The Hijra

In the year 622, the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad travelled from Mecca to Medina. His friend Abu Bakr travelled with him. The journey through the desert was long. He reached Medina in the autumn, and the people were happy to see him. The Hijri calendar begins with this journey, and it is called the Hijra. When someone says "the year 1447 AH", they are counting the years from it.

In 622 the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad and his companions had lived through hard years in Mecca. A group of people came from a town called Yathrib and promised to protect the Prophet and welcome his companions. The Muslims began to travel from Mecca to Yathrib in small groups. Then the Prophet set out with his friend Abu Bakr. They stayed in a cave on a mountain for three nights, and Asma, Abu Bakr's daughter, brought them food. After a long journey through the desert they reached Quba, at the edge of the town. The Prophet then entered the town and stayed in the house of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may God be pleased with him), and Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) joined him a short time later. The town got a new name, Medina, and became the first community of the Muslims. About fifteen years later the caliph Umar made the Muslim calendar begin from the year of this journey, which is why we say "the Hijri year".

The Hijra is the move of the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad and his companions from Mecca to Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina, in 622 CE. Years of harm in Mecca came before it, then the two pledges of Aqaba, in which a delegation from Yathrib undertook to protect the Prophet, and his companions began to leave for the town in small groups. The sira books relate that the Prophet left with Abu Bakr by night, that the two stayed three nights in the cave of Thawr, where Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr (may God be pleased with him) brought them news and Asma bint Abi Bakr (may God be pleased with her) brought them food, and that they then travelled to Medina with a guide named Abdullah ibn Urayqit. The Prophet reached Quba on the outskirts of Medina; the traditional date is 12 Rabi' al-Awwal of the first year. He then entered the town and stayed with Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may God be pleased with him), and Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) joined him a short time later. Historians debate the exact sequence of days, so the museum marks these dates as traditional. The Hijra was a turning point: the community that formed in Medina became the first Islamic political entity. About fifteen years later the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) made the start of the Islamic calendar the first of Muharram of the year of the Hijra, which corresponds to 16 July 622 in the Julian calendar; this is why it is called the Hijri calendar.