Muhammad

In c. 570 AD, a man named Muhammad was born. Muhammad was to start a religion that became known as "Islam". Islam would soon become an empire that would dominate for centuries.

When Muhammad was six years old, he was orphaned, and raised by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib. His grandfather then died, and Mohammad was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. In later years, Mohammad would spend time alone in a mountain cave named Hira to pray.

When he was about 40, he claimed to have seen the angel Gabriel in the cave. He claimed that Gabriel had told him that "Allah was the only God, and that Muhammad was his prophet". In 613, Muhammad began teaching publicly. His followers were few, and they were received hostility from Meccan polytheists. Muhammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia in 615 to protect them from prosecution.

In 622, he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (then known as Yathrab). This event was called the Hijra, and it marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijra Calendar.

In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December of 629, after eight years of fighting with Meccan tribes, Muhammad marched on Mecca with an army of 10,000 Muslim converts. The conquest did not receive much resistance, and the city was captured with little bloodshed.

A couple months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage in 632, Muhammad fell ill and died, aged 61-62. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.