Mecca

Mecca, a city in the Hijaz region of western Saudi Arabia, is revered by Muslims as the birthplace of Muhammad, and a pilgrimage to Mecca is required of all believers.

Mecca was already an important trading city for the Arabian tribes by the time Muhammad was born there in about 570 CE. He soon lost both father and mother, and was raised by his grandfather and later his uncle, Abu Talib. At the age of 25, he married a rich widow, Khadijah. When he was forty years old, in the year 610 CE, Muslims believe, he was visited by the angel Gabriel while meditating in a cave outside Mecca and told, "Recite! In the name of your Lord who created, Created man from a clot," which now makes up the beginning of Sura 96 of the Koran.

Muhammad, preaching the doctrines of one God, Allah, and the threat of the Day of Judgment, did not have much success at first. He was harrassed and persecuted by the Quraysh, the tribe to which he belonged and which was also in charge of the Kaaba, a shrine to the Arabian pagan gods. He and his followers emigrated to the city of Yathrib, later called Medina, in 622 CE. This event, known as the hijra (or hegira in Latin), marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar (anno hegirae, or the "year of the hijra").

Muhammad and his followers clashed off and on with the Quraysh, steadily gaining in numbers and power. Finally Muhammad conquered Mecca in 629 and cleansed the Kaaba of its idols, after which Islam spread rapidly. Muhammad died in 632, and almost immediately after the Arab armies were to embark on their wars of conquest which would eventually embrace most of the Middle East and North Africa.

For Muslims, a pilgrimage to Mecca is required as one of the five pillars of the faith. Only Muslims are allowed in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and every year about two million gather for the major pilgrimage, or hajj, during the Muslim month of Dhu'l-Hijja, and many more for the minor pilgrimage, or umrah, during any other part of the year.

The focal point of Mecca is the Kaaba, believed by Muslims to have been originally built by Abraham and Ishmael, and which contains the Black Stone, which all pilgrims try to touch or kiss. Pilgrims also drink from the well of Zamzam, believed to have been shown by an angel to Hagar while she was running around looking for water for her son Ishmael, and run between the hills of