City of Medina history

Founded as the county seat in 1816, the community was originally named Mecca, after the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed.

In 1846, six churches, fifteen stores, one newspaper office, one woolen factory, one axe factory, one flourmill, and one iron furnace existed in the town.

In 1853, the Traverse de Sioux Treaty opened up the region to white settlers, who were attracted by the huge stands of timber and the availability of land for farming.

The first settlers arrived in Medina in 1855.

On May 11, 1858, 37 residents met in the home of Valorius Chilson and voted unanimously to change the name.

The town might have been called Lenz after Leander Lenzen, who built a mill on Elm Creek and set up a post office in the name of Lenz in 1861.

The Hamel area of Medina was platted as a City as early as 1879, but its efforts to incorporate failed, in part, because of the complication of straddling the borders of both Medina and Plymouth.

But, when the Lange Hamel family gave land to the railroad for the train depot in 1884 they asked that it be called “Hamel,” and the name took root.

A.I. Root, a bee supplies manufacturer, was the town's largest employer, with ninety-six workers in 1886.

It became the first building in the Arabian Peninsula with electric lights, which were installed in 1909.

In 1932, it became part of Saudi Arabia. It came under Turkish rule (1517–1916), before briefly forming part of the independent Arab kingdom of the Hejaz.

The Islamic cemetery of al-Baqīʿ (Baqīʿ al-Gharqad) was shorn of all the domes and ornamentation of the tombs of the saints at the time of the Wahhābī conquest of 1925; simple concrete graves in place of the old monuments and a circuit wall have been installed.

Later, the City also ceded away land to Loretto, when it incorporated in 1940.

The city is especially well known for its date palms, the fruits of which are processed and packaged for export at a plant built in 1953.

In addition the city is also the site of the Islamic University, established in 1961.

Thābit, 'A Jew with Two Sidelocks': Judaism and Literacy in Pre-Islamic Medina (Yathrib)," in: jnes, 56 (1997).

In 2000, Medina was the largest community in the county, with 25,139 residents.