Hijrah

English Hegira

(Arabic; "Migration")

Journey of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 to escape persecution and found a community of believers.

The date represents the beginning of Islam. The second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, began the practice of using the event as the starting point for the Muslim calendar; years are now denoted by the initials AH (Latin Anno Hegirae, "in the year of the Hegira"). The disciples who traveled with Muhammad to Medina were called the Companions of the Prophet.

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▪ Islam

also spelled  Hejira , or  Hijra (“flight,” or “emigration”),  Latin  Hegira 

 the Prophet Muhammad's migration (AD 622) from Mecca to Medina in order to escape persecution; the date represents the starting point of the Muslim era. Muhammad himself dated his correspondence, treaties, and proclamations after other events of his life. It was Umar Iʿ, the second caliph, who in the year AD 639 introduced the Hijrah era (now distinguished by the initials AH, for Latin Anno Hegirae, “in the year of the Hijrah”). ʿUmar started the first year AH with the first day of the lunar month of Muḥarram, which corresponded to July 16, 622. In 1677–78 (AH 1088) the Ottoman government, still keeping the Hijrah era, began to use the solar year of the Julian calendar, eventually creating two different Hijrah era dates, resulting from the differences between a solar and lunar year.

      The term hijrah has also been applied to the emigrations of the faithful to Ethiopia and of Muhammad's followers to Medina before the capture of Mecca. Muslims who later quitted lands under Christian rule were also called muhājirūn (“emigrants”). The Khawārij (Khārijite) (Kharijites), those Muslims who withdrew their support from the arbitration talks that called into question the right of the fourth caliph, ʿAlī, to the caliphate in 657, used the term to describe those who joined them.

      The most honoured muhājirūn, considered among those known as the Companions of the Prophet, are those who emigrated with Muhammad to Medina. Muhammad praised them highly for having forsaken their native city and following him and promised that God would favour them. They remained a separate and greatly esteemed group in the Muslim community, both in Mecca and in Medina, and assumed leadership of the Muslim state, through the caliphate, after Muhammad's death.

      As a result of the Hijrah, another distinct body of Muslims came into being, the anṣār (“helpers”); these were Medinese who aided Muhammad and the muhājirūn. The anṣār were members of the two major Medinese tribes, the feuding al-Khazraj and al-Aws, whom Muhammad had been asked to reconcile when he was still a rising figure in Mecca. They came to be his devoted supporters, constituting three-fourths of the Muslim army at the Battle of Badr (Badr, Battle of) (AD 624). When no one of their number was chosen to the caliphate to succeed Muhammad, they declined in influence as a group and eventually merged with other Muslims who had settled in Medina.

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