For Muslims interested in undertaking research related to Islamic and Arabic sciences, including history, language and literature, Madinah is indispensable. Its public and private libraries are synonymous with the city, and researchers and students come in large numbers seeking the resources of such libraries. Whether they are looking for manuscripts, which abound there by the thousands, or for Printed books which fill the shelves, researchers usually find in Madinah libraries most of what they are looking for.

Among those libraries some stand out with their international reputation, of particular prominence being the Library founded by A'rif Hikmat, a judge and man of learning. Established as an endowment in 1845, during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, the library is famous for its impressive collection of rare manuscripts and printed material. The beauty of the building, which is situated beside the Prophet's Mosque, both in its architecture and its interior design, has always attracted visitors to come and enjoy the calligraphy and other Graphic elements.

Besides that magnificent library, Madinah houses other important citadels of learning, such as Al Mahumoudiah library that also goes back to The Ottoman period, offering researchers a great collection of manuscripts and printed materials. The Library of the Prophet's Mosque is an equally important institution, established by the Saudi government in 1933 with 5,363 manuscripts and printed material. King Salman established a new library called "King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries" in Madinah in 2015.

Bolstering these repositories of knowledge are literary and cultural prizes that are meant to offer further incentives to researchers in various fields. Madinah boasts a number of these including the "Madinah Non-profit Prize" the "Prince Naif Prize for the Prophet's Tradition and Contemporary Islamic Studies" and the "Ameen Madani Prize for Research in the History of the Arabian Peninsula". Over the years these prestigious prizes have added to Madinah's already high reputation as a citadel of learning.

The choice of the Prophet's City by the Islamic Organization for Education, Sciences and Culture (ISESCO) to be the Islamic capital of culture comes therefore to honor the role of a highly generous city in supporting Islam and Islamic learning and their global spread. That role is what one of Madinah's well-known poets, Abdulmuhsin Hilleet Muslim, paid tribute to in the following lines of verse in which he speaks in the voice of the City of Light :

?I am Madinah, who in the universe is ignorant of me

?Who knew me, yet was able not be totally Overtaken

,Glory was a young pupil in my school

.Graduating later as a man of knowledge

.My heart l opened to the best of humanity

.And he has never left it ever since

.With his name l became the world's queen

.And my name reached the ends of Earth

Saad A. Albazei

Member of Shura Council,

Professor Emeritus, King Saud University, Riyadh