Year of Sorrow

In the Islamic tradition, the Year of Sorrow (Arabic: عام الحزن‎, translit. ‘Ām al-Ḥuzn‎, also translated Year of Sadness) is the Hijri year in which Muhammad's wife Khadijah and his uncle and protector Abu Talib died. The year approximately coincided with 619 CE or the tenth year after Muhammad's first revelation.

After the death of Abu Talib, Muhammad became vulnerable due to the loss of clan protection granted by Abu Talib (who was also the chief of Banu Hashim). He began to be the target of physical attacks by his Meccan opponents. He visited Ta'if to look for help and invite the inhabitants to Islam, but was rejected. On the way back to Mecca, he petitioned several prominent Meccans to ask for protection. Chief Mut'im ibn 'Adi, from the Banu Nawfal clan, acceded to his request, escorted Muhammad into the city and announced the clan's protection of Muhammad.

Khadija, Muhammad's first and only wife for the 25 years up to her death, died in 619 CE when she was about 65 years old. Muhammad was almost 50 at this time, and the death happened not long after the end of the boycott against Muhammad's clan. The boycott prohibited, among other things, trade with Muhammad's family. The food shortage that it caused probably contributed towards Khadija's death.

Muhammad's uncle Abu Talib was the chief of the Muhammad's clan Banu Hashim, in whose household Muhammad (who was an orphan) had lived since the death of his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib. As the clan chief, he granted protection to Muhammad, even as Muhammad gained enmity from some in the Quraish tribe due to his call to Islam. Per the Meccan customs at the time, such protection was considered inviolate, and therefore Muhammad's enemies were unable to attack him.

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