Muhammad was the founder of Islam and the proclaimer of the Qurʾān, Islam’s sacred scripture. He spent his entire life in what is now the country of Saudi Arabia, from his birth about 570 CE in Mecca to his death in 632 in Medina. According to Islamic tradition, the Qurʾān, understood as a literal transcription of the speech of God (Allah), was revealed to Muhammad in stages by the archangel Gabriel, beginning in 610.