Medina
Medina names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Medina a city of Arabia
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of Arabia. It is situated about 250 miles northwest of Mecca, about 105 miles in a direct line from the Red Sea. In 622 the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hegira, took place. He died and was buried here. His remains rest in a tomb contained within the Great Mosque. The interior of this edifice measures about 390 by 500 feet. It is surrounded by galleries. The tomb, consisting of black stones, is concealed from the eyes of the profane by rich draperies. Medina was the capital of the Islam empire until 661 B. C. Being the burial place of the great prophet, it is one of the holy cities of the Mohammedans, second only to Mecca as a place of pilgrimage. The ordinary population is about 16,000. Medina is situated on a fertile plain, surrounded by a strong stone wall, fortified by towers. In 1908 a railway was completed from Damascus to Medina, a distance of 820 miles. It is the purpose of the Turkish government to extend the line to Mecca. See Mecca ; Mohammed
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or MEDINET- EL-NABI (me-de'net-el-nä'bē), "the town of the prophet," one of the sacred cities of Arabia. It is, next to Mecca, the great center of attraction to Mohammedan pilgrims, from its connection with the founder of the Mohammedan faith. This celebrated city stands in a plain, close to a chain of hills which bounds the great desert W. It is of an irregular oval form, within a walled inclosure of 35 or 40 feet high, flanked by 30 towers, which render Medina the chief stronghold of Hedjaz. Its most prominent building is the great mosque, Al-Harem, supposed to be erected on the spot where Mohammed died. MEDINA SIDONIA (mā-the-nä sẽdo'nē-ä), a city of Spain, 25 miles S. S. E. of Cadiz; on an isolated hill overlooking a wide plain; has the ruins of a castle, the ancestral seat of the dukes of Medina Sidonia, descendants of Guzman the Good, conqueror of Tarifa (1292), a member of which house commanded the "invincible Armada." Pop. about 12,000.
Medina a village of Orleans co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a village of Orleans co., N. Y., 41 miles W. of Rochester, on Oak Orchard creek, Erie can canal, and New York Central and Hudson River railroad. Center of rich agricultural district and has manufactures of iron, furniture, pumps, pipes, and cigars. Picturesque Medina Falls are near by. Pop. (1910) 5,683; (1920) 6,287.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's put Medina's "ordinary population" at about 16,000 in 1910 and looked forward to the new Damascus railway being pushed on to Mecca; today the city holds well over a million people and the line was never extended. The Hejaz Railway was wrecked by Arab and British raiding during the First World War, and after Fahreddin Pasha's garrison surrendered in January 1919 the Ottoman era ended; Medina passed to the Hashemites and then, in 1925, to the Saudis, becoming part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. The Prophet's Mosque that Collier's described in 1921 as "Al-Harem" has been rebuilt and enlarged several times since the 1950s and now covers a vastly larger area, accommodating hundreds of thousands of worshippers. Aiton's date of "661 B.C." for the end of Medina's role as capital is a slip for A.D. 661, when the Umayyads moved the seat of the caliphate to Damascus. Medina in Orleans County, New York, meanwhile, is much as Collier's left it, with a population still in the region of 6,000.
Written for this edition, 2026.