Muhammad: Merchant, Family Man, and Prophet

According to traditional Islamic chronology, Muhammad ibn Abdullah was born in Mecca around 570 CE, in what is remembered as the "Year of the Elephant," a reference to a failed military expedition launched against the city by the Yemeni governor Abraha. He belonged to the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe, a respected but not especially wealthy family. Orphaned of his father before or shortly after birth, and of his mother at the age of six, Muhammad was raised first by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib and then by his uncle Abu Talib. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and later as a merchant, taking part in caravan trade toward Syria, and he earned a reputation for honesty that brought him the nickname "al-Amin," "the trustworthy."