Muhammad, Mohammed or Mahomet) Arabian Prophet, founder of the Muslim religion (Mecca, h 575 - Medina, 632). The biography of Muhammad, of whom very few reliable data are known, has come to us wrapped in the legend. He knew - albeit superficially - the two great monotheistic religions of his time through the small Christian and Jewish communities that lived in Mecca and perhaps also because of his business trips. With so little culture - for it was probably illiterate - they allowed themselves to create a religion that would serve as the basis for an entire culture of universal diffusion. At the age of forty Muhammad began to retire to the desert and to remain whole days in a cave on Mount Hira, where he believed he received the revelation of God-Allah, who spoke to him through the archangel Gabriel and communicated to him the secret of true faith. . Muhammad was personally the creator of Islamic theology, which was reflected in the Koran, the only sacred book of the Muslims; It is a collection of sentences that are supposed to be inspired by Allah and were collected during the life of the prophet and compiled around 650. In the last two years of the life of Muhammad Islam spread to the rest of Arabia, unifying the various pagan tribes that inhabited that territory. They were a set of polytheistic Semitic tribes, whose continuous state of war between clans had prevented them until then from having any leading role in history. Despite being born in a backward and marginal region of the planet, and of proceeding from a modest environment himself, Muhammad turned the bellicose Arab tribes into a united people and embarked on an unprecedented expansion. When Muhammad died without a male heir, disputes broke out over the succession, which fell to the father-in-law of the prophet, Abu Bakr, thus becoming the first caliph or successor.
