About Madinah

Medina (/mɛˈdiːnə/; Arabic: اَلْمَدِينَة اَلْمَنَوَّرَة‎, al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, “the radiant city” (officially), or اَلْمَدِينَة al-Madīnah), also officially transliterated as Madinah by Saudi Goverment and in modern Islamic literature generally, is a modern city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as 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.

It is the second holiest city in Islam after Mecca and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Medina is critically significant in Islamic History for being where Muhammad's final religious base was established after the Hijrah and where he died in 632 AD/11 AH. Medina was the power base of Islam in its first century, being where the early Muslim community (ummah) developed under the Prophet's leadership, then under the leadership of the first four caliphs of Islam: Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali.

In fact, Year 1 of the Islamic calendar is based on the year of the emigration (or Hijra (