Where was Surat al-Fatiha revealed: in Mecca or in Medina?

Commentators differ over where Surat al-Fatiha was revealed: some say Mecca, some Medina, and some that it came down twice. In al-Tafsir al-Wasit, Tantawi says that the preferred view among careful scholars is that it came down in Mecca, indeed among the very first revelations there. ¹ In Fath al-Qadir, al-Shawkani lists the reports on which each view relied. ² The question belongs to the study of Meccan and Medinan revelation.

• Tantawi quotes al-Qurtubi, who prefers this view because Surat al-Hijr, Meccan by consensus, mentions "the seven oft-repeated", because there is no disagreement that prayer was prescribed in Mecca, and because no prayer without al-Fatiha is known ever to have existed in Islam. ^{1 3}
• Al-Shawkani cites the report of al-Wahidi in Asbab al-Nuzul and al-Tha'labi in his commentary from Ali that al-Fatiha came down in Mecca "from a treasure beneath the Throne". ²
• He cites the report of Amr ibn Shurahbil, in Ibn Abi Shayba, Abu Nu'aym, al-Bayhaqi's Dala'il al-Nubuwwa and others, that the Prophet ﷺ told Khadija what he experienced in the first days of revelation, she took him to Waraqa, who advised him to stand firm when he heard the call, and when he was alone he was called with al-Fatiha to its end. ²
• He cites Abu Nu'aym's report from a man of Banu Salima that the son of Amr ibn al-Jamuh recited the opening of al-Fatiha to his father before the Hijra, and Ibn al-Anbari's report in al-Masahif from Ubada that al-Fatiha came down in Mecca. ²

Al-Shawkani notes that those who held it Medinan relied on the report, in Ibn Abi Shayba, Abu Sa'id ibn al-A'rabi and al-Tabarani's al-Awsat, through Mujahid from Abu Hurayra, that Iblis cried out when al-Fatiha was revealed and that it was revealed in Medina, and on what several compilers report through various chains from Mujahid himself, that it came down in Medina. ²

Tantawi reports a third view, that it came down once in Mecca when prayer was prescribed and once in Medina when the qibla was changed, and al-Shawkani gives it as a way of reconciling the conflicting reports. ^{1 2}

At the start of his commentary on al-Fatiha, al-Baghawi says it is Meccan according to most, that Mujahid said Medinan, and that it is said to have come down twice, once in Mecca and once in Medina; he explains its name "the Seven Oft-Repeated" by its being seven verses by the scholars' agreement and repeated in prayer. ⁴

Al-Baydawi reports that it is said to have come down in Mecca when prayer was prescribed and in Medina when the qibla was changed, and holds that it is Meccan, citing the verse of Surat al-Hijr on the Seven Oft-Repeated; see al-Hijr 87. ⁵