1 Muh: ammad PETRA M. SIJPESTEIJN Muh: ammad, the prophet of ISLAM, was born in Mecca in 570 CE into the Banū Hāshim clan of the tribe of Quraysh and died in 632 (11 AH) in Medina. For the life of the historical Muh: ammad, we have no certainly datable contemporary sources. The Qur’ān records much information, but no complete text of the Book can be dated to before ca. 700. The earliest biography is that by Ibn Ish: āq (d. 150/767), preserved in the later recension of Ibn Hishām (d. 218/833). His appearance in the documentary record is earlier than this literature: he is mentioned in a mosaic inscription on the Dome of the Rock dated 87/692 and in a papyrus from Egypt in the second quarter of the eighth century. Non-Muslim sources speak about a prophet on the Arabian Peninsula and begin to mention his teachings very soon after his death (in 634: Hoyland 1997: 55–67), though they give little detailed information. Archaeological excavations and surveys have in recent years brought many new sites to light and provided a better impression of the situation on the Arabian Peninsula before the rise of Islam, but no historical remains survive in Mecca or Medina. The Hijāz, the western part of the Arabian ˙ Peninsula where Muh: ammad was active, consists mostly of desert. Nomadic pastoralism was the norm, except in the small number of oases, where agriculture was dominant. The exception was Mecca, which also engaged in trade, thus coming into contact with neighboring states and generating some additional wealth. The importance of trade for the Hijāz, ˙ however, should not be exaggerated. Although there were significant Christian and especially Jewish communities in Yathrı̄b (later Medı̄na, from medı̄nat al-nabı̄, the Prophet’s city) and in the two northern oases of Khaybar and Fadak, most of the region’s inhabitants, especially in the southern part of the peninsula, seem to have adhered to pagan cults (Mecca and Tā’if). Many Meccans, how˙ ever, were clearly acquainted with monotheism at the time Muh: ammad started preaching. The Ka‘ba shows signs of having been modeled on an Ethiopian church (Brown 1971: 179), and some of the rituals performed there were later incorporated in the Muslim h: ajj. In spite of foreign invasions and infiltration on the fringes of the peninsula, the population of the Hijāz was almost entirely Arab. ˙ Muslim tradition surrounds Muh: ammad’s birth with many miraculous stories. Orphaned at a young age, he came under the care of his uncle Abū Tālib. With his uncle, he traveled on ˙ commercial journeys to Syria, where he was recognized by a monk called Bah: ı̄rā or Nast:ūr as a future prophet. When he became a merchant himself, he did so in the service of the rich widow Khadı̄ja, whom he married a couple of years later. She became the mother of his daughter Fat:ı̄ma as well as other daughters and sons, all of whom died in infancy. Although he had several other children from additional wives, no sons survived. It is through Fat:ı̄ma and especially her sons Hasan and Husayn, ˙ ˙ therefore, that Muslims trace descent from the prophet, their blood tie being reinforced by their father, ‘Alı̄, Muh: ammad’s cousin. At the age of forty, a number filled with symbolism in the monotheistic tradition, Muh: ammad received his first revelation via the archangel Gabriel while meditating in a cave on a hill near Mecca. Over the next ten to fifteen years, Muh: ammad continued to receive revelations, often accompanied by periods of unconsciousness. These first revelations have a strong moral and social dimension, with an emphasis, for example, on taking care of the poor and needy and on not hoarding one’s possessions. Warnings of the judgment on the Last Day are accompanied by vivid descriptions of the fates awaiting the saved and damned. Such ideas are associated in the Qur’ān with the “People of the Book” (ahl al-kitāb), referring to Christians and Jews (as well as, according to certain traditions, some other religious communities such as the Zoroastrians) and Muh: ammad’s The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 4611–4615. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah12158 2 teachings follow those of the Bible’s prophets. This is also the period when Gabriel took Muh: ammad on his Night Journey (isrā’) and Ascension (mi‘raj), during which he stopped at Jerusalem, taking off from the Dome of the Rock for a brief visit to heaven (Q 17:1). It is this association that makes Jerusalem the third most holy city in Islam. At first Muh: ammad’s converts were limited to his immediate surroundings and some seemingly lower-class supporters, but the propagation of his message in public and the threat it posed to the status quo of the Meccan higher classes attracted animosity and persecution, which are described in detail in the Muslim tradition. This might have been the context in which Muh: ammad was seduced by Satan, according to Muslim tradition, into inserting the so-called Satanic verses assigning intermediary roles to three Meccan pagan deities. Other traditional Arab elements preserved in the Qur’ān are the jinn, God-created creatures who generally live in another dimension beyond the human realm. With an increase in the intensity of Muh: ammad’s preaching against Meccan paganism, pressure rose and a group of Muslims emigrated to Ethiopia. With the deaths of his most important and powerful supporters, his wife Khadı̄ja and his uncle Abū Tālib, in short suc˙ cession, Muh: ammad could no longer count on the protection of the Abū Hāshim clan, which had safeguarded him out of traditional duty rather than religious conviction. He decided to take up the invitation of the Medinese tribes to be an arbiter between them. He sent some followers to the oasis of Medı̄na, these becoming known as the muh: ajirūn, the ones who emigrated. His Medinese supporters were called ans:ār, helpers. Muh: ammad left Mecca for Medı̄na in the year 1/622, the starting point of the Muslim calendar. In Medı̄na Muh: ammad was no longer a persecuted prophet, but the religious and political head of the umma, community of believers, whose position was promptly arranged in a covenant known as the Constitution of Medı̄na. In this document the umma is described as consisting of the muh: ajirūn and ans:ār as well as the Jewish tribes of Medı̄na. The community agreed to fight outside enemies and refer any disagreements to God and Muh: ammad. Muh: ammad continued to receive revelations, these becoming more political and legal, in keeping with his new position. The five Muslim duties (fasting during the month of Ramadān, alms giving, the confes˙ sion of belief, daily prayer, and the pilgrimage to Mecca) were formalized, as well as legal stipulations concerning inheritance, divorce, marriage, and so on. In Medı̄na the first mosque was built in Muh: ammad’s house, becoming the model for all mosques thereafter. This was also the time when Muh: ammad sent out letters inviting the rulers of the time to join the Muslims by converting to Islam. The Byzantine emperor, the Sasanian king, the patriarch of Alexandria, and the Negus of Abyssinia, among others, all received such epistles, of which some falsifications produced already in antiquity are presented as relics in Muslim collections. The Coptic patriarch in Alexandria answered with a polite refusal as well as a caravan of gifts including precious fabrics, animals, and two Coptic girls called Māriya and her sister Sı̄rı̄n, who arrived in Medı̄na in the year 6/627 or 7/628. Māriya’s fractionally earlier conversion to Islam, as well as presumably her reputed beauty, gained her a place in Muh: ammad’s household as his concubine, and she bore him his only son, Ibrāhı̄m, who died in infancy. Māriya died in the year 16/637. Muh: ammad’s relationship with the Jews of Medı̄na deteriorated as it became clear that they would not accept an Arab as their long-awaited Messiah. Some of the measures relating Muslim to Jewish religious practice, such as praying in the direction of Jerusalem, or a one-day fast on the tenth of Muh: arram (cf. Yom Kippur on the tenth of Tishri in the Jewish calendar), were abolished (Q 2:142–50) in favor of more Arabian Muslim religious elements. When religious disagreements turned into military conflict, with the Jewish tribes joining the pagan Meccans in a war against the Muslims, Muh: ammad 3 took action. Two Jewish tribes had already been expelled, and now the last was annihilated: all men were killed, and the women and children enslaved. With the increased role of Mecca in Muh: ammad’s religion, his jihād, or holy war, was inevitably directed at conquering this city. The Muslims undertook numerous raids against Meccan caravans, and in 2/624 a Muslim minority beat Meccan reinforcements which had been sent to assist their caravan against a Muslim attack at Badr, close to Medı̄na on the Red Sea coast. Numerous Meccans were killed or held for ransom. The next year, however, the Muslims lost the battle of Uhūd. After the so-called Battle of the Ditch in 5/627, when the Muslims breached the Meccan siege, mutual exhaustion forced the two parties to cease fighting. In the subsequent years Muslim strength and position only increased, becoming strong enough in 6/628 for the Muslims to negotiate a truce at al-Hudaybiya that allowed them to ˙ make the pilgrimage to the Ka‘ba the following year. Meanwhile Muh: ammad conquered the Jewish oases of Khaybar and Fadak (in 7/628), accepting political submission and the payment of a tribute (jizya) in exchange for protection (dhimma). This was to be the model for the treatment of Christians and Jews who came under Muslim rule. The next year, in 10/630, the weakened Meccans finally succumbed to Muh: ammad’s rule. Muh: ammad cleansed the Ka‘ba of pagan symbols, though protecting, tradition tells us, a depiction of Mary and Jesus on the wall. He established the Ka‘ba at the center of the Muslim pilgrimage, thereby restoring the status and function it had enjoyed in Abraham’s time. Soon afterward, he subjugated the oasis of Tā’if at the battle of Hunayn. ˙ ˙ Muh: ammad’s growing power and the prestige of his triumph in Mecca, as well as his earlier military successes, convinced Arab tribes from across the peninsula to submit to his authority. They answered his call for submission announced by messengers sent to the different Arab tribes and paid him a yearly tribute. Raids brought the Muslims as far East as the Persian Gulf and to the Byzantine frontier. Several battles were fought on the borders of the Byzantine Empire, but these did not lead to a confrontation with the Byzantines themselves, only with their allies. A planned expedition in 11/632 was overtaken by Muh: ammad’s death. In 12/632 Muh: ammad undertook his last h: ajj. This so-called farewell pilgrimage set the model for the rituals associated with the yearly Muslim pilgrimage. In the same year, Muh: ammad died in Medı̄na, according to tradition, in the arms of his favorite wife ‘Aisha. His death is exhaustively described in the sources, and his grave in the great mosque of Medı̄na continues to be a pilgrimage site. Muslim tradition contains extensive information about all possible details of Muh: ammad’s life, his behavior, and his looks – the way he cleaned his teeth, the way he cut and perfumed his beard, the shape of his clothes and shoes, the names of his riding animals, his favorite dishes and how he consumed them, and so on. Elaborate descriptions of the prophet’s idealized features became a literary genre nicely compensating for the absence of full portraits. Together with all of Muh: ammad’s sayings, his actions, and everything he tacitly condoned by not expressly forbidding, these were recorded in the sunna, the “way” (of the prophet). Next to the Qur’ān, this extensive corpus is one of the most important sources of Islamic law. For individual believers, Muh: ammad is an example to be followed; for the community of believers, he defines their identity. In the Muslim creed, belief that Muh: ammad is God’s messenger (Muh: ammad rasūl allāh) comes directly after the profession of belief in one God (lā ilāh illā allāh). While the Qur’ān insists that Muh: ammad was human, miracles and superhuman features were soon attributed to him, and believers call upon him for help with all sorts of problems. Muh: ammad’s role as intercessor for believers on the Last Day has led to a genre of laudatory poems. In the Qur’ān, Muh: ammad is called the Seal of the Prophets (Q 33:40), and with him the 4 period of direct contact with God through revelation ended. Rather than founding a new religion, Muh: ammad’s task was to restore the true religion – the religion of Abraham that had been corrupted by the Jews and Christians. Muh: ammad’s success in uniting the Arabs and founding a world religion should partially be explained by his charismatic personality, his strong leadership qualities, and his innovative message. That he was able to attract other strong leaders to his mission helped establish the early Muslim community and secured its survival after his death. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Brown, P. R. L. (1971) The world of Late Antiquity: 179. London. Buhl, F. and Welch, A. T. (n.d.) “Muh: ammad.” Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 12: 360. Cook, M. (1983) Muhammad. Oxford. Crone, P. (1987) Meccan trade and the rise of Islam. Princeton. Hoyland, R. G. (1997) Seeing Islam as others saw it. Princeton. Ibn Ish: āq (1955) The Life of Muhammad, trans. A. Guillaume. Oxford.