Hijra (622): Muhammad's Migration from Mecca to Medina

The Hijra was the migration of Muhammad and the early Muslims from Mecca to the oasis of Yathrib, soon renamed Medina, in 622. Muhammad himself arrived in September 622 after a dangerous journey with his friend Abu Bakr. The move turned a persecuted religious minority into a self-governing community, and the year in which it happened became year one of the Islamic calendar.

Background: a prophet without protection

From around 610 Muhammad had preached a strict monotheism in Mecca, as described in the article on the rise of Islam. His message rejected the idols of the Kaaba and criticised the wealthy, and many leaders of his tribe, the Quraysh, opposed him fiercely. Followers without powerful protectors were harassed and, in some cases, tortured.

Muhammad survived largely because his uncle Abu Talib, head of the clan of Hashim, protected him according to tribal custom. In 619 both Abu Talib and Muhammad’s wife Khadija died. The new head of the clan, his uncle Abu Lahab, was hostile, and Muhammad’s position became dangerous. An attempt to find support in the nearby town of Ta’if failed.

The invitation from Yathrib

A divided oasis

Yathrib lay about 340 kilometres north of Mecca. Unlike Mecca it was a fertile oasis of date palms and farmland, home to two Arab tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, and to several Jewish tribes, among them the Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir and Banu Qurayza.

For years the Arab tribes had been locked in feuds that culminated in the Battle of Bu’ath, around 617, which left the oasis exhausted and without an accepted leader. Some of its people saw in Muhammad, a respected outsider with religious authority, someone who could act as an arbiter.

The pledges of al-Aqaba

During the pilgrimage season, visitors from Yathrib met Muhammad at al-Aqaba, a pass near Mecca. In 621 twelve men made the First Pledge of al-Aqaba, promising to worship one God and follow Muhammad’s moral teaching.

In 622 a larger group, traditionally 73 men and two women, made the Second Pledge. This time they promised to protect Muhammad as they would their own families, which amounted to a political and military alliance. It gave the Muslims of Mecca somewhere to go.

The migration

The Muslims leave Mecca

Over the summer of 622 the Muslims of Mecca left quietly in small groups, abandoning homes and property. In all, perhaps around 70 emigrants made the journey in this first wave. Muhammad, Abu Bakr and Ali stayed behind until most had gone.

The plot and the escape

According to the early biographies, the Quraysh leaders, alarmed by the alliance with Yathrib, agreed that men from several clans would kill Muhammad together, so that no single clan could be held responsible for blood revenge. Muhammad left his house at night, while Ali lay in his bed to deceive the watchers. Ali stayed in Mecca for a few days to return goods that people had entrusted to Muhammad, and then followed.

Muhammad and Abu Bakr did not head straight north. They hid for three days in the Cave of Thawr, on a mountain south of Mecca, while search parties scoured the area. Abu Bakr’s children brought food and news, and a shepherd covered their tracks with his flock. Later tradition adds that a spider’s web and a nesting dove at the cave entrance persuaded their pursuers that nobody was inside.

They then travelled by a little-used route near the Red Sea coast with a hired guide, Abd Allah ibn Urayqit. The Quraysh had offered a reward of 100 camels for their capture, and a horseman named Suraqa ibn Malik caught up with them, but, according to the sources, his horse stumbled repeatedly and he gave up the chase.

Arrival at Quba and Medina

In September 622 Muhammad reached Quba, a village on the southern edge of Yathrib, where he stayed for several days and founded the first mosque of Islam. He then entered the town. Tradition says he let his camel walk freely and built his house and a mosque where it knelt, so as not to favour any one host. That mosque, much enlarged over the centuries, is today the Prophet’s Mosque (al-Masjid an-Nabawi), where Muhammad is buried.

Yathrib became known as Madinat al-Nabi, “the City of the Prophet”, or simply al-Madina, Medina.

Building a new community

Emigrants and Helpers

The Muslims of Medina were now two groups: the Muhajirun, the emigrants from Mecca, and the Ansar, the “Helpers”, the Muslims of Medina. Many emigrants had arrived with nothing. Muhammad paired emigrants and Helpers as “brothers”, a bond called mu’akhat, so that the newcomers could be housed and supported.

The Constitution of Medina

The best-known document of this period is the agreement often called the Constitution of Medina (in Arabic, the Sahifa, “the document”). Preserved in Ibn Ishaq’s biography, it declares the believers from Quraysh and Yathrib to be one community (umma), regulates blood money and ransom, and states that disputes are to be referred to God and to Muhammad.

It also includes Jewish groups of the oasis as part of the community, with their own religion, as long as they shared in the defence of Medina. Most historians, including W. Montgomery Watt and R. B. Serjeant, accept it as an authentic early text, but many think it combines several agreements made in the first years after 622 rather than a single founding charter.

Religious changes

In Medina Muslim worship took on fuller form. The call to prayer was introduced, with Bilal ibn Rabah as the first caller. Around 624 the direction of prayer (qibla) was changed from Jerusalem to the Kaaba in Mecca, and fasting in the month of Ramadan became obligatory.

Key people

• Muhammad (c. 570-632): prophet of Islam, who in Medina became also a political leader and arbiter.
• Abu Bakr (c. 573-634): Muhammad’s companion on the journey and later the first caliph.
• Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 600-661): Muhammad’s cousin, who took his place in his bed on the night of the escape.
• Umar ibn al-Khattab (c. 584-644): an early convert who, as the second caliph, made the Hijra the start of the Islamic calendar.

Consequences

The Hijra changed the character of the Muslim movement. In Mecca Muhammad had been a preacher with no power; in Medina he governed a community, made treaties, settled disputes and, soon, led armed expeditions.

Relations with Mecca turned into open conflict. Muslim raids on Meccan caravans led to the Battle of Badr in 624, followed by Uhud in 625 and the Battle of the Trench in 627. Relations with the Jewish tribes of Medina also broke down over these years, and all three main Jewish tribes were expelled or defeated by 627.

Within eight years of the Hijra, Muhammad returned to Mecca as its master, and by his death in 632 most of Arabia acknowledged his authority.

The Islamic calendar

The Hijra was not used as a calendar starting point during Muhammad’s lifetime. Around 637-638 (17 AH), the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab introduced an official dating system for the growing state’s administration. After discussion, the year of the Hijra was chosen rather than Muhammad’s birth or death.

The calendar is lunar: a year has 12 months and about 354 or 355 days, so its dates move through the seasons. Year 1 begins on 1 Muharram, which corresponds to 16 July 622 in the Julian calendar (some tables give 15 July), several weeks before Muhammad actually arrived in Medina. Years are written with AH, from the Latin Anno Hegirae, “in the year of the Hijra”.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the Islamic calendar begins on the day Muhammad arrived in Medina. It begins on the first day of the year in which the Hijra happened; the arrival came in the third month, Rabi al-Awwal.
• Myth: Muhammad fled alone. He travelled with Abu Bakr and a guide, and most of the Meccan Muslims had already left before him.
• Fact: the details come from later sources. The vivid stories of the cave and the pursuit come from biographies written more than a century later, and some, such as the spider’s web, appear in later tradition.

Timeline

• 619: deaths of Khadija and Abu Talib leave Muhammad without protection.
• 621: First Pledge of al-Aqaba with twelve men from Yathrib.
• 622, June: Second Pledge of al-Aqaba with about 75 people from Yathrib.
• 622, 16 July: 1 Muharram, the later starting point of the Islamic calendar.
• 622, summer: Muslims leave Mecca in small groups.
• 622, September: Muhammad and Abu Bakr arrive at Quba, then enter Yathrib.
• 624: the qibla is turned towards Mecca; Battle of Badr.
• c. 637-638: Umar introduces the Hijri calendar.

Why it matters

The Hijra is the moment Islam became a community with its own leadership, law and territory. Muslims remember it not as a flight but as a turning point, which is why their calendar is counted from it. Medina remained the capital of the early Muslim state until the reign of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the last caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.