Also at the time, the Arabian Peninsula was like this crazy religious melting pot. Like most tribal Arabs worshipped gods very similar to the Mesopotamian gods you'll remember from episode 3. And by the time of Muhammad, cult statues of many of those gods had been collected in his hometown of Mecca, in this temple-like structure called the Kaaba. But Arabia was also home to monotheisms, like Christianity and Judaism and even a bit of Zoroastrianism. So the message that there was only one god wouldn't have been, like, as surprising to Muhammad as it was, for instance, to Abraham. Also, and this will become very important, the northern part of Arabia was sandwiched between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sasanian Empire, and you'll remember, those guys were always fighting. They were like snowboarders and skiers, or like the Westboro Baptist Church and everyone else.