Source: arabnews.com

The Prophet’s Mosque is known the world over as the second largest mosque with its most beautiful state of the art structure.

This foundation of this mosque was laid by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself in 622 CE. The original mosque was an open-air structure covered with palm fronds. It had a raised platform for the recitation of the Qur’an. It was a rectangular enclosure of 30m x 35m with a roof more than 2 meters in height. It had three doors Bab Al-Rahmah, Bab Gariel, and Bab Al-Nisa.

A shaded platform was created inside known as suffah. This is known in Arabic as “Dakka Ashab Al-Suffah” place for the companions of Suffah. It is still there just behind the enclosure of the Prophet’s tomb. There were many companions who had exclusively reserved themselves for learning traditions of the Prophet and tenets of Islam and then to spread Islam. Abu Hurayrah was among them who had remembered by heart 8,000 traditions of the Prophet. Similarly, there were others too.

Seven years later the covered area of the mosque was doubled and roof’s height was increased to 3.5 meters and the mosque had 35 columns. During the caliphate of Umar bin Al-Khattab the area of the mosque was enlarged to 3,500 sq.meters and was built with more wooden columns.

Riad Al-Jannah
The Rawdah is one of the most important features of the site. It holds the the tomb of Muhammad and two of his companions and first Caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab. A fourth grave is reserved for Jesus, as it is believed that he will return and will be buried at the site. The site is covered by the Green Dome. It was constructed in 1817 C.E. during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II and painted green in 1839 C.E.^[4]The Rawdah has two small gateways.

Tomb windows of Muhammad (left), and his Caliphs (right) Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and Umar al Faruq

Riad Al-Jannah (Garden of the Heaven) extends from Prophet’s tomb (Rawdah) to his pulpit. People try to visit the confines of the area. Riad Al-Jannah is considered to be a part of Jannah. Abu Hurayrah narrated, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: The area between my house and my pulpit is one of the Gardens of the Heaven. To pray and recite the holy Qur’an there, is considered to be of great virtue as if one prayed in Jannah.

Al-Walid Ibn Abd Al-Malik of Bani Umayya (707-715) replaced the old structure and built a larger one in its place incorporating the Prophet’s tomb. This mosque was 84×100 sq. meters with stone foundation and roof supported by stone columns. He also built four minarets.

Caliph Mahdi of Banu Abbas (Abbasids, 775-785) enlarged the mosque and added 20 doors, eight on each of the east and west walls and four on the north wall.

During the reign of Sultan Abdul Majid of Ottoman Empire, the mosque was entirely remodeled. The prayer hall to the south was doubled in width with a new Mihrab for Imam. The Qibla wall was covered with glazed tiles featuring Qur’anic calligraphy. The floor of the prayer hall and courtyard were paved with marble and red stones and fifth minaret Al-Majidiyya was built to the west of the enclosure.

King Abdul Aziz (1932-1953) ordered the demolitions around the mosque to… continue reading at arabnews.com

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More information on Al-Masjid an-Nabawi at Wikipedia @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Masjid_an-Nabawi