Muhammad c. 569-632

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In the Islamic tradition, Muhammad is a messenger of God and the “seal of the prophets.” Muslims consider the prophethood of Muhammad as the final act of a monotheistic God’s revelations to humanity, which had earlier been transmitted through the biblical prophets, including Jesus and Moses.

According to classical Islamic sources, Muhammad was born in Mecca around 569. His family belonged to the Hashemite branch of Quraysh, the dominant tribe in Mecca, then a major site of pagan pilgrimage in Arabia as well as a major center of caravan routes. The city’s dominant religion was Arab paganism, although some monotheists influenced by Abrahamic traditions also resided there. His father, ‘Abdullah, died before Muhammad was born, so the infant was placed primarily in the care of a foster mother in addition to his grandfather and his mother, Amina, both of whom died within his eighth year, leaving the care of the orphan to his uncle.

Muhammad’s first forty years of life were relatively undistinguished. He reportedly made a living as a merchant and participant in Mecca’s long-distance caravans, and his most profitable missions were carried out on behalf of an older female employer, Khadija, whom he eventually married. While before the revelations he was never recognized as anything but an ordinary member of the community, as a merchant he developed a reputation for honesty and integrity. At age forty, following years of periodic seclusion and meditation, Muhammad received his first revelations from God through the archangel Gabriel, the medium through which, according to Muslim tradition, the entire Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad.

Several years of proselytizing in Mecca generated a small number of recruits to the new faith, but Muhammad’s claim to being a messenger of God was rejected by the city’s larger pagan community. Muhammad’s teachings had a clear affinity to Jewish and Christian ideas permeating Arabia at that time, his main nemesis being the dominant pagan religion. Around 622 Muhammad and his band of followers, seeing no more prospects in Mecca and being subject to increasing harassment, migrated to Medina (then Yathrib), where they established the first self-governing Muslim community. That community consisted at first of two distinct groups: the Meccan Muslims who came with Muhammad, or al-muhajirun (the emigrants); and a larger group of local Medinian faithful who had been Islamized before Muhammad’s migration to the city, known as al-ansar (the backers). Medina became Muhammad’s headquarters until his death. The mosque of Medina, built around his tomb, is the second-holiest shrine for Muslims worldwide.

Muhammad’s migration (Hijra ) to Medina allowed him not only to establish an independent Muslim community but also to elaborate further features of such a community. In Medina it became increasingly evident that Islam was becoming a trans-tribal religion, and Muhammad frequently found himself acting as a trans-tribal statesman and arbitrator as well as prophet. Hostility to Mecca is evident in that part of his biography, since his home city had, according to the Qurʾan, rejected a faith that was intended to safeguard it from danger in the world. Many skirmishes and battles are recorded throughout that period between the Muslims of Medina and the pagans of Mecca. Under Muhammad, the Muslims, especially al-muhajirun, sought to undermine Mecca’s trade routes and also gain access to Mecca’s haram (sanctuary), which was holy to all pagan Arabs but also to Muslims, who traced its construction to Abraham and saw it as integral to the history of monotheism.

During the Medinian part of Muhammad’s life Islam was spreading in Arabia, but Muhammad remained focused on Mecca until he conquered the city in 630 in a bloodless campaign. He confirmed the holy status of the now-Islamized city. The originally pagan haram of Mecca was sanctified as a Muslim sanctuary and a Muslim pilgrimage site, and the pagan objects of worship within it were destroyed.

Muhammad died in Medina in 632, shortly after performing his last pilgrimage to Mecca, and at a time when Muslim communities had sprung up throughout Arabia. He left no instructions as to how the community should be ruled after him, leaving the task to the elders of the community. After deliberations they chose Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s close companion and one of the earliest believers, as the first caliph in Islam.

Muhammad counts as one of the most influential men in history. In the Qurʾan he is presented as a mere human person with no divine qualities and no supernatural powers, and he is not credited with miracles. His role is presented as one of bearing witness to his people and as a conveyor of God’s final and true revelation; with the teachings of Muhammad, God acquires a highly abstract character. The tradition further highlights Muhammad’s illiteracy, which in the context of the highly refined, poetic language of the Qur’an establishes all the more the book’s divine origin.

Muhammad combined in his career several roles— prophet, statesman, warrior, legislator—and through that combination managed to establish an enduring trans-tribal community in Arabia that, after his death, became the model for a universal Muslim community. The corpus of sayings attributed to him, or hadith, along with the traditions around his life, constitute the sunnah, which is generally considered second to the Qur’an as source of Muslim tradition and also provides Muslims with an exemplary model of proper Muslim life and composure.

The basic teachings of Muhammad emphasized Islam as a trans-tribal fellowship, a harmonious community whose inner peace was safeguarded through regulated legal relations that closely mirrored the contractual outlook of the merchant class. Muhammad also mandated and expanded earlier techniques of wealth redistribution through elevating almsgiving to a religious duty. While presenting Islam as the last chapter in the history of monotheism, Muhammad also operated in a territory that was far removed from imperial or great power centers. Central western Arabia in Muhammad’s time was becoming increasingly connected to world trade routes, but being situated deep in the desert, remained independent of the great powers of the time. The context in which Muhammad operated, therefore, provided for the emergence of a new type of political community, one that was not based on imperial politics but rather on overcoming and reworking Arab tribal traditions and integrating various classes and social groups under the banner of a new religion that gave them a sense of common and universal identity, binding contractual relations, and solidaristic practices and attitudes.

SEE ALSO Islam, Shia and Sunni; Muslims

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bamyeh, Mohammed A. 1999. The Social Origins of Islam: Mind, Economy, Discourse. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Rodinson, Maxime. 1980. Muhammad. Trans. Anne Carter. New York: Pantheon.

Watt, W. Montgomery. 1980. Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman. London and New York: Oxford University Press.

Mohammed A. Bamyeh

Muhammad [Arab.,=praised], 570?–632, the name of the Prophet of Islam , one of the great figures of history, b. Mecca.

Early Life

Muhammad was the son of Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and his wife Amina, both of the Hashim clan of the dominant Kuraish (Quraysh) tribal federation. Muhammad was orphaned soon after birth, and was brought up by his uncle Abu Talib. When he was 24, he married Khadija, a wealthy widow much his senior; he had no other wife in Khadija's lifetime. Khadija's daughter Fatima was the only child of Muhammad to have issue. His position in the community was that of a wealthy merchant.

Call to Prophecy

When he was 40, Muhammad felt himself selected by God to be the Arab prophet of true religion. The Arabs, unlike other nations, had hitherto had no prophet. In the cave of Mt. Hira, N of Mecca, he had a vision in which he was commanded to preach. Thereafter throughout his life he continued to have revelations, many of which were collected and recorded in the Qur'an . His fundamental teachings were: there is one God; people must in all things submit to Him; in this world nations have been amply punished for rejecting God's prophets, and heaven and hell are waiting for the present generation; the world will come to an end with a great judgment. He included as religious duties frequent prayer and almsgiving, and he forbade usury.

Enemies and Converts

In his first years Muhammad made few converts but many enemies. His first converts were Khadija, Ali (who became the husband of Fatima), and Abu Bakr . From about 620, Mecca became actively hostile, since much of its revenues depended on its pagan shrine, the Kaaba , and an attack on the existing Arab religion was an attack on the prosperity of Mecca. While he was gaining only enemies at home, Muhammad's teaching was faring little better abroad; only at Yathrib did it make any headway, and on Yathrib depended the future of Islam. In the summer of 622 Muhammad fled from Mecca as an attempt was being prepared to murder him, and he escaped in the night from the city and made his way to Yathrib. From this event, the flight, or Hegira , of the Prophet (622), the Islamic calendar begins.

Muhammad spent the rest of his life at Yathrib, henceforth called Medina , the City of the Prophet. At Medina he built his model theocratic state and from there ruled his rapidly growing empire. Muhammad's lawgiving at Medina is at least theoretically the law of Islam, and in its evolution over the next 10 years the history of the community at Medina is seen.

Medina lies on the caravan route N of Mecca, and the Kuraishites of Mecca could not endure the thought of their outlawed relative taking vengeance on his native city by plundering their caravans. A pitched battle between Muhammad's men and the Meccans occurred at Badr, and the victory of an inferior force from the poorer city over the men of Mecca gave Islam great prestige in SW Arabia. More than a year later the battle of Uhud was fought but with less fortunate results. By this time pagan Arabia had been converted, and the Prophet's missionaries, or legates, were active in the Eastern Empire, in Persia, and in Ethiopia.

As he believed firmly in his position as last of the prophets and as successor of Jesus, Muhammad seems at first to have expected that the Jews and Christians would welcome him and accept his revelations, but he was soon disappointed. Medina had a large Jewish population which controlled most of the wealth of the city, and they steadfastly refused to give their new ruler any kind of religious allegiance. Muhammad, after a long quarrel, appropriated much of their property, and his first actual conquest was the oasis of Khaibar, occupied by the Jews, in 628. The failure of several missions among the Christians made him distrustful of Christians as well as Jews.

His renown increased, and in 629 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca without interference. There he won valuable converts, including Amr and Khalid (who had fought him at Uhud). In 630 he marched against Mecca, which fell without a fight. Arabia was won. Muhammad's private life—the fact that he had nine wives—has received a vast, and perhaps disproportionate, amount of attention. His third wife, Aishah , was able and devoted; he died in her arms June 8, 632.

Legends and Veneration

Islam has enshrouded Muhammad's life with a mass of legends and traditions (contained in the Hadith ). Islamic dogma stresses his exclusively human nature, while presenting him as infallible on matters of prophecy. Muhammad is still perceived as the ultimate subject of emulation. At a popular level, Muslims throughout the world venerate Muhammad by expressing their love and devotion to him through numerous poems, folk songs, and formulaic prayers invoking God's blessings. Many believe that he will intercede for the Muslim community on the day of judgment. His deeds and sayings are collected in the sunna. He is considered by most Muslims to have been sinless. Muhammad is probably the most common given name, with variations including the W African Mamadu and the Turkic Mehmet. He was known to medieval Christianity as Mahomet.

Bibliography

See biographies by T. Andrae (tr. 1936, repr. 1971), W. M. Watt (1953), M. Hamidullah (1959), M. Rodinson (tr. 1971), M. Lings (1983), and K. Armstrong (1992 and 2006); see also A. Schimmel, And Muhammad Is His Messenger (1985).

Muhammad (c.570–632) Arab prophet and inspirational religious leader who was the last and chief prophet of Islam. He was born in Mecca. At the age of 25, he began working as a trading agent for Khadijah, a wealthy widow of 40, whom he married. For 25 years, she was his closest companion and gave birth to several children. Only one brought him descendants – his daughter Fatima, who married his cousin, Ali. In c.610, Muhammad had a vision while meditating alone in a cave on Mount Hira. A voice three times commanded him to ‘recite’, and he felt his body compressed until he could hardly breathe. Then he heard the words of the first of many revelations that came to him in several similar visions over the next two decades. The revelations came from Allah, or God, and Muhammad's followers believe that they were passed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. At the core of his new religion was the doctrine that there is no God but Allah and His followers must submit to Him – the word islam means ‘submission’. Muhammad gained followers but also many enemies in Mecca. In 622 he fled to Yathrib (Medina). Muslims, later took this Hejira as initiating the first year in their calendar. Muhammad won more followers and organized rules for the proper worship of Allah and for Islam. Muhammad made war against his enemies and conquered Mecca in 630. Most of the Arab tribes allied with him. In Medina, he married Aishah, the daughter of Abu Bakr, one of his strongest supporters. Muhammad is considered an ideal man, but he never claimed supernatural powers, and is not held to be divine. His tomb is in the Holy Mosque of the Prophet, Medina.

Muhammad (or Mohammed) (c.570–632) Arab prophet and founder of Islam. He was born in Mecca, where in c.610 he received the first of a series of revelations, which became the doctrinal and legislative basis of Islam and which were written down c.610–32 as the Koran. His sayings (the Hadith) and the accounts of his daily practice (the Sunna) constitute the other major sources of guidance for most Muslims. In the face of opposition to his preaching he and his small group of supporters were forced to flee to Medina in 622; this flight, known as the Hegira, is of great significance in Islam, and the Islamic calendar (which is based on lunar months) is dated from 622 AD (1 AH). After consolidation of the community in Medina, Muhammad led his followers into a series of battles, which resulted in the capitulation of Mecca in 630. He died two years later, having successfully united tribal factions of the Hejaz region into a force that would expand the frontiers of Islam. He was buried in Medina. Islam is now the professed faith of some 1000 million people.

Muhammad (c.570–632), Arab prophet and founder of Islam. He was born in Mecca, where c.610 he received the first of a series of revelations which, as the Koran, became the doctrinal and legislative basis of Islam. His sayings (the Hadith) and the accounts of his daily practice (the Sunna) constitute the other main sources of guidance for most Muslims.

In the face of opposition to his preaching he and his small group of supporters were forced to flee to Medina in 622; this flight, known as the Hegira), is of great significance in Islam, and the Islamic calendar (which is based on lunar months) is dated from ad 622 (= 1 ah). (See also Mahomet.)

Muḥammad ♂ (Arabic) ‘Praiseworthy, possessing fine qualities’. The most popular male Muslim name, bestowed in honour of Muḥammad ibn-‘Abd-Allāh ibn-‘Abd-al-Muṭṭalib (570–632) of Mecca, the Prophet of Islam.

Muhammad ♂ Variant spelling of Mohammed. See Muḥammad.

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