The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1411 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Madhyam
-pratipad
(Skt. for): see
MIDDLE WAY
.
M
dhyamika
.
An adherent of
M
dhyamaka
.
Mad
na, al-
.
Yathrib, ‘the town’ to which
Mu
ammad
made the
hijra
at the invitation of its inhabitants. It is situated in the
ij
z, and is the place where the earliest organized forms of Islam could take root (hence the fact that the Madinan
suras
of the
Qur’
n
deal increasingly with practical issues of individual and social life). The so-called Constitution of Mad
na gathers several different agreements drawn up with Jewish and other tribes. Mu
ammad was buried in Mad
na (as were
Ab
Bakr
and ‘Umar, and also ‘Uthm
n, but in a place apart), so it has been a place of
pilgrimage
for Muslims.

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