Madinah as it is in Arabic is said to be mentioned by name in the Qurran four times, Surah 9: 101, 120; 33: 60; 63: 8. And in all four of them the name mentioned is Madinah not Yathrib. Which is significant because Madinah is actually the Arabic word for City (the traditional Islamic narrative is that Muhmmad changed the name of Yathrib to Madinat Rasul Allah, The City of the Messenger of Allah). I looked at all four verses and in each one simply translating Madinah as "The City" still allows the verse to make sense.
Apparently the name of Yathrib is in Surah 33:13. Which is probably the same name Ptolemy refereed to as Iathrippa.
I think the name of Yathrib might come from Jetur a son of Ishmael. In the past I'd gone along with Jetur being the Iturians, but I now see Yathrib as much closer, but the idea of both being connected isn't impossible. Yathrib seems to have been founded by people who migrated there from further north following the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar.
Upon a closer reading of Surah 33, it's not impossible that Yathrib was being mentioned as a name of a city or tribe that's part of Muhammad's "confederacy" (Confederates is the name of the Surah) but not necessarily his base of operations.
I also mentioned in that prior post Sebeos being among the oldest historical references to Muhammad we have. And looking at that account again I noticed something interesting.
Twelve peoples representing all the tribes of the Jews assembled at the city of Edessa. When they saw that the Persian troops had departed leaving the city in peace, they closed the gates and fortified themselves. They refused entry to troops of the Roman lordship. Thus Heraclius, emperor of the Byzantines, gave the order to besiege it. When the Jews realized that they could not militarily resist him, they promised to make peace. Opening the city gates, they went before him, and Heraclius ordered that they should go and stay in their own place. So they departed, taking the road through the desert to Tachkastan Arabia to the sons of Ishmael. The Jews called the Arabs to their aid and familiarized them with the relationship they had through the books of the Old Testament. Although the Arabs were convinced of their close relationship, they were unable to get a consensus from their multitude, for they were divided from each other by religion. In that period a certain one of them, a man of the sons of Ishmael named Mahmed, became prominent. A sermon about the Way of Truth, supposedly at God’s command, was revealed to them, and Mahmed taught them to recognize the God of Abraham, especially since he was informed and knowledgeable about Mosaic history. Because the command had come from on High, he ordered them all to assemble together and to unite in faith. Abandoning the reverence of vain things, they turned toward the living God, who had appeared to their father–Abraham. Mahmed legislated that they were not to eat carrion, not to drink wine, not to speak falsehoods, and not to commit adultery. He said: “God promised that country to Abraham and to his son after him, for eternity. And what had been promised was fulfilled during that time when God loved Israel. Now, however, you are the sons of Abraham, and God shall fulfill the promise made to Abraham and his son on you. Only love the God of Abraham, and go and take the country which God gave to your father Abraham. No one can successfully resist you in war, since God is with you."Scholars usually see this event as correlating to the event traditional Islamic history knows as the second pledge at al-Aqabah. Except the destination of this joint campaign is the Biblical Holy Land under Roman rule not Mecca, which I feel is consistent with the original "Mecca" being Petra. In this context, the city where this alliance was made I doubt is actually as far south as Yathrib.
What "Arabia" meant in antiquity was often a little broader then we'd define it today. Damascus was considered part of Arabia, in Galatians Paul seems to refer to his time in Damascus as being in Arabia, he also implied the city was under the control of Aretas at the time. Damascus is the city that wound up becoming the civil capital of the Umayyad Caliphate.
But another interesting candidate is Tayma/Tema, an Ishmaelite city that is known to have had a major Jewish population in Pre-Islamci Arabia and was an important stop on the trade routes. And yet seems missing from the traditional history of Muhammad and the Rashidun Caliphate. It is arguably just as close to Khhyabar as Yathrib is but in the opposite direction. And one of the first places Muhammad sought to conquer after establishing his rule of Medina was Dumah, a location much closer to Tema then it is Medina.
The potential of the letters M and B to become confused in Semitic languages suggests Taybah and Tabah could be names based on Tayma and Tema.
Update January 16th 2021: However I have another theory now.
Upon reading Sebeos closer, the connection to Edessa and Mesopotamia is only that these Jews were there before Heraclius made them leave.
In fact the location Sebeos seems to identify as equivalent to Medina is "Moabite Rabbath" at the borders of Reuben.
According to Al Kindi Medina was a city in ruins when Muhammad came there inhabited mostly by displaced Jews, which could fit this being the old Rabba near the Greco-Roman/Byzantine Areopolis. There are also Nabatean ruins there.
I should note here that The Bible never seems to refer to Moabite Rabba/Rabbath by that name, in the Bible those names are only used of the Ammonite Rabbath which is modern Amman, Moab's Rabba however is the city named Rabba in modern Jordan.
Jeremiah 48:24:41 and Amos 2:2 mention a Moabite city named Kerioth who's remains are not identified and some scholars think didn't exist or is a scribal mistake since Kerioth is a form of a Hebrew word for City. Since Medina/Madinah is an Arabic word for City, they line up pretty nicely. Other Bible passages refer to the chief Moabite city as Ar another Hebrew word for City. Numbers 21:15&28, Deuteronomy 2:9&18 and Isaiah 15:1. And I think the Greek name Areopolis could be interpreted to mean City of Ar.
Moabite Rabbath was on the King's Highway which I feel makes it match the importance of this Kerioth pretty well.
The Bible itself supports the Land of Moab becoming Ishmaelite. Psalm 83 prophetically refers to Ishmaelites in Moab, Jeremiah 48 foretells Moab the people to be carried away into captivity. Nehemiah 4:1 refers to Arabs where equivalent passages of earlier periods would have said Moab. During the Persian Period the Moabites were gone and the land was inhabited by Kedarites and Nabateans.
I'm also now thinking the role traditionally played by Khaybar could be Machaerus in Perea. Machaerus is in the right place to be Biblical Beker, and has a similar enough name given how B and M are sometimes swapped when dealing with Semitic Languages. Beker was a Levitical city and one of the Jewish Arab Clans with ties to both Khaybar and Medina was a Kohen clan called the Banu Nadir.
The Wikipedia page for the year 622 AD seems to support that being the year Heraclius captured Edessa. Some think Sebeos is placing what happened at Edessa here after 629/630, but Sebeos is not being purely chronological, after describing Heraclius's victories over Sassanid Persia he then starts chapter 30 by backing up to give the background of the Arab invasion.
I do also think Sebeos's perspective on things may at times be off. Sura Ar-Rum shows that the Arabs or proto-Muslims were rooting for Rome at this time. Jews coming to this region from Edessa may have actually been fleeing Sassanid persecution since Khosrow had turned on his initial alliance with the Jews in 617. And some Nestorian Christians may have been with them as they were also being persecuted by Persia at this time, Edessa was a center of Nestorian Christianity and much of it's Gentile population was Ethnically Nabatean.
Further Update: I should note that Dan Gibson himself believes Medina is still Yathrib.
And elsewhere while arguing Muhammad did exist (which I agree with) he refers to this passage from Sebeos but argues it refers to the battle of Mutah in 629 which was also in Biblical Moab. That is however a distinctly different location, farther from the border with Reuben. And that incident was not an alliance between Ishmaelites and the Jews.
What interests me most about his Medina argument is that he points out how Mecca always attacked Medina from the north. So that doesn't fit Rabba but it could fit Tema.
However an oath taken before Muhammad's Migration to Medina is commonly called the Second Pledge of Aqabah supposedly named for a location 5 kilometers from Mecca. Could this actually have had something to do with Aqaba in Jordan?
I'm starting to think the role Medina plays could be an Amalgamation of different locations conflated by the later oral traditions.
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