Muhammad: the historical record

The short answer #

Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570 and died in Medina in 632. According to Muslim tradition, he was an orphan who became a shepherd and then a merchant, and married a wealthy trader. At about 40 he began preaching that he received revelations from Allah. After moving to Medina in 622 he became its political ruler and a military commander. His own followers' sources count 27 raids he led in person and 38 he sent out. By his death he had brought most of Arabia under his rule.

Muslims believe he was the final prophet and that the Quran is Allah's word, revealed to him. That is a matter of faith. History can only say what the records show: a merchant who became a preacher, then a ruler and a general. Secular historians generally treat the Quran as the record of his own preaching.

This page uses Muslim sources, chiefly the earliest biography (Ibn Ishaq, edited by Ibn Hisham, in Guillaume's 1955 translation) and Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the two collections of hadith Sunni Muslims hold most reliable. Quran verses are quoted in Pickthall's translation.

1. How much do we really know? #

Almost everything known about Muhammad's life comes from Muslim writers who lived long after him. The historian Patricia Crone wrote that "Muslim literary sources for his life only begin around 750-800 CE… some four to five generations after his death."¹ Ibn Ishaq died in 767–768, and his biography survives only in later editions, chiefly Ibn Hisham's (d. 833–834). The other early biographers, al-Waqidi, Ibn Sa'd and al-Tabari, wrote in the 9th and 10th centuries.²

The Quran itself gives almost no dates or names. It names Muhammad only four times (3:144, 33:40, 47:2, 48:29).¹

Non-Muslim sources confirm that he existed. A Greek Christian text written in 632–634, the Doctrina Jacobi, reports that "a false prophet has appeared among the Saracens". An Armenian history of about 660 calls him a merchant and preacher.¹² Crone concluded: "There is no doubt that Mohammed existed."¹

Oxford's Nicolai Sinai, writing for Britannica, expects "some accretion of popular legend" in the biographies, but sees "no compelling reason" to think the basic outline is unhistorical.² The facts below are therefore what Muslim tradition reports. Most come from the sources Muslims themselves treat as authoritative.

2. Birth, family and work #

• Birth. Muhammad was born in Mecca, traditionally in 570, into the Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe.² His father, Abd Allah, "died while his mother was still pregnant"; his mother, Amina, died "when he was six years old".³ He was raised first by his grandfather and then by his uncle, Abu Talib.³
• Shepherd. Ibn Ishaq reports him saying: "There is no prophet but has shepherded a flock."³
• Merchant. As a boy he travelled with his uncle's caravans to Syria.³ Ibn Ishaq describes Khadija as "a merchant woman of dignity and wealth" who hired men to trade for her. Muhammad traded her goods in Syria and doubled her money, and she proposed marriage. He was 25.³ Britannica dates the marriage to 595 and calls her "a wealthy widow".² She was his only wife until she died about 25 years later. Her age at marriage is uncertain: tradition most often says 40, other reports say 28, and Ibn Ishaq gives no age.

3. The first revelations #

According to tradition, the revelations began in 610 in a cave on Mount Hira, near Mecca.² Sahih al-Bukhari records that an angel told him to "read" and he replied, "I do not know how to read." He went home shaking to Khadija, saying "Cover me! Cover me!" and "I fear that something may happen to me." Khadija took him to her cousin Waraqa, a Christian who could read Hebrew scripture, who reassured him.⁴

Ibn Ishaq reports that Muhammad first feared he was "poet or possessed", and thought of throwing himself from the mountain.⁵ A report in Bukhari says that when the revelations paused he "intended several times to throw himself from the tops of high mountains". Muslim critics note that this line was added by a later transmitter without a chain of sources.⁶

The "Satanic verses". Ibn Ishaq's biography, in al-Tabari's version, reports an episode in Mecca. Muhammad recited verses naming three pagan goddesses (53:19–20), and Satan put on his tongue words praising them: "these are the exalted Gharaniq whose intercession is approved". The pagan Meccans then bowed down with the Muslims. Later, the account says, the angel Gabriel rebuked him, and a verse was revealed saying Satan interferes with every prophet's recitation (22:52).⁷ Most Muslims today reject the story. But the Harvard scholar Shahab Ahmed found that Muslims of the first two centuries widely accepted it as historical.⁸

Could he read? The Quran calls him al-nabi al-ummi, which Pickthall translates "the Prophet who can neither read nor write" (7:157).⁹ Muslim tradition takes this as proof the Quran is a miracle. Many Western scholars note that elsewhere ummi means a people without a scripture (62:2, 3:20), so the word may mean "gentile", not "illiterate".⁹ Bukhari reports him writing out the Hudaybiya treaty himself.¹⁰ The question is unresolved.

4. From preacher to ruler #

For about 12 years in Mecca, Muhammad preached against idol worship and gained a small following. In 622 he and his followers emigrated to Yathrib, later called Medina. This emigration, the hijra, marks year one of the Islamic calendar.²

In Medina, Muhammad became head of a state. Ibn Ishaq preserves a document, often called the Constitution of Medina, that regulated relations between the Muslims and the Jewish tribes of the town. It opens: "a document from Muhammad the prophet".¹¹ He received a fifth of all war spoils for "Allah, and for the messenger" and his relatives, the poor and travellers (8:41).¹² He sent envoys and made treaties. He repelled Meccan attacks in 625 and 627, made a truce with Mecca in 628, took the city in 630, and led the pilgrimage of 632.²

5. The military commander #

Ibn Ishaq counts Muhammad's military career in detail:

• "The apostle took part personally in twenty-seven raids." He "actually fought in nine engagements": Badr, Uhud, the Trench, Qurayza, al-Mustaliq, Khaybar, the conquest of Mecca, Hunayn and al-Ta'if.¹³
• He sent out a further "thirty-eight" expeditions and raiding parties.¹³
• A companion asked in Sahih al-Bukhari how many campaigns Muhammad led answered "Nineteen".¹⁴

The early raids from Medina were attacks on Meccan trade caravans. The Battle of Badr in 624 began as an attempt to seize a caravan led by Abu Sufyan.¹³ The Quran declares: "The spoils of war belong to Allah and the messenger" (8:1).¹²

The Banu Qurayza (627). After the Battle of the Trench, the Muslims besieged this Jewish tribe of Medina, accusing it of siding with the enemy. Its fate was given to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, who judged "that the men should be killed, the property divided, and the women and children taken as captives". Muhammad had trenches dug in the Medina market and "struck off their heads in those trenches". Ibn Ishaq says they "were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900".¹⁵ Some modern scholars dispute the scale.

Khaybar (628). Bukhari records: "The Prophet had their warriors killed, their offspring and women taken as captives." The captives included Safiyya, whose husband had just been killed. Muhammad freed and married her.¹⁶

Killing critics. The canonical hadith collections record killings that Muhammad ordered:

• Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, a Jewish poet. Muhammad asked: "Who is willing to kill Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?" The volunteer asked permission "to say a (false) thing" to trick him, was allowed, and killed him.¹⁷
• Abu Rafi', a Jewish leader of Khaybar. "Allah's Messenger sent some men from the Ansar to (kill) Abu Rafi', the Jew." He was killed at night in his house.¹⁸
• Ibn Ishaq also reports the killing of two poets, Asma bint Marwan and the elderly Abu 'Afak, after Muhammad asked "Who will rid me of Marwan's daughter?"¹⁹ These two stories are not in Bukhari or Muslim and have no full chain of transmitters, so their reliability is disputed.

6. Wives, concubines and slaves #

• Wives. Ibn Hisham records that "he married thirteen women".²⁰ Britannica says he "is usually said to have had 14 wives or concubines".² After Khadija's death he married several at once, beyond the limit of four that the Quran sets for other men. The Quran gives him permission "for thee only, not for the (rest of) believers" (33:50).²¹
• Aisha. Sahih al-Bukhari reports that "the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old."²² Ibn Hisham gives seven and "nine or ten".²⁰ Some modern Muslim writers argue she was older; the canonical hadith say six and nine.
• Zaynab bint Jahsh was the wife of Muhammad's adopted son, Zayd. After Zayd divorced her, a verse was revealed allowing Muhammad to marry her, "so that… there may be no sin for believers in respect of wives of their adopted sons" (33:37).²³ Aisha is reported to have said that if Muhammad had hidden any verse, "he would have concealed this Verse".²³
• Captives and concubines. The Quran makes lawful to him "those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war" (33:50).²¹ Rayhana, a captive from the Banu Qurayza, was chosen by Muhammad "for himself" and stayed his concubine.¹⁵ Mariya, an Egyptian Christian slave sent to him as a gift, was "the prophet's concubine" and bore his son Ibrahim, who died in infancy.²⁴ Another captive, Juwayriya, he married.²⁰
• Slaves. Bukhari mentions "a black slave of Allah's Messenger", whom Muslim names as Rabah.²⁵ Muslim also reports that Muhammad "bought" a slave "for two black slaves".²⁶ His adopted son Zayd had been his slave before he freed him.²⁰

7. Death and succession #

Muhammad died in Medina on 8 June 632, aged about 62, in Aisha's arms.²²⁷ On his deathbed he said he still felt the pain of poisoned food he had eaten at Khaybar. Ibn Ishaq names the poisoner as Zaynab bint al-Harith, a Jewish woman of Khaybar.²⁸

He left no undisputed successor. When he asked for writing materials on his deathbed, his companions quarrelled over whether to bring them.²⁹ At a meeting in Medina his companions chose Abu Bakr. Shia Muslims believe Muhammad had appointed his cousin and son-in-law Ali. That dispute is the origin of the split between Sunni and Shia Islam.³⁰ Within a century of his death, his successors had conquered an empire from Spain to Central Asia (see the Quran page).

8. Allah before Islam #

The name "Allah" did not begin with Muhammad. It is "likely" a contraction of the Arabic al-ilah, "the god".³¹ Muhammad's own father was named Abd Allah, "servant of Allah", years before Islam began.³ The Quran itself says the pagans of Mecca already called Allah the creator: "if thou wert to ask them: Who created the heavens and the earth… they would say: Allah" (29:61; also 31:25).³² The pagans worshipped Allah alongside lesser gods and goddesses. Muhammad's message was that Allah was the only god.³³ Arab Christians used the word before Islam and still use it today.

9. Who wrote the Quran? #

Physical evidence supports an early text. The parchment of the Birmingham Quran fragment was carbon-dated "between AD 568 and 645 with 95.4% accuracy".³⁵ The Sanaa palimpsest, an early manuscript that was scraped and rewritten, has an older layer whose wording differs from the standard text. That suggests the text was still fluid at first.³⁶

Some passages read as answers to Muhammad's personal circumstances: permission for his marriage to Zaynab (33:37), his exemption from the four-wife limit (33:50), and a rebuke that he had forbidden himself his slave to please his wives (66:1).²¹²³³⁷ Muslims read these as divine guidance for a prophet. Secular historians read them as a leader's own words, delivered in the voice of revelation.

10. How historians describe him #

Historians judge him in very different ways:

• "Prophet and statesman." W. Montgomery Watt's classic biography (1961) has that title.³⁸ Michael Hart's The 100 (1978) ranked him the most influential person in history, for succeeding in both religious and political life.³⁸
• Warlord. Critics such as Robert Spencer (The Truth About Muhammad, 2006) portray him as a warlord who spread his religion by force.³⁸
• A historical man. Secular historians such as Crone, Sinai and Hugh Kennedy treat him as a historical figure: a merchant from Mecca who preached a new monotheism and built a state and an army in Medina.¹²³⁸

What the record shows. On the evidence of Islam's own most trusted sources, Muhammad was:

• a merchant who became a preacher;
• then a ruler who taxed, judged and made treaties;
• a commander who led 27 raids in person and sent out 38 more;
• a ruler who ordered the killing of critics, and approved the execution of hundreds of prisoners;
• a man who took wives and concubines from among the captives of his wars.

Nothing in the historical record shows anything beyond the human. Whether Allah spoke to him is a question of faith, which history cannot answer.

Sources #

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