A Christian monk was said to have recognized the boy Mohammed, as the successor to Jesus, by the signs of a birthmark, and a cloud above him in the Syrian Desert, that protected him from the desert heat. The boy from Mecca worked in those days as a camel driver, accompanying trade caravans throughout the desert. Even at forty, Mohammed still didn’t know, what globally important role fate had in store for him: creating the most recent of the world religions, with more than one billion followers today.
Details:
ZDF, 1999
Length: 43 minutes
Written and directed by: Eike Schmitz, Sissy von Westphalen
Camera: Manfred Pelz, Jörg Jeshel
Editor: Bernd Euscher
Soundmix: Haymo Kutschbach, Oskar Kammerer
Production assistant: Vincent Assmann
Narrator: Hubertus Bengsch
Adviser: Dr. Gottfried Müller
Commissioning editor: Hans-Christian Huf
German or English version
Contrary to Jesus or Buddha, Mohammed was not only a founder of his religion. He was also a political leader and military expert. He unified the splintered tribes, living on the Arabian Peninsula, and planted the seed for a state, unifying all Arabs. It became the origin of the fourth largest world culture, along with Western, Indian and Chinese cultures.
The film tells the story of God’s last prophet. It describes, how through marriage, he became a wealthy trader. He then became a brooding visionary and finally a far thinking statesman. There are also portraits of people, who follow his path, and live almost the same way, even today: Bedouins, migrating with their camels through the desert, traders at Mecca’s market, Muslim Sufis practicing ecstatic rituals. How do these people live the “five pillars” of Islam, which are the basis of the Muslim life, even today? What made Mohammed’s teachings so popular in Arabia? The film intends to answer these questions by taking you on a journey through deserts, temples, oases and Arabian villages.
