Testimony #3: The name Medina formed from Midian

From “External References to Islam” http://www.christianorigins.com/islamrefs.html: Contemporary evidence from the generation in which the Quran was written, that “Medina”, the Arabian city-state, was named after Midian, viz. that it meant “the city of Midian”:

A Chronicler of Khuzistan (written before ca. 660s, i.e. within a single generation of Muhammad himself, and a very short time after the Othmanic edition of the Quran was imposed on all Muslims.)

“[From the book (p. 185):] “In either case, one would not wish to date the text’s completion later than the 660s. The title declares the finishing point to be ‘the end of the Persian kingdom,’ and certainly there is no clear reference to any event after 652. If, as seems likely, the narrative on the siege of Shush and Shustar derives from eyewitness testimony, then one would not wish to place its composition, given its vividness, much more than two decades after the event. It is not stated that Elias of Merv was already dead, but it is perhaps implied, and this probably occurred not long after 659, when he witnessed Ishoyahb’s demise.”

“Then God raised up against them the sons of Ishmael, [numerous] as the sand on the sea shore, whose leader (mdabbrana) was Muhammad (mhmd). Neither walls nor gates, armor nor shield, withstood them ….

“…. Medina is named after Midian, Abraham’s fourth son by Qetura; it is also called Yathrib. And Dumat Jandal [belongs to them {viz. the Muslims}], and the territory of the Hagaraye {the Hagarenes, i.e. Saracens}, which is rich in water, palm trees and fortified buildings {this description can only apply to Wadi Feiran, the capital of the kingdom of the Saracens}…. (Chron. Khuzistan, 38-39 [pp. 187-188]).”

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