History of Islam

Geography and Chief Clans of Makkah


Makkah itself stood in a narrow, barren valley, surrounded by steep, bare hills. Its food supply came from the fertile fields of Taif, a town forty miles to the southeast. Water was also scarce, its main source of supply being the Zamzam, although there were other wells located outside the town. The free air of the open desert was thought healthier than the suffocating heat of this dusty and congested little town. It was, therefore, a widespread custom for people to give their children to be suckled by women of the neighboring tribes in the desert. Muhammad thus spent his early childhood in the care of a woman of the Sa'd tribe outside Makkah, after which he returned to his mother, but she died within a year, leaving him an orphan.