How old is Islam religion?

To truly appreciate the origin story of Islam, we have to understand the world in which it arose – 7th century Arabia, a harsh desert environment populated by scattered nomadic tribes and a few oasis settlements like Mecca. Faiths followed included pagan polytheistic religions as well as small communities of monotheistic Christians and Jews. Social order in the region was dominated by tribal affiliation rather than organized states.

It was into this world that Muhammad Ibn Abdullah was born around 570 CE. A member of the Banu Hashim clan in Mecca, Muhammad was raised by his grandfather and uncle after becoming orphaned at a young age. By his 20s, Muhammad had gained a reputation as an honest, fair and intelligent merchant in Mecca‘s caravan trade business. He was particularly disdained social injustices around him.

However, Arabic society at this time had degradation in social justice and indulgence in worldly pleasures. The Kaaba shrine in Mecca was filled with hundreds of idols during this era, which led to a regression of the religious life amongst the Arabs. They worshipped the idols and led sinful lives neglecting the poor and oppressed. For many youths and working-class people, life seemed void of deeper purpose.

Muhammad‘s Revelation and Early Efforts Preaching Islam

This was the cultural backdrop when at age 40 in 610 CE, Muhammad retreated to a cave and had a revelatory vision in which he was commanded to recite divine messages, meeting the angel Jibril who ordered him : “Read!”. This was the first revelation of the Quran according to Islamic belief.

For the next 3 years, Muhammad privately taught a small group of early converts including his wife Khadija and his cousin Ali Ibn Abi Talib. When he eventually began preaching publicly in 613 CE advocating an end to greed, corruption and idol worship, he attracted many youth followers but also encountered heavy resistance from powerful merchant tribes of Mecca who feared economic effects and loss of authority.

Early Muslims faced brutal persecution for their beliefs as the pagan establishment felt threatened – beatings, imprisonment, even torture and death for some. But the grassroots movement continued to slowly gain devoted followers captivated by Muhammad‘s inclusive message. Examples of early adopters swayed by his cause:

Bilal Ibn Rabah – An Abyssinian slave in Mecca drawn to Islam after witnessing a the torture of his friend and enslaved Abyssinian woman Summaya bint Khayyat for their conversion to the faith.
Khabbab Ibn Al-Aratt – A young Arab from a poor Meccan clan who endured torture and sold his family inheritance to escape from the fleets of city and join Muhammad.
Salman Al-Farsi – A Persian Zoroastrian on spiritual quest who left his family looking for the true faith after meeting a Christian monk in Syria and working with a Meccan Jewish scholar before finally converting after recognizing Muhammad as the prophet of his vision.

By 615 CE, the number of Muslims had grown to around 70 or 80 individuals, mostly lower-class with little influence in Meccan society. Living under constant threat and ostracism, in that year a delegation of early Muslim converts sought safe haven in the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia, returning over the next decade as conditions changed. Even as persecution and opposition persisted, Islam continued to gain new followers.

The Migration to Medina and the Prophet‘s Political Consolidation of Arabia

In 620 CE, a major shift occurred when a group from the city of Yathrib (later called Medina or Madinat-un-Nabi, city of the Prophet) met Muhammad during the Hajj pilgrimage and pledged to support his growing movement, seeing him as an impartial 3rd party arbiter to mediate disputes in Yathrib and unite its feuding pagan and Jewish tribes. After more private meetings over the next couple years, at least 75 new converts to Islam from Yathrib vowed to back Muhammad as a prophet and political leader.

Facing a Meccan assassination plot, Muhammad and his tight inner circle fled Mecca for Yathrib in July 622 CE in the famous incident known as the Hijra that marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Upon arriving in the oasis city through the arid desert, Muhammad drafted the Constitution of Medina that established the first Islamic state with explicit civic rights and responsibilities for Muslims, Jews and pagans within an ummah (community) governed by sharia (religious law).

Over the next 5 years ruling from Medina, Muhammad led his growing force on military expeditions against Meccan trade caravans and the minor Quraysh tribe that opposed him. Skirmishes like the battles of Badr and Uhud won new Medinan followers drawn to the political and economic benefits now associated with membership in the new Arab Muslim community. By 628, tensions had eased enough that Meccan tribal leaders agreed to a famous truce known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah with Muhammad allowing his followers access to previous banned holy sites in the city. Violations by allies two years later dissolved the fragile peace.

In January 630 CE the Muslim army of 12,000 men conquered Muhammad‘s native Mecca, capturing the city with minimal bloodshed after two years of preparations. With his base of support now secured, Muhammad spent his final two years directing military campaigns aiming to unify Arabs under the banner of Islam, including the Expedition of Tabuk along the Gulf of Aqaba and the demand of zakat (religious tax) from all tribes as sign of submission to centralized authority.

By the time the prophet Muhammad died unexpectedly in 632 CE at age 62, the once-persecuted Islamic movement encompassed most of the Arabian Peninsula from Yemen to Southern Jordan with an estimated 100,000 Muslim converts in total. In just over 20 years, Islam had evolved from the unlikely vision of a middle-aged merchant to the driving force of a fledgling Arab nation.

Rapid Expansion After Muhammad‘s Death

In the power vacuum after Muhammad‘s passing, the next two generations saw Islam explode out of Arabia fueled by religious zeal and the greatly expanded military capabilities of a now unified powerful Arab army under the rightly guided Rashidun Caliphate (632 – 661) and Umayyad Caliphate (661 – 750).

This carefully orchestrated and religion-centered expansion relied primarily on tactical assimilation rather than destructive annihilation which made their conquests more readily acceptable. Supported by long-established trade routes out of Mecca and Medina they swept north to modern Syria, Iraq, Iran within years. Muslim Arab forces took Damascus in 635, Jerusalem in 638 after a prolonged siege, Egypt and Libya in 640, coastal regions of the Persian Empire and Afghanistan through the 650s.

By the mid 700s, just over 100 years from Muhammad‘s first revelation, Islamic civilization covered 6 million square miles from Spain and Morocco continuing to India and the borders of China – one of the most rapid and unlikely expansions of influence in human history.

In summary, Islam dates back over 1,400 years to the unlikely events of the 7th century CE in Arabia. Born from the humble origins, piercing intellect and spiritual discipline of Muhammad, the religion grew from scattered dozens to the dominant cultural and political force across much of the known world in barely a generation after its founder‘s death, propelled by the compelling power of its inclusive faith.

For me as a gamer, this whole origins narrative reads like the perfect backstory for an epic strategy franchise. We have the charismatic yet unlikely prophet hero on a divine quest, an eclectic band of outsider followers overcoming oppression through perseverance, the climactic battles won against all odds, and the brilliantly executed military campaign of inspired successors blazing across continents to spread the mission. That‘s the stuff great sagas are made of!

Whether we analyze Islam’s origin from a historian’s factual perspective, or the creative lens of game worldbuilding, the rapid emergence and early impact of this faith is difficult to dispute. And its message promoting social justice and life meaning continues to resonate with young people from all backgrounds seeking purpose and community in our modern pluralistic societies today.