Muhammad & the Birth of Islam

In 570 CE, the city of A trading city in the Hejaz region of western Arabia (present-day Saudi Arabia), Mecca sat at the crossroads of major caravan routes connecting the Arabian Peninsula with Syria, Persia, and East Africa. The city's religious center, the Kaaba — a cube-shaped stone structure — housed hundreds of idols and drew pilgrims from across Arabia, making it both a commercial hub and the most sacred site in the pre-Islamic Arabian world. was not a promising place for a religious revolution.

It was a merchant city, pragmatic and polytheistic. The Kaaba, the square stone shrine at its center, housed some 360 idols, if you believe the later Islamic accounts. Pilgrims came from across Arabia every year, and with them came business. The tribes that controlled Mecca — above all the Quraysh — ran a lucrative operation. They managed the sanctuary, organized the markets, extended hospitality to arriving caravans, and taxed the goods that passed through. The sacred and the commercial were woven together so tightly that you couldn't separate them without threatening both.

This is the world Muhammad was born into. His father died before he was born. His mother died when he was six. He was raised by his grandfather and then an uncle, Abu Talib, who was a merchant of modest means. By the time he reached adulthood, Muhammad was working as a caravan agent, traveling north to Syria and south toward Yemen, learning the routes, meeting the traders, listening to the Jews and Christians he encountered along the way who spoke of prophets, scripture, and one God.