Who founded Islam?

The
Prophet Muhammad was the founder of Islam. Muhammad was a merchant who was born in and lived in
Mecca, a commercial hub on the Arabian peninsula. He worked along the many trade routes that
traversed the region and became wealthy in the process. As he entered middle age, the Archangel
Gabriel appeared to him and commanded him to recite a series of revelations that he made to him.
These became the foundation of the Qur'an, and the basic truth that was revealed was that there
was no God other than Allah, a departure from the polytheism practiced throughout much of the
region. Muhammad was forced to leave Mecca due to the unpopularity of his message with many of
the wealthy merchants in that city, and went to Medinah in 622, a journey known as the
hijrah. He returned triumphantly a few years later as his preaching had
popularized his message to the point where even Mecca's elites had embraced it. After his death,
Islam spread along trade routes and through Arab military expansion through the Middle East,
North Africa, and the old Byzantine Empire.

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