The
Hijra (هِجْرَة) is the migration of the
Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers to the city of
Medina in 622 (
Common Era). Alternate spellings of this
Arabic word in the
Latin alphabet are
Hijrah, or
Hegira in
Latin.
Hijra of Muhammad
In September 622, warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly slipped out of
Mecca with Abu Bakr. By degrees, Muhammad and his followers emigrated to the city of Yathrib, north of Mecca. Yathrib was soon renamed Madinat un-Nabi, literally "the City of the Prophet", but un-Nabi was soon dropped, so its name in English is
Medina, meaning "the city". The Muslim year during which the Hijra occurred was designated the first year of the
Islamic calendar by
Umar in 638 or 17 AH (
anno hegirae = "in the year of the hijra"). In the following chronology the city will be referred to as Medina, and the region surrounding it as Yathrib.
The Muslim dates are in the Islamic calendar extended back in time. The Western dates are in the
Julian calendar. The lunar year is about 300/309 solar year. The Hijra is celebrated annually on 8 Rabi' I, about 66 days after 1 Muharram, the first day of the Muslim year. Many writers confuse the first day of the year of the Hijra with the Hijra itself, erroneously stating that the Hijra occurred on 1 Muharram AH 1 or 16 July 622.
All dates given above may have occurred about 89 days (three lunar months) earlier. The Muslim dates may be those recorded in the original Arabic calendar and their month names may not have been changed to account for the (probably three)
intercalary months inserted during the next nine years until intercalary months were prohibited during the year of Muhammad's last
Hajj (AH 10).
First Hijra
Technically, the first Hijra occurred in 615 when a group of Muslims was counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to the
Kingdom of Axum, which was ruled by a Christian king (see
Islam in Ethiopia). Muhammad himself did not join this emigration. In that year, his followers fled Mecca's leading tribe, the
Quraysh, who sent emissaries to Axum to bring them back to Arabia. The nascent movement faced growing opposition and persecution. When Muhammad and his followers received an invitation from the people of Yathrib, they decided to leave Mecca.
See also
