Yathrib

Many if not most of the details concerning the Jews are found in several chapters of Muḥammad’s biography dedicated to his conflict with them, namely the chapters about Qaynuqāʿ, Naḍīr, Qurayẓa and Khaybar. Naturally, these “Jewish chapters”, which include some fine examples of storytelling, are biased, but they remain indispensable for modern historians struggling to reconstruct Muḥammad’s troubled relations with the Jews. In addition to an outline of the main events, they provide information about the people, the tribes, and the places involved. The evidence is shrouded in trivia, false leads and tendentious claims, not to mention many lacunae which can sometimes be filled by reference to other types of the vast Islamic literature.
The study of early Islam in general, and Jewish-Muslim relations in particular, is still rather close to its starting point. In recent years epigraphy has emerged as very promising, but for the time being the huge medieval literary output remains the main source. In order to make progress researchers need to bring into the discussion new texts–they are at hand, thanks to modern digital tools–and refine their analytical and critical tools.

Bu makale, İslâm öncesi Medine şehrinin fizikî ve coğrafi durumu ile burada Ya-şayan Yahudi ve Arap kabileler hakkında bilgiler vermeyi hedeflemektedir. Medine' de yerleşimin ne zaman başladığı ya da kimlerin öncelikle buraya yerleştiği konusunda kaynaklarda farklı rivayetler bulunmaktadır. Bununla birlikte Hz. Peygamber'in hicreti sırasında şehirde başta Kaynukâʿ, Nadîr ve Kurayza Yahudileri olmak üzere Evs ve Haz-rec gibi Arap kabileleri yaşamaktadır. Abstract: The aim of this article is to provide information about the physical and the geographical condition of pre-Islamic Madina which includes material on the Jewish and the Arabian tribes that resided in the city. In historical resources there are various reports regarding the first settlers and data about the first time they established themselves in Madina, which at that time was called Yathrib. Furthermore, this study will also demonstrate the settlement of Madina during the time of Prophet Muhammad's hijrah to Madina. The study will attempt to give detailed information about the people that were known to have lived in the city of Madina at that time. These people were mostly part of tribes such as the Jewish tribes of Banū Qaynuqāʿ, Banū Nadīr, and Banū Qurayza as well as the Arabian tribes such as Aws and Khazraj.

إن تحويل السوق، أو بعبارة أدق تحويل المركز التجاري لواحة يثرب، إلى الجنوب الغربي للمسجد كان نقطة تحول اقتصادية كبرى في حياة الرسول وفي تأريخ الاقتصاد الإسلامي عامة، مما يقربنا بعض الشيء من فهم اتنصارات الرسول الباهرة في العقد الأخير من حياته

« Die Schreibkundigkeit- und/oder Lesekundigkeit in Mekka und Yathrib/Medina zur Zeit Mohammeds » « Writing and/or reading in Makka and Yathrib/Medina in the time of Mohammed » (La connaissance de l’écriture et/ou de la lecture à La Mecque et à Yathrib/Médine à l’époque de Mahomet)

Excerpts from my correspondence with an ignorant Pan-Arabist Tunisian reader about Ancient Egypt, Punt (Somalia), and 'Arabia', a nonexistent land in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE
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As we know that the territory around Yathribu belonged successively to 1st millennium BCE Assyrians, Babylonians and Iranians, we realize that the Egyptians would have to make wars against greater powers in order to reach that land which for them was useless, whereas of the Asiatic empires it was merely an extra territory at their circumference. This covers the period 8th - 4th c. BCE.

As I told you, the first mention of tribes called 'Aribi' and known to be moving in Northern Hejaz dates back to the times of the Assyrian Emperor Shalmaneser III. At that time, there was no land called Arabia, and no text dating to those days or before mentions that name. It became later known as geographical term describing part of Hejaz, when those barbarians settled. Even Alexander the Great, who went as far as Siwah in the West, as far as Niwt / Thebes (Luxor) in the South, and as far as Central Asia and India in the East, did not give a damn to invade the useless, arid and cursed land of those barbarians.

Then the Ptolemies did not find any reason to act otherwise. In the Ptolemaic period, the geographical term by extension covered the entire peninsula but the northern part of the Hejaz belonged to the Aramaean Nabataean Kingdom of Rekem / Petra (down to the area which is today called Madain Saleh and whch was the great Aramaean Nabataean necropolis - nothing the contemporaneous Arab barbarians could ever build even in their wildest dream!), whereas from the whereabouts of Najran further to the South, Southeast, East, and Northeast were located the different Yemenite states, i.e. Qataban, Sheba (Sabaeans - not 'Sabians'), Himyar, Awsan, Hadhramaut and Oman.

In the second half of the 1st c. CE, the famous text 'Periplus of the Erythraean / Red Sea' (at those days, 'Red sea' meant a) what we call now 'Red Sea', b) the Persian Gulf, and c) the entire Indian Ocean) describes extensively the chaotic and barbaric situation of central Hejaz (proper Arabia), offering warning to navigators and merchants to sail far from that cursed coast.
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https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/how-subtly-colonial-orientalists-and-egyptologists-promote-the-evil-theory-of-pan-arabism/

Nowadays, using City/Town for Madinat al-Nabi seems to be inevitable. Accordingly, there are many interpretations about social, political, economic and cultural issues in the City of The Prophet. The Prophet's Mosque in the center of the city, the walls and gates surrounding it, as well as the translation of the word Medina to city/town, created the impression that Madinat al-Nabi was a city/town. In the present article, the author seeks to gain access to the first image of the city of Medina by investigating the early historical reports and moreover, attempts to discover the settlement pattern in Yathrib. All evidence obtained in early resources indicates that Yathrib was a group of small villages that were scattered on the edge of the Yathrib river channels. Gradually, from the first to the third century A.H, Yathrib (group of villages) changed to the city of Medina and its surrounding villages.