YEAR 570 (AD) - Part 1

The Birth of Muhammad(saws)

The Prophet Muhammad was born in Makkah of the Hashim clan, belonging to the tribe of Quraish. His mother, Amina, was the daughter of Wahb, and his father was Abdullah, who died before his birth. He came under the care of his paternal grandfather Adbul Muttalib, who was about seventy years old. At the age of six, he lost his mother. After the death of his grandfather, when Muhammad was eight years old, he was entrusted to his uncle, Abu talib, who had become the new head of the clan, and grew up in his home.

The Byzantine and Persian Empires Bordering Arabia

After the death of Emperor Theodosius I in 395, the Roman Empire was partitioned into western and eastern halves between his sons Honorius and Arcadius respectively. In 476, however, the western Roman Empire collapsed, abandoning Britain, Gaul, Spain and part of Italy to the barbarians. In contrast, the eastern half of the empire, comprising the wealthier and more civilized provinces of Greece, Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor, was not only able to sustain the loss of the West but had flourished independently since then. The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empirehad its capital at Byzantium(Constantinople). The other Great Power was Persia, and the boundary between the two ran from the Caucasus to the Upper Euphrates(roughly coinciding with the present border seperating Turkey and Syria from Persia and Iraq), leaving the ArabianPeninsula, which was mostly tractlessdesertat the time, is the largest in the world having an area of about one million square miles. The capital of the Persian Empire was at the ancient city of Ctesiphon(known as Medain in Arabic) on the Tigris, some twenty miles southeast of the site where the city of Baghdad was later to be founded in 762.

The Byzantine Empire was founded on Roman law and adminstration, Greek Language and civilization and Christain religion and moral values. The Church playeda powerful role but it also became a weakening factor in the Empire because of the dogmatic conflict of Christology within it. Greek became the official language of theRoman Empire during the reign of Emperor Heraclius(r.610-41); Christainity was made the state religion by Emperor Theodosius I(r. 379-95). Constantine I(r. 306-37), the first Christain Roman Emperor, had, of course, already paved the way for a Christain State by a number of important stepssuch as the Edict of Milan in 313, declaring Sunday as a day of rest in 321, presiding over the ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325, and founding of Constantinople(formerly Byzantium) in 330 as a "Christain City" and his permanent capital. But, contrary to a common belief, he did not make Christainity the religion of the Empire, which was done later by Theodosius I. Constantine himself was baptized shortly before his death.

....To be continued....