Back ground of Islam

Background of Islam
Through their contacts with Jews and Christians, the Meccans acquired a certain awareness of monotheism and developed vague notions of a Supreme Being. They believed, however, that they could gain access to the Supreme Being only through intercessors--gods and goddesses in the form of idols. So they installed 360 such idols in the Ka'bah, which remained there until the Prophet Muhammad destroyed them and reconsecrated the Ka'bah, which subsequently became the holiest shrine of the Islamic religion.

Judaism and Christianity were the only religions, before Islam, which believed in the One God.
Islam has borrowed heavily from both Judaism and Christianity.
Muhammed, the founder, was born in 570 AD in Mecca in Arabia.
Mecca was the site of a sacred shrine, "the Ka'aba" which was the center of idol worship. They had 360 gods and the Moon-god was the chief deity.
The Ka'aba contained a black stone (probably a meteorite) which is still regarded as a holy object for the Moslems.