Muhammad - Prophet, Islam, Arabia: Muhammad is born as a member of the tribe of Quraysh and the clan of Hāshim. His hometown of Mecca houses an ancient and famous pilgrimage sanctuary, the Kaʿbah. Although founded by Abraham, worship there has over time become dominated by polytheism and idolatry. Muhammad’s conception is preceded by a dramatic crisis: his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib narrowly fails to implement a vow to sacrifice his favourite son and Muhammad’s future father, ʿAbd Allāh, an obvious adaptation of the biblical story of the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22). Muhammad himself is born in 570, the same year in which the South