by Frances Stanford

Created on: May 18, 2009

Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was born in Mecca in 570 A.D. into the Hashimite clan, which was an insignificant branch of the Koreish tribe. The clan did, though, control the trading city of Mecca. His parents died when Mohammed was very young and he was brought up first by his grandfather and later by his uncle. He worked for his uncle and later as an agent for the rich widow, Khadija, experiences which took him on caravan trips to Syria. During these trips, it is likely that he came into contact with people of other religions, such as Jews and Christians. He later married this widow and together they had several children, but only one of them, a daughter named Fatima, survived.

Mohammed benefitted from his wife's wealth because it gave him a lot of leisure time during which he contemplated life. He disapproved of the practice of honouring more than one god, which was common among the Arab tribes. The people made religious pilgrimages to Kaaba, a sacred building in Mecca, where they worshipped idols of nature gods and the Black Stone, which was a meteorite. He was also disturbed by the lack of ethics the tribes displayed in their dealings with one another and longed for knowledge of the one true God of the Hebrews.

When he was 40 years of age, Mohammed went to a cave on Mount Hira for his usual meditation. According to legend, he received a revelation from the Archangel Gabriel on the twelfth night of this meditation telling him that he was a messenger of God. He did have doubts about this, but was supported by his wife. In other meditations, he received additional revelations and spoke in a poetic form of the Arabic language. He became convinced that he was the last Prophet of God and started to preach to his family and friends about the coming of the Last Judgement and the necessity of surrendering to the will of God, or Allah.

His first converts were family members and when he started preaching in public, he was opposed by the Koreish. The tribe denounced him because of his humble birth and feared that if news of his preaching got out, trade in Mecca would suffer as a result. His followers were persecuted because of their association with him.

Three years later, Mohammed was invited to settle a dispute between two Arab tribes in the city of Yathrib, which is now known as Medina. The Koreish had a plot to kill him and on the night it was supposed to have been carried out, Mohammed left for Yathrib. This miraculous escape has been called the hegira,

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