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He was also drawn to spiritual questions. Arabia in Muhammad's day was home to a great variety of religious practices. Much of the polytheistic tradition of the early Arabs survived in and around Mecca; people there worshipped a number of divinities, and called upon each for inspiration or assistance as the occasion demanded. Challenging these beliefs, perhaps, were Jewish communities that had established themselves in the northern half of the peninsula and the Sheban dynasty, in the far south, which had converted to Judaism. Christianity, also, was not unknown to the Arabic population- from time to time, missionaries who spoke of the teachings of Jesus appeared in Mecca, and won some converts. Muhammad's encounters with these dominant belief systems, and with other more minor religions he had come across in his travels, led him to ponder their meanings, and to undertake to discern the "true faith."