CHAPTER SEVEN Muhammad Comes to the City of Jews The city of Medina defies all the stereotypes associated with the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Yathrib, as Medina was known in pre- Islamic times, lies at the heart of a fertile oasis surrounded by Mount Sala to the northwest and the wall-like Mount Ayre, which stretches east-west, cradling the valley of Aqeeq to the south, through which lay the historical caravan route to Mecca, five hundred kilometres farther on. To the north, Medina is shielded by another east-west mountain called Jabal Ohud. This is where Muslims under Prophet Muhammad suffered a near-fatal defeat at the hands of their Meccan enemies, but lived to fight another day. Mount Ohud is also the site of the grave of Hamza, the Prophet's uncle, who was killed in that battle and whose body is said to have been mutilated by the pagans.” According to legend, the first inhabitants arrived in the area just after the Great Flood. Residents of Medina who trace their history through many generations even carry the name of the first Medinan - Gayna ibn Mahla ibn Obail — who, they claim, was a descendant of prophet Noah. Ali Hafiz, the Saudi historian and founder of the newspaper Al-Madina, writes in his book Chapters from the History of Madina that the city owes its existence to two historic events. He quotes medieval historians who claim that Moses passed through the area on a pilgrimage and that many of his followers remained in Medina, as they “found in it a resemblance to a city where a Prophet would emerge, as described in the Tawrat {Torah].”1 The other major movement of people to Medina occurred in the wake of the great flood in Yemen in 450, when the Ma’rib Dam is said to have burst, forcing about fifty thousand people to flee north. The tribes of ‘Aws and Khazraj in the Medina of Muhammad’s time are said to be the