page_title: Muhammad in Mecca
section_title: Migration to Axum
hierarchical_section_title: Muhammad in Mecca / Opposition / Migration to Axum
context_page_description: Muhammad was born and lived in Mecca for the first 52 years of his life time until his hijra. This period of his life is characterized by his early career as a shepherd and merchant, his proclamation of prophethood, and his marriage to Khadija bint Khuwaylid, even though he would also marry Sawda bint Zam'aa after her death.
  Muhammad's father, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, died before he was even born. His mother would raise him until he was 6 years old, before her death around 577 CE at Abwa'. Muhammad is believed by Muslims to have began receiving revelations at the age of 40; some of his peers respected his words and became his followers, while others, including tribal leaders and some of his relatives, opposed, ridiculed and eventually boycotted his clan, the Banu Hashim, and Muhammad and his followers were harassed, assaulted and forced into exile with two tortured and killed. Several attempts were made on his life. When his uncle and chief protector, Abu Talib, who was the head of the clan of Banu Hashim died, Muhammad migrated to Medina in 622 CE, where he had many followers who agreed to help and assist him.
context_section_description: In 615, at a time when his followers were suffering open violence, Muhammad arranged for his followers to emigrate to the Kingdom of Aksum and found a small colony there under the protection of the Christian king. While the traditions view the persecutions of Meccans to have played the major role in the emigration, William Montgomery Watt, a professor of Islamic studies, states "there is reason to believe that some sort of division within the embryonic Muslim community played a role and that some of the emigrants may have gone to Abyssinia to engage in trade, possibly in competition with prominent merchant families in Mecca."
caption: Location of Abyssinia (Kingdom of Aksum).
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