Religious teacher and founder of Islam; b. c. 570 (Mecca, Arabia), d. 8 June 632 (Medina).
Muhammed was born after his father's death and raised in the family of his grandfather 'Abd al-Muttalib, the head of the Hashem clan. His mother Aminah died when he was six years old, and his grandfather died two years later. Muhammad then came under the protection of his uncle Abu Talib, the new head of the clan
As a minor of the clan Muhammad had no title to his father's and grandfather's wealth and had to find other means of supporting himself. He accompanied his uncle on trading trips to Syria, looking after the goods of customers. On one trip he was in the service of Khadijah, a wealthy widow who offered him marriage. This allowed Muhammad to establish himself as a merchant of importance, and his natural talent soon made him prosper.
Mecca was ruled by a small group of rich merchants, who had established a trade monopoly and no longer honoured the tradition to support the poor. Muhammad had a keen eye for the tensions between the rich and the poor in Arab society, without doubt helped by his own experience before his marriage. He sometimes retreated into a cave outside Mecca and spent the night in thought. At about the year 610 he had a vision and heard a voice saying: "You are the Messenger of God."
The experience set Muhammad's on his path as God's messenger or the Prophet (nabi). In 613 he began to preach in public. The revelations he received were eventually collected around 650, some 20 years after his death, and now form the sacred scriptures of Islam (the Qur'an, literally the "surrender [to God's will]").
Within two years Muhammad had some 70 followers. Mecca's merchants, who were not very religious and believed more in the power of wealth than in supernatural powers, realized the implied criticism of their conduct. They tried to buy Muhammad off by offering him marriage alliances and a bigger share in the market profits, but Muhammad rejected the offers.
In 619 Khadijah and Abu Talib died. The new head of the Hashem clan, Muhammad's uncle Abu Lahab, was allied with the rich merchants and publicly withdrew the clan's protection from Muhammad. After a short period of uncertainty and imminent danger Muhammad negotiated the protection of clans in Medina. His move to Medina in 622 (the hijrah or "emigration", literally the severing of kinship ties) defines the beginning of the Muslim calendar; 16 July 622 in the Gregorian calendar is the first day of year 1 in the Muslim calendar.
Medina was an oasis with date palm plantations and irrigated fields of cereals owned mainly by a Jewish clan. The eight Arab clans were engaged in blood feuds, and the "Constitution of Medina", a document negotiated between them and Muhammad, indicates that they hoped to pacify the situation by using Muhammad as an arbiter of disputes. This gave Muhammad authority despite his lack of clanship, and his house became a regular meeting point. (After his death it became the mosque of Medina.)
Initially Muhammad and his followers joined the Arab clans in their raids of passing caravans. When success eluded them in January 624 they attacked a caravan from Yemen in an area traditionally considered a sanctuary. This brought the conflict between the Meccan merchants and the new Muslims (literally "those who surrendered [to God's will]") to a new stage. Open warfare broke out in March, from which Muhammad and his supporters emerged victorious.
The outcome was seen as God's approval of Muhammad's teachings. It convinced many Meccans that it was now wise to become Muslim as well. Muhammad consolidated his position by marrying his daughters to key Arab leaders and by taking new wives from important families himself.
During the following years Muhammad concentrated on raids against Syrian caravans and Jewish clans in preparation for the showdown with Mecca, which was slowly weakened by conversion and emigration of important personalities to Medina. When he arrived at the outskirts of Mecca with 10,000 men in 630 the city surrendered.
Muhammad was now the undisputed leader of the strongest military force in Arabia. In the two remaining years of his life he concentrated on the unification of all Arab clans and desert tribes. Most tribes sent delegations to Mecca out of their own accord and asked for protection, which they received on the condition that they converted to Islam. Towards the end of 630 Muhammad led a force of 30,000 men on a raid into Syria, which set the scene for the expansion of Arab rule after his death.
Muhammad died in Medina in 632, shortly after his return from his pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims admire him as the Prophet, through whom god spoke to them. Christian and Jewish commentators of earlier centuries were unable of objective appraisal. An objective assessment cannot ignore Muhammad's sense of justice and social responsibility. One of his first acts after entering Mecca was the arrangement of loans for the poor from the wealthy Meccan merchants.
A far-reaching legacy of Muhammad's life is the close association of Muslim religion with the formation of the Arab state. While it is true that all religions are regularly used (or misused) for political aims, the religion of Islam was born as an instrument to achieve Arab political unification, and the separation of state and religion is not a concept that does come naturally for Muslims even today.