Civilization #28: Muhammad's Revolution of God

Muhammad, born around 570 CE in Mecca, was a merchant and the founder of Islam, one of the most influential figures in human history, yet we know surprisingly little about him compared to figures like Jesus. The earliest written account of him comes from a Christian bishop about 20–30 years after his death in 632 CE. The Quran, Islam’s holy book, barely mentions Muhammad himself, and the most frequently quoted figure in the Quran is Moses, not Muhammad or Jesus.

Muhammad’s core message was that Arabs, Jews, and Christians are all descendants of Abraham and therefore one family under God. According to the biblical narrative, Abraham’s wife Sarah was initially barren, so she gave her maid Hagar to Abraham, who bore Ishmael—the ancestor of the Arabs. Sarah later miraculously bore Isaac, ancestor of the Israelites and, by extension, Christians. God’s covenant with Abraham promised his descendants a vast territory from the Nile to the Tigris (the entire Middle East), not just Israel. Muhammad’s mission, delivered through the angel Gabriel in visions beginning when Muhammad was 40, was to call the polytheistic Arabs back to the monotheistic worship of Yahweh and to reclaim this promised land through holy war (Jihad).

After 13 years of rejection in Mecca, Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina in an event called the Hijra, which marks year zero in the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad served as an arbitrator among warring tribes (including a Jewish tribe) and created the Constitution of Medina, guaranteeing freedom of religious expression. He gradually built a following and an army, united the Arabian Peninsula, and defeated both the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) and Sassanian Persian Empires. Within less than 100 years, the Islamic empire stretched from Spain to India, encompassing Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran.

The mystery of how poor, divided desert nomads could conquer two world empires is solved by understanding three unique advantages of the Arabian Peninsula around 600 CE:

• It was the world’s trading crossroads, giving Arabs access to the most advanced technology, knowledge, and information from across the globe, making them cosmopolitan and open-minded.
• It was a warrior society of constantly warring tribes, producing fierce fighters who served as mercenaries for both empires and absorbed their advanced military doctrine.
• It was a haven of religious diversity and tolerance, attracting persecuted Christians (especially heretical sects), Jews fleeing Roman persecution, and Zoroastrians—all of whom brought intellectual and military expertise to the Arab cause.

Meanwhile, both the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires were weakened by constant warfare with each other, devastating plagues (the Justinian Plague killed 10–20% of the population), civil wars over succession, and deep social unrest caused by landlessness, crushing debt, and religious persecution. The Arabs, by contrast, were strong but divided into thousands of feuding tribes.

Muhammad united these tribes with three revolutionary messages:

• All people—Arabs, Jews, Christians—are children of Abraham and therefore equal under God, with freedom to practice any faith.
• Society should be a meritocracy: those most devoted to God’s vision should lead, regardless of class, caste, or tribal loyalty.
• God promised the land from the Nile to the Tigris to Abraham’s descendants, but it was stolen by Romans, Persians, and landlords; Muslims must fight Jihad to reclaim it and establish a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth based on equality, mercy, and tolerance.

This combination of religious devotion and revolutionary zeal—the same force that drove the Taiping Rebellion in China (1850–1864), the War of Canudos in Brazil (1896–1898), and the French Revolution—made Muslim soldiers fearless in battle. Wherever they conquered, they freed people from debt, landlessness, and religious persecution, which won them widespread local support.

The reason so little is known about Muhammad and early Islamic history is that the revolution succeeded. Once the Muslims became an empire, it was dangerous to celebrate a revolutionary who fought against corruption, inequality, and religious persecution—because that same message could inspire revolts against the new empire. So the history was whitewashed: Muhammad was reframed not as a social revolutionary but simply as a preacher of monotheism against polytheism. The same pattern occurred with Mao Zedong in China, whose revolutionary origins are downplayed by the state he created. This is why the Quran reveals little about Muhammad and why so few early written sources survive.