Madina Bookstore Itinerary

To visit al-Madina al-Munawwara, the City of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), is to return home for the believing Muslim. It is a city built around al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet’s Mosque), and worshiping there is an overwhelming experience. I am not one to cry easily, but I wept uncontrollably upon visiting the tomb of the Prophet. It dawned on me that for all of these years I have thought of myself and presented myself as a scholar of Islam, and yet I felt so spiritually ugly and morally bankrupt in his presence.

Thus, in a way, I have been forced to reckon with why it is that I keep traveling to buy books. It started as a love for wandering aimlessly in search of new books in unknown streets and alleyways across the world. But over the years the desire to collect and show off my books has become an end in itself.

I briefly considered taking a break from writing these articles, but after some reflection, my tentative conclusion is that these itineraries are still beneficial, since I get messages from people every so often telling me that they visited the bookshops I have written about. So, I hope the below itinerary is useful for anyone who visits! Sorry it is a bit shorter than usual.

Bookshops Near al-Masjid al-Nabawi

I was puzzled to find that there are no major bookstores next to the actual Haram itself. This is a drastic contrast to a city like Najaf, where the main book market is essentially attached to the mosque itself. I realized later that because the Islamic college is located about 5 miles away, all of the specialty bookshops can be found in that area.

One can still find several souvenir shops that carry some Islamic literature. I bought a copy of the Qur’an in the Amharic language (spoken in Ethiopia) from one such souvenir store. The shop-owner was flabbergasted as to why I would do such a thing, repeatedly asking me if I could read the language. Unfortunately I can’t but I told him that one of my hobbies is to collect copies of the Qur’an in different languages.

Dar al-Naseeha

Anyone searching for books in Madina must pay a visit to Dar al-Naseeha, which is about a 15-minute taxi ride from al-Masjid al-Nabawi. The first floor is a deceptively ordinary stationary shop, but on the second floor you will find a bustling and lively scene. Located close to the Islamic University of Madina, this bookshop is filled with many seminary students. In my two trips to this and the surrounding stores, I ran into students from China, Kyrgyzstan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and several Central Asian countries. I also ran into a man who had moved his wife and kids from Boston to Madina so that they could benefit from an Islamic environment.

The collection of books in this bookshop is absolutely massive and incredibly diverse, including texts in Urdu and Farsi. This bookshop is distinctive in that the bookshelves are extremely well-organized. For example, not only are books separated by category (such as Ulum al-Qur’an), but there are also sub-categories (such as Asbab al-Nuzul). Although it may sound like a minor detail, this actually makes a huge difference in your book-browsing and book-buying experience, especially when it comes to specialty books in the Islamic sciences. You are able to focus on sections that interest you, and search for new works that you may not have heard of before in the relevant genre.

The highlight of my trip was purchasing the 20-volume set of Ibn Taymiyya’s Fatawa. I still don’t know how I am going to transport this back to the United States, but at a grand total of $40, it was not something I could give up. I was told by a friend that the complete set should include two volumes on tasawwuf (Sufism). I suspect that these volumes may have been edited out of this collection, but we will have to find out once I reach home. I also bought a two-volume set of fatawa written by al-Bulqini, a leading 14th century Egyptian Shaf‘i jurist, and a copy of a text by Ibn Rushd, the famous Andalusian 11th/12th century Maliki jurist, which summarizes the differences of opinions among Maliki scholars on various points of Islamic law. Fatawa literature is generally interesting for scholars of Islamic law because it gives you a sense of the deep legal training and mastery exhibited by medieval Islamic scholars.

I also bought a small booklet on Ilm al-Hadith by Imam al-Suyuti and a contemporary book on Maqasid al-Sharia. This last purchase is related to a side project of mine on contemporary Islamic reformist discourse, which tends to privilege an “objectives-driven” framework for Islamic law. I argue that such a theory of the law is unduly influenced by modern norms of morality, and that we should thus be skeptical of it. So, accessing contemporary Arabic-language works on this topic will be important for my project.

From a personal standpoint, probably the most important book I bought in my entire trip was also found at this store, which is a new publication about shared issues between Ulum al-Qur’an and Usul al-Fiqh. One of the things I want to do in my dissertation is to show that the boundaries we have created between these two disciplines are a lot less demarcated than we think. I am excited to see what work has already been done on this topic by contemporary Arabic-speaking scholars.

Lastly: I was shocked to find a couple of books with Shi‘i leanings. For example, in the Tafsir section, you can find Majma‘ al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an, one of the most authoritative Shi‘i commentaries of the medieval period, written by Shaykh Tabarsi, a 12th century Persian Shi ‘i scholar. I also found a Farsi book which argued that Ayat al-Tathir refers to the infallibility of the Shi‘i Imams. This was a completely unexpected sight in the heart of Madina. I wonder if the fact that it is in Farsi prevented the bookshop staff from bothering to read it, although any native Arabic seeker can deduce the meaning of the title. There was also a book titled “Caliphate and Imamate” which is presumably a polemical work on the topic, although I didn’t get a chance to read the contents.

Maktaba al-Zad al-Ilmi

Maktaba Zad al-Ilmi, like most of the bookstores in this itinerary, is located in the same vicinity as Dar al-Naseeha. All of these bookstores are located on two streets that are within 5-minute walking distance from each other. This is another well-stocked bookstore where you will find a mix of classics and smaller paperback publications, which are basically just booklets. One note on such booklets: My adviser, Dr. Sherman Jackson, has advised us that when we find a booklet that seems interesting, we should not hesitate to purchase it, because they run out fast and can be hard to find again. I have found this advice to be invariably true in all of my book-travels.

At this shop, I was happy to find Mabahtih al-Qur’an by Subhi al-Saleh, a text that will be important for my research in Qur’anic sciences. I also bought a book of academic articles on Ulum al-Qur’an and Usul al-Tafsir.

Maktaba al-Maymana

I actually started my book-journey in Madina here. This bookstore looks somewhat small from outside, but is actually surprisingly big once you reach inside. They have a wide selection of books, including a huge collection of books by the 20th century scholar, Muhammad al-Ghazali. Unfortunately, I still have not been able to find his book “Nazarat al-Qur’an” anywhere in Saudi Arabia, including this bookshop.

I also spotted an older four-volume edition of “Sharh Adab al-Qadi” which is a commentary on the 9th century text about the eqiquettes of being a judge. Although I would have loved to purchase it, I was unable to due to a lack of space.

Khazana al-Ulum and Maktaba Dar al-Rawi

Khazana al-Ulum is another wonderful little bookshop on the same street. I should note that I love the name of this bookstore, which translates roughly to, “Treasury of Islamic Sciences.” It was here that I met a couple of students from China, which was truly shocking to me. I asked if they were from Xinjiang province, which I know holds a large Muslim population, but it turns out they lived in a town near Beijing.

Next door you will find Maktaba Dar al-Rawi. I was a little crowded and rushed in this store, so I didn’t get a chance to buy anything, but I think the selection here is equally rich.

Tamam al-Sunna

This bookshop near the Haram is not really a specialist store, but rather one catered toward foreigners with a couple of important classical texts (e.g., Tafsir of Ibn Kathir). They also have extensive literature in English and French. You can find it next to the Mövenpick Hotel. If you do make a trip here, please do not forget to stop behind the Hilton Hotel on your way, where you will find a store called “Karak” with the best Karak Chai you will ever have.