Madinah
Madinah was first walled in 236 AH, when a wall with four gates was built to protect the city from raids. Further walls were built in 372 AH by Adud…
Madinah was first walled in 236 AH, when a wall with four gates was built to protect the city from raids. Further walls were built in 372 AH by Adud al-Dawlah, in 540 AH by Jamal al-Din al-Isfahani, vizier of the ruler of Mosul, and in 558 AH by Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi, who added an outer wall at the request of the people of Madinah. The walls were repaired by the Mamluk sultans al-Salih and Qaytbay, and Sultan Suleyman rebuilt the inner walls on their old foundations between 939 and 946 AH, at a cost of 100,000 dinars. In the Ottoman period the walls had five gates, including Bab al-Juma towards al-Baqi', Bab al-Sham and Bab Misr, and an outer wall took in the suburbs to the south and west. The walls were taken down in the twentieth century as the city grew; the place shown here lies on their north-western side, about 800 metres from Masjid al-Nabawi.