Short answer: Islam began in Makkah (Mecca), in the Hijaz region of western Arabia, in what is now Saudi Arabia. In 610 CE Muhammad ﷺ, then about forty years old, received the first verses of the Quran in the cave of Hira on a mountain outside the city. In 622 he and his followers moved to Madinah, and by his death in 632 most of Arabia had accepted Islam. Historians usually call Muhammad ﷺ the founder of Islam. Muslims do not: they believe Islam, submission to the one God, was the faith of every prophet from Adam to Jesus, and that Muhammad ﷺ was the last messenger who brought it in its final form.
Makkah before Islam
Makkah sits in a dry, rocky valley with no farms. It lived on two things: trade and the Kaaba. Caravans of the Quraysh, the city's leading tribe, carried goods north to Syria in summer and south to Yemen in winter. The Quran mentions these journeys:
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ لِإِيلَٰفِ قُرَيْشٍ إِۦلَٰفِهِمْ رِحْلَةَ ٱلشِّتَآءِ وَٱلصَّيْفِ
Li-ilaafi quraish · Elaafihim rihlatash shitaa-i wass saif
"For the accustomed security of the Quraysh - Their accustomed security [in] the caravan of winter and summer -"
Quran 106:1 to 2 · translation by Sahih International
At the centre of the town stood the Kaaba, which the Quran says Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail built for the worship of the one God (2:127). By the 6th century, though, most Arabs worshipped idols, and the Kaaba was surrounded by them: when the Prophet ﷺ entered Makkah in 630, there were 360 idols around it.1 A few people, known as the hunafa, refused the idols and held to the faith of Ibrahim.2
Muhammad ﷺ before the revelation
Muhammad ﷺ was born in Makkah in about 570 CE, into the clan of Hashim of the Quraysh. His father died before he was born and his mother when he was six, so he was raised by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib and then his uncle Abu Talib. He worked as a shepherd and later as a trader, and the people of Makkah called him al-Amin, the trustworthy. At about 25 he married Khadijah, a respected businesswoman. In the years before forty, he would go alone to a small cave called Hira, on the mountain now known as Jabal al-Nur, to think and worship for days at a time. Read his whole life in brief on the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
610 CE: the first revelation in Cave Hira
One night in Ramadan, in about 610 CE, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to him in the cave and said: "Read!" He answered, "I am not a reader." The angel pressed him tightly, three times, and then recited the first verses of the Quran:3
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ٱقْرَأْ بِٱسْمِ رَبِّكَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ خَلَقَ ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ ٱقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ ٱلْأَكْرَمُ ٱلَّذِى عَلَّمَ بِٱلْقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ
Iqra bismi rab bikal lazee khalaq · Khalaqal insaana min 'alaq · Iqra wa rab bukal akram · Al lazee 'allama bil qalam · 'Al lamal insaana ma lam y'alam
"Recite in the name of your Lord who created - Created man from a clinging substance. Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous - Who taught by the pen - Taught man that which he knew not."
Quran 96:1 to 5 · translation by Sahih International
He went home shaking and said to Khadijah, "Cover me! Cover me!" She comforted him: "Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your family, you help the weak, you serve your guests and you help people in hardship." She took him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, an old man who had become a Christian and knew the earlier scriptures. Waraqah told him that this was the same angel Allah had sent to Moses.3 Khadijah was the first person to believe in him.
The Makkan years (610 to 622)
For about three years the Prophet ﷺ taught quietly. The first Muslims were his wife Khadijah, his friend Abu Bakr, his young cousin Ali and his freed servant Zayd ibn Harithah. When he began to preach in public, the message was simple: worship Allah alone, give up idols, be honest and kind to the poor, and prepare for the Day of Judgement. The leaders of the Quraysh saw it as a threat to their gods, their trade and their power.
The early Muslims were mocked, boycotted and tortured. Bilal, an Abyssinian slave, was laid on the burning sand with a rock on his chest. Sumayyah, a woman of the poor, was killed for her faith. In about 615 some Muslims fled to Abyssinia (in today's Ethiopia), where the Christian king gave them protection. In 619, the "year of sorrow", both Khadijah and Abu Talib died.
622 CE: the Hijrah to Madinah
People from Yathrib, an oasis town about 450 km to the north, accepted Islam and invited the Prophet ﷺ to their city. In 622 he left Makkah secretly with Abu Bakr, and the city became known as Madinat an-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, or simply Madinah. This journey is the Hijrah, and it is year one of the Islamic calendar. In Madinah, Islam became a community with its own mosque, laws and way of life.
| Year (CE) | What happened |
|---|---|
| About 570 | Muhammad ﷺ is born in Makkah |
| 610 | The first revelation in the cave of Hira |
| About 613 | Public preaching begins in Makkah |
| About 615 | Muslims migrate to Abyssinia |
| 622 | The Hijrah to Madinah: year 1 of the Islamic calendar |
| 624 | The Battle of Badr |
| 628 | The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah |
| 630 | The conquest of Makkah; the idols are removed from the Kaaba |
| 632 | The Farewell Hajj, then the Prophet's ﷺ death in Madinah |
Who founded Islam? Two ways of answering
The historian's framing. Historians of religion study Islam as a movement that appears in the historical record in early 7th-century Arabia. They date its beginning to Muhammad's preaching in Makkah from about 610, and many reference works describe him as its founder. They work from the Quran, the early biographies (the oldest that survives is Ibn Hisham's edition of Ibn Ishaq, who died in 767), the hadith collections, and a few non-Muslim writings from the 630s onward that mention a prophet among the Arabs.4
The Muslim belief. Muslims do not call Muhammad ﷺ the founder of Islam, and they dislike the old Western name "Mohammedanism", because he did not invent a religion and is not worshipped. The word islam means submission to God, and the Quran says this was the faith of every prophet:
۞ شَرَعَ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلدِّينِ مَا وَصَّىٰ بِهِۦ نُوحًۭا وَٱلَّذِىٓ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا وَصَّيْنَا بِهِۦٓ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ وَمُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰٓ ۖ أَنْ أَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلدِّينَ وَلَا تَتَفَرَّقُوا۟ فِيهِ ۚ كَبُرَ عَلَى ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ مَا تَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَيْهِ ۚ ٱللَّهُ يَجْتَبِىٓ إِلَيْهِ مَن يَشَآءُ وَيَهْدِىٓ إِلَيْهِ مَن يُنِيبُ
Shara'a lakum minad deeni maa wassaa bihee Noohanw wallazeee awhainaaa ilaika wa maa wassainaa biheee Ibraaheema wa Moosa wa 'Eesaaa an aqeemud adeena wa laa tatafarraqoo feeh; kabura 'alal mushrikeena maa tad'oohum ilaih; Allaahu yajtabee ilaihi many yashaaa'u wa yahdeee ilaihi mai yuneeb
"He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus - to establish the religion and not be divided therein. Difficult for those who associate others with Allah is that to which you invite them. Allah chooses for Himself whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back [to Him]."
Quran 42:13 · translation by Sahih International
The Quran calls Ibrahim "a Muslim [submitting to Allah]" (3:67), centuries before Makkah's idols. In this belief, Muhammad ﷺ did not start Islam. He was sent to restore it and complete it, as "the Messenger of Allah and last of the prophets" (33:40). He described himself the same way:
إِنَّ مَثَلِي وَمَثَلَ الأَنْبِيَاءِ مِنْ قَبْلِي كَمَثَلِ رَجُلٍ بَنَى بَيْتًا فَأَحْسَنَهُ وَأَجْمَلَهُ، إِلاَّ مَوْضِعَ لَبِنَةٍ مِنْ زَاوِيَةٍ ... فَأَنَا اللَّبِنَةُ، وَأَنَا خَاتِمُ النَّبِيِّينَ
Inna mathalī wa mathalal-anbiyā'i min qablī ka-mathali rajulin banā baytan fa-aḥsanahū wa ajmalahū, illā mawḍiʿa labinatin min zāwiyah ... fa-anal-labinah, wa ana khātimun-nabiyyīn
My example and the example of the prophets before me is like a man who built a house and made it fine and beautiful, except for the place of one brick in a corner ... I am that brick, and I am the last of the prophets.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3535, from Abu Hurayrah · sahih
| The question | The historian's framing | The Muslim belief |
|---|---|---|
| When did Islam begin? | About 610 CE, in Makkah | As a named community, in 610 CE; as a faith, with the first human, Adam |
| Who founded it? | Muhammad, often called the founder | No human founder: Allah revealed it, and Muhammad ﷺ is the last messenger |
| Where did the Quran come from? | Studied as a text that appeared in Muhammad's lifetime | The word of Allah, brought by the angel Jibril over about 23 years |
| How does it relate to Judaism and Christianity? | Shares figures and themes with them | The same message given to Moses and Jesus, now in its final form |
Both descriptions can be read side by side. One describes how Islam looks from the outside as a historical event; the other is how Muslims understand their own faith. For more on the Quran's history, read the history of the Quran.
After 632: how Islam spread
After the Prophet ﷺ died, his Companions chose Abu Bakr as the first caliph, followed by Umar, Uthman and Ali. Within about a century the Muslim state stretched from Spain in the west to Central Asia in the east. Further east, Islam spread mostly through traders and scholars rather than armies, which is how it reached the coasts of India, China and Southeast Asia. Today the country with the most Muslims is Indonesia, which no Muslim army ever conquered, and most Muslims live in Asia, not in the Arab world.5 Read about what came next in the Islamic golden age.
FAQ
Where did Islam originate?
In Makkah (Mecca), in the Hijaz region of western Arabia, now in Saudi Arabia. The first revelation came in the cave of Hira, just outside the city, in 610 CE.
When did Islam start?
In 610 CE, when Muhammad ﷺ received the first verses of the Quran. The Islamic calendar counts from 622 CE, the year of the Hijrah to Madinah.
Who founded Islam?
Historians usually name Muhammad ﷺ as the founder. Muslims believe Islam has no human founder: it is the faith of all the prophets, revealed by Allah, and Muhammad ﷺ is its last messenger.
How old is Islam?
As a community, about 1,400 years: it began in 610 CE. Muslims believe the faith itself, submission to the one God, is as old as humanity.
Who was the first Muslim?
The first person to believe in the Prophet ﷺ was his wife Khadijah. The first free man was Abu Bakr, the first boy was Ali, and the first freed slave was Zayd ibn Harithah.
Is Islam older than Christianity?
As a historical community, no: Islam began in the 7th century, about six centuries after Jesus. But Muslims believe Jesus himself taught Islam, submission to the one God, so in their belief the faith is the same.
Sources
- Sahih al-Bukhari 4287, from Abdullah ibn Masud (the 360 idols).
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab Manaqib al-Ansar, from Ibn Umar, on Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, who refused the idols before Islam.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3, from Aishah (the beginning of revelation).
- On the sources historians use: Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (from Ibn Ishaq); Robert G. Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It (Darwin Press, 1997), on the early non-Muslim writings. For the dates: Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (1983).
- Pew Research Center, The Future of World Religions (2015), on Indonesia's Muslim population; Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020 (2025): 59% of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3535, from Abu Hurayrah (the last brick).
- Quran 106:1-2, 2:127, 96:1-5, 42:13, 3:67 and 33:40, Arabic from the Uthmani text, translation by Sahih International.