Mohammed ibn Abdullah, the founder of Islam, died on this day 1377 years ago. At the age of 40, in the month of Ramadan, he received the first of a series of visions of the Angel Gabriel which led him to believe that he had been appointed a prophet of God. His public preaching met with limited success at first, and in 622 AD, when he was 52, he and his followers moved to Medina to escape the persecution they were encountering in Mecca. The Islamic calendar starts from the date of this migration.
The Meccans seized the property of the Muslims, and the Muslims began a pattern of raiding Meccan caravans, allowing them to increase in wealth and power. Most of the pagans in Medina became Muslims, and over the following years the number of Muslims grew while the war with Mecca continued. In 627 the Meccans laid seige to Medina for two weeks but failed to conquer it. A Jewish tribe was accused of treachery for siding with the Meccans, and all the men in it were executed.
In 630, Mohammed marched on Mecca with a force of more than 10,000 men, and took control of the city virtually unopposed. Most Meccans converted to Islam. Within a short period after conquering Mecca, Mohammed conquered the rest of Arabia, uniting the tribes of Arabia into a single theocratic state. In mid-632, just two years after conquering Mecca, Mohammed fell ill and died. His early death gave rise to a succession struggle, which resulted in the split which still persists between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.