This flight, called the Hegira, was the turning point of the Prophet's life. In 622, fearing for his safety, Muhammad fled to Medina (a city some 200 miles north of Mecca), where he had been offered a position of considerable political power.
As he slowly gained converts, the Meccan authorities came to consider him a dangerous nuisance. Then, about 613, he began preaching in public. For three years, Muhammad preached only to close friends and associates. When he was forty years old, Muhammad became convinced that this one true God (Allah) was speaking to him, and had chosen him to spread the true faith. There were, however, in Mecca, a small number of Jews and Christians it was from them no doubt that Muhammad first learned of a single, omnipotent God who ruled the entire universe. Most Arabs at that time were pagans, who believed in many gods. Nevertheless, as he approached forty, there was little outward indication that he was a remarkable person. His economic position improved when, at age twenty-five, he married a wealthy widow. Islamic tradition tells us that he was illiterate. Orphaned at age six, he was reared in modest surroundings. Muhammad, however, was born in the year 570, in the city of Mecca, in southern Arabia, at that time a backward area of the world, far from the centers of trade, art, and learning. The majority of the persons in this book had the advantage of being born and raised in centers of civilization, highly cultured or politically pivotal nations. Today, thirteen centuries after his death, his influence is still powerful and pervasive. Of humble origins, Muhammad founded and promulgated one of the world's great religions, and became an immensely effective political leader. My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels. The 100, a Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History
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