Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
day; students still interrupt their studies to pray; kindly friends still attempt conversion to
'the one true faith' among their non-Islamic acquaintances, and driving continues to de-
teriorate in Ramadan as the overwhelming majority observe dawn to dusk fasting with the
resultant lack of concentration on the roads. In modern Peninsula cities throughout the re-
gion, men still keep company in one place, the women in another, enjoying public com-
pany but coming together for family, intimacy and private time. This is the age-old pattern
of Arab communities, indulging human passions but reining them in with the unconscious
guidance of religion and culture and looking forward to the spiritual renewal represented
by the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.
HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF ISLAM
AD 570
Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Islamic religion, is born in Mecca in today's Saudi Arabia.
610
Mohammed receives his first revelation. Considered by Muslims as the word of God, the revelations
in the Quran subsequently lay the foundations of a new, monotheistic religion.
622
Mohammed and his followers flee Mecca for Medina, marking the beginning of the first Islamic state.
The new religion spreads across the Peninsula.
632
Mohammed dies. The Muslim capital moves to Damascus, heading an empire stretching from Spain
to India. Mecca and Medina grow as the spiritual homes of Islam.
656
Ali bin Abi Taleb, Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, becomes caliph as the fourth of Mohammed's
successors. His followers are known as Shiites ('partisans' of Ali).
661
Ali is assassinated by troops loyal to a distant relative of Mohammed. The Muslim community separ-
ates into two competing factions, Sunnis and Shiites.
680
Ali's son Hussein is murdered at Karbala (in today's southern Iraq). This further widens the gap
between the two sects that exists to this day.
