Among the residences facing onto the north side of the Balat al-A‘zam was one near its western end belonging to Huwaytib. Ibn Shahbah did not explicitly mention the ashab al-masahif near whom Huwaytib was reported to have settled, though he did use the term ashab for various occupational groups. Particularly intriguing are the ashab al-rabba‘, whom he located at the eastern end of the Balat al-A‘zam, near the northwestern corner of the Great Mosque. It is not clear what they did; in fact, they were already problematic in the fifteenth century, when al-Samhudi, who was drawing upon Ibn Shabbahs text, speculated that they might have been those who made and sold copies of the Quran, which were sometimes known as ruba‘.Even if he was correct, however, it is clear that the ninth-century ashab al-rabba‘ of Ibn Shabbah were not the ashab al-masahif mentioned by al-Tabari, for they were not located near Huwaytibs house on the Balat.
There is growing evidence that al-Madinah functioned as an Islamic intellectual center in the Umayyad period, before the rise of the cities of Iraq.
For example, M. S. Belguedj and Rafael Talmon have presented evidence for the existence of a distinct school of grammarians at al-Madinah in the first half of the eighth century, anticipating the emergence of the better-known schools of al-Basrah and al-Kufah;

از ميان خانه‌هايي که روبروي بخش شمالي بلاط الأعظم بودند، خانه‌اي در نزديکي انتهاي غربي منطقه به حويطب تعلق داشت. ابن‌شبه، صريحاً اصحاب المصاحف ـ يعني کساني که گزارش‌شده حويطب در نزديکي آنها مقيم شد ـ را ذکر نکرده است. اگرچه او لفظ اصحاب را براي گروههاي مختلف شغلي به کار مي‌برد، در اين ميان اصطلاح اصحاب الرباع به طور خاص فريبنده است، يعني کساني که او آنها را در انتهاي شرقي بلاط الاعظم و در نزديکي زاويه شمال غربي مسجد بزرگ قرار مي‌دهد. مشخص نيست که شغل آنها چه بود؟ در حقيقت، آنها قبلاً در قرن 15 هم، براي سمهودي که از متن ابن‌شبه استفاده کرده مشکل‌آفرين بودند. سمهودي حدس زده که آنها کساني بودند که نسخه‌هايي از قرآن را استنساخ کرده و مي‌فروختند زيرا گاهي نسخه‌ها به عنوان رباع شناخته شده‌اند. حتي اگر او درست بگويد اما روشن است که اصحاب الرباع مذکور ابن‌شبه در قرن نهم هجري همان اصحاب المصاحف مذکور طبري نيستند؛ زيرا آنها در نزديکي خانه حويطب در بلاط سکونت نداشتند.
شواهد ديگري نيز وجود دارد که مدينه، به عنوان مرکز تفکر اسلامي در دوره اموي، قبل از ظهور شهرهاي عراق به شمار مي‌رفت؛ به عنوان مثال م. س بلگويج و رافائيل تالمون شواهدي