made changes in the mosque down to the time of al-Mahdi's caliphate.
According to al-Wâḳidi, al-Mahdi sent ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Shabîb al-Ghassâni and another[1] descended from ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz to al-Madînah to reconstruct its mosque and increase it in size. The governor of al-Madînah was at that time Jaʿfar ibn-Sulaimân ibn-ʿAli. It took these two one year to carry out the undertaking. One hundred cubits [Ar. dhirâʿ] were added to the rear, making its length 300 cubits and its width 200.
According to ʿAli ibn-Muḥammad al-Madâʾini, al-Mahdi appointed Jaʿfar ibn- Sulaimân to the governorship of Makkah, al-Madînah and al-Yamâmah. Jaʿfar enlarged the mosques of Makkah and al-Madînah, the work in the latter being completed in the year 162. Al-Mahdi had visited Makkah before the pilgrimage season, in the year [1]60, and ordered that the maḳṣûrah be supplanted and that it be put on the same level with the mosque.
In the year 246, caliph Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil ordered that the mosque of al-Madînah be repaired. Much mosaic was subsequently carried to it; and the year 247 marked the completion of the work.
ʿAmr ibn-Ḥammâd ibn-abi-Ḥanîfah from ʿÂʾishah:—The Prophet said: "All districts or cities were conquered by force, but al-Madînah was conquered by the Koran."
The inviolability of al-Madînah. Shaibân ibn-abi-Shaibah-l-Ubulli from al-Ḥasan:—The Prophet said: "Every prophet can make a place inviolable, so I have made al-Madînah inviolable as Abraham had made Makkah. Between its two Ḥarrahs,[2] its herbage shall not be cut, its trees
