Farewell Pilgrimage
In the tenth year of the Hijra, at age sixty-three, Muhammad set out with thousands of followers and all his wives for Mecca.  He led a hundred camels, marked by his own hand for sacrifice, in solemn order.  At the Ka'bah he carefully performed all the ceremonies of the Lesser Pilgrimage, then proceeded to do those of the Greater. On the eighth day of the holy month, he set out for Mina, a short distance from Mecca, where he spent the night. The next day he went to 'Arafat, a small conical hill. Ascending the summit, he declared the valley sacred, saying:

 This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favor unto  you, and have chosen for you as religion AL-ISLAM.  Whoso is forced by hunger, not by will, to sin:  (for him) lo!  Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

 On the tenth day, proceeding to Mina, he cast the accustomed stones at projecting eminencies of the narrow valley to drive away the devil, slew the victims brought for sacrifice, had his head shaved and his nails pared, ordered the hair to be burned, and as the ceremonies ended, laid aside his pilgrim garb.  returning to Mecca, Muhammad once again made the seven circuits of the Ka'bah and drank from the sacred well, Zamzam.  Then he took off his shoes and went into the Ka'bah to pray.  Having rigorously performed the ceremonies as a model for all time, he returned to Medina.

 Sickness and Death
 In the third month of the eleventh year of the Hijra, Muhammad fell sick.  The recent death of his infant son, Ibrahim, weighed his spirits down, and the poison he had consumed at Khaibar still bothered him.  During a violent attack of fever, he called his wives together and said:  "You see that I am very sick.  I am not able to visit you in turn.  If it be pleasing to you, I will remain in the house of 'Ayisha."  They agreed.
 After the fever had lasted nearly two weeks, his illness violently intensified on a Saturday night.  Racked and restless, he tossed on his bed.  Replying to one who tried to comfort him, Muhammad said, "There is not upon earth a believer sore afflicted, but the Lord causeth his sins to fall off from him even as the leaves from off the trees in autumn."
 On Sunday he lay through the whole day in weakness.  When he swooned, his wives gave him some medicine.  Reviving, he asked what they had been doing to him.  On being told, he said that they had given him medicine for another complaint, and he ordered them all to partake of the medicine.  so the women arose and poured the medicine in the presence of the dying prophet into each other's mouths.
 Monday morning brought relief with some return of strength.  Muhammad, leaning on an attendant, entered the mosque and sat on the ground for the service.
 After a little conversation, he was helped back to the chamber of 'Ayisha.  Exhausted, he lay down upon the bed.  'Ayisha, seeing him very low and weak, raised his head from the pillow as she sat by him on the ground, and placed his head on her bosom.  His strength soon rapidly sank.  He called for a pitcher of water and wetting his face from it, prayed, "O Lord, I beseech Thee, assist me in the agonies of death, come close, O Gabriel, to me."  His last words in a whisper were, "Lord grant me pardon; Eternity, in Paradise!  Pardon.  The blessed companionship on high."  He stretched himself gently, and the prophet of Arabia was no more.  It was a little after midday on the eighth day of June 632.
 
 Burial
 During the night his faithful followers laid out and washed his body.  In the morning the people came in groups to gaze at his still form.  His grave was dug on the spot where he had breathed his last.  In the evening his red mantle was spread at the bottom of the grave, and  his body was lowered into it.  The vault was covered over with bricks, and the grave was made level with the floor.
 The tomb is now close to the great mosque of Medina, which ranks in holiness next to that of Mecca.  The present mosque, erected by a Mamaluke Sultan of Egypt in the sixteenth century, is the sixth which has stood on the spot.

 The Khalifas
 From 632 to 661, four Khalifs ruled from Medina, elected by the closest followers of the prophet.  (Khalif means "a successor" in Arabic, but it became the title of the person who became the religious and political leader after Muhammad's death.)
 Abu Bakr, the first Khalif, sent Khalid to subdue the tribes who rebelled immediately after the death of Muhammad.  United by a military force of 18,000, they advanced on Palestine and Syria in 634 and defeated the Byzantine armies at Yarmouk River on August 26, 636.  Forty thousand more Muslims marched to conquer North Africa.
 At the death of Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al Khattab was elected the second Khalif.  It was Umar who accepted the peaceful surrender of Jerusalem.  Umar was stabbed in the Medina Mosque in 646.
 The next Khalif was Uthman ibn Affan, who spearheaded the revision of the Quran.  He too was murdered when 80 years old while reading the Quran at his palace.
When Ali ibn Abu Talib was elected in 656, the governor of Syria, Muawiya, son of Abu Sufian, refused to recognize him.  A civil war ensued, which ended five years later when Ali was assassinated.
 Muawiya became the next Khalif, ruling from Damascus.  His Omayyid dynasty ruled the Muslim world for ninety years.  The grandson of Muhammad, Husain, was brutally killed by the Omayyids in Kerbela in Iraq on October 10, 680.  The feud between the Omayyids and Beni Hashim split the Muslim world and continues to this day.  The Shi'ites are the ones who support the claims of the elected Khalif Ali because of Ali's blood relationship to the prophet.  The other major sect is called Sunni, which supports the elected Khalif by majority vote.