Mapping al-Medina in the Prophetic Era: A Comparative Analysis of Muslim and European Cartographic Representations

Medina, as one of the most important Islamic centers and the second holiest city for Muslims, particularly with the increasing interest of European powers in gaining a deeper understanding of West Asia, became a focal point for European travelers from the mid-19th century onwards, resulting in a series of maps. An Historical Atlas of Islam (Leiden), in its 1981 and 2002 editions, has utilized these maps. Europeans produced two more maps in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: the Günter Kettermann map and the Michael Lecker map. Conversely, Muslims have always shown a special interest in Medina due to religious and historical reasons. Islamic intellectual movements of the 20th century have frequently referred to the era of the Prophet and Medina, leading to a significant production of maps by Muslim researchers.A comparative analysis of these two sets of maps reveals significant differences. The 19th and early 20th-century European maps depict the city's condition at that specific time, although the inclusion of one of these maps in the Leiden Atlas has indirectly facilitated the generalization of this image to the Prophet's era. The incompatibility of European maps with historical data is another flaw in these maps. Furthermore, it appears that these maps were produced with preconceptions about the position of Jews in Medina. In contrast, maps produced by Muslim researchers have become more accurate and reliable over time through a process of refutation and confirmation, evolving into valuable tools for historical and geographical studies of that period.