Description : Medina, also transliterated as Madīnah, is a city in the Hejazi region of the Arabian Peninsula and administrative headquarters of the Al-Madinah Region of Saudi Arabia. At the city's heart is al-Masjid an-Nabawi ('The Prophet's Mosque'), which is the burial place of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and it is one of two holiest cities in Islam, the other being Mecca. Medina was Muhammad's destination of his Hijrah (migration) from Mecca, and became the capital of a rapidly increasing Muslim Empire, under Muhammad's leadership, serving as the power base of Islam, and where Muhammad's Ummah (Community), composed of both locals and immigrants from Muhammad's original home of Mecca, developed. Medina is home to three prominent mosques, namely al-Masjid an-Nabawi, Quba Mosque, and Masjid al-Qiblatayn ('The mosque of the two Qiblas'). Muslims believe that the chronologically final surahs of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad in Medina, and are called Medinan surahs in contrast to the earlier Meccan surahs. Medina is known to have been inhabited at least 1500 years before the Hijra, or approximately the 9th century BC. By the fourth century CE, Arab tribes began to encroach from Yemen, and there were three prominent Jewish tribes that inhabited the city around the time of Muhammad: the Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Qurayza, and Banu Nadir. Ibn Khordadbeh later reported that during the Persian Empire's domination in Hejaz, the Banu Qurayza served as tax collectors for the Persian Shah. The situation changed after the arrival of two new Arab tribes, the 'Aws or Banu 'Aws and the Khazraj, also known as the Banu Khazraj. At first, these tribes were allied with the Jewish tribes who ruled the region, but later revolted and became independent.
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