Editing Medina (section)

===Under Muhammad and the Rashidun===
{{Main|Hijrah|Constitution of Medina|First Islamic state}}
[[File:Quba Mosque SA.jpg|thumb|[[Muhammad]] built the [[Quba Mosque|Quba'a Masjid]] upon his arrival at Medina and is said to have visited the mosque every Saturday afternoon.]]
In 622, Muhammad and an estimated 70 Meccan [[Muhajirun]] left Mecca over a period of a few months for sanctuary in Yathrib, an event that transformed the religious and political landscape of the city completely; the longstanding enmity between the Aus and Khazraj tribes was dampened as many of the two Arab tribes and some local Jews embraced the new religion of Islam. Muhammad, linked to the Khazraj through his great-grandmother, was agreed on as the leader of the city. The natives of Yathrib who had converted to Islam of any background—[[Pre-Islamic Arabia|pagan Arab]] or Jewish—were called the ''[[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]]'' ("the Patrons" or "the Helpers").

According to [[Ibn Ishaq]], all parties in the area agreed to the [[Constitution of Medina]], which committed all parties to mutual cooperation under the leadership of Muhammad. The nature of this document as recorded by Ibn Ishaq and transmitted by [[Ibn Hisham]] is the subject of dispute among modern Western historians, many of whom maintain that this "treaty" is possibly a collage of different agreements, oral rather than written, of different dates, and that it is not clear exactly when they were made. Other scholars, however, both Western and Muslim, argue that the text of the agreement—whether a single document originally or several—is possibly one of the oldest Islamic texts we possess.<ref>Firestone 118. For opinions disputing the early date of the Constitution of Medina, see e.g., Peters 116; "Muhammad", "Encyclopaedia of Islam"; "Kurayza, Banu", "Encyclopaedia of Islam".</ref> In Yemenite Jewish sources, another treaty was drafted between Muhammad and his Jewish subjects, known as ''Kitāb Dimmat al-Nabi'', written in the 3rd year of the [[Hijri year|Hijra]] (625), and which gave express liberty to Jews living in Arabia to observe the [[Sabbath]] and to grow-out their side-locks. In return, they were to pay the [[jizya]] annually for protection by their patrons, while the Muslims would pay the [[Zakat]] tax.<ref>Shelomo Dov Goitein, ''The Yemenites – History, Communal Organization, Spiritual Life'' (Selected Studies), editor: Menahem Ben-Sasson, Jerusalem 1983, pp. 288–299. {{ISBN|965-235-011-7}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Badr |first=Abdulbasit A. |title=Madinah, The Enlightened City: History and Landmarks |year=2015 |isbn=9786039041474 |location=Madinah}}</ref>

====Battle of Uhud====
{{Main|Battle of Uhud}}
[[File:Mount Uhud.JPG|thumb|right|[[Mount Uhud]], with the old ''Mosque of the Leader of Martyrs'' ({{Lang|ar|جامع سيد الشهداء}}), named after Muhammad's uncle, [[Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib|Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib]], in the foreground. The mosque was demolished in 2012 and a new, larger mosque with the same name was built in its place.<ref name="madainjameh">{{cite web |title=Jameh Syed al-Shohada Mosque |url=https://madainproject.com/jameh_syed_al_shohada |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506143705/https://madainproject.com/jameh_syed_al_shohada |archive-date=6 May 2020 |access-date=6 May 2020 |website=Madain Project}}</ref>|300x300px]]

In the year 625, [[Abu Sufyan ibn Harb]], a senior chieftain of Mecca who later converted to Islam, led a Meccan force against Medina. Muhammad marched out to meet the [[Quraysh]]i army with an estimated 1,000 troops, but just as the army approached the battlefield, 300 men under [[Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy|'Abd Allah ibn Ubayy]] withdrew, dealing a severe blow to the Muslim army's [[morale]]. Muhammad continued marching with his now 700-strong force and ordered a group of 50 archers to climb a small hill, now called ''[[Al Romat Mountain|Jabal ar-Rummaah]]'' (The Archers' Hill) to keep an eye on the Meccan's [[cavalry]] and to provide protection to the rear of the Muslim's army. As the battle heated up, the Meccans were forced to retreat. The frontline was pushed further and further away from the archers and foreseeing the battle to be a victory for the Muslims, the archers decided to leave their posts to pursue the retreating Meccans. A small party, however, stayed behind; pleading the rest to not disobey Muhammad's orders.

Seeing that the archers were starting to descend from the hill, [[Khalid ibn al-Walid]] commanded his unit to ambush the hill and his cavalry unit pursued the descending archers were systematically slain by being caught in the plain ahead of the hill and the frontline, watched upon by their desperate comrades who stayed behind up in the hill who were shooting arrows to thwart the raiders, but with little to no effect. However, the Meccans did not capitalize on their advantage by invading Medina and returned to Mecca. The Madanis (people of Medina) suffered heavy losses, and Muhammad was injured.<ref>Esposito, John L. "Islam." Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices, edited by Thomas Riggs, vol. 1: Religions and Denominations, Gale, 2006, pp. 349–379.</ref>

====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]].]]