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It is 613 CE, and Amira is growing up in Mecca, one of the largest towns on the Arabian Peninsula, or Arabia. Her father is a rich merchant. He sells spices and other goods brought to town by traders from Asia and Africa.
One afternoon, Amira watches people on a pilgrimage, or a journey to a holy place. They’re heading to the Kaaba (KAH-buh). That’s a shrine where people from all over Arabia go to worship. There, they worship many different gods – so many, you couldn’t even count them all!
Around that time, a man named Muhammad began to change people’s minds about religion. He spent a lot of time meditating in a cave outside Mecca, also known as Makkah. He said that one day, the archangel Gabriel visited him there. The archangel told him he would become the messenger of God. Muhammad taught people there was only one God, or Allah (in Arabic). He shared many other messages from Gabriel. The religion based on these messages is called Islam. Its followers are Muslims.
