According to Muslim tradition, it all began one night during the latter part of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar year, around the year 610 C.E. Muhummad ibn Abdallah, a forty-year-old merchant from the town of Mecca in the Hijaz, the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula, was sleeping soundly in a cave on nearby Mount Hira, where he used to spend several nights at a time in prayer and meditation, when he was suddenly awoken by a heavenly voice telling him that he was the Messenger of God.