Islam began in the city of Mecca, in the western Arabian Peninsula (in what is now Saudi Arabia), in the early 7th century (around 610 CE).

Quick Scoop

  • The religion of Islam traces its historical beginning to when the Prophet Muhammad began receiving revelations while meditating in a cave on Jabal al-Nour, near Mecca, around 610 CE.
  • From Mecca, Muhammad later migrated to Yathrib (now Medina), where the first organized Muslim community and state took shape, and from there Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.

Short background

  • Mecca at that time was a major trading city and religious center on the Arabian Peninsula, home to the Kaaba and various pre-Islamic Arabian beliefs and practices.
  • Muslims view Islam not as a new religion in the 7th century, but as a restoration of the original monotheistic faith of earlier prophets like Abraham, while historians usually date Islam’s start to Muhammad’s mission in Mecca and Medina.

Simple timeline

  1. Around 570 CE: Muhammad is born in Mecca, in the Quraysh tribe.
  1. Around 610 CE: First revelations in the cave of Hira/Jabal al-Nour, near Mecca; this is the usual starting point for “where Islam started.”
  1. 622 CE: Migration (Hijra) from Mecca to Yathrib/Medina, where the first Islamic community-state is formed.
  1. By 632 CE: Most of the Arabian Peninsula has adopted Islam, and the faith begins expanding rapidly outside Arabia.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.