Mecca is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and the holiest city in Islam. It is 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its last recorded population was 2,385,509 in 2022. Its metropolitan population in 2022 is 2.4 million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Around 44.5% of the population are Saudi citizens and around 55.5% are foreigners from other Muslim countries. Pilgrims more than triple the population number every year during the Ḥajj pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Hijri month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah. With over 10.8 million international visitors in 2023, Mecca was one of the 10 most visited cities in the world.
The 620s decade ran from January 1, 620, to December 31, 629.
The 570s decade ran from January 1, 570, to December 31, 579.
The Hejaz is a region that includes the majority of the west coast of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Baljurashi. It is thus known as the "Western Province", and it is bordered in the west by the Red Sea, in the north by Jordan, in the east by the Najd, and in the south by the Region of 'Asir. Its largest city is Jeddah, which is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, with Mecca and Medina, respectively, being the fourth- and fifth-largest cities in the country.
The Quraysh were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. By 600 CE, the tribe were affluent merchants who dominated commerce between the Indian Ocean and East Africa on one side and the Mediterranean on the other. They organized caravans that traveled to Gaza and Damascus in the summer and to Yemen in the winter. On those routes, they were also engaged in mining and other enterprises. They were known for their hilm, or "absence of hotheadedness," because, despite their rivalries, they put commercial interests and unity first.
The Banū Hāshim is an Arab clan within the Quraysh tribe to which Muhammad belonged, named after Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim ibn Abd Manaf.
Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib was the father of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was the son of Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim and Fatima bint Amr of the Makhzum Clan.
The ʿām al-fīl is the name in Islamic history for the year approximately equating to 570–571 CE. According to Islamic resources, it was in this year that Muhammad was born. The name is derived from an event said to have occurred at Mecca: Abraha, the Abyssinian, Christian king of Himyarite marched upon the Ka‘bah in Mecca with a large army, which included war elephants, intending to demolish it. However, the lead elephant, known as 'Mahmud', is said to have stopped at the boundary around Mecca, and refused to enter. It has been mentioned in the Quran that the army was destroyed by small birds that carried pebbles that destroyed the entire army and Abraha perished. Surah Fil in Quran illustrates the incident clearly. The year came to be known as the Year of the Elephant, beginning a trend for reckoning the years in the Arabian Peninsula. This reckoning was used until it was replaced with the Islamic calendar during the times of ‘Umar.
This is a timeline of major events in the Muslim world from 500 AD to 600 AD.
Abraha, also known as Abraha al-Ashram, was a viceroy for the Kingdom of Aksum who ruled the Himyarite Kingdom of Yemen and much of the Arabian Peninsula in the 6th century. He is famous for the tradition of his attempt to destroy the Kaaba, a revered religious site in Mecca, using an army that included war elephants, an event known as Year of the Elephant. During his reign, Christianity was the most populous of all.
Abd al-Muttalib was the grandfather of Muhammad.
This family tree is about the relatives of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a family member of the family of Hashim and the Qurayshs tribe which is ‘Adnani. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad descends from Ishmael through the Hashim tribe.
Shayba ibn Hāshim, better known as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, was the fourth chief of the Quraysh tribal confederation and grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Hāshim ibn ʿAbd Manāf, born ʿAmr al-ʿUlā, was the great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the progenitor of the ruling Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca. At some point in his life before his father's death, 'Amr chose for himself the name Hāshim, as it was the name God used for Abraham. The narrations from Islamic hagiographists to explain this name change are varied: A narration suggests that `Amr was called Hashim because Hashim translates as pulverizer in Arabic. As a generous man, he initiated the practice of providing crumbled bread in broth that was later adapted for the pilgrims to the Ka'aba in Mecca. Another narration claims the name derives from the Arabic root Hashm, to save the starving, because he arranged for the feeding of the people of Mecca during a seasonal famine, and he thus came to be known as "the man who fed the starved".
The Banu Makhzum was one of the wealthy clans of the Quraysh. They are regarded as being among the three most powerful and influential clans in Mecca before the advent of Islam, the other two being the Banu Hashim and the Banu Umayya.
Hilf al-Fudul was an alliance or confederacy created in Mecca in the year 590 AD, to establish justice for all through collective action, especially for those who were not under the protection of any clan. Because of Muhammad's role in its formation, the alliance plays a significant role in Islamic ethics. Because fudul commonly means "virtuous" the alliance is often translated as League of the Virtuous.
Muhammad, the final Islamic prophet, was born and lived in Mecca for the first 53 years of his life until the Hijra. This period of his life is characterized by his proclamation of prophethood. Muhammad's father, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, died before he was born. His mother would raise him until he was six years old, before her death around 577 CE at Abwa'. Subsequently raised by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, and then his uncle, Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad's early career involved being a shepherd and merchant. Muhammad married Khadija bint Khuwaylid after a successful trading endeavour in Syria. After the death of Khadija and Abu Talib in the Year of Sorrow, Muhammad married Sawda bint Zam'a and Aisha.
The Banu Sulaym is an Arab tribe that dominated part of the Hejaz in the pre-Islamic era. They maintained close ties with the Quraysh of Mecca and the inhabitants of Medina, and fought in a number of battles against the Islamic prophet Muhammad before ultimately converting to Islam before his death in 632. They took part in the Muslim conquest of Syria, and established themselves in the Jazira, while part of the tribe remained in the Hejaz. During the early Muslim period, the tribe produced notable generals such as Safwan ibn Mu'attal, Abu'l-A'war and Umayr ibn al-Hubab. Those who remained in Arabia were largely absorbed by the Banu Harb of Yemen beginning in the 9th century, while those in Syria and the Jazira were expelled to Upper Egypt by the Fatimid Caliphs in the late 10th century for supporting the Qarmatians. In the mid-11th century, a prolonged famine in Egypt prompted the tribe to migrate westward with the Banu Hilal into Libya. There, the Sulaym and its sub-tribes established themselves mainly in Cyrenaica, where to the present day, many of the Arab tribes of that region trace their descent to the Sulaym.
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib was the leader of Banu Hashim, a clan of the Qurayshi tribe of Mecca in the Hejazi region of the Arabian Peninsula. He being the brother of Abdullah, the father of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, was his uncle and father of Ali. After the death of his father Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, he inherited this position as tribal chieftain, and the offices of Siqaya and Rifada. He was well-respected in Mecca.
Qusai ibn Kilab ibn Murrah, also spelled Qusayy, Kusayy, Kusai, or Cossai, born Zayd, was an Ishmaelite descendant of Abraham. Orphaned early on, he would rise to become chief of Mecca, and leader of the Quraysh tribe. He is best known for being an ancestor of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as well as the third and the fourth Rashidun caliphs, Uthman and Ali, and the later Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphs along with several of the most prominent Hashemite dynasties in the orient.
