Tahera Qutbuddin Muhammad (d. 632), the “Messenger of God,” was born in 570 in the city of Mecca, located in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. Flanked by two powerful empires—the Sassanids in Persia and the Byzantines in Syria-Palestine—the inhabitants of the peninsula led camel caravans through its arid wastes to trade in those lands. Arabian society was tribal, its security maintained through alliances among the tribes and by mutual threat of blood revenge.