Muhammed was the founder of one of the most widespread religons to this day, Islam. He was born around the year 570 in the Arabian town of Mecca. Muhammed was born into a respectable merchant Meccan family, however, they were not part of the "inner merchant" aristocracy that ruled most of Mecca. There is not very much known of Muhammed's childhood except that he was orphaned and was probably raised first by his grandfather and then by an uncle. Later, he married a rich widow, Khadijah, who was a couple years older than he was. Around the age of forty, Muhammed received the first of a series of divine revelations upon which his religious teachings were based upon. At first, Muhammed only spread his teachings to his family, then he extended it to friends. Eventually, Muhammed started preaching more widely and openly, gaining converts whom he called Muslims. Muhammed was anti-polytheism, instead, he acknowledged only one god, Allah, and he spoke of himself as God's messenger or prophet. At first, Muhammed was seen as this dangerous radical, but gradually, his new found religon caught on. In 632, Muhammed died, leaving in his wake what would ultimately become a world empire and world religon.
The first source on Muhammed in the Sowards book was written by Ibn Ishaq, who was born in Medina around 707 and died in Baghdad in 773. He is a reliable source on the topic of Muhammed because he wrote the most comprehensive biographical account from the early centuries. One could say that he held his writing to a certain set of journalistic standards and ethics, meaning he never made anything up. His account on Muhammed is based on interviews with eyewitnesses and other near contemporaries. He subjected his sources to much skeptical scrutiny in order to seperate the facts from the fiction. Ibn Ishaq was regarded by his Arabic peers as the "best informed man" about his subject: "Knowledge will remain in Medina as long as Ibn Ishaq lives.
