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An old Arab tradition tells of Abraha, a powerful Christian warrior from Abyssinia, who was set to besiege Mecca just after the middle of the sixth century. Abraha wanted to destroy the ka'ba, the main shrine of Mecca, along with its idols.

When soldiers tried to get Abraha's elephant, Mahmud, to join in the campaign, Mahmud refused. Instead, he bowed in prayer toward the holy shrine, which Muslims believe was built by Abraham.

Despite the embellishment, this story illustrates that the Arabian peninsula was home to Christian, Jewish, and pagan traditions prior to the birth of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. While this tale ends with a peaceful twist, contact between the faiths has more often involved searing conflict.

By the fourth century, Christianity had a major presence in Africa and a lesser presence in southern Arabia. By the fifth century, a sizeable Jewish population also lived throughout Arabia. In the early sixth century, Dhu Nuwas, a Jewish leader, ruled part of Arabia, and Christians were at peril under his reign. In the town of Zafar, 200 Christians were burned inside their church. Paganism thrived outside the enclaves of the two monotheistic faiths.

Muhammad was born about 570. His father died near the time of his birth, and he lost his mother when he was 6. He was cared for briefly by his grandfather and then raised by Abu Talib, his uncle, who was also head of the prominent Hashim clan in Mecca.

In the closing decades of the sixth century, a thriving trade network spread from Saudi Arabia north to Syria, east as far as India, and into northern Africa. Early Muslim histories report that Muhammad traveled with his uncle on trading journeys as far as Syria.

Muhammad most likely learned about Christianity through contacts with Christians along the trade routes of the Middle East. Unfortunately, traders were seldom reliable theologians. Muhammad gained a grasp of monotheism from his Christian and Jewish acquaintances, but he never understood the orthodoxies of either religion.

Muslims, of course, do not believe that any earthly influences tainted Muhammad's message. He was a prophet and spoke solely for God, though only a prescient few recognized this at first.

In one famous Muslim legend, Muhammad encountered a Syrian Christian monk named Bahira on the caravan trail. According to Ibn Ishaq, the famous biographer of Muhammad, Bahira was expecting to see a prophet when Abu Talib's company visited him.

No one seemed to fit the prophetic description, though, so Bahira implored everyone from the caravan to come to the feast he had prepared. Bahira called in Muhammad and questioned him about his spiritual life. Then the monk "looked at his back and saw the seal of prophethood [some physical mark] between his shoulders." Bahira then told Abu Talib to take his nephew home "and guard him carefully against the Jews." He also reportedly told him that "a great future lies before this nephew of yours."

According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad's life changed forever in the year 610, on the seventeenth night of the Arabic month Ramadan, when the angel Gabriel called him to be a prophet of God (Allah). Muhammad's first wife, the wealthy widow Khadijah, and a few friends affirmed his newfound monotheism, but he met fierce resistance in polytheistic Mecca.

Allah confirmed Muhammad's prophethood in 620, bringing him by night to Jerusalem. There he conversed with Jesus, Moses, and Abraham. Then, according to the Qur'an, Muhammad and his angel companion were taken by ladder (called a miraj) to the seventh heaven. Muslims believe that the Dome of the Rock was built on the site of his ascension.

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