Muhammad
The Prophet of Islam was born in Mecca in 570 or 571. The posthumous son of Abdallah, Muhammad was raised by his grandfather Abd-al-Muttalib, guardian of the holy Kaaba, and later by his uncle Abu-Talib. From his youth he was critical of polytheism and associated with Jews, Christians, and religious dissidents. At 25 he married the widow Khadijah, whom he had represented in the caravan trade. In 610, Muhammad reported that he had been visited by the Archangel Gabriel, the first in the series of visions during which the Koran was dictated. In the next several years, Islam gained only about 30 or 40 adherents, but Muhammad's preaching antagonized the religious establishment sufficiently that in 622 he left Mecca for nearby Yathrib (the Hegira from which the Islamic calendar is dated). At Yathrib -- thereafter called Medina, "the City of the Messenger" -- Muhammad was accepted as a prophet and a political leader. Muslim fighters began to conquer the surrounding peoples, and in 630 Muhammad re-entered Mecca in triumph and smashed the idols in the Kaaba. By the time of Muhammad's death three years later, there were some 40,000 Muslims, and all of Arabia was politically united.
Most of what is known about Muhammad's life comes from the Koran itself or from the Hadith tradition; formal biographies drawn from these sources began to appear in the seventh and eighth centuries.
Norman Hugh Redington
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