From Yathrib to the Prophet’s Holy City pt. 2 - Dr. Harry Munt

In Part One of how the Oasis of Yathrib came to be seen as the Holy City of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Dr. Munt explained how the concept of sacred space in Late Antiquity, particularly those within the Hijāzī Arabian context known as a Haram and Himā, were created and functioned. He had also went over in Part One the moment inwhich the Prophet Muhammad first established a haram in the Valley of Yathrib, as mentioned in the document famously titled the Constitution of Medina. Part one closed with Dr. Munt describing his research into the scholarly debates concerning the nature of the Haram in Medina, which included debates about its status, ritualistic requirements, and overall existence after the passing of the Prophet’s generation. In this installment—Part Two of how the Oasis of Yathrib came to be seen as the Holy City of the Prophet Muhammad—we’re going to put the Haram on a shelf until the last part of this segment, where Dr. Munt and I explore some of the reasons for why the Prophet estibalshed a Haram at the Oasis in the first place. ’The Holy City of Medina: Sacred Space in Early Islamic Arabia’ by Dr. Harry Munt: Munt Dr. Munt is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of York in England. And before joining the department in 2014 he was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Oriental Studies and Wolfson College at the University of Oxford. His research and teaching focuses on the history of the Islamic world, ca. 600–1500. In particular, he works on the history of the Arabian Peninsula in the early Islamic centuries, Islamic holy cities and pilgrimage, and Arabic history-writing in the medieval period: #profile-content