1. The Birthplace of Islam
MECCA AND YATHRIB
The Birthplace of Islam

2. Middle East: Physical Geography

3. Middle East: Agriculture

4. Arabian Peninsula Jazirat al-’Arab

5. Arabian Peninsula: Modern States and Cities

6. Mecca 1945

7. Mecca 1850

8. The Kaaba (Contemporary)

9. The Kaaba (19th Century)

10. Al-Madina
Yathrib Oasis
Madinat al-Nabi
Map 1946

11. Medina ca. 1945

12. Madina-Mt Uhud

13. Madina: Mosque of the Prophet ca. 1945

14. Madina: Mosque of the Prophet contemporary

15. Madina: Mosque of the Prophet contemporary (aerial)

16. Muhammad’s Life Key themes and problems
What do we really know? The problem of sources.
The Qur’an
The biography composed by Ibn Ishaq ( )
A weird “document”: the so-called Constitution of Medina

17. Key themes and problems
Muhammad’s Arabia:
oasis settlers and bedouins
societies based on lineage
Contacts with the outside world: Rome, Iran, Ethiopia, Indian Ocean basin
In short a classic borderland

18. Middle East: Physical Geography

19. Muhammad’s Life: the traditional chronology
570 birth in Mecca:
Father died before birth, mother soon after. Raised first by his grandfather, then (from age six) by his paternal uncle Abu Talib.
595 marriage to Khadija, a widow and successful merchant
610 first revelations, in cave on Mt Hira outside Mecca
614 public proclamation of the new message

20. Life of Muhammad (2)
619 death of Abu Talib; senior members of clan of Hashim refuse to protect him
622 HIJRA: Muhammad and his followers migrate to oasis town of Yathrib (later Medina)
New confederation (UMMA) of believers established on basis of a formal compact: Meccan refugees, Medinan allies, Jewish clans in Medina as client members.
Muhammad, as prophet, head of the Umma
Confederation bound by religion, not kinship

21. Life of Muhammad (3) 624-630 War against Quraysh of Mecca
Crisis points: Badr, Uhud, Trench, Hudaybiya
630: Occupation of Mecca
Conflict with the Jewish clans of Medina
Muhammad establishes paramountcy over oasis settlements and bedouin tribes of West Arabia, Yemen to Aqaba