The migration to Abyssinia ( ar, الهجرة إلى الحبشة, translit=al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša), also known as the First Hijra ( ar, الهجرة الأولى, translit=al-hijrat al'uwlaa, label=none), was an episode in the early history of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

, where the first followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (they were known as the

Sahabah The Companions of the Prophet ( ar, اَلصَّحَابَةُ; ''aṣ-ṣaḥāba'' meaning "the companions", from the verb meaning "accompany", "keep company with", "associate with") were the disciples and followers of Muhammad who saw or m ...

) fled from Arabia due to their persecution by the

Quraysh The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...

, the ruling Arab tribal confederation of Mecca. They sought and were granted refuge in the

Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wh ...

, an ancient Christian state that was situated in modern-day Ethiopia and

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

(also referred to as Abyssinia), in or . The ruling Aksumite monarch who received them is known in Islamic sources as Najashi ( ar, نجاشي, translit=najāšī, label=none), the Negus of the kingdom; modern historians have alternatively identified him with the Aksumite king Armah and Ella Tsaham. Some of the Sahabah exiles returned to Mecca and made the

migration to Medina The Hijrah or Hijra () was the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. The year in which the Hijrah took place is also identified as the epoch of the Lunar Hijri and Solar Hijri calendars; its date eq ...

with Muhammad, while others remained in Aksum and arrived in Medina in 628.

Background

According to the traditional view, members of the early Muslim community in Mecca faced persecution, which prompted Muhammad to advise them to seek refuge in Aksum. The earliest extant account is given in the ''sirah'' of the eighth-century

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

historian

Ibn Ishaq Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...

: Another view, grounded in the political developments of the time, suggests that following the capture of Jerusalem in 614 by the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

, many believers saw a potential danger to the community as they were not the partisans of the Persians who practiced Zoroastrianism and had earlier supported the Jews of Arabia in Himyar. The acceptance of these Muslims into the

at precisely a moment of Persian triumph in the Levant recalls the Aksumite foreign policy of the previous century, which saw Aksum and Persia compete for influence in Arabia.

The migration(s)

According to historians of Islam, there were two migrations, although there are differences of opinion with regard to the dates.Rafiq Zakaria, 1991, ''Muhammad and The Quran,'' New Delhi: Penguin Books, pp. 403-4. The first group of

migrants Migrant may refer to: Human migration *Human migration *Emigration, leaving one's resident country with the intent to settle elsewhere *Immigration, movement into a country with the intent to settle * Economic migrant, someone who emigrates from o ...

, which comprised twelve men and four women, who fled Arabia in the year or according to other sources, and was granted asylum by Najashi, the Negus of the

, a Christian state that existed in modern-day Ethiopia and

. This group included Muhammad's daughter Ruqayyah and his son-in-law Uthman ibn Affan, who would later become the third caliph of the

Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate ( ar, اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his ...

after Muhammad's death. Prior to the exile, Muhammad chose Uthman ibn Mazʽun, one of his most important companions, as the leader of this group. According to Tabqat Ibn Saʽd, the group boarded a merchant ship from the sea port of Shuʽaiba and paid a half-dinar each to cross into

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

via the Red Sea. After a year, the exiles heard rumours that the

had converted to Islam, which prompted them to return to Mecca. Confronted with the opposite reality, they set out for the Aksumite kingdom again in or according to other sources, this time accompanied by other newly-founded Muslims, with the migrant group comprising 83 men and 18 women in total. Some Western historians such as Leone Caetani (1869–1935) and William Montgomery Watt (1909–2006) questioned the account of two migrations. Although

provided two partially overlapping lists of migrants, he did not mention that the first group returned and went back a second time. Watt argued that the word used by Ibn Ishaq (''tatāba‘a'', ) and the order of the names on the lists suggests that the migration may have taken place in a number of smaller groups rather than two large parties, while the appearance of the two lists reflected the controversies surrounding the assignment of priority on official registers during the reign of the second Rashidun caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab.

In Aksum

Much of the coverage of this event comes from the historian

. When the

learned that the early Muslims were planning to move to the Aksumite kingdom, they sent a delegation to the Negus to demand the surrender of the fugitives. They selected two envoys: ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and Abdullah bin Rabiah. The Meccan envoys were given gifts for the Aksumite king Najashi and his generals. The gifts were made up of leather and prepared by fine skin. The Meccans appealed to the generals, arguing that the

migrants were rebels who had invented a new religion, the likes of which neither the Meccans nor the Aksumites had heard of, and that their relatives were asking for their return. The king granted them an audience, but ultimately refused to hand over the migrants until he heard their defence. The

were later brought in front of the Negus and his bishops. Jaʽfar ibn Abi Talib, who acted as the leader of the exiles, spoke in their defence: The

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

king requested their revelations from God. Jaʽfar then recited a passage from the Quran's Surah Maryam (). When the king heard it, he wept and exclaimed: "Verily, this and what Jesus brought (the Gospel) has come from the same source of light (''miškāt'')". However, one of the envoys, ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, thought of an alternative tactic. On the following day, he returned to the king and told him that the Muslims had disrespected Jesus. When the Muslims heard that the king had summoned them again to question them about their view of Jesus, they tried to find a diplomatic answer, but ultimately decided to speak according to the revelation they had received. When the king addressed Jaʽfar, he replied that they held Jesus to be "God's servant, His prophet, His spirit, and His word which He cast upon the virgin Mary". Muslim accounts state that upon hearing these words, the Negus declared that Jesus was indeed no more than what he had said; he turned to the Muslims and told them: "go, for you are safe in my country". He then returned the gifts to the envoys and dismissed them.

End of the Muslim exile

Many of the exiles in Aksum returned to Mecca in 622 and made the hijra to Medina with Muhammad, while a second wave went to Medina in 628.

First migration list

The first list of emigrants reported by

included the following eleven men and four women: * Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas * Jahsh ibn RiyabHe is father of Zainab and a father-in-law of Muhammad. In some accounts relating to Sahabahs in China, he (Jahsh) is noted as Geys. Muslims of Chams (Cambodiya) trace ancestry to a father-in-law of Prophet Muhammad, who is none other than Jahsh (Geys). See

T. W. Arnold Sir Thomas Walker Arnold (19 April 1864 – 9 June 1930) was a British orientalist and historian of Islamic art. He taught at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, later Aligarh Muslim University, and Government College University, Lahore. ...

, ''The Preaching of Islam'', 294n8. * Abd-Allah ibn Jahsh * Ja'far ibn Abi Talib leader of the group * Uthman, son-in-law and companion of Muhammad. Husband of Ruqayyah. * Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, the wife of Uthman and daughter of Muhammad. * Abu Hudhayfa ibn 'Utba *

Sahla bint Suhail Sahlah bint Suhail was a sahabi, sahabiyah of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. She was married to Abu Hudaifah ibn Utbah. They had an adoptive son named Salim mawla Abu Hudaifa. She was amongst the women who migrated to Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia, a j ...

, wife of Abu Hudhayfa * Zubayr ibn al-Awwam *

Mus'ab ibn Umair Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr ( ar, مصعب بن عمير) also known as Muṣʿab al-Khayr ("the Good") was a ''sahabi'' (companion) of Muhammad. From the Banū ʿAbd al-Dār branch of the Quraysh, he embraced Islam in 614 CE and was the first ambass ...

* Abdur Rahman bin Awf *

Abu Salama Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Asad Abū Salamah ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Asad ( ar, أَبُو سَلَمَة عَبْد ٱلله ٱبْن عَبْد ٱلْأَسَد ) was one of the Companians of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was also a cousin and a foster-brother of Muhamma ...

* Umm Salama, wife of Abu Salama *

Uthman bin Maz'oon ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn ( ar, عثمان بن مظعون) was one of the Companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Biography He was married to Khawla bint Hakim, who like himself was one of the earliest converts to Islam. According to I ...

*Amir bin Rabiah *Layla bint Abi Asmah – wife of Amir

References