The Hijra: Muhammad Migrates to Medina
The flight from Mecca becomes year zero of the Islamic calendar
Quick facts
- From / to
- Mecca to Yathrib (renamed Medina)
- Companion
- Abu Bakr
- Calendar impact
- Year 0 AH (After Hijra) of the Islamic calendar
- New role
- Muhammad becomes political and religious leader of Medina
What happened
In 621 CE, citizens of the oasis town of Yathrib, impressed by Muhammad's message, invited him to relocate there and act as an arbiter and leader for the town's feuding tribes. Muhammad sent his followers ahead in small groups, then narrowly escaped a Meccan plot on his life and fled with his companion Abu Bakr, reaching Yathrib in 622 CE after evading pursuers. The town was renamed Medina, short for Madinat al-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, and the migration itself, the Hijra, became year zero of the Islamic lunar calendar. In Medina, Muhammad drew up an agreement among the Muslim emigrants, the local converts, and Medina's Jewish tribes, that set out mutual obligations and made Muhammad the community's arbiter.
Why it matters
The Hijra turned Muhammad from a persecuted preacher into the head of a self-governing community with its own laws, army, and territory, the first time the new religion had political as well as spiritual authority. Every subsequent event in Islamic history, from the conquest of Mecca to the caliphates that followed, grew out of the state built in Medina after 622.
How we know
The migration date and the invitation from Yathrib's citizens are recorded across the earliest Islamic biographical sources; the adoption of 622 CE as year one of the Islamic calendar was formalized later, under the caliph Umar, based on this tradition.
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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