Muhammad, the founder and leader of the Islam religion, was born to a powerful Meccan family in the Arrabian Penninsula. He was born around 570, and by the age of six, both his parents died and he fell into the care of his grandfather and uncle. His new guardians taught Muhammad how to survive, and showed him how to use a bow and arrow. Muhammad grew up to be a trader, and he worked with a wealthy business woman named Khadijah. When he was 25, Muhammad took Khadijah's hand in marriage, and they became good business partners.
Muhammad soon became interested in religion and he started to meditate and pray often. Muhammad developed a passionate sense of concern for those left out of society, and at the age of 40 his life changed. A messenger from God came and spoke to him telling him to proclaim about God. After, much thought, Muhammad concluded that he was the last of the prophets.
He began to teach that there was one God, Allah, and other gods were pagan. These ideas became the basis for Islam, and the people who agreed with these ideas became known as Muslim.
By 613, Muhammad began preaching publicly in Mecca, but he faced little success. In a migration known as the Hijrah, Muhammad left Mecca with a small group of supporters and settled in the town of Yathrib, 200 miles north of Mecca. In Yathrib, Muhammad received better support and gained many devoted followers. The town was renamed Medina, "city of the Prophet", and Muhammad made Islam have a universal appeal to all Muslims, Arabs, and Jews. These groups accepted Muhammad as a political, religious and military leader.
Many Bedouin tribes converted to Islam, and as the Muslim's power increased the Meccan's declined. In 630, Muhammad and...