Hijra (Islam)
| Date | Thursday 17 June — Friday 2 July 622 Julian calendar |
|---|---|
| Location | Hijaz, Arabian Peninsula |
| Also known as | The Migration of Muhammad; The Migration; Hijrah; Hijra |
| Participants | Muhammad and his followers |
| Outcome | Renaming Yathrib as "the City (of the Prophet)" (Medina); Enmity between the Aus tribe and Khazraj tribes ended; Muhammad made political leader and united the new Muslims |
The Hegira or Hijrah (Arabic: ) is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622. In June 622, after being warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly left his home in Mecca to emigrate to Yathrib, 320 km (200 mi) north of Mecca, along with his companion Abu Bakr. Yathrib was soon renamed Madīnat an-Nabī (Arabic: مَـديـنـة الـنّـبي, literally "City of the Prophet"), but an-Nabī was soon dropped, so its name is "Medina", meaning "the city".
The Hijrah is also often identified erroneously with the start of the Islamic calendar, which was set to Julian 16 July 622.
The first Hijrah is dated to 615 or Rajab (September-October) 613 when a group of Muslims counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca arrived at the court of the Christian monarch (Negus) of the Ethiopian Empire, Ashama ibn-Abjar. Muhammad himself did not join this emigration. In that year, his followers fled Mecca's leading tribe, the Quraysh, who sent emissaries to Ethiopia to bring them back to the Arabian Peninsula. However, the Negus refused to send them back.
In Mecca, at the pilgrimage season of 620, Muhammad met six men of the Banu Khazraj from Medina, propounded to them the doctrines of Islam, and recited portions of the Quran. Impressed by this, the six embraced Islam, and at the Pilgrimage of 621, five of them brought seven others with them. These twelve informed Muhammad of the beginning of gradual development of Islam in Medina, and took a formal pledge of allegiance at Muhammad's hand, promising to accept him as a prophet, to worship none but one God, and to renounce certain sins such as theft, adultery, and murder. This is known as the "First Pledge of al-Aqaba". At their request, Muhammad sent with them Mus‘ab ibn 'Umair to teach them the instructions of Islam. Biographers have recorded the considerable success of Mus`ab ibn `Umair in preaching the message of Islam and bringing people under the umbrella of Islam in Medina.
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