78
A
round 610 ce, in a cave in
the hills above the town
of Mecca, central Arabia,
Muhammad—a 40-year-old man
from a merchant family—declared
that he had received a divine
message from the angel Gabriel.
This was followed by similar
revelations over the coming months
and years and led to the founding
of a new monotheistic religion:
Islam. Within 20 years, this creed
had come to dominate the Arabian
peninsula, and a century later its
followers had shattered the ancient
Byzantine and Persian Empires,
creating a state that stretched from
Spain in the far west to Central
Asia in the east.IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
The rise of IslamBEFORE
c.550 ce Fall of the Himyarite
Kingdom in southern Arabia.570 Birth of Muhammad.611 Persian Shah Khusrau
conquers the Byzantines in
Egypt, Palestine, and Syria.AFTER
622 Muhammad and his
followers flee Mecca and
take up residence in Medina.637 Muslim army captures
Jerusalem after a siege.
640 Muslim general Amr
ibn al-As conquers Egypt.661 Umayyad caliphate
established by Muawiya
at Damascus, Syria.711 Muslim armies cross
into Spain and conquer the
Christian Visigothic kingdom.TRUTH HAS
COME AND
FALSEHOOD
HAS VANISHED
MUHAMMAD RECEIVES THE
DIVINE REVELATION (c.610)
US_078-081_Mohammed_divine_revelation.indd 78 15/02/2016 16:41
79
See also: The founding of Baghdad 86–93 ■ The fall of Jerusalem 106–07 ■ Mansa Musa’s hajj to Mecca 110–11 ■
The Arab advance is halted at Tours 132 ■ The fall of Constantinople 138–41 ■ The conquests of Akbar the Great 170–71Arabia before Islam
From the first millennium bce there
were sophisticated kingdoms in
southern Arabia, which derived
their wealth from the spice trade.
In the early days, the trade routes
ran along the northwest coast,
but by the 7th century these
had diminished as merchants
increasingly used a maritime
route up the Red Sea, leaving many
places that had been relatively
prosperous in decline. There were
a few scattered towns, such as
Medina (then known as Yathrib)
and Mecca, which were dependent
on more local trade in wool and
leather, along with a few key
imports such as grain and olive oil.
The central desert regions of the
Arabian peninsula were very poor:
Bedouin tribes followed a nomadiclifestyle, and competition for scarce
resources shaped a society in
which primary loyalty was to
a kinship group, or tribe.
At the time of Muhammad,
Arabia was in a state of religious
and political ferment. Strong
Jewish communities had become
established in Yemen in the south
and in northwestern oasis towns,
such as Medina, while Christianity
had gained footholds in Yemen and
eastern Arabia. Although
monotheistic faiths were making
inroads against the traditional
polytheistic paganism of the
Bedouin Arabs, paganism still
remained strong. Conflict between
tribes was also common, and in
Mecca, in the sacred enclosure
known as the haram, a truce was
enforced so men of different tribes
could trade freely without violence.Muhammad in Mecca
The Meccan haram was controlled
by the powerful Quraysh clan, of
which Muhammad was a member.
Muhammad’s rejection of paganism,
and his bold proclamation thatTHE MEDIEVAL WORLD
In this 16th-century miniature The
Kaaba, considered the house of God
and the holiest shrine in Islam, is
decorated by angels on the occasion
of the Prophet Muhammad’s birth.Muhammad
The Prophet Muhammad was
born in Mecca around 570 ce
to a branch of the influential
Quraysh tribe. Tradition relates
that he was an orphan, whose
first marriage to a wealthy
widow named Khadijah secured
his economic future. The
religious revelations that were
imparted to Muhammad over
a period of about 12 years from
about 610—and which would
later be written down as the
Qur’an—caused a rupture with
the traditional Meccan eliteswhen he began to preach
against pagan polytheism
and practices such as female
infanticide. Muhammad’s flight
to Medina in 622 marked a key
moment in the spread of Islam,
as its acceptance outside Mecca
showed that its appeal might
transcend traditional kinship
structures. Muhammad proved
an inspirational leader, and his
adept handling of the challenges
facing the new religion meant
that by the time of his death in
632, two years after his return
to Mecca, its adherents had
spread throughout Arabia.there was but a single God, and
that believers needed to follow
a prescribed set of religious
observances—including praying
five times a day and fasting during
Ramadan—set his followers apart.
His preaching of a single religious
community that cut across social
boundaries was perceived as
threatening by the traditional
leaders, who felt it undermined
the source of their authority.The flight to Medina
By 622, the atmosphere in Mecca
had become so tense that
Muhammad and his handful of
followers fled north to Medina—
an event called the hijra (meaning
emigration), which marked the real
foundation of the Islamic community.
The Medinans, who resented the
power of the Mecca-based Qurayshi,
were sympathetic to Muhammad’s
cause and allowed him to preach
freely, giving him the opportunity
to attract further converts.
The Qurayshi were not content
to see Muhammad’s powerbase
grow in Mecca and within two ❯❯US_078-081_Mohammed_divine_revelation.indd 79 26/02/2016 15:49