Location of Medina in Pre-Islamic Times

Last updated: April 16th, 2025 at 12:05 pm · Est. Reading Time: 2 minutes

Medina (Madīnah مَدىِنه), whose ancient name was Yathrib (Yethrib يثرب), is clearly identified at its present location by pre-Islamic sources.

Inscription of Nabonidus, dating from 552 BCE or little after and discovered at Harran (Sultantepe) near present day Urfa in south-eastern Turkey, reads ‘I hied myself afar from my city Babylon [on] the road to Tema’, Dadanu [Dedan = al-Ula], Padakku [Fadak], Hibra [Khaybar], Ladihu [Yadī’?] and as far as Latribu [Yatribu = Yathrib]; ten years I went about amongst them, [and] to my city Babylon I went not in’.¹

Similarly, a Minean inscription found near ancient city of Ma’in in South Arabia (datable to second half of first millennium BCE), which records some form of registration of women from various non-Minean lands, mentions two originally from Ytrb (Yathrib).²

Continued existence of this settlement is evident from the fact that Lathrepta/Lathrippa was included among towns of the inland parts of Arabia Felix by the second century geographer Ptolemy.³

Lathripa is also mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantinus (c. 528-35 CE) who locates it near Hegra.⁴  Hegra was Greek name of al-Hijr currently called Madain Salih.

Lastly, an inscription (Murayghān 3) written by the Yemeni king Abraha shortly after 552 CE and discovered in 2009, announces the establishment of his authority over various areas of Arabian Peninsula, including Ytrb.⁵

Hence there is ample evidence that Medina existed at its current location for at least a millennium before advent of Islam.

Further Reading

History of Islam, Geography & Climate of Pre-Islam Arabia, https://historyofislam.org/geography-and-climate/

Footnotes

1. Cyril C. Gadd, “the Harran Inscriptions of Nabonidus,” Anatolian Studies 8 (1958): 59.  Pl. IX –  XVI (Inscription Nabonidus H2, A and B).
2. Joseph Halevy, Rapport Sur Une Mission archeologique dans le Yemen (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1872), 231 – 234, no. 190, List of Hierodules. See also:  Kenneth A. Kitchen, Documentation for ancient Arabia.  Part II, Chronological Framework & Historical Sources. (The world of ancient Arabia Series) (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000), 411.
3. Claudius Ptolemy, The Geography, ed. and trans. Edward Luther Stevenson (New York: Dover Publications, 1991), 137.
4. Stephani Byzantii, Ethnica Volume II, ed. and trans.  Margarethe Billerbeck and Christian Zubler, (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011), 259.
5. Christian J. Robin and Sālim Tayran, “Soixante-dix ans avant l’islam, l’Arabie toute entière dominèe par un roi chrètien,” dans Acadèmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Comptes rendusde l’annèmie (2012): 525 – 553.