MOHAMMED or MUHAMMAD or MAHOMET, founder of the religious system called in Europe Mohammedan ism, and by himself Islam or Hanifism. He died, according to the ordinary synchronism, on June 7, 632 (12 Rabia, A.H. I I ), and his birthday was either 63 or 65 years earlier. A member of the tribe Koreish, and son of Abdullah and his wife, Aminah, Mo hammed is said to have been a posthumous child who, after the early death of his mother, was brought up first by his wealthy grandfather, tAbd al-Mottalib, and then by his poorer uncle, Abu Talib. In his youth he seems to have visited the desert to acquire the habits and the language of the Bedouins, and also to have accompanied Meccan traders to Syria and south Arabia, and perhaps to Egypt and Mesopotamia. His career as a caravan conductor probably terminated with his marriage to Khadija, daughter of Khuwailid, whom tradition represents as a wealthy widow, 15 years his senior and 4o years of age at the time of the union. After his marriage, Mohammed appears to have been a partner in a shop in Mecca which sold agricultural produce.
At the time of his aspiration to become the legislator or mouth piece of the Deity, Arabian paganism in the north had gradually come under the Christianizing influence of the Byzantine empire, and in the south had fallen successively under Jewish, Abyssinian and Persian influence. In so far as Mohammed formulated a definite notion of his work, it was probably the restoration of the religion of Abraham, or (as the Koran calls him) Ibrahim. Though we have no reason for supposing the name of Abraham or Ishmael to have been known in Mecca generally before Mo hammed's time, the biblical ethnology was not apparently ques tioned by those who were told of it, and there are stories, not necessarily apocryphal, of precursors of Mohammed going abroad in search of the "religion of Abraham." One feature of that sys
tem, associated in the Bible with the name of Ishmael as well, was circumcision, which was actually observed by the Meccan tribes, though with technical differences from the Jewish method; the association of monotheism with it would seem reasonable enough in view of Jewish traditions, such as Mohammed may have heard on his travels ; why the doctrine of the future life should be coupled with it is less clear.
As it was obvious that the claim to be God's mouthpiece, whether directly or through the intermediary of the angel Gabriel, was to claim autocracy, Mohammed employed the utmost caution in his mode of asserting this claim. For three years his followers were a secret society; and this period appears to have been preceded by one of private preparation, the first revelation being received when the Prophet was in religious retirement—a cere mony called Tahannuth, of which the meaning is uncertain, on Mt. Hira, near Mecca.
If the traditional dates assigned to the suras (chapters) of the Koran (q.v.) are correct, the earliest revelations to the Prophet took the form of pages or rolls which were to be read by the "grace of God." The Prophet was directed to communicate his mission at first only to his nearest relatives. The utterances were from the first a sort of rhyme, such as is said to have been employed for solemn matter in general, e.g., oracles or prayers. At an early period the production of a written communication was abandoned for oral communications, delivered by the Prophet in trance; their delivery was preceded by copious perspiration, for which the Prophet prepared (in accordance with instructions found in the Koran) by wrapping himself in a blanket. Trusty followers wrote down these utterances, but the phenomena which accompanied their delivery at least in one case suggested impos ture to the scribe who apostatized in consequence. It is ex traordinary that there is no reason to suppose that any official record was ever kept of these revelations; the Prophet treated them somewhat as the Sibyl did her leaves.