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Islam is a relative newcomer. Judaism and Christianity far predate it, for example, and naturally there are links with those earlier religions.

Mohammed was born in Mecca circa 570 AD and was orphaned in early childhood. At that time Mecca was the principal commercial centre in western Arabia, and was also an important pilgrimage centre, based on the cult of the Ka'ba, the Black Stone. He received his first revelations in 610. As his followers grew in number, Mohammed aroused the hostility of the merchant aristocracy of Mecca, who feared that acceptance of his message would pose a threat to the shrine. Hostility developed into persecution, and in 622 Mohammed and his followers withdrew to Medina, some 280 miles north-east of Mecca. This migration, hijra in Arabic, on 16 July 622 marks the beginning of the Islamic era and thus of the Muslim calendar.