June 8: Death of the Prophet

Muhammad, the founder of Islam, died on this date in 632 CE. He experienced his religious revelation and proclaimed himself a messenger of God at the age of 40 and spent the next twenty-two years spreading his faith through preaching, warfare and strategic marriages. Muhammad’s message included a strong emphasis on wealth redistribution and economic justice, which strengthened its appeal throughout Arabia. In 622 he fled from the wealthy clans of Mecca for Medina, which had a substantial Jewish community. Muhammad introduced several elements into Islam that might attract Jewish converts, including dietary laws, Friday afternoon prayers, facing Jerusalem during prayer, and the Fast of Ashura on the Jewish Day of Atonement — but when the Jews rejected the new faith, Muhammad jettisoned many of these innovations (prayer was now directed towards Mecca) and expelled two of the three Jewish tribes from Medina while slaughtering the men of the third tribe (the women and children were enslaved; at least one of Muhammad’s two Jewish wives came from this tribe). He also made inflammatory statements about Jews that were inscribed in the Koran during the two centuries following his death and would lay the groundwork for modern Muslim anti-Semitism.

“Humiliation and wretchedness were stamped on the Jews and they were visited with Allah’s wrath.” —Koran 2:61