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Muhammad, believed to be the final prophet of God, was born in about 570 in Mecca. Muslims believe that 40 years later archangel Gabriel appeared to him in a cave and said yo start preaching this stuff. So he did. Not everyone liked it.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: January 11, 630--
Muhammad preached in the streets of Mecca and was mostly mocked or ignored. Yet he won converts. When he began to shit on idolatry and polytheism—the traditional Meccan religion of there being a shit-ton of gods—to say there was only ONE god, people started to get pissed at him. His own tribe, the Quraysh, was especially vexed. He and his followers were persecuted. Some were killed, others tortured.
Mecca became unsafe for Muhammad—he was warned that his enemies were planning to assassinate him—so he relocated a few hundred miles north to Yathrib (now Medina) in 622, bringing a bunch of his followers with him. Muslims call this the Hegira, meaning exodus or migration. In Medina people were familiar with the concept of both one god, and a prophet, because there were Jews living there. And so, Muhammad’s proselytizing was better received.
One thing monotheism has been good for is creating unity, even though such unity is limited to those in the in group and relies on submission to do what I fuckin’ tells ya. Muhammad became a unifying religious and political force in Medina, creating the Constitution of Medina to unite the various tribes. Powerful people in Mecca weren’t real thrilled with what they saw happening in Medina. The Meccans didn’t like these Muslims, so they started taking their shit, seizing the property the Muslims who emigrated to Medina had left behind. Muhammad was all I don’t fucking think so. Totally coincidentally, during this time Muhammed received a revelation that said forget facing Jerusalem to pray. You gotta face Mecca now.
Muhammad began launching raids against Meccan caravans, which he said God gave permission for because they were being persecuted, and these raids got violent, and that escalated into full battles. The first pitched confrontation was the Battle of Badr in 624. The Muslims were outnumbered three to one, but they still kicked a bunch of ass, so afterward they were all woohoo fuck yeah God is on our side go Muhammad!
There were other battles, then a truce, then the Meccans broke the truce, then Muhammad said fuck it and raised a Muslim army 10,000 strong and marched it on Mecca. The exact date is uncertain because calendar conversion fuckery, but one suggested date is that on January 11, 630, Muhammad and his army seized Mecca with only a small amount of bloodshed. The opposing Quraysh fighters, the tribe Muhammad had belonged to, saw he and his fighters meant business and fucked off after a brief skirmish.
The conquest of Mecca worried other nearby tribes so they began to mass armies to confront Muhammad. Long story short is he kicked their asses too, conquering much of the Arabian Peninsula.
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