If Muhammad was a trader, then how did he learn to fight and lead armies?

he was a traded for his wife
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khadija_bint_Khuwaylid

and he didn't lead much only the first wars (the ones that had around 1k fighters)

he had military leaders to lead his armies later on for example see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_ibn_al-Walid

yes but this Mohammed fella literally fought alongside his buddies with sword, shield, and in armor

you need training for that I'm guessing. so where did he receive it?

Like a lot of merchants, he was a bandit who robbed his competitors.

nice

Crossfit and MMA

hunting, riding and wrestling were popular in Arabia. Also, Muhammad participated in a tribal war when he was a child

Same way a trader in Renaissance Italy probably knew how to wield a sword or fight in mail and on horseback. It was part of a young man's education and tribal/civic militia duty no matter where you go.

Where one recieves all certifications, ge did an online university followed by a trip to your local tax collector's office to get a warring license for the small fee of $99.99 after taking his oral exam.

>fight in mail armor
You do realize that wearing mail doesn't change how you fight, right?

>"I get all my knowledge of medieval combat from Skyrim and Dungeons and Dragons XD"

Tribal warfare, raiding and bandits. And the battles he was in were pretty brawl-like in general.

>Muhammad was a trader
Wait a minute... he was a jew?

How did vikings learn to fight when they were traders?

God obviously.

No, nigger, i've owned multiple sets. You put it on and you move. It doesn't change any of the fundamentals of what you are doing, aside from rendering you impervious to draw cuts.

It would explain the circumcision and the praying facing Jerusalem.

Why don't you conquer Constantinople, if you're so great?

one of the many inconsistencies with the life of Muhammad, another example is, if muhammad was illiterate caravan trader then why on his deathbed did he write something for Umar?

People of his tribe recieved military training on childhood

Arabia was basically ruled by Mafia gangs who killed each other constantly in blood feuds as revenge for some past greivance. Presumably, The Prophet knew how to fight and command a band of men from an early age

>praying facing Jerusalem

Muhammad and the early Muslims prayed facing Jerusalem (the Temple Mount) initially.

They later changed prayer directions to Mecca after a later revelation in the Quran when Muhammad was in Medina.

Who knows since the tribe he belonged to were all merchants that traced their lineage back to the first son of Abraham, which doesn't say that much at first since all Abrahamic faiths does that.
But it's even funnier when you find out the sub-tribe he belonged to was the Banu Hashim, which had a israelite ancestry when Hashim married a israelite woman.

So atleast his grandfather was ethnically a jew.

Yeah, wasn't a well known Arabian General allied with him during his life?

Couldn't he have learned to read and write at some later point in his life?

I think the Quran (or hadith) only says that he was illiterate during his revelations. Surely after his following gained large numbers someone would have taught him.

ol'Khalid Wahleed

This was however after he beat Muhammad in battle (alteast causing massive muslim casualties) and then joining him with the rest of his tribe.

He called for paper but was denied. I think the idea was he was going to have something dictated to his scribe.

From the sources we have (Quran, Ibn Ishaq, at-Tabari, Hadith), it seems he never learned to write or read, even after uniting the tribes and becoming king. He had his scribe with him at all times though so I guess literacy wasn't really needed.

>If Sophocles was a playwright, how did he learn to fight and lead armies?

It sounds like you don't know an awful lot about the conditions for trade in 7th century Arabia.

Arabia wasn't some peaceful centre of free trade with a strong, unified government that could enforce law and order along internal trade routes.

It was a fractured, largely tribal society where petty feuds and local rivalries were commonplace.

Caravan raiding was prevalent at the time and it makes perfect sense for a trader to be well versed in the art of skirmishing and light combat.

You have to bear in mind that most of the battles mentioned in the Quran were between a couple hundred people on each side. These battles had huge significance for the early Muslims but they were nothing more than parochial squabbles.

>young men in pre-modern times were taught how to fight with weapons and armor and ride horses into battle
>young men today are taught that "violence is never the answer"
>tfw you were born in the wrong era

Ever seen Arabs fight?

They truly suck at it.

>most of the battles mentioned in the Quran were between a couple hundred people on each side

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Trench

3,000 against 10,000

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hunayn

12,000 against 20,000

I believe he had to learn to fight, being a trader. Those trade routes were swarming with bandits. His pa probably taught him how to wield a sword, and he learnt the tactics along the way. Doesn't sound too far-fetched.

Because he was a trader. A good trader has to know how to protect his trades.

Casualties and losses
Light[4] Extremely heavy[4]

its like those mythical hindu battles

>tfw you will never grow up in ancient rome
>tfw you turn 16 and become a man and citizen of the Republic
>tfw your father will give you his old bronze sword, helmet, and his shield that he used in his youth
>tfw you will never serve as a Hastati fighting the enemies of the Republic

>tfw you'll never be some poor potter's son predestined to take up your father's trade if unless you get drafted by the local lord and killed within a week.

On another forum someone speculated he was a mercenary on the side. When you're surrounded by two big empires you probably want to know how to fight.
Muhammad practiced a form of Judaism where they revere Jesus as a prophet. That's basically what Islam is today too.

>he thinks people in Rome lived like this
>he thinks he wouldn't have just been a peasant conscript from the dirty urban poor hyped up on dreams of pillage and loot from savages

>Rome
>Conscription
>Non-citizens
>Allowed in pre-marian legions

4/10 made me reply

The thing with Mohammed is that he never existed

In Muhammad's time, the arabs weren't as sophisticated yet as your fucking picture.

They were basically Zulus, if Zulus wore mail, used gladius-like swords. They were primarily light infantry with only the likes of the Northernmost tribes like the Lakhmids capable of being mounted cavalrymen thanks largely to fighting for either Sassanids or Romans.

>one of the many inconsistencies with the life of Muhammad

I really think people underestimate how disjointed the hadith actually are, and how much of them are probably ad hoc rationalizations probably made to square some inconsistency in an early Arab storyteller's timeline or narrative.

>Muhammad was a trader because how else would he have been known to be an honest deal maker and travel to Roman lands?
>Muhammad was illiterate because how else would you explain why others wrote everything down for him?
>Muhammad was a great battle leader because how else would he have fought and defeated the enemy confederacies that came to destroy him and his message?