We can think about what we think we know, and then we can debate and think about, are there some patterns here that we see over and over in history? Well, what's the context? So we know for a fact that Arabia was fragmented, that the law of the land in Arabia was tribal and tribal justice, and this is the world that Muhammad grew up in, the various tribes often worshiping different gods. We also know at this time that Muhammad had exposure to other religions, some of which had penetrated the various tribes of Arabia. Most notably, you have Christianity, and Muhammad's wife's cousin was in fact a Christian, and you also have Judaism, these two clearly being related religions, Christianity coming out of a Jewish tradition. We also know that the two great empires here, the Byzantines and Persian empires, are in constant conflict, and in fact, the Arabs and many in the Middle East are the pawns in that conflict, and so you have the Byzantines versus the Persians, with a possibility of those living in their lands might not have been happy with either. There's also the sense that we're at the very beginning of a long decline for the Byzantine Empire.