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Tags: History, Lang:en
Summary
The Saudis, and many other Arabs and Muslims as well, trace
much of their heritage to the birth of the Prophet Muhammad in
570 A.D. The time before Islam is generally referred to as "the
time of ignorance"; this probably reflects the fact that God
had not yet sent the Arabs a prophet.
Muhammad was
born in Mecca at a time when the city was establishing itself
as a trading center. For the residents of Mecca, tribal
connections were still the most important part of the social
structure. Muhammad was born into the Quraysh, which had become
the leading tribe in the city because of its involvement with
water rights for the pilgrimage. By the time of Muhammad, the
Quraysh had become active traders as well, having established
alliances with tribes all over the peninsula. These alliances
permitted the Quraysh to send their caravans to Yemen and
Syria. Accordingly, the Quraysh represented in many ways the
facilitators and power brokers for the new status quo in
Arabian society.
Tribes consisted of clans that
had various branches and families, and Muhammad came from a
respectable clan, the sons of Hashim, but from a weak family
situation. Muhammad's father Abd Allah had died before his son
was born, leaving the Prophet without a close protector. The
Prophet was fortunate, however, that his uncle Abu Talib was
one of the leaders of the Hashimite clan. This gave Muhammad a
certain amount of protection when he began to preach in 610
against the Meccan leadership