Meccan Persecution Drives Muhammad's Followers Into Exile
A clan boycott, a stoning at Taif, and the Year of Sorrow test the new movement
Quick facts
- Clan boycotted
- Banu Hashim, 616-619 CE
- First emigration
- To Abyssinia, 615 CE
- Year of Sorrow
- 619 CE, deaths of Khadija and Abu Talib
- Rejected at
- Taif, 619 CE
What happened
As Muhammad's preaching in Mecca drew more converts after 613 CE, rival clans of the Quraysh responded with bribery, physical torture, and a boycott of Muhammad's own Hashim clan from 616 to 619 CE meant to force it to withdraw its protection. Some of the earliest Muslims left Mecca for Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) as early as 615 CE to escape the pressure. In 619 CE, remembered afterward as the Year of Sorrow, Muhammad lost both his wife Khadija and his uncle and protector Abu Talib, leaving him without his clan's shield against hostile Quraysh leaders like the new clan head Abu Lahab. That same year Muhammad traveled to the town of Taif seeking support and was driven out by a mob of street children who pelted him with stones.
Why it matters
The loss of clan protection after Abu Talib's death, combined with the failed appeal at Taif, left Muhammad and his followers with no secure base in Mecca and pushed them to seek an invitation elsewhere. That search is what led directly to the offer from Yathrib that produced the Hijra three years later.
How we know
The World History Encyclopedia's account draws on the early Islamic biographical tradition (sira literature), including the boycott dates and the Taif episode, and quotes historian Tamara Sonn's summary of the boycott's effect on Muhammad's followers.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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