Arabia Before Islam and the Life of Muhammad

Islam emerged in 7th-century Arabia, a region of trading towns, oases and nomadic tribes. Mecca was a commercial center and home of the Kaaba, a shrine that then housed images of many deities and drew pilgrims; Jewish and Christian communities also lived in Arabia. Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570 into the Quraysh tribe, orphaned young and later worked as a trader, earning a reputation for honesty.

According to Islamic tradition, in 610, while meditating in a cave on Mount Hira, he received the first revelation from God (Allah, the Arabic word for God) through the angel Gabriel (Jibril). Muslims regard him as the final prophet in a line including Abraham, Moses and Jesus. His message of one God, social justice and care for the poor challenged Mecca's powerful merchants, whose wealth was tied to pilgrimage to the Kaaba's many idols, and early Muslims faced hostility. His first wife, Khadija, was the first to accept his message.