Prophet's Mosque

Start with your feet. The marble under you stays cool, even when the Medina sun is hard and white overhead. The stone was chosen to reflect heat, and you can feel the difference through thin sandals. Around you there is a soft, steady sound. Thousands of people are moving, murmuring, and praying, and somewhere a voice is reciting the Quran. Above the courtyard, tall white umbrellas spread open like the crowns of desert palms. This is the Prophet's Mosque, known in Arabic as al-Masjid an-Nabawi. For Muslims, it is the second holiest site in Islam.

The story of this place begins with a journey. In 622, the Prophet Muhammad left Mecca and came to this oasis town, then called Yathrib. Muslims call that migration the Hijra, and the Islamic calendar counts its years from it. Soon after he arrived, the Prophet and his companions built a mosque on this ground. Tradition holds that he worked alongside them, carrying building materials with his own hands. The town itself took a new name. It became Madinat an-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, or simply Medina.

That first mosque looked nothing like what you see today. It was a simple enclosure of mud brick. Trunks of date palms served as columns. A roof of palm fronds gave shade over part of the space, and the rest lay open to the sky. There was no gold, no marble, and no minaret. Yet this modest yard was the heart of a young community. People prayed here. They also met, settled disputes, received visitors, and learned. The mosque was a school, a court, and a home, all at once.

Here is a detail many visitors miss. The early mosque also sheltered people who had nowhere else to live. A raised, shaded area along one side housed poor companions of the Prophet. They became known as the People of the Suffah, after that platform. They studied, worshipped, and depended on the generosity of the community. Today, inside the older part of the mosque, a raised platform marks the memory of that place. People still sit there to read and to rest. A space for the homeless was part of the mosque from its first years.

The Prophet's own house stood beside the mosque. When he died in 632, he was buried there, in the room of his wife Aisha. Later, his two closest companions were buried beside him. They were Abu Bakr and Umar, the first and second caliphs, or leaders, after him. For centuries, the house stood outside the mosque walls. Then, in the early eighth century, the Umayyad caliph al-Walid the First expanded the mosque. The rooms of the Prophet's family were brought inside. Since then, the tomb has stood within the mosque itself.

Above that tomb rises the Green Dome. Look for it toward the older, southern side of the complex. It is the most recognisable shape in Medina, and the image appears on prayer mats and calendars across the Muslim world. Its colour is newer than many people think. A dome stood over the tomb for centuries, in different forms and colours. It was first painted green in the nineteenth century, during the Ottoman era. The green has been renewed many times since, but the colour dates from that time.

Near the tomb is a small area with a large meaning. It is called the Rawdah, which means garden. It runs between the place of the Prophet's pulpit and his house. According to a well-known saying of the Prophet, this space is one of the gardens of Paradise. For that reason, many believers hope to pray here at least once in their lives. You can recognise the Rawdah by its carpet. Across most of the mosque the carpets are red, but here they are green.

Every ruler who governed Medina left a mark on this building. The Ottomans, who ruled the city for centuries, carried out a major reconstruction in the nineteenth century. Much of the older section you can walk through today dates from that work. Look up there at the painted domes, the calligraphy, and the carved columns. Some columns carry names. They mark places linked to events in the Prophet's life, such as a column associated with Aisha. Visitors trace the early mosque through these columns, like points on a hidden map.

The pulpit, or minbar, also has a long history. The Prophet first preached while leaning against a palm trunk. Later, a simple wooden pulpit with a few steps was made for him. A well-known tradition says that the old palm trunk was heard to moan when he moved away from it. The original wooden pulpit is long gone. The marble minbar you see today was a gift from an Ottoman sultan. It still stands close to where the first one stood, beside the Rawdah.

In the twentieth century, the Saudi state began a series of very large expansions. Today the mosque covers an area many times larger than the old town of Medina once did. On the busiest nights, more than a million people can pray here together. Look at the roof and the courtyards and you will see how the builders handled the heat and the crowds. Some domes on the roof slide open and closed on rails. In the courtyards, the giant umbrellas fold open in the morning and close again at night.

Those umbrellas are worth a second look. When closed, they stand like tall, slender white columns. When they open, each one becomes a wide canopy, and together they make a roof of shade over the marble. Under them, fans spray a fine, cool mist into the air. The design echoes the palm-frond roof of the first mosque. Early worshippers prayed in the shade of palms. Today, people pray in the shade of these white palms of fabric and steel.

The mosque has a rhythm of its own. Five times a day, the call to prayer rises from its minarets, and the crowd moves as one. Rows form quickly. Shoes are left at the doors. Between prayers, the courtyards fill with families, pilgrims from every continent, and volunteers handing out water and dates. Many people drink Zamzam water from the large containers placed throughout the building. That water is brought from the sacred well in Mecca. Listen for the many languages around you. You may hear Urdu, Malay, Turkish, Swahili, and Arabic within a few steps.

Before you leave, find a quiet place on the marble and pause. Look toward the Green Dome. Then look at the white umbrellas, the minarets, and the people walking in every direction. All of this grew from a small yard of mud brick and palm trunks. The shape of the building has changed many times, but its purpose has stayed the same. People still come here to pray, to learn, and to rest. As you walk back into the streets of Medina, notice the cool marble giving way to warm pavement under your feet.