Hijrah

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Hijra (هِجْرَة), or withdrawal, is the word that is used for the movement of Muhammad and most of his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622. The Hijra marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Alternate spellings of this Arabic word in the Latin alphabet are Hijrah, or Hegira in Latin. ^[1]

1. ↑ To be precise, the first Hijra was in 615 when a band of Muslims were 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.