The construction of Medina's earliest city walls: defence and symbol

Author(s): Harry Munt

Source: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 42, Papers from the fortyfifth meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held at the British Museum, London, 28
to 30 July 2011 (2012), pp. 233-243
Published by: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
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Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 42 (2012): 233-244

The construction of Medina's earliest city walls: defence and symbol

Harry Munt

Summary
Al-Taif was, according to some, the only town in the Hijz in Muhammad's time to have a city wall. Creswell used this to suggest
the lack of an architectural tradition in the pre-Islamic Hijz, but G.R.D. King has since pointed out that it is more likely that other

towns had no need for a wall at this time. Why then and when did Medina come to require one? This paper analyses reports from

local historians and geographers to answer these questions. The first phases in the construction of Medina's wall about which we
possess information came in the late ninth and the late tenth centuries. (Reports about an earlier wall built in 63/683-684 should
probably be taken lightly.) This paper will show how discussions of these earliest phases in the construction of Medina's encircling
wall illuminate some aspects of the size and topography of the town and, furthermore, that a careful study of those discussions can
help to shed light on a period of the Hijz 's history which is otherwise poorly known.

Keywords: Medina, Hijaz, fortifications, Buy ids, Fatimids

K.A.C. Creswell introduced his important study of early

wall) one was thought necessary, and by the end of the

Islamic architecture with an argument that astounds many

fourth/tenth century further work had been carried out on

Medina's fortifications.

scholars today: 'Arabia, at the rise of Islam, does not

appear to have possessed anything worthy of the name of

Of the many changes to Medina's position in the world

architecture' (Creswell 1969: 10-11; also 1989: 3). Part

following Muhammad's career, which one encouraged

of the evidence he presented to support this assertion was

that in the time of the Prophet Muhammad no town in

this particularly development? Certainly Medina after the

the Hijz had an encircling defensive wall except al-Ta3if

had never formerly possessed but, as will be argued in this

Hijra gained a position of supra-regional importance it

(Creswell 1969: 11; also 1952: 89; 1989: 4-5). Since

paper, it is the changing political circumstances within the

Creswell was writing, work in the Arabian Peninsula has

conclusively demonstrated that his argument on the nonexistence of a pre-Islamic Arabian architectural tradition

Hijz in the late third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries that

is incorrect (King 1991; Finster 1996), but it remains

Medina's encircling wall in those centuries is one of the

quite possible that of the better-known Hijz! settlements

in Muhammad's time very few had an encircling wall.

few ways of approaching a period of the Hijz 's history

G.R.D. King (1991: 99-100; 1994: 189), within his

sources. (For the fourth/tenth century, see Mortel 1991:

refutation of Creswell's argument concerning Arabian

architecture, alluded to the obvious but nonetheless

important fact that the inhabitants of a settlement do not
build a defensive wall simply because they can. Rather
they build them when they are necessary for some reason.
In this light, it is noteworthy that pre- and early Islamic
Medina had not needed a wall, but within at most three

really explain Medina's new fortifications. Importantly,

a study of the earliest phases in the construction of

which is otherwise very poorly treated in the extant

64-67; Landau-Tasseron 2010: 410^13.)

Any investigation of the earliest phases in the
construction of Medina's wall must unfortunately, for
the time being at least and for well-known reasons, be
based almost exclusively on textual evidence, principally
local histories of Medina and geographical treatises. The

centuries of Muhammad's death (as will be explained

most important extant local histories are, in spite of their

authors' late dates, those by al-FTrzbdl (d. 817/1415)

below, there are varying dates given for Medina's first

and al-Samhdl (d. 911/1506), since they preserve

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234

Harry

Munt

hundreds of citations from earlier works on Medina's

larger, although it is significant that the town probably had

history, many of which are now lost. These discussions

declined in size by the fourth/tenth century, and perhaps
of Medina's wall are often not very lengthy, but taken
already in the late third/ninth century, precisely when, as
together they do offer enough information to drawwe
some
shall see, the first major phases in the construction of
valuable conclusions.
a city wall for Medina took place.

Medina's topography1

Various aspects of Medina's topography certainly

impacted upon the area's pre- and early Islamic history

in several important ways. It is well known that before
Medina is largely surrounded by mountains and wide
the Hijra there were conflicts between the various groups
expanses of volcanic rocks known as harrt (sg. harrah)
that inhabited the settlements, and many of these conflicts
seem to have been over access to the best cultivable land
or lbt (sg. lbah). Before Muhammad's Hijra, the area
between these mountains and harrt - which is itself

(Hasson 1989). After the Hijra, when the town became

relatively flat - seems to have accommodated a number
of
the centre
of revolts against the Umayyad and Abbasid
small, scattered settlements rather than one coherent caliphs,
urban based in Syria and Iraq respectively, Medina's
entity. In the decades and centuries following the inhabitants
Hijra,
might have expected the surrounding
the Islamic town developed around the Prophet's Mosque.
topography to have afforded them some protection from
The pre-modern town was probably never particularly
their enemies. To take just two examples, however, this
large. Relatively late depictions of the town, fromwas
thenot the case. In 63/683 when the people of Medina
Ottoman period, show a settlement totally dominated
by to offer the oath of allegiance to the Umayyad
refused
the mosque, which was then considerably smaller than
it b. Mucwiya and expelled the Umayyad family
YazTd
is today (e.g. Maury 2010). The Prophet's Mosque and
its
members in the town, an army dispatched from Syria
environs nowadays measure approximately 650 x 550
m, defeated the rebels at the so-called Battle of the
easily
and that space probably encompassed the vast majority
of Likewise, when the Abbasid caliph Ab Jacfar
Harrah.
al-Mansr heard in 145/762 that the Alid Muhammad
the pre-modern town.2 To give some idea of comparison,

one northern HijzT site where some excavationsb.have

cAbd Allh, known as al-Nafs al-Zakiyyah ('the Pure
been carried out, al-Mbiyt (formerly known as Qurh
or had launched his anticipated rebellion in Medina
Soul'),
WdT 31-Qur), seems to have measured 800 x 800 m
(alhe was apparently delighted, and commented that his
cUmayr 2010). When al-MuqaddasT visited Qurh in opponent
the
had chosen one of the worst places in the
mid- to late fourth/tenth century he noted that 'therecaliphate
is not
- militarily speaking - from which to revolt.

in the Hijz today a town more splendid, flourishing

Theor
Abbasid army sent from Iraq under the command
populated, nor with more merchants, properties andof
crops
cIs b. Ms defeated the rebels as easily as had the

after Mecca than this' (al-MuqaddasT 1906: 83). Syrian

From army eighty years earlier.3
this we can infer that Qurh was larger than Medina in In
al-light of the area's pre-Islamic situation, with various
Muqaddasl's day, which may lend support to my tentative
groups competing over resources distributed between
earlier estimate regarding Medina's size.
relatively scattered small settlements, King (1991: 99Medina had almost certainly grown smaller by the
100) was surely correct to argue that a single defensive

time of al-MuqaddasT's visit, and so would havewall

been
would have been of relatively little practical use.

at least slightly larger in the second/eighth and third/

Medinans living in the early Islamic centuries, however,
ninth centuries (pace Wheatley 2001: 133). Some ofmight
alhave appreciated one from time to time, and in
MuqaddasT's earlier fourth/tenth-century predecessors
this light it is interesting that they had to wait so long to

observed that there were several abandoned estates

receive one.

surrounding Medina (e.g. al-Istakhrl 1870: 18), and the

later local historian al-Samhdl thought that by the time of When was the first wall built?

the Buyid cAdud al-Dawlah's reign (r. 338-372/949-983)

Medina had started to fall into ruin (al-Samhdl 2001,
iii: scholars have offered considerably varying dates
Modern
105). The earlier town is unlikely to have been veryfor
much
the construction of Medina's first wall, ranging from
the late first/seventh to the late fourth/tenth century. It
1 There are many important modern discussions of Medina's topography,

including e.g. al-cAlT 1961; Makki 1982; Lecker 1985; 1986; 1995.
3 These two events are widely reported in Arabic sources. For a
discussion of the first, see Kister 1977, and for the second see Lassner
2 For a recent discussion of the latest enlargement of the Prophet's
Mosque between 1984 and 1994, see Behrens 2007: 106-111. 1979 and Elad 2004.

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The construction of Medina 's earliest city walls : defence and symbol 235
may be helpful, therefore, to begin by approaching this

900/1494-1495), who mentions that Ishq b. Muhammad

problem backwards. Medina certainly had a wall by

al-JacdT built a wall for Medina in that year (al-Himyan

the time the Zengid ruler Nr al-DIn visited the town in

1975: 401). The second is al-Samhudl, who cites this

557/1162: when he left to return to Syria, the Medinans

information from al-Himyarl but, interestingly, only in his

who lived outside the town's wall implored him to build

Khulsat al-wafa , and not in the longer WafaJ al-wafa (al-

a new wall to encompass their properties as well (alFlrzbd 1969: 190; al-Samhdl 2001, iii: 106-107).
Al-Samhudl provides the text of an inscription from
one of Medina's gates still visible in his day, which
commemorated Nur al-DIn 's work. Several sources also

Samhdl 2006, ii: 26). That al-Samhdl did not cite this
in his Wafa* al-wafa is tricky to explain, since elsewhere

in that work (e.g. al-Samhudl 2001, iv: 111, 129-130,

1 3 1 ) he does show an awareness of al-Himyar' s al-Rawd
al-mictr.

inform us that the earlier wall referred to in these accounts The third source ultimately seems to go back to Abu
was built or restored only a short while earlier, shortly
Bakr al-SulT's (d. 335/947) Kitb al-Awrq , but I have
after 540/1145-1146, by the Zengid vizier al-Jawd al- as yet been unable to locate the relevant section in any
IfahnT (as well as al-FTrzbdl and al-Samhudl, see
extant portion of that work (on which see Sezgin 1967:
e.g. Ibn Khallikn 1977, v: 144; Ibn al-Athlr 1965-1967, 331; Leder 1997). The reference to this information

xi: 308). We are, therefore, secure in our knowledge

from al- Sul's work regarding Medina's wall comes
that by the mid-sixth/twelfth century at least, work was
in a marginal comment to the Istanbul manuscript of
undertaken on Medina's wall and was paid for by rulersal-FTrzbdT's al-Maghnim al-mufbah.5 Where alFTrzbdT mentions that cAlud al-Dawlah was the first
and high officials from other regions.4

That Medina had an earlier wall is also readily

to build a wall for Medina, the anonymous commentator
apparent, although matters become a little murkier nownotes the following:6
concerning when and how. The earliest date offered for
[As for] the author's statement that cAlud alMedina's first wall is 63/683 (Creswell 1969: 11, n. 6;
Dawlah was the first to build Medina's wall after
1989: 5; King 1994: 189; Bloom 2000: 225). This is the
year that the aforementioned Battle of the Harrah took
place, and al-MascudT (d. 345/956) at least notes that as
the Syrian army proceeded to Medina, 'its population had

the 360s, that is not correct. I saw in Abu Bakr

al-SulT's history, called al-Awrq , which consists
of many parts that:

(re-)excavated the Messenger of God's (s) ditch, which

he had had dug on the Day of the Confederates, and had

adjoined the town with walls ( wa-shakk H-Madnah -

- (al-MascudI 1894: 305). The latest date offered

by modern scholars for Medina's first wall is 363/973-

974 (Wensinck 1975: 10; Watt 1986: 997; Whitcomb

1995: 284; Wheatley 2001: 133). The most important
sources for this date, which refers to a wall built by the

Buyid ruler cAlud al-Dawlah, are al-FIriizbdl (1969:

190) and al-Samhdl (2001, iii: 105-106); the precise

In the year 263 [876-877 AD] the Banu Kilb

raided the City of the Messenger (s), killed
men and took captive women and children.

Their ...7 came to Baghdad, so c Allan b.

Dhu3ayb al-Bazzz,8 a just and pious man,
collected money from the merchants to spend
on fortifying [Medina]. He sent the money to
[the Medinans] so that they could construct
fortifications. . .9

date of 363/973-974 comes from an anonymous Akhbr

Ifriqiyah cited by al-Samhudl. Al-FTrzbdT is explicit5 MS. Feyzullah Efendi Koleksiyonu, no. 1529, fol. 164b. This
manuscript was first copied in Mecca in 966/1462, and there is evidence

that in his opinion this was Medina's first ever wall,

within of several readers and owners, in both Mecca and Egypt; for
further information, see Hamad al-Jsir's introduction to al-FTrzbdl
and al-Samhdl cites al-FTrzbdT's opinion without
1969: qf-r3. 1 have only seen this one page of the manuscript, and so
contradicting it in the longer of his extant local histories,

I do not know if it is possible to ascertain which reader or owner made

this particular marginal comment.
One modern scholar (al-Anrl 1973: 173) has offered
6 Al-Jsir provided an edition of this comment in al-FIrzbdl 1969:
a third possibility for the date of Medina's very first wall,190, n. 1 . 1 have seen the relevant page of the manuscript, however, and
believe that al-Jsir's reading can be improved upon in a few places, and
263/876-877. At least three sources refer to this date. One
so I have based my translation on my own reading of the manuscript.

the Wafa3 al-wafa.

of those is Muhammad b. cAbd al-Muncim al-Himyarl (d.7 Al-Jsir read here fa-j&a sarikhuhum il Baghdad , i.e. 'their cries

[for help] came to Baghdad', but the word read as arkhuhum is not
particularly clear.
8 The reading of the name is tentative.
4 For further information on even later phases of work on Medina's wall
see e.g. the two texts edited in al-Jsir 1972: 83-92, 195-196.
9 The following sentence looks like it should read: wa-akhraja al-str

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236

Harry

Munt

This demonstrates that Medina was walled before

but that this wall was significantly restored and rebuilt -

cA(Jud al-Dawlah's time. But God knows best.

perhaps even totally rebuilt - a century later at the order

of cAlud al-Dawlah. The remnants of this wall in turn

I will return to this passage again later. Here, however, weseem to have been incorporated into that ordered by alshould first deal with the three seemingly contradictoryJawd al-Isfahnl in the mid-sixth/twelfth century.
We have some indications of where the limits of this
dates for Medina's first wall. The 63/683 wall can

wall
(or, perhaps better, these walls) may have been, and
probably be dismissed. There can be little doubt
that
this can shed light on the size of the town. Al-MuqaddasT,
faced with the advancing Syrian army the Medinans
visited the Hijz at least twice, in 356/967 and
would have sought to construct defence works, butwho
there

367/978
should be considerable doubt that they would have
had (al-MuqaddasT 1906: 101), names four gates for
Medina: Bb al-Thaniyyah, Bb al-BaqIc, Bb Juhaynah,
the time to build anything permanent. This is the picture

Bb al-Khandaq (1906: 82). It should be noted that

suggested by accounts of the Battle of the Harrahand
from
al-MuqaddasT does not actually mention that Medina had
a city wall, and so it is possible that when he visited the
Wqidl (d. 207/822) note only that the Medinans hastily
town
these gates were freestanding. His predecessors alre-excavated the Prophet's ditch ( khandaq ) and joined
Istakhrl
and Ibn Hawqal, however, do mention that the
up the town's buildings (Ab 3l-cArab 1988: 162; altown
had
a wall and also refer to one of these four gates
SamhdT 2001, i: 252). In any case, when Muhammad

other sources. Those accounts said to derive from al-

- the Bb al-BaqIc - , which can be assumed from their

b. cAbd Allah rebelled in Medina eighty years later, the
descriptions to have been in this wall (al-Istakhn 1870:
town appears to have been without a wall. The rebels
18; Ibn Hawqal 1938-1939, i: 30). These two geographers
then in fact, at least according to al-Tabarl (1879-1901,
were
iii: 240), had to construct a temporary wall as part of the not writing too long before al-MuqaddasT, and so it
town's defences.
is likely that the four gates he mentions were in the town
Regarding the other two possibilities, however, there wall.
The rough locations (i.e. north, south, east, or west) of
the
offered by the sources. cAlud al-Dawlah's work on first three of al-MuqaddasT's gates are relatively easy to

are no immediate reasons to discount the information

locate. Bb al-Thaniyyah presumably refers to Thaniyyat

Medina's wall is relatively well attested: as well as in the
al-Wadc, a fairly frequently encountered toponym in
local histories of Medina, it is also noted by Ibn al-JawzT
local histories of Medina (see al-Samhdl 2001, iv: 195(d. 597/1200) within his list of cAhid al-Dawlah's works
and deeds (Ibn al-JawzT 1992, xiv: 291). That there was 201),
an which lay to the north of the Prophet's Mosque. Bb
al-BaqIc refers to BaqTc al-Gharqad, the town's famous
earlier wall, however, also seems clear. Ab Bakr al-SlT
cemetery, which was east of the Prophet's Mosque. Aldied shortly before cA<Jud al-Dawlah first came to power,

IstakhrT (1870: 18) and Ibn Hawqal (1938-1939, i: 30)

so if the currently rather unreliable reference to a wall
both mention that BaqTc al-Gharqad was outside the gate.
in his Kitb al-Awrq is genuine, there must have been
Today, BaqTc al-Gharqad almost directly touches the
an earlier wall. Even if that citation cannot be trusted,
environs of the Prophet's Mosque, which would fit with
some geographers writing before the time of cAlud
al-Dawlah's work on Medina's fortifications mention
the earlier estimation that the site of today's mosque more
less covers the extent of the pre-modern town.
that the town was walled (e.g. al-Istakhn 1870: 18:orwa

calayh sur). So far as we can tell, therefore, it would Bb Juhaynah would presumably have been to the
west of the town, since that is where the Ban Juhaynah
seem that cAbd al-Qadds al-Ansr was probably correct
were reported to have been located (e.g. Ibn Hawqal 1938that Medina received its first town wall in 263/876-877,

1939, i: 34; al-Samhdl 2001, iii: 105-106; al-cAlI 1961:

84). Al-Istakh (1870: 18) and Ibn Hawqal (1938-1939,
perhaps, a little more tentatively: wai: 30) mention that the Prophet's musall - the place
b. Ab Tlib. The latter reading would

ma dr cAql b. Ab Tlib. Or
akhraja al-sr [ra]bc dr cAql
he prayed during the two cFds, and which was west
suggest that the area around the dr of cAqTl b. Abi Tlib was where
left
outside the wall; the former may suggest that construction of theof
wall
the mosque - was located just inside the gate there,

started from and perhaps included that dr. The dr of cAqTl b. AbT Tlib

and cUmar b. Shabbah (d. 262/876) notes Ab Ghassn's

210/826) assertion that the musall was 1000
dhirc; . 500 m) from the Prophet's Mosque
the location of the dr of cAqTl b. AbT Tlib within the part of BaqTc al(Ibn
Shabbah
1996, i: 89). Al-SamhudI in the late ninth/
Gharqad nearest the Prophet's Mosque would not necessarily exclude
was in the part of BaqTc al-Gharqad nearest the Prophet's Mosque (al(d.bebefore
SamhdT 2001, iii: 302-303). That BaqTc al-Gharqad was known to
outside the wall (see below) may support the second reading, although
adhnf (sg.

the former reading.

fifteenth century tested this measurement and verified it as

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The construction of Medina s earliest city walls: defence and symbol 237
still correct in his day (al-Samhdl 2001, iii: 118).

The fourth gate, Bb al-Khandaq, poses a significant

notable exceptions, tended to leave aside town walls as

a key defining feature of urbanism there.11 Those studies

problem. The khandaq in the name most likely refers

which have emphasized medieval Muslim scholars'

to the ditch ( khandaq , pl. khandiq) excavated by the

Prophet and his Companions to defend Medina from the
Meccans' attack in 5/627. Al-MuqaddasT seems to locate

understandings of what makes a settlement a 'town/

city' - to the extent that they can be uncovered - have

suggested that a congregational mosque and a market

this gate to the south of the town, and that is the one
cardinal direction for which we have not yet located a

were often considered far more important than anything

gate for Medina. He states that the khandaq was 'in the
direction of Mecca', and as the crow flies at least that

fortifications (e.g. von Grunebaum 1955: 141, 145-147;

is south. The problem is that al-MuqaddasT's location of

the khandaq to the south is not supported by most other
sources, which have it to the north-west of the town.

else, including encircling walls and other defensive

Wheatley 2001:75-78).
That said, walls have served many important purposes
in urban life throughout most periods of history and in

many regions of the world (see especially the papers

The occasional source does put the khandaq elsewhere.

Ibn Jubayr (d. 614/1217) noted that it was west of
Medina (Ibn Jubayr 1907: 198). The nineteenth-century

they were seen as ever more important in the late antique

traveller Richard Burton was shown the location of the

58). Some of the most famous early Islamic foundations,

collected in Tracy 2000), and there is some indication that

Near East (Walmsley 1996: 147; Liebeschuetz 2001:

khandaq to the south of the town, but he doubted the including Basra, al-Kfah, and Fustt, were apparently
authenticity of this location (1898, i: 399). As alreadynot originally provided with town walls, but this was by
mentioned, however, the vast majority of sources locateno means the case universally; the foundations at Ayla
the khandaq to the north-west of the Prophet's Mosque and cAnjar, for example, were both built with encircling

(e.g. al-Wqidl 1966, ii: 445-446, 450^52; Ibn Hishmwalls (Hillenbrand 1999; Whitcomb 1994 a; 1994 b'
1936, iii: 230-231; Wensinck 1975: 18-21). If this gate 1995; 2006). It is interesting for my purposes here that
were known as Bb al-Khandaq it should probably have it has been suggested that the plan of many early Islamic
been north-west of the town and thus the four gates infoundations may have been based on earlier Arabian
Medina's wall by the mid- to late fourth/tenth centurypatterns of urbanism (Whitcomb 1996; 2000; 2007; cf.
would have been to the east, west, north, and north-west.Wheatley 2001: 32). This may or may not be the case,
These are, incidentally, the locations of Medina's gates as but it is clear that walled towns were far from unknown
recorded in the late ninth/fifteenth century by al-Himyarlin pre- and early Islamic Arabia; to give just a couple of
(1975: 401-402) and al-Samhdl (2001, iii: 110-111). HijzT examples, impressive walls have been discovered
The little information we have about the east and west
at Taym3 (Eichmann 2009: 61), and a Latin inscription
gates supports the earlier assertion that the pre-modern from MadDin Slih datable to the 170s AD probably
town was probably little larger than the environs of therefers to the construction there of a wall (al-Talhi & alDaire 2005). In the fourth/tenth century al-MuqaddasT
Prophet's Mosque today.
mentioned several walled settlements in his description of

Why were these earliest walls built for

Medina?

the Hijz (al-MuqaddasT 1906: 68-84), and excavations

at al-Mbiyt have revealed parts of that town's wall (al-

cUmayr 2006: 234-235).

To answer this question, it may be helpful to begin
The most obvious reason for building a wall is
with a brief discussion of the purposes of towndefensive,
walls.
and there can be little doubt that this is
Although some modern classifications of a 'town'
or majority of towns throughout history have
why the
'city' may include mention of fortifications, other
factors
been
walled. However, it is equally clear from several

- especially but not exclusively economic - have

traditionally played a much more important role11in

suchthe bibliography of Middle Eastern urbanism and the 'Islamic
Again,
city' is far
definitions.10 An urban area can of course exist without
a too large to cite much of it here, but key works with further
bibliography are e.g. Abu-Lughod 1987; Carver 1996; Wheatley 2001;

wall. The now long underway debate over urbanism

in the
Jayyusi et al. 2008; Milwright 2010: 75-96. There are also many
medieval Islamic world more specifically has also,
with
important articles on this question by Whitcomb, only some of which
will be referred to in what follows. One study that seems to place
10 The literature on urbanism and towns/cities is enormous;more
for some
importance on the existence of town walls in urban definitions
Walmsley
2007: 104-106 (in discussion here with Whitcomb 1994a:
recent observations on towns/cities in late antiquity andisthe
early

16-20).
Middle Ages see e.g. Ward-Perkins 1996; Wickham 2005: 591-692.

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238

Harry

interesting

Munt
a town in thethat
region to build a defence
defensive wall.
studies

is also interesting,
however, that al-Sl's account
explain It the
construction
mentions that the money for Medina's fortification was
(Hillenbrand 1999: 93-94; Genequand 2006: 12-13;
Whitcomb 2006). Town walls also frequently served an raised in Baghdad by a merchant there, and so perhaps we
important ideological function. A ruler might order the also see here something of the euergetism evidenced at
construction of impressive circuit walls - and no doubt late Roman Bostra and Scythopolis. It is unfortunate that
enough

to

add his name in lavish inscriptions - to emphasize both our two main accounts of the wall of 263/876-877 are
that he is fulfilling his duty of defending his subjects and not mutually corroborating on any of the details beyond
to establish his claim to sovereignty over a given town. the date. How exactly the money raised by this Baghdadi
Such propagandizing purposes seem to have been behind merchant resulted in a wall attributed elsewhere to the

the work of successive Muslim rulers on the formidable

Ishq b. Muhammad al-JacdT is unclear, although things

walls at mid/Diyarbakir (Blair 2000) and cIzz al-DTn would be better if we could actually know who this al-

Kay-K3s I's (r. 608-616/1211-1220) patronage ofJacdT was.12

It is worth briefly questioning why Medina was not
{ fathnmah ), at the citadel of Antalya in 612-613/1216 walled before this date. Perhaps this was because the
(Redford & Leiser 2008). The late Roman world - effects of the Abbasids' growing inability to control the
and no doubt there were many similar cases elsewhere region had not been felt so keenly before 263/876-877. It
- also provides examples of local notables raising the has also been suggested that other unwalled settlements
money, often by petitioning Constantinople, to build in the pre- and early Islamic Hijz had external defensive
walls for their home towns, presumably to increase barriers created by the arrangement of buildings around

the walls, including the remarkable victory inscription

their public standing. Inscriptions commemorating such the edges of the settlements (Whitcomb 1996), and
work datable to the sixth century AD have been found in interestingly parts of Medina after the Hijra may have
Bostra (Liebeschuetz 2001: 61) and Scythopolis (Tsafrir fitted this pattern. When al-Wqidl discussed the Prophet's
excavation of the khandaq in 5/627, he noted that it only
& Foerster 1997: 100-101).
If the citation from al-Sl's Kitb al-Awrq can be

needed to be built in a limited area because the remainder

treated seriously, there would seem to be little doubt that of the town was protected by interlinked buildings (alMedina's first wall in the late third/ninth century was built

WqidT 1966, ii: 446, 450). Al-WqidT's account is

for largely defensive purposes. That citation notes that the theoretically describing the very early Islamic town, but

wall was built in response to a raid of the Ban Kilb on it is possible that he or his sources were influenced by the
Medina, and such raids by this time were quite common, town's later topography.
Why cA<Jud al-Dawlah patronized work on Medina's
having increased in frequency as the Abbasid caliphs'
ability to control the Arabian provinces diminished. The wall is a little more complex to resolve. So far as we
Ban Sulaym revolted in the Hijz in 230/845, and Bugh can tell, the Qarmitah continued to be a real problem
al-Kablr led an army which had to deal with them as well throughout much of the Arabian Peninsula - and
as with the Ban Hill, Ban Fazrah, Ban Murrah, frequently beyond - for much of the period (Kennedy

and Ban Kilb (al-Taban 1879-1901, iii: 1335-1343). 1986: 287-292; Donohue 2003: 218, 259; LandauIn 251/865-866 the Ban cUqayl cut off the Jiddah Tasseron 2010: 410). Neither had the tribes quietened
road (1879-1901, iii: 1644), and in 265/878-879 CA1T down altogether, and in 363/974, for example, the Ban
b. Masrr al-Balkhl, having been appointed overseer Hill attacked the pilgrims (Ibn al-Athlr 1965-1967, viii:
of the Mecca road, was killed on that road by the Ban 647). The Qarmitah and rebellious tribes in the Hijz
Asad (1879-1901, iii: 1931). In 266/879-880 some local may, however, have been less of a factor now when set
tribesmen (cfrt) seized the Kacbah's kiswah (1879- beside the rising power of the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt
1901, iii: 1941), and the following year serious problems in the second half of the fourth/tenth century. One of

in the region were caused by the Ban Fazrah (1879- al-Samhdl's sources for cAlud al-Dawlah's wall, the
1901, iii: 2008). In 898 the Tayyi3 raided a pilgrimage anonymous Akhbr Ifrqiyah, explicitly mentions that
caravan (1879-1901, iii: 2183), and from this point on this wall was built in the context of Buyid-Fatimid rivalry
the Qarmitah became the region's main problem which

culminated, famously, with the removal of the Black 12 I have been unable as yet to locate him in any biographical
Stone from Mecca in 317/929-930 (Kennedy 1986: 287-

dictionaries. It is just possible that he may have been Medina's governor

the year this wall was built; al-Tabari does not name the governor of the

292). These problems would have been reason enough for town

for that year.

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is

of

The construction of Medina s earliest city walls: defence and symbol 239
over control of the Hijz (al-Samhdl 2001, iii: 105). problems securing recognition of their overlordship in
This explanation does make some sense, since we have the Hijz, cAlud al-Dawlah may have been attempting
considerable evidence for the Fatimids' relative difficulty to reclaim sovereignty over the Hijz, with the two holy
ensuring their sovereignty in the Hijz after their conquest cities, for a government based in Iraq and Iran, which had

of Egypt in 358/969 (Halm 2003: 113-116). They sent been lost after the Abbasids had ceded formal authority
armies to the region to compel local rulers to recognize over the region to the Egypt-based Ikhshidids in 331/943
their authority at the very least in 361/972, 365/975-976, (Mortel 1991: 64; Landau-Tasseron 2010: 410). In
366/976 (Mortel 1991 : 66-67; Donohue 2003: 80, n. 297), this sense, cAlud al-Dawlah's work on Medina's walls
and 377-378/987-989 (Ibn al-Dawdrl 1961: 219). The appears more symbolic than practically defensive. There
Meccan sharTf al-Hasan b. Jacfar in the fifth/eleventh is no evidence that he sent an army or garrison to enforce
century was a frequent nuisance for the Fatimids (Halm Buyid control in the region at the same time as building

2003: 228-235; Mortel 1991: 67; Landau-Tasseron 2010: Medina's wall. On the other hand, if we can assume that the
412). Al-MuqaddasT (1906: 104) had noted that the Hijz work would have been commemorated in inscriptions by
was always controlled by the ruler of Egypt, principally the principal gates - as the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir's
for economic reasons (Egypt controlled the grain supply (r. 295-320/908-932) work on the walls of mid/
to the ports of Jiddah and al-Jr), but the Fatimids seem to Diyarbakir in 297/909-910 had been (Blair 2000: 493-

497) - there would have been considerable propaganda

have had some initial problems ensuring this.

Although the Buyids of Iraq and western Iran do not benefits to the work. After all, the Buyids did not have to
appear in the sources as having been quite as interested in put an army in the Hijz to threaten the Fatimids; they

the Hijz as the Fatimids,13 it is possible to suggest that just had to persuade local rulers that there were other
cAlud al-Dawlah ordered work on the wall of Medina, equally plausible alternatives as distant overlords. If this
the Prophet's city, as part of his competition with other was the purpose, it may have temporarily worked. Soon

Islamic rulers in Arabia and the Near East, including after cA<Jud al-Dawlah's work on the wall, in 366/976, the
other Buyid rulers.14 Taking advantage of the Fatimids' Fatimid caliph al-cAzIz (r. 365-386/975-996) had to send
an army to Medina because the Husaynid sharTf there,
13 Buyid rulers did, however, compete with other dynasties for the Thir b. Muslim, had chosen to recognize the sovereignty
privilege of being mentioned in the khutbah in Mecca (Mortel 1991:
66-67; Donohue 2003: 79-80; Landau-Tasseron 2010: 41 1), and cA<Jud of al-TaJic (r. 363-381/974-991), the Abbasid caliph in
al-Dawlah was noted as having sponsored renovations of the pilgrim

road from Iraa to (e.e. Ibn al-Athlr 1965-1967. viii: 705.

Iraq (Mortel 1991: 66-67). The Fatimid campaign was

successful in this instance, but the Buyids had tried.

14 It may be notable that almost contemporaneously with his work on

Medina's wall, cAlud al-Dawlah was striving to take Iraq from a Buyid
relation and add it to his expanding domains (Bowen 1960).

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Author s address

Harry Munt, Faculty of Oriental Studies and Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane,

Oxford, OX1 2LE, UK.

e-mail thomas.munt@orinst.ox.ac.uk

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