\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs24 MuhammadÆs father, a member of the Meccan tribe of the Quraish, died before his birth in 570. At this time, Arabia was a country
of little political significance, torn apart by tribal conflicts. After his marriage to the middle-aged and rich widow Khadijah, Muhammad became a respected merchant. At the same time, however, he was drawn to mysticism and meditation. At the age of fo
rty, on Mount Hira, the ôJabal \b \cf2 \ATXht10104 al\cf0 \ATXht0 \b0 Nurö or ômountain of light,ö he had a vision of the archangel Gabriel, who brought him the ôRevelation,ö the \i QurÆan\i0 , which means ôto reciteö the words dictated by the only and
The message of \b \cf2 \ATXht10904 Islam\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , or ôresignation to the will of God,ö preached by Muhammad was initially accepted only by the humble and opposed by the ruling clas
s. As a result Muhammad was forced to flee \b \cf1 \ATXht53 Mecca \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 for the oasis of Yathrib, which later came to be known as ô\b \cf2 \ATXht11307 Medina\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 ,ö or \i Madinatu Æn-Nabi\i0 , ôthe city of the Prophet.ö The year of
his migration, 622, was to become the date of the beginning of the Muslim era, the hegira or \i hijrah\i0 . At first a prophet of religion and morality, Muhammad soon proved to be a shrewd politician and jurist, codifying the social and religious rules
that were to form the premises for the unification of the Arab state. The Prophet died of fever in 632, leaving his people with an epoch-making ideological heritage. Wielding the Koran and the sword, they were to build the greatest empire of the Middle
