The Life Of Muhammad

Muslims believe to know everything about the prophet, infidels hardly care, but actually historical sources yield lots of facts. He grew up in Mecca, a commercially rather insignificant city, always famous for its relics and religious tolerance. Orphaned young, he was raised by an uncle and married to a rich widow, launching him in the caravan business, acquiring a cosmopolitan insight and attitude. While preaching polygamy, he never practiced it. His attitude and that of his homeland's dominant Qureish tribe soon hardened, which was reflected in Koranic prescripts and persecution driving followers to seek refuge as far as Christian Abyssina's capital Axum across the Red Sea.

From PBS - part two of three: Omaar shines a light on key events in Muhammad's life.

Researchers point out Mohammed's divine inspiration, in tiers, also fits the needs of the day in the phases of establishing Islam and his budding Arab empire, a context which sometimes opposes present appearances. Thus allowing four wives then meant restricting polygamy, ironically with exceptions for pre-conversion marriages and for the Prophet himself, whose wives were also diplomatic alliances. Although certain Koranic passages encourage violence, both its text and Muhammed's own actions as leader, culminating in the triumphal take-over of Mecca and his Last Sermon, stress tolerance and peaceful means as preferable forms of Jihad, a term later incorrectly restricted to Holy War or even perverted to terrorism.