims, the [[Haram (site)|Haram area]] of Medina itself is much smaller than that of Mecca and Medina has recently seen an increase in the number of Muslim and Non-Muslim expatriate workers of other nationalities, most commonly [[South Asia]]n peoples and people from other countries in the [[Gulf Cooperation Council]]. Almost all of the historic city has been demolished in the Saudi era. The rebuilt city is centered on the vastly expanded ''al-Masjid an-Nabawi''.

====Destruction of heritage in Medina====
{{Main|Destruction of early Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia}}
[[Saudi Arabia]] upholds [[Wahhabism]] as its religious ideology,<ref name="Britannica"/> which is hostile to any reverence given to historical or religious places of significance for fear that it may give rise to [[Shirk (Islam)|''shirk'']] (idolatry). As a consequence, under Saudi rule, Medina has suffered from considerable destruction of its physical heritage including the loss of many buildings over a thousand years old.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name=":4">{{cite news |last=Howden |first=Daniel |date=6 August 2005 |title=The destruction of Mecca: Saudi hardliners are wiping out their own heritage |work=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-destruction-of-Mecca-saudi-hardliners-are-wiping-out-their-own-heritage-8023992.html |url-status=live |access-date=17 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004230517/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-destruction-of-mecca-saudi-hardliners-are-wiping-out-their-own-heritage-8023992.html |archive-date=4 October 2012}}</ref> Critics have described this as "Saudi vandalism" and claim that 300 historic sites linked to Muhammad, his family or companions have been lost in Medina and [[Mecca]] over the last 50 years.<ref>[http://www.islamicpluralism.org/764/islamic-heritage-lost-as-Makkah-modernises ''Islamic heritage lost as Makkah modernises''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622111459/http://www.islamicpluralism.org/764/islamic-heritage-lost-as-makkah-modernises |date=22 June 2018 }}, Center for Islamic Pluralism</ref> The most famous example of this is the [[demolition of al-Baqi]].<ref name="Britannica"/> [[File:Sacred Relics Train.jpg|thumb|The train which [[Fakhri Pasha]] used to transport the [[Sacred Relics (Topkapı Palace)|Sacred Relics]] from Medina to [[Istanbul]].]]