Migration to Abyssinia

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Migration to Abyssinia

Part of the diplomatic career of Muhammad
1314 manuscript illustration by Rashid ad-Din depicting the Negus of medieval Abyssinia declining a Meccan delegation's request to surrender the early Muslims.
Native name	الهجرة إلى الحبشة‎
Date	c. 613-615 CE (9-7 BH)
Also known as	Hijrah Habshah ʽUla (الهجرة الأولى إلى الحبشة‎) or Hijrah il-al-Habshah (الهجرة إلى الحبشة‎)
Motive	To escape persecution by the Quraysh
Participants	The early Sahabah: Eleven men and four women
Outcome	Some of the early Muslims settle in Aksum
Departure location	Mecca, Hejaz, Arabia
Destination	Aksum, Kingdom of Aksum

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The migration to Abyssinia (Arabic: الهجرة إلى الحبشة, romanized: al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša), also known as the First Hijra (الهجرة الأولى, al-hijrat al'uwlaa), was an episode in the early history of Islam, where the first followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (they were known as the Sahabah, or the companions) migrated from Arabia due to their persecution by the Quraysh, the ruling Arab tribal confederation of Mecca. They sought and were granted refuge in the Kingdom of Aksum, an ancient Christian state that was situated in modern-day northern Ethiopia and Eritrea (also referred to as Abyssinia),^[1] in 9 BH (613 CE) or 7 BH (615 CE). The kingdom's capital was Aksum, which is an ancient city in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The ruling Aksumite monarch who received them is known in Islamic sources as Najashi (نجاشي, najāšī), the Negus of the kingdom; modern historians have alternatively identified him with the Aksumite king Armah and Ella Tsaham.^[2] Some of the Sahabah exiles returned to Mecca and made the migration to Medina with Muhammad, while the others remained in Aksum and arrived in Medina in 628.^[3]

The migration to Abyssinia is an Islamic historical event that refers to the migration of some of the early Muslims from Mecca to Abyssinia (the Kingdom of Aksum) because of the harm they were facing from the leaders of Quraysh.A number of Muslims left, and the first migration to Abyssinia was in Rajab of the fifth year after the mission. They were eleven men and four women, and they appointed Uthman ibn Mazun as their leader. Then, while they were in Abyssinia, they heard that the people of Mecca had converted to Islam. Some of them returned to Mecca, but they did not find that to be true. So they returned, and another group went with them to Abyssinia. It was the second migration. They were eighty-three men, their wives, and their children, headed by Ja`far ibn Abi Talib..^[4]