Common in the west as Muhammad , Mohammed (or Muhammad) was a warlord from the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the founder of a new religion:Islam. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad received several divine revelations during his lifetime; it is these revelations which have been transcribed and which make up the Koran. When he died on June 8, 632, this character, both mysterious and unusual, left behind him not only a family, a people, but also a religion and a State under construction.
Muhammad, Prophet of Islam
The one who became the founder of the Muslim religion was born around 570, in the tribe of Quraysh, in Mecca. Fatherless, he was raised by his grandfather. During his youth, he accompanied his uncle Abu Tâlib in the caravan trade, then aged twenty he participated in the wars between the Qoraysh and other tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. Likewise, he is taking on more and more importance in the organization of the cult of the Ka'ba, which his tribe is supposed to supervise and protect.
It would be in 610 that for the first time the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him; Terrified, Muhammad would have taken refuge with his wife Khadîja who then became the first “convert”. Eventually, he ends up agreeing to preach what is becoming a new religion, in Mecca itself. Very quickly, many followers join him, which begins to worry the authorities of the city. In 622, the companions of the Prophet and Muhammad himself had to leave Mecca for Yathrib, which would become Medina:it was the Hegira, year 0 of the Muslim calendar.
Warlord and Head of State
The Prophet is well received in Medina, both by new converts to Islam and by the Jewish tribes, which are important in the city. He undertook to reorganize it and then opposed the interests of Jews and other groups. Muhammad must impose himself by force. He however continues to preach the word as a messenger of Allah.
At the same time, the Meccans are worried about its growing influence:it is open warfare. This is marked first by two battles:that of Badr (624), which sees the victory of the Muslims; and that of Uhud the following year, where the Meccans won.
Nevertheless, the war continued for several more years, with a siege of Medina and an attempt by Muhammad to go on pilgrimage to his hometown. Finally, it was through negotiation that the Prophet obtained the surrender of Mecca in 632.
The death of Muhammad and the consequences
The Prophet organizes what looks like a real State, without however being it yet. He undertakes the unification of the peninsula behind the banner of Islam, and prohibits all murder between Muslims; he thinks of the expansion beyond the borders of Saudi Arabia. But illness took him, and he died in Medina on June 8, 632.
His companions and followers are then faced with a problem:the Prophet has not appointed a successor! The Muslim community (oumma) is distraught and threatens to break up. A lively debate is then led, and it is finally the compromise which prevails:Abu Bakr is chosen as successor of the Prophet (caliph). However, the tensions are only postponed and begin again as soon as the first caliph dies, while Islam is in full expansion. In 634, it was 'Umar who was chosen but it was especially with his two successors, Uthman and 'Ali that the quarrels were to increase, leading to what Muslims call fitna. These quarrels will be decisive throughout the history of Islam, until today.
The death of Muhammad is therefore not only the death of the prophet of Islam, but the beginning of the turbulent history of what became the Muslim Empire, beyond religion itself.
To read
- The still reference biography despite the date of its first edition (1968) is that of Maxime Rodinson, Mahomet , Threshold Points, 1994.
You can also read
- Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the age of the Caliphates , Longman, 1986, very valuable for everything related to the beginnings of Islam, and even a little earlier, up to the Fatimids.
- Hichem Djaït, The great discord:religion and politics in early Islam , Gallimard, 2007. This work, very pleasant to read thanks to a literary and lively style, focuses on the decisive period following the death of the Prophet and the succession disputes that we have mentioned.